I have been designing and building websites and apps for several years, and during that time I have had the joy of working with and for a number of really amazing people on projects small and large. This is a selection of some pieces that demonstrate a range of abilities and contexts for different employers, as well as personal projects.
Serving the State
Working for the university, I worked on development strategy and tools to help the development community on campus.
UT News (2018)
The Goals
News is a large part of the communcation efforts at the University of Texas. Through the News site, communicators, journalists, and administrators need to be able to creat posts that can be policy voiced or narrative.
The Solution
Leveraging Word Press, Advanced Custom Fields, and Timber, I developed a highly flexible theme with medium like content creation tools. I worked to carefully migrate and map all content from the previous CMS (Drupal 6),leveraging Drupal's View system to map out the nodes into a format consumable by the Word Press importer. I was also able to solve several administration needs and expand author's abilities to attach and share content.
Tech: PHP, Twig, SASS, JS — Framework: Word Press
Explore UT Walking Event Map (2017)
The Goals
The University has a walking exploration of the campus event every year, and in 2017 they wanted to add a litte more inter-activity to their site by offering directions to spots for participants on foot.
The Solution
I wrote a custom JS app that used the Google Maps API in order to allow users to get walking directions from their current position to the building they are trying to visit. When selecting an event the user is prompted for their geolocation data and will accommodate both Android and Apple users.
Tech: PHP, SASS, JS — Framework: Google Maps API
UT at SXSW (2017-2018)
The Goals
UT participates in SXSW every year in a variety of capacities. This year the site had two forms to serve two missions.
First, advertise the upcoming events that need to be voted on, during the Panel selection time.
Second, advertise the events selected for SXSW that came from the university as well offer simple sorting based on specific categories.
The Solution
Jekyll ended up being a nimble solution for dealing with constantly updating content as well and with a few lines of JS we created a simple sorting tool.
Jekyll's ability to consume CVS files allowed me to auto generate event listings, directly from Google doc exports. This allowed my co-workers to make simple updates to spread sheets, which I turned into live content with simple build tasks.
Tech: Ruby, SASS, JS — Framework: Jekyll
Commencement Spring (2017-2018)
The Goals
Re-design the commencement landing (home) page to improve user interaction based on the patterns of navigation most used combined with the need to present students and family to the most relevant information they need for the big day.
The Solution
We collected user interaction data to create new navigation and a page layout that focussed on getting students and the people wanting to celebrate with them the information they needed within one click.
Tech: PHP, SASS, JS — Framework: Drupal 7.x
Leaning into the deep side of the pool
Working at SXSW provided me with many opportunities to learn and expand my skill set. Starting as a freelance Drupal developer and then transitioning into a full-time UX designer and front end developer. The amazing team I worked with at SXSW trusted me to learn to manage nearly anything that was given to me. With them I built, wireframes, user stories, single page javascript apps, and the core info sites that were running on Word Press and Drupal.
Aside from managing projects, I also mentored jr. devs to take over tasks related to our PHP sites.
SXSW Music Film and Interactive (2016)
The Goals
I had been wanting to switch CMS's from Drupal to Word Press for a number of reasons. Chief among these is Word Press's Media system. It deftly handles all sorts of rich content in a way users find very intuitive. During this project I trained a JR Developer to work with myself and a contractor on the technical build out of this brand new site.
The Solution
It was a huge UX improvement for out content producers. Leveraging the Advanced Custom Fields plugin, we created a custom post builder, with configurable and sortable rows. This new interface improved productivity for the writers and provided them with rich media modules for better expression in content.
Tech: PHP, GULP, SASS, JS — Framework: Word Press
Cart (2015)
The Goals
The team's goal was to improve the shopping cart's UX and aesthetic. I created wireframes, user interaction prototypes, and a new design to make badge purchasing quicker and easier. We also worked with an outside vender to conduct user testing sessions to help refine user interactions and UX decisions.
The Solution
We built a new system nearly from the ground up that completely re-configured how products were to be displayed and created. The changes made to the checkout process allowed users to easily review their items before purchasing.
Tech: Ruby, HAML, SASS, JS — Framework: Ruby on Rails
SXSW Music Film and Interactive (2015)
The Goals
Redesign the main marketing site for the 2014 season. SXSW redesigns the look every season but this time we decided to reduce the workload and merely re-build some simple interface elements, add new colors, update the branding, and re-work the drop down menus to be a bit more functional. This is also the first time I designed the site to be mobile first, as previous iterations were responsive after a separate agency had designed the desktop layout.
The Solution
We came up with a click to reveal drop down paradigm for our large menu and reduced content from previous years to allow for a more streamlined look and feel.
Tech: PHP, HTML, SCSS, JS — Framework: Drupal
Austin rolled out the carpet
Four Kitchens is an Austin based Drupal / Web application development company who gave me a sense of place and started me on my path of aggressively pursuing accessible and performant front end development. The dedication to craft and culture left an indelible mark on me. And they introduced me to breakfast tacos.
ICANN (2012)
The Goals
ICANN, the governing body that creates domain name spaces (TDLs) needed to move from their html site to Drupal.
The Solutions
After our lead developer completed a migration and mapping we built a responsive look site with a collapsing nav that had a few stages.
Tech: PHP, CSS, JS — Framework: Drupal
Four Kitchens (2012)
The Goals
Create a refreshed design of the home site of Four Kitchens.
The Solutions
This site had several new features including enhanced bios for the employees, and a complete content re-organization.
Tech: PHP, CSS, JS — Framework: Drupal
Drupal Camp Austin (2011)
The Goals
Drupal Camp Austin needed a new hip look and we were working on the promotional site for the event.
The Solutions
Built a site in Drupal 7 as an early proof of concept for future endeavors.
Tech: PHP, CSS, JS — Framework: Drupal
Working for others
Freelance projects are where I get to test ideas, and small teams or small businesses complete objectives. These opportunities have let me integrate, skills and experiences while trying out new tech.
CASCADIA JS (2015-2016)
The Goals
Volunteer time, design and code to a JS focussed conference.
The Solution
Working closely with the organizers and committee, I lead the charge in website design and branding for the 2015 and 2016 event. The site was built on HARP JS which is a node js based flat site generator. I produced stickers, banner stands, t-shirts, and other conference swag for the event.
Tech: Node, JADE, SASS, JS — Framework: HARP JS
Shed Barber Shop (2015)
The Goals
I got a chance to work on Shed Barbershop's first site. They needed to prop up a simple Word Press install to start booking clients and promoting their newly launched venture.
The Solution
After some wireframing and color selection, I knocked out a quick re-skin from a starter theme and voila!
Tech: PHP, SASS, JS — Framework: Word Press