bencapod™ isn't lost - I'm finding my way...
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portfolio | websites
National Library of Australia website redesign
The latest release (08.v2) of the home page was made live in April 08
The NLA website is a predominantly static, and on it's way to becoming a standards compliant, CSS based site (for the pages that have been ported to my new template anyway...) Being a government site it was essential for accessibility and compliance that the structure remain separate from presentation, making it easier for screen readers and alternative browsing devices to interpret the information contained on the site.
The website is definitely a work in progress as there still is a few layout tweaks that need to occur to get it just right before we port it to comprehensive Content Management System (we're currently evaluating a number of different options...) so I guess it’s a good thing that I am on full time basis at the NCA.
Townsend + Associates Architects
Working for Shaun Humphries of SRH Communications, I was responsible for developing the new T+AA brand including a new logo and supporting business stationery as well as a website.
The website was built in flash and uses an utilizes an XML powered photo gallery which the client can easily update. We did think about sticking to html and css with some nice javascript transitions but thought that flash would be able to deliver an even slicker interface so went with that instead.
Spencergirl.com
Spencergirl.com is a port of the bencapod.core CMS.
I created this blog site for Samantha Roberts, a friend who spent the last 12 months (Dec 06 - Dec 07) in Canada. Sam was new to blogs at the time so she needed a site that would be extremely easy to use to keep friends and family up to date while she was over in Canada. Now's she's back in Oz she decided that it's still the best way to keep everyone up to date with what her and Dazza (her husband) have been up to.
One of the best things about creating the site was coming up with a cartoon character based on Sammy - I guess it's like a logo for her, that is her... nice!
Priorityspace
priorityspace is a port of the bencapod.core CMS.
PrioritySpace is the brainchild of Alex Voorhoeve. It is an exploration into music visualisation. This blog was created for Alex to communicate the basic concepts that underpin his style of visualisation. Alex uses the site to encourage schools and the broader public to come an experience his visualisation in his purpose built, portable dome theatre at the festivals and events that he takes it to.
Capitals Alliance 2007
In 2001, a Capitals Alliance was formed between Canberra, Ottawa, Washington and Brasilia. Since then, the group has held rotating meetings in member countries – Canberra in 2002, Washington in 2003, Brasilia in 2004 and Ottawa in 2005.
Capitals Alliance, Canberra 2007 is a three-day conference that will comprise two days of keynote speakers, presentations and plenary sessions, followed by a day of workshops and site visits in January 2007.
The website promotes the 2007 event in Canberra and now includes a photo gallery of delegates at the conference.
NCA Website - 06 Redesign
The 06 redesign was made live on 30 June 2006.
The NCA website is a predominantly static, standards compliant, CSS based site. Being a government site it was essential for accessibility and compliance that the structure remain separate from presentation, making it easier for screen readers and alternative browsing devices to interpret the information contained on the site.
The are a couple of small ‘mini’ modules that allow certain parts of the site like employment opportunities, media releases and weekly lake updates to be updated by staff other than web team. These modules are accessed from the NCA’s intranet site (The Hive)
I left the NCA in Sep 2006 - So although the site still uses my original design, I can't vouch for everything that appears on the site
Mrs Prime Minister
Old Parliament House’s new exhibition Mrs Prime Minister - Public Image, Private Lives introduces visitors to the 24 remarkable women who have filled the role of Prime Minister’s wife from 1901 to the present.
The Mrs PM website is a static (no CMS), standards compliant, CSS based site. The website is a brochure site that contains information on an exhibition on display until 27 August 2006 at Australia''s Old Parliament House (OPH)
Virtual Canberra
The Virtual Canberra website was launched on Monday 22 May 2006 by the National Capital Authority at Canberra Business Promotions Centre along with two other NCA (National Capital Authority) Projects; The Canberra Light Show and 'Story Of Canberra' DVD
The aim of the website is to provide a truly immersive online experience to users who may wish to find out more about attractions and locations of national significance located in and around the Parliamentary Zone in Canberra. The site contains 'virtual guides', image galleries, and information on each location
Contrary to the usual types of websites I design and develop the VC site is completely built in flash requiring the latest version of the flash player plugin (v8) and is quite bandwidth intensive although I'm sure as we research more effective video compression techniques, this will improve.
Part of the design process included creating a new VC logo.
I was also responsible for designing the core interface and directing interface animation which was all put together extremely well by the inhouse programmer (at the time) Casey Eayrs.
The website is data driven and contains an administration section which is enables administrators to create new locations of interest quickly and easily as well as provide the ability to edit existing locations.
NCA Education Kits
The Story of our Nation’s Capital is a primary education kit developed by the National Capital Authority to provide primary teachers with a curriculum-based education resource to support the story of Canberra as told through the National Capital Exhibition.
The secondary education kit Reflections of a Nation – the history and design of our National Capital presents teachers with the opportunity to reinforce the role of Australia ’s National Capital and to familiarise students with the unique story of Canberra.
Both these websites are standards compliant and CSS based. Apart from a couple of small variations, both sites utilise the same stylesheet.
UPDATE: this site has since been updated to a new design (which i had nothing to do with...)
Maxwell Digital Solutions
Starting off as a one-man show over four years ago, a local Canberra business has grown into a well-respected provider of networked imaging solutions.
What are networked imaging solutions you might ask? Andrew Maxwell, from Maxwell Digital Solutions, explains that they are imaging solutions - such as the copier you have at work - that have taken a step into the 21st century to be connected, or networked, to all the PCs in a particular business.
The MDS website shares the same Database structure and administration section that this site (bencapod) does. Obviously the CSS has been reworked and back end functionality has been reduced to provide fewer options to avoid confusion - Andy specifically asked for just the basics...
UPDATE: Andrew has since moved his business focus to something new so the site isn't online anymore.
The Hive (NCA Intranet)
When I first arrived at the NCA (National Capital Authority) under a six month contract I was allocated a number of different tasks one of which was to redesign their existing intranet.
It was always going to be a massive task due to fact we had to rebuild it from the ground up.
Before inital development, The IT Manager DK (David Kuchel) and I spent a solid six weeks on information design in the form of card sorting and user surveys with staff that actually used the original intranet.
I've also just got to say that the intranet name 'The Hive' was definitely not my idea, but that of DK's (my boss) - At the time we had just started using a project system called 'teamworks' and the identitiy of that was a bee, so he felt that the intranet should be the central source for all us busy little bees (employees). NCA management love the cheese and so it became 'The Hive' - note: I hate cheese!
Peter Glen Constructions
I was approached by Peter Glen Constructions to redesign their site on a pretty tight budget. The old PGC wasn't much more than a splash page so I recommended a more personable site which highllighted the people behind the business (Peter and Verna Glen) and in addition to the products and services the business offered.
The new PGC website is a standards compliant, CSS based site which includes a small, easy to use CMS which now allows Peter to update all the pages on his site as well as the 'Latest News' on the front page.
Peter was extremely happy with the new site and in only two weeks after the site was launched had already gained a top ranking in Google for Peter Glen Constructions (previously the only Google reference was to a small sentence in a HTML conv. PDF).
UPDATE: this site has since been updated to a new design (which i had nothing to do with...)
2ROLL.COM
I worked on 2roll.com back in 2003. The site is full flash and didn't have database functionality . It became very cumbersome and painful to update so as you can see it's quite out of date. However back in the day, I was extremely satisifed when we launched it - but alas, all in flash... Knowing what I know now, I don't think I'll be creating any more sites like this, well without database support anyway.
2ROLL website (backed up)
Vast Group
When I saw VAST's original site, I thought to myself: "Yes, this is a site i can really fix!" - Headings, sub-headings and lists garnished with multicoloured letters in different sizes and different font-families, as a matter of fact just about every bit of text on ther site was coloured different on a black heavily table based layout. To top it off there was a big fat picture of a valkyrie (semi naked woman warrior on a flying horse) The Valkyrie is actually the basis for the VAST Group logo, which did actually make quite a nice icon, and with a little cleaning up, a very effective, professional, corporate logo.
The VAST Group website incorporates a standards compliant, CSS layout and comprehensive content management system (CMS). The website is split into two different areas: 1. VAST Academy (Security Training Courses); and 2. VSP (VAST Special Products - an online Tactical Security Products catalogue) maintained by VAST personnel via a website administration area.
The VAST CMS included the following modules:
- Content Manager
- Meta-Manager (Manage site metadata)=
- Products Catalogue
- Latest News inc. RSS
- Events Calendar
- File Manager
UPDATE: this site was last updated in Feburary 08 - couple of small layout changes...
I'm a web designer.
I create brands and make websites.
I like CSS and flash.
work less. live more.