Website Design Portfolio

Mark Art Printing sells anniversary invitations and related products. They have hundreds of products with multiple options, making ordering complex.

Updates were time consuming because every product on the original site had its own hard-coded HTML page, completely separate from the pricing database. There was no internal search, making it hard to locate products. The order system was unforgiving and difficult to use, and many customers dropped out partway through the process. Orders that were submitted frequently had errors, requiring follow-up with customers, and the ordering system didn't handle sales tax or correctly compute the final price based on the options selected.

The new site uses a few templates to generate most pages, and includes an internal search feature. Every page automatically creates unique information for search engines and a separate url so it can be bookmarked. I added a products description database and built an administration area for updates and order management.

The ordering system was completely redesigned. It is much easier to use, provides more comprehensive (but less intrusive) error checking, and allows customers to save their orders and finish on another day.

The search engines contained hundreds of references to pages which no longer existed. I created an .htaccess file which rewrites old urls to corresponding ones in the new site so page rankings would stay high, and a custom error page to gracefully handle pages which can not be redirected.

In the first month the new site was up, visitors were browsing twice as many pages and completing approximately three times more orders than they had during any month in the prior three years.

A portfolio site for Arianna Bruno, a 2010 graduate of the Science Illustration Certificate Program at California State University, Monterey Bay. Arianna did the basic layout and design in DreamWeaver, but the automatically generated code created by the WYSIWYG didn't work correctly. I created templates and stylesheets for her, optimized her image files, and created PHP and Javascript that makes adding new images or creating new portfolio pages something she can do herself.

The site features a back-end that allows her to simply drop new images into the appropriate folders to add them to her gallery pages. The code I created dynamically rewrites those pages based on the folder contents. To create a new gallery, all she has to do is save an existing gallery page as a new one, change a single line of code to tell it which image folder to use, and add it to the navigation. She can optionally customize keywords and descriptions, but the code will generate default ones if she forgets.

The goal was to create 'very forgiving' code and a site she can update or add to without needing to know more than basic html for text formatting.

Sunraise Printing in Hadley, MA provides a wide range of printing services, including offset printing, short-run and full color digital output, signs and vehicle and window lettering, screen printing and embroidery. The previous site was an ambitious ecommerce version which was difficult to maintain or update, largely invisible to search engines, and generated almost no sales or visitors. The new version went back to basics, stressing a clean interface utilizing SEO techniques to increase visibility to Sunraise's target customer base, and a modular design which allows new content to be added in a logical way. A simple php-based online ordering system for UMass faculty and staff to order business cards was added in 2009, and the entire site switched to a PHP backend in 2010. Traffic has more than doubled during the past few years, and the site now appears organically on the first page of Google for many relevant searches.

This is a site I've been working on just for myself - no client involved. It is intended to be an overall resource for people, places and things in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, since there doesn't currently seem to be a single site to serve that purpose. Given how many new people move here each year (new enrollment at UMass Amherst each year is more than the population of many local towns!), I think it could be very useful. As a plus, it gives me a reason to get out my camera and make day trips - something I don't do often enough! I experimented with making the site Drupal-based, but converted it to WordPress in December, 2009. Either CMS allows visitors to add content and participate in forums, but given my time constraints, I find WordPress much easier to maintain. I could really use some writers and photographers to help add content - if you're interested, contact me.

Jane Hanson Productions of Easthampton provides musical theatre production and direction and the Summer Musical Theater Intensive and Summer Vocal Music Academy camps. The Proficient Musician offers individual and masterclass vocal and choral instruction and lessons. The original site was created by a graphic designer lacking HTML experience. The redesign involved cleaning up and 'fixing' the html code, implementing templates and CSS styles to make updates and future design changes easier, re-organizing the structure, expanding the navigation, and incorporating an email script to reduce spam.

The Hilltown Land Trust is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving agricultural and rural land in Franklin and Hampshire County.

In 2007 I did a complete redesign and expansion of the original site, which consisted of six pages and no images. Due to the completely volunteer nature of the organization, I received very little direction on how to proceed. Since this is a land trust, I felt images would be important, and solicited several from board members, as well as using my own photography. However many of the Hilltowns do not have high-speed internet access, so the site was also designed to load quickly. In addition, search engine optimization techniques were implemented which resulted in a 10x increase in visitors, allowing many more people to find out about the organization and land trusts in general.

In 2010, since the organization was hiring an Executive Director and I wanted to give them the ability to add new content on their own, I redesigned the site again, moving it from HTML into WordPress. I selected WordPress because it is usually very easy for new users to learn. However, I also created a custom theme and put together a plugin package and specialized write panels to meet their specific needs.

Originally developed with the Hilltown Land Trust, this is a PHP/MySQL online database system which allows a landtrust to maintain a comprehensive database of their client properties, including property and deed information, contacts, conservation restrictions and monitoring reports. The database is intended to allow trusts in different states to configure it to their specific needs by making changes to a single file, and for small organizations without a central office to maintain it as a secure web-based system without the need for specialized hosting, accessible by any user on either Mac or PC without the purchase of additional software or extensive training. The system uses a secure registration and login, with administrator control to set permission levels and access to different parts of the database or editing and reporting functions.

More screenshots of the landtrust database system

The web site of the artist and fine arts bookmaker Michael Kuch, a protogé of the late Leonard Baskin. includes images of Michael's paintings, sculpture and limited edition books, show information, and a CV. If you live in the Pioneer Valley you've probably seen his sphinx sculpture, which is on permanent display in downtown Northampton.

A portfolio site for the photographer Chris St. Pierre. The first version (2004) was developed entirely via email with the client, who was living in France while the site was developed.

In 2010 I completely re-wrote the code for the site, creating a php back-end, adding a contact form, and replacing deprecated code.

This site, developed for my own business, is intended to provide useful resources and information, while marketing my services. The original site was largely plain vanilla HTML and CSS, though at one time the Frequently Asked Bookkeeping Questions did incorporate a customized WordPress PHP/MYSQL database and theme to provide searches and automatic cross-linking, while the What's the Real Cost of an Employee? (online calculator) page has always used javascript to perform real-time calculations and provide interactivity.

Although older versions of the site ranked high in organic searches, as I added more content I realized the navigation system didn't do enough to let visitors know what was here. The current website features a completely redesigned menu system and updated stylesheets. If you're interested in how this website has changed over the years, you can read more here