Hi,
I’ve been working as a Web Developer in Derbyshire for the last 19 years or so, starting shortly after I left University
I got my first start working with Toucan Web Design in Belper. We used to focus mostly on e-commerce websites, usually using CubeCart which was our preferred store software, as it was nice and simple to make custom modifications and plugins in, something a lot of our clients wanted. We also did a fair bit of work on simple business card style websites and more bespoke personal websites.
Eventually, Toucan got bought out by Full Circles, as my previous boss was getting a bit bored of Web Design, so I ended up getting purchased along the with the company pretty much, continuing my work now at Full Circles in Ripley. There they preferred to use Prestashop for their ecommerce websites, which I prefer these days. It still has a quite active modding community but it also doesn’t make it too hard to add in custom changes if there’s anything the base software doesn’t cover
Also, I ended up working on our own custom CMS system with a colleague Dan, who amusingly enough also worked with me at Toucan for several years before eventually moving on to Full Circles. Was quite a surprise to end up working with him again, but that only lasted a year or so before he went self employed as he’d been planning to for years apparently.
Since Covid struck, I’ve been working from home to try and stay safe, doesn’t seem like it’s going away any time soon yet, sadly.