Archive for the ‘Experience’ Category
“Nathan Stryker is an outstanding consultant for any company or organization planning on developing a new website. He exceeds all expectations in providing best recommendations and attention to detail. He clearly demonstrates a complete and exceptional expertise in all website platform development applications, which makes him the best first choice for website planning. Moreover, he proves an unsurpassed strong drive for absolute client satisfaction with excellent responsiveness, understanding and awareness. We most highly recommend Nathan Stryker as phenomenal website consultant -ensuring complete confidence in getting the best.”
ACD -The Academy for Career Development
Posted in Experience, Referrals |
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 |
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 |
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:
- Getting involved in the setup process and understanding why decisions were made
- Being honest with my clients about expectations and not overselling
- 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 |
2005
Implementing a third party content management system took a great deal of site maintenance pressure off of my role as webmaster. Unfortunately, as a WYSIWYG editor with permissions sets, the CMS couldn’t prevent against inconsistent styles, link rot, and provide dynamic menus.
This was addressed along with a site redesign. All site requests were routed to a JSP script which dynamically created menus for the specific page based on the structure of the actual HTML files on the server. These CMS created HTML files were cleaned and combined with the dynamic menus using XSLT to deliver consistent, standards compliant pages. All without requiring content contributors to know what any of that means or worry about menu upkeep.
I discussed this process in detail for my 2005 presentation at the Conference for Law School Computing.
Posted in Experience, HTML, JSP, Skills, Speaking, XSLT |
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 |
2001
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 |
- 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 |
