Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ Category

Bellini

bellini

2009

Your choice of content management system can often come down a decision between flexibility and ease of use.  By limiting options, Wordpress brings content management right down to the level that anyone can do it; Drupal provides a more robust system with a much higher learning curve.  But more and more Wordpress plugins are being developed to help bridge that gap, and among the best is Role Scoper.

Some custom theme work and Role Scoper helped divy up Bellini’s store pages between location employees and regional managers.

Posted in CSS, PHP, Philosophy, Skills, Wordpress |

BigGreenPie.com – site no longer available

Ad placement is proving to be more and more critical for content oriented sites.  While we’d all love ads to be as unintrusive as possible, more and more users are comfortable looking past the flashing lights that surround their content.  A more subtle, integrated approach is necessary to give users the information they’re looking for, and the site owner the revenue they need to keep going.

Posted in CSS, Design, Drupal, HTML, Philosophy, Skills |

CSS for Internet Explorer

The best CSS works great in every browser without any need for hacks.  Unfortunately, not every job affords that kind of freedom and some are specifically looking for someone to make the site they’ve perfected in Firefox just work in IE.

While the introduction of IE8 takes us one step closer to being rid of IE6 and its sans-logic behavior, IE8 still contains the same idiosyncrasies when absolutely positioning content.  Unfortunately, it no longer ignores CSS hacks such as html>body.  Apparently we’ll still need to create additional stylesheets for years to come.

Posted in CSS, Philosophy, 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 |

The Middleman

No one can completely control their destiny.  When I find myself implementing a system I didn’t choose, my initial reaction might be to find every little error as a launching point for complaint.  As the representative of this system for my clients, they’ll feed off that influence, making both of our jobs that much more difficult.

That said, a blindly optimistic approach could possibly be more damaging, both for myself as the shill and for my relationships with those that once put their trust in my judgment.

I’ve found toeing that line of optimistic honesty starts with me:

  1. Getting involved in the setup process and understanding why decisions were made
  2. Being honest with my clients about expectations and not overselling
  3. Allowing myself and my clients take an appropriate amount of ownership of the project

I spoke on this topic specifically relating to the implementation of PeopleSoft at Pepperdine University at the 2007 Conference for Law School Computing.

Posted in Experience, PeopleSoft CMS, Philosophy, Skills, Speaking |

Every Service is a Web Service

The web is a near-infinite resource for centrally storing and distributing information.  In my 2003 presentation for the Conference for Law School Computing, I described my ongoing battle against print catalogs, paper applications, and posterboard announcements.

Focusing on an if-you-build-it-they-will-come approach, I presented a strategy for transforming your website into a tool for everything.

Posted in Experience, Philosophy, Speaking |

Hello world!

After working in the web industry for over ten years, I decided to go it alone, be my own boss, and do more consistently creative, challenging, and innovative work than I’d been able to accomplish in the corporate environment.

Posted in Philosophy |