Web Publishing

The simplicity of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) makes it relatively easy for even a non-programmer to put together web-pages. But the need for good design still exists. Often, it is tempting to try too many gimmicks, and to forget that good design is more important. I like to think that this portfolio, and the other web-sites I’ve worked on, achieve a good balance between those conflicting desires.

World Wide Web Sites:

Many of the web-sites I’ve worked on are now gone... the result of sales and buyouts, and some busts as well. Some are hidden behind firewalls and unavailable for general viewing. Yet other sites have expanded beyond the ability of a lone individual, such as I, to cope with and have changed beyond all recognition. The Internet is a moving target, but I’ve done my best to show some of my work below. The sites I’ve included are almost a history of the web in miniature! I’ve listed them in approximate order from newest to oldest.

  • Smartshop.com, Inc. corporate web-site. Until January 2001, I was the Manager of the Visual Communications Department for Smartshop, and entirely responsible for the design and production of the coporate web-site, including hand-coding the HTML. I also worked together with the User Interface Department to design and produce graphics for the comparison shopping web-site. This was a very complicated, and exciting, position for me, but it ended when the company was sold and all of the workers laid off.
     
  • Chamberlin Real Estate School, Inc. web-site. My client wanted a simple, professional site that would inspire confidence, yet at the same time also show that they are up-to-date. Use of colors, images and drop-down menus contribute to those requirements.
     
  • Testarossa Vineyards web-site. This web-site is one I am currently working on, and changes are occuring regularly. It makes extensive use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and JavaScript and CGI programs (see below). Also uses server-side includes (SSI) for the buttons and promotional text in the left margin, and for the footer. CSS and SSI make global changes to content and formatting so much simpler.
     
  • Portfolio Hair Salon web-site. This web-site is another one I am currently working on. Anything you like, or dislike, about it is entirely my responsibilty. I adapted a JavaScript for the slideshow on the "Gallery" page to show various clients of theirs. Again, lots of CSS and SSI. I also did much of the photography.
     
  • Affinia.com was another recent website I’ve worked on. I was primarily involved in coding the HTML for the pages on the “public” side of the site, in concert with Affinia employees. A minimal design direction was created by a design firm for us to follow. Sadly, Affinia has ceased to exist.
     
  • Bank of the West web-site. I designed and created the interface, all the graphics, and wrote all the HTML coding from scratch for this web site (in 1996). They have since totally redesigned it but I have some of the original web-site graphics I created for them. My client agency was Battenberg, Fillhardt & Wright. The scripts for the site were written to meet my requirements a programmer.
     
  • Collabra Software, Inc. web-site. This was a complete remake of their (barely) existing site. This site was also made available on CD-ROM for those without Internet access (!). Back in 1995 that was still a major concern. We were the first to successfully create an HTML-based interactive CD with a Netscape Navigator installer included. “Woodie” at Micromedium assisted me on this project, mostly to ensure that the client’s server was configured properly, and also with other technical issues like creating the Navigator installer for the CD-ROM. Collabra was purchased by Netscape, Inc. and my work disappeared from the web. But I’ve uploaded some of the original Collabra web-site files for viewing.

Web Graphics and Design:

Web Animation:

Other animations (including Flash) are linked from my “Animation” section. Please visit there as well.

Web Programming:

I have been working with Perl (and even a little C) to write CGI programs since 1994, and working with JavaScript to control browsers since early 2000, even though I don't consider myself a programmer. It was just easier than trying to find a good, reliable and affordable programmer to write programs for me. Though in some cases I did so anyway (see "Bank of the West" above). Most of the time it is far faster and more efficient to simply use existing code, and there are so many sources for free code that there is seldom any reason to write from scratch. That said, knowing how to write from scratch is a tremedously good learning experience, and I have done so several times.

  • Order Form for Testarossa Vineyards (the current live version of this form can be seen here). In this case I wrote all of the JavaScript from scratch, mostly because I couldn't find anything quite like this to adapt. I chose to use JavaScript for the form because it is so nice to have the totals and subtotals update instantly, without the need for a "Submit" to the server and the consequent page loads. Also, in some cases certain states don't allow wine shipments (try to select, say, Arizona for the shipping address), and it saves people the annoyance of finding out much later, after they've filled out the form, that they can't buy wine by mail-order anyway. The CGI script (in Perl) that accepts the form input was one that I adapted from a simple CGI e-mail script. But I've expanded it quite considerably here. It also does redundant math to calculate the totals, unlike the simple e-mail script I adapted it from! (This was so I could avoid the danger of somebody not clicking on the "Update" buttons, thus sending an incorrect value to the CGI program.) If you want to test this form, fill out the form and click on the "Submit" button it will send you two e-mails: A confirmation of your order, and the order as received by Testarossa. I also created a "mailing list sign-up" form in a similar manner. Just another example of how very simple CGI programs can be adapted to perform much more complicated things.