Web Design and Development
My philosophy for web design and development is simple. Meet the need. While consulting with many clients in the past, the overall point I always drove home was that a business web presence should not focus on impressing their customer. Your standard consumer is rarely ever, "impressed". Rather a site should be targeted to meet the need of a customer and be totally transparent. if a customer doesn't have to think about anything except absorbing the material your site provides then you have an effective web presence. So in my experience the key to success it "efficient simplicity".

With my technology instruction background, I teach students such ideas and concepts. I like to pride myself on the ability to convey the technical intricacies of the web to a non-technical business audience.

I have worked on, created, or consulted on so many web sites in my time that it would be impossible to list them all. So I will list a few and point out areas of interest that highlight my skills.

VERITAS.com - http://www.veritas.com - screenshot

VERITAS.com ScreenshotObviously the website has changed since I worked for them in early 2000, so please view the screenshot to see a copy of my work. Mouse-over images and links do not work as this is a standard HTML export of only the front page.

The graphical look and feel was dictated by a content and creative group. However, I was responsible for the production and development of the front-end XML and CSS code. My XML platform was 100% compatible cross-browser for IE (all versions) and Netscape 4.x. This site does not work in Netscape 6 but that didn't exist at the time. I have adopted new development techniques to conform with emerging web standards supported by Netscape 6.

This web site comprised of nearly 1300 individual pages. The XML platform I developed allowed the flawless modification of nearly every intricate component. Entire color schemes, layouts, graphics, etc. could be changed in seconds and would ripple through the entire web system instantly. VERITAS.com was one of the first major corporations (VERITAS is a S&P 500 traded company) to produce a fully extensible web system in XML. I am proud to have been one of the first to adopt and utilize this new technology.
 

The Illinois Institute of Technology Research (IITRI) - http://iitri.talondigital.com

IITRI ScreenshotThis was one of the largest and most complex projects my company was presented with. The Institute for Simulation and Training at UCF approached us to create a proof of concept eLearning system. IST was the local arm of IITRI, under contract from the US Department of Defense. The goal of this project was to facilitate development and deployment of entire training courses in under 24 hours. We achieved this goal by harnessing XML as a system for logical structure of data. Utilizing XML related technologies such as XSLT, and XPATH we devised a system that exceeded the original design goals. We were able to facilitate an average 14 hour turn-around on material, from word doc's to live on the net.

While this site isn't pretty as far as design, pay close attention to the multiple systems of navigation. If the site seems simplistic on the surface; then I've done my job. It requires looking at the back-end code to appreciate the massive publishing and logic system.
 

Mecca Imaging - http://www.meccaimaging.com

Mecca Imaging ScreenshotMecca Imaging is a small photography company in Pennsylvania. This site is an overall good example of design to meet function. For example, the customer needed to demonstrate their ability to perform complex digital image restoration. So we used simple JavaScript techniques to convey this to the customer in an intuitive way. Nothing fancy, just meeting the need of the customer while maintaining a consistent, attractive look and feel.