Below is a list of web projects that I have been a major contributor. The portfolio is broken down into multiple sections based on the type of work. Along with each listing, I've given design props where they are due, and a brief summary of the project.
Web Sites
I have built all of the sites listed below. Many of these sites have been designed by very talented graphic designers, some, I have designed myself. Please read on to get specific information for each site.
Institute for Genomic Biology
Design: Gabriel Horton - University of Illinois
Summary: The Institute for Genomic BIology site was built using Drupal during 2010. The site building in Drupal began in July and the site was launched in October. The site went from a static HTML site to utilizing a state-of-the-art content management system. We now allow many different staff members to manage various amounts of content on our website. We also use our website to power kiosk machines and display screens throughout our building. The site also contains a very powerful people directory, which has made what used to be a tedious task, much more manageable. One of the newest features of the site is the development of a mobile-friendly version, which we recently put into production.
I was tasked with all Drupal related items such as theme/template creation, site configuration, permissions and roles, module selection/updates, and mobile integration. In addition to the Drupal related tasks, I was also responsible for establishing easy-to-use workflow processes to get new content online, training users to use the new system, and technical documentation of the new configuration. Since the launch of our new site, we have seen across the board improvements in our site analytics. Also, by flexing the muscle of our content management system, we have distributed the load of managing content which makes getting content online much easier. We now have approximately 700 pieces of content published to our public website and that number grows daily.
2010 Science Olympiad National Tournament
Design: Jackie Gardner - University of Illinois
Summary: The Science Olympiad site was built over 1-2 months during the summer of 2009 and then maintained until the end of the tournament in 2010. The site incorporates a completely CSS based navigation, Google Custom Search & analytics, UIUC webtools components, Flash video, and jQuery sponsor scroller. The site was also built to meet W3C and section 508 compliance, and views/prints well across all major browsers Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE (versions 6 & greater).
This site was honored with top honors at the University of Illinois' 2010 Webmaster Forum. The site earned the Gold Cool Site Award in a field of over 30 nominated sites.
Champaign County Clerk
Design: Jed Willard
Summary: I worked on the Champaign County Clerk website for nearly 4 years while employed in the County Clerk's Office. The site I inherited had little or no use of CSS, an out-dated left-column navigation scheme and look, and lacked much of the functionality that it contains today.
Of course, this isn't to say it wasn't already a good site, because it was a good site; with loads of content (now containing over 10,000 documents). However, the site was time consuming to manage because of the lack of a template system and almost no use of CSS. A simple act of changing link colors for a given section of the site, required many manual edits. Of course, this was one of the first things I changed after assessing the amount of time spent on simple site maintenance. At the same time, I created a logical document tree (or hierarchy) on the back-end of the site; making it much easier to simply find files/folders.
Also, when I first started in the office, the County Clerk site was hosted on a windows platform via a third-party. We transitioned the site over to a third-party, linux-based solution, which allowed us to reduce our hosting costs in half; yet get much more in the way of service (a win-win all the way around). Eventually, over time, we updated the look of the site and incorporated many "quick links" to much of our important information.
The site was also built with web standards in mind. Upon completion of the new site design/coding in early 2008, the site was W3C XHTML and CSS compliant. In addition, we also added multiple online document searches, a blog, County Board video, google translation tool, and much more. Although I am no longer working in the County Clerk's Office; I am still proud of this site and all of the hard work that was done by all members of the County Clerk staff to make it a reality. I was very fortunate to work for one of, if not the most, tech-savvy of County Clerk's in Illinois; or the entire Country for that matter.
First Symposium on Biomass Conversion
Design: Haley Ahlers - University of Illinois
Summary: The First Symposium on Biomass Conversion site was built for a University of Illinois faculty member who is also a part of the Institute for Genomic Biology. The site's one page design was intended to handle a low amount of content as the symposium organizers did not expect to have much content in their first year of the event. You can also see my blog post called "Responsive Drupal" where I talk about some of the new "tricks" we incorporated into this site. The site was created from a photoshop mockup over a one week time period.
Mayo Illinois Alliance
Design: Haley Ahlers - University of Illinois
Summary: The University of Illinois partnership with the Mayo Clinic brought about the need for a robust website. This Drupal site was developed over a two week timeframe, to meet the client's requirements and design guidelines.
Willard Web Design
Design: Themeforest.net template
Summary: I host my site through Lunarpages and they manage my server in a shared hosting environment. However, I do use the cPanel interface to create redirects, setup permissions, create email accounts, etc, etc. LP does a great job keeping our servers secure and up-to-date. I've used Lunarpages for years with rock solid reliability and customer support. My actual site is rolled into the open-source Drupal Content Management System. I installed and manage the Drupal installation myself (creating the mysql databases, etc, etc). The design for this site came from a themeforest.net template. The template was not created for the Drupal content management system, so I reworked the template to work in Drupal as a site theme.
Public Engagement Symposium
Design: Jackie Gardner - University of Illinois
Summary: The Public Engagement Symposium site was built for a client on campus. We worked with the Public Engagement staff to build a symposium website that made their event a success. The site was also built to meet W3C and section 508 compliance, and views/prints well across all major browsers Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE (versions 6 & greater).
Lincoln's Unfinished Work
Design: Jackie Gardner - University of Illinois
Summary: This site was built for an Abraham Lincoln event on the University of Illinois campus. The site was also built to meet W3C and section 508 compliance, and views/prints well across all major browsers Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE (versions 6 & greater).
2010 Faculty Retreat
Design: Jackie Gardner - University of Illinois
Summary: A site for the annual faculty retreat on the University of Illinois campus. The site was also built to meet W3C and section 508 compliance, and views/prints well across all major browsers Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE (versions 6 & greater).
ADAAG
Design: Jackie Gardner - University of Illinois
Summary: The ADAAG site was built for a conference that focused on changes to the American with Disabilities Act. The site was also built to meet W3C and section 508 compliance, and views/prints well across all major browsers Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE (versions 6 & greater).
HTML E-Mail (aka: E-Mail Blasts)
HTML E-Mail, also known as E-Mail Blasts (this also sounds much cooler...), are a great way to communicate with your various audience groups. These are often sent in the form of e-mail to your prospective audience members; with an option to view the contents of the e-mail in the browser. Below you will find links to some examples of work we've done:
IGB Quarterly
Design: Haley Ahlers - Unversity of Illinois
ADAAG: Registration E-Mail Blast
Design: Jackie Gardner - University of Illinois
Lincoln's Unfinished Work: E-Mail Blast
Design: Jackie Gardner - University of Illinois
Office of Continuing Education: We're Movin' E-Mail Blast
Design: Jackie Gardner - University of Illinois
