Websites I’ve Made

While I plan to eventually have my own, separate web development blog, I’ll still make general posts here, as web development is more than just my job, it’s my passion. I have listed on facebook all of the sites that I’ve made, but I thought I’d list them here, with a little info as well. In chronological order:

2006 – Alpha Gamma Delta (updated in 2008)
Currently, this is the first and last website that I’ve worked on. I joined Alpha Gamma Delta at the end of my junior year. With extremely limited knowledge in web development, I recognized that our current website had needed some updating, and I figured with knack for creative/design and knowledge in general computer concepts, that I could take on the task. It ended up turning into a summer-long project, one that I happily struggled through. At the end of the summer, I alerted the sorority that it was (mostly) done, and received a flood of compliments and excitement over it. From there, I was hooked.
Very recently, I redid the sorority website using WordPress (the download-and-install wordpress, not the free online version that this is.) Learning how to tweak WordPress into a sort of content management system took a little while to learn, but once I figured things out, the site went up pretty quickly. I’ll use it again when I make my own, professional website.

2007 – Downtown Digs

When working at Great Lakes Publishing (Cleveland Magazine), I did strictly design work for the websites managed there. Downtown Digs is something of a sub-division of the ClevelandMagazine.com website, and I really was proud of myself at the time for having designed it completely. The actual development of it (done by someone else) isn’t great though, and looking back on it now – I can definitely tell that I’ve improved.

2007 – Weimann’s Interiors (updated in 2008)
Weimann’s Interiors is owned by my oldest friend from home, Sara, and her husband, who reside near Pittsburgh, PA. There had been a flash site created by a coworker a while ago that was still in place in 2007, and Sara asked that I give them an updated look. Since the old site was in Flash, and since I knew how to create things in Flash, I made them a new site, also in Flash. While I think anyone would agree that it was a better-working and better-looking site, I’ve since then realized that Flash sites are really not a good idea. Six months later, I asked that they let me redo the site again, free of charge, in HTML/CSS, which is still in place today.

2008 – The Berea Historical Society
This website was… quite a project. It was actually an independent study project, one that I had to finish in order to officially graduate with a Computer Science degree. It was created in ASP.NET, a language I was 100% unfamiliar with initially, and ended up teaching myself completely by use of a book and a lot of trial and error. In the end I was happy with the results, and if anything, it was definitely a learning experience. I’m not a fan of ASP.NET though, and will probably avoid it at all costs in the future.

2008 – Buffalo Reincarnations
This was a fun website to make. It was for my dad, who has a dorky obsessive hobby of buying/restoring/selling buffalo coins on eBay. This was the first site I’ve made using PHP, and while I kept the PHP relatively simple and to a minimum, I liked it and have every intention of learning and using it more in the future.

2009 – Rick Cardoza Illustration
I completed this website in early 2009 for Rick, who I met through a string of people (his wife worked with a former professor of mine). It was a portfolio website which I was excited about because I wasn’t bogged down by the annoyances of lots of content and complex site structure. What was interesting about my project with Rick was that we never met in person once – everything was done through email and “snail” mail. Rick was a pleasure to work with, and his incredible illustrations made developing this website more fun and rewarding. I was also excited to make great use of Lightbox, a javascript application that makes photo viewing attractive and easy. This is the second site that I made using WordPress as a content management system, and I couldn’t be happier with it.

2009 – Our Independence
Our Independence is a site that focuses on the political campaign for Mary Jane Horton, who is running for city council of Independence, OH. I met Mary Jane through her son, Ben Horton, a fellow computer science major classmate. The site is relatively simple and went up pretty quickly. Mary Jane wanted the site to look like a professional political candidate site, with a bit of a feminine touch to stand out from her male competing candidates, and I think we were both happy with the final outcome. This is yet another site that I’ve made with WordPress, a platform that I am increasingly excited to use everyday.