From web design to creating UI for interactive media, my philosophy of design focuses on removing user barriers. Design is about providing direct access to information and providing a pleasant experience at the same time. Below are a number of projects I have contributed to over the years.
In 2005 I was hired as the Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA) Program Director for Graphic and Web Design. In addition to creating the curriculum for the program, I also redesigned the school's website.
As the director of the Design program, I had a vested interest in changing this, so I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. Althought I’m always up for a challenge, this project put me to the test. Essentially working alone, I went for a clean, minimal design with a generous header featuring the Boston University red. The overall effect aimed for, elegance and professionalism.
What was happening behind the surface was just as important (at least to me!). In addition to taking the site off a clunky CMS, the code was a lean, spare combination of CSS and XHTML/PHP that featured pure CSS layout, list-based navigation, semantic HTML and a site that was W3C compliant. The immediate benefits were faster page loads, pages optimized for search engines and living proof that a standards-based site could function in the browsers most in use in 2005.
The website was a major component of the school's marketing campaigns, within a year it became the primary source of leads for new students. By the time the site was retired for CDIA v.3 (the current design), the student population of the school had grown by approximately 50%.
In 2008 I created a series of three interactive presentations designed for the Marketing department at one of the largest creative software companies in the world. NDA requirements prevent me from going onto detail, but the presentations focused on the company's web programs. Each presentation had over 20 slides which I was responsible for researching and creating. The final presentations were delivered in an interactive media format, which allowed me to integrate an interactive quiz, flash video and voiceovers.
In 2007 I was the team leader for a number of video projects, the first a series of screencasts for the Dynamic Learning series on Adobe's CS3 releases published by O'Reilly: Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, InDesign and Illustrator. Approximately 12 videos (5 minutes in length) were produced for each book. My job included managing the coordination of authors, editors and publishers. Additionally, I produced three long form DVDs for Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver. Each DVD was approximately 6-8 hours in length and required coordination with a number of editors. The navigation and user interface were designed using an XML navigation and JavaScript.