Archive for the ‘Employment’ Category

GTD Connect

1/2009

2008

When we redesigned the GTD member’s only site, we found ourselves with plenty of great content with multiple paths to find what you want.  Unfortunately, there were very few indicators of what was fresh and no promotion of new content.  In spite or regular updates, this gave the site a stale feel because the homepage rarely changed.

The site was built on a Smarty PHP templating system which allowed database calls to the already well established content system to flow seamlessly within the compliant HTML and CSS.  As a result, merging the databased archive with a brand new design that promoted new information to the homepage was a piece of cake and the project was turned around in record time.

Posted in Architecture, CSS, Employment, Experience, HTML, PHP, Skills |

David Allen Company – in progress

not yet final

not yet final

Homegrown companies often have homegrown sites.  As the company expands in new directions, new features are shoehorned into an existing homepage.  Reorganizing an expansive site generally requires taking a hard look at site statistics to discover how your site is used and what information is being sought out.

JQuery is a fantastic tool for creating movement and life to your site without the accessiblity concerns of Flash.  These promotional areas are a useful tool for introducing users to new content and bringing life to the page above the fold.  They also help promote deeper content that can’t logically live at the top level of the navigation structure.

Posted in Architecture, CSS, Drupal, Employment, Experience, HTML, JavaScript, Philosophy, Skills |

Pepperdine University School of Law

9/26/2001

2001

9/22/2009

2002

Without a captain, a ship drifts with the current.  Without a webmaster, reasonable arguments for top placement give departments suitable rational for sprinkling links across the homepage.  Unfortunately, this leaves site users directionless as they attempt to navigate a single street sign with dozens of arrows.  Soon, the most popular link is “search.”

With hundreds of pages of unique content and a wide variety of visitors, subdividing the content by user role presented a good first step in order to provide context.  This redesign also provided an opportunity to lock down the various FTP accounts and bring the HTML up to strict standards compliance, both of which paved the way for the addition of the university’s first content management system.

Posted in Architecture, Employment, Experience, HTML, Skills |

Homestore.com – Home Improvement

screenshot of the homestore.com home improvement page from 5/10/2000
2000

Working at Homestore in the height of the dot com boom taught me a great deal about communicating with multiple departments and personalities.  I collaborated with artists, designers, editors, content contributors, developers, and quality assurance on a weekly basis.

Content is still king and the demands of a weekly release schedule required consistently producing an excellent product under the gun.  Continuing to code by hand honed my HTML skills while giving an early introduction to CSS and JavaScript.

Posted in CSS, Employment, Experience, HTML, JavaScript, Skills |