Archive for the ‘Skills’ Category
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 |
not yet final
A great number of Historic Hotels and Lodges in America are located within National Parks. Taking a cue from the parks’ iconic signage, the site invokes the rustic stature of its famous buildings. Dynamic JavaScript slide shows allow for the the quick consumption of detailed photos, while color coded fact sheets give a deeper look at hotel amenities.
Posted in CSS, Design, HTML, JavaScript, Skills |
2009
Creating a warm, friendly design with room to promote current events was the main directive for this church’s website. Offering informational content, podcasts, videos, blogs, and more, this site was another prime canidate for Drupal and it’s ability to deal with information uniquely based on content type. After looking at numerous slideshows for the promo area on the homepage, building one on my own proved to be simple and gave the client exactly what they wanted.
Posted in CSS, Design, Drupal, HTML, JavaScript, PHP, Skills |
2009
Working within the context of a completely locked down CMS, I needed to create a unique, appealing site that would drive traffic to the incredibly rich content with only a CSS file and a few images. I created a new banner image for the site and gave it a more professional look and feel. Using a combination of background images and padding, I was able to direct the eye to downplayed elements on key pages and give some breadcrumbs a heightened role as navigation bars.
Posted in CSS, Design, Skills |
2009
Creating the site for the first annual GTD Conference required a Content Management System that could support blogging, as well as a variety of additional content types. Drupal allows you to theme right down to the individual content types, and creating “blocks” for the sidebar content fit right in with the visual style of the site.
Posted in CSS, Drupal, HTML, Skills |
2008
After creating many WordPress templates for personal blogs over the years, putting together a theme for the official GTD blog was a snap. But nothing easy is ever simple. Creating a theme with two sidebars, one of which splits in half to incorporate square ads in an attractive manner, proved to be a modest challenge, stretching my theme and widget building in new directions.
Posted in CSS, HTML, PHP, Skills, Wordpress |
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 |
