The Envision Group

Physician Health Partners Web Site

The client is a local health care organization that went to one of my design associates for a facelift on their public-facing web site. I was contacted to lay down a solid application framework foundation in a .NET environment. The initial site launch is simply a bunch of static pages, but the client has plans for more elaborate functionality in the near future, so it was important to pick a framework that would be able to handle as-yet undetermined future needs.

Given that the client already had an internal IT department comfortable managing a .NET web site, I opted for ASP.NET MVC as a base framework, as it is the least objectionable of the options currently provided by Microsoft. Truthfully, the new ASP.NET MVC is a decent MVC library: easily as good as the dozen PHP, Ruby and Python-based options that have been in existence for 8 years or so.

The most challenging part about this job was the antiquated browser requirements. Support for IE 6 was mandated, as well as functionality in the absence of javascript. Normally, that's not such a big deal, but the design also required a variety of modern web design elements such as rounded corners, multiple gradient backgrounds. Between those requests and a couple design decisions that betrayed Envision's roots as a primarily print-focused agency, it was actually a little tricky to deliver the markup.

The University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Continuing Education

Course Administration System

Services included development of an administrative web site for the CU Continuing Education online web catalog. I was called in to build an administrative back-end to accompany another developer's front-end code.

Much of the project involved modeling a rather complex (and continually evolving) data set to a MySQL database and developing an appropriate administrative platform and publishing system which could interact with pre-existing front-end software. The client's understanding of the underlying data set underwent multiple revisions as more and more business rules were uncovered. (Largely by me.) My role was not only a development role, but I also served as a data architecture consultant and modeler, as the client was moving from an archaic organizational structure that relied heavily on internal Excel sheets. The business knowledge necessary to unify the client's internal data structure was spread across several individuals at CU, and careful consensus-building was necessary to ensure that the final product would satisfy the many parties who would come to rely on this data set.

Additional concerns included integration with CU's internal security protocols, accessibility of the database from Microsoft Access, and collaborative interaction with the front-end design team.

I employed a (now common) MVC paradigm using a heavily modified CodeIgniter base framework and a home brew ORM as a data model.

The University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Computer Science

Guest Lecture: "Ajax, JavaScript and their impacts on user accessibility in web 2.0 applications"

Recently I taught a two-day seminar at CU on the topic of accessibility in Web 2.0 applications. With all the fun and the glitz of modern Ajax javascript-enabled applications, it's easy to forget that haphazard usage of these technologies can easily render a truly hideous experience for those members of the audience who might be viewing your content from a screen reader.

Topics included basic javascript, methods of alerting a screen reader when a page has changed, and general techniques for accessibility markup. The doctrine of progressive enhancement was emphasized.

This was a really fun class, and I wish I'd had a couple more days to really dive into the material.

IntrinsiQ, Data Operations Department

Data Scrubbing Interface

IntrinsiQ is a company that has installed a series of data collection devices inside oncology offices throughout the nation. They provide tools which allow doctors to analyze trends in drug usage and effectiveness.

Part of their data interpretation involves having a knowledgeable oncology professional examine raw data to determine when certain key events have occurred during a course of treatment. Previously, these events were identified by having a user examine raw data delivered as Excel spreadsheets!

The client requested that I implement an interface that would make the identification of these points more clear. Furthermore, the belief was that if certain rules could be established and codified, then a rules engine could be constructed which would use previously determined criteria to evaluate anomalies automatically.

To that end, I built a jQuery-powered Ajax gant chart that lays out a patient's treatment record in a draggable linear format, allowing the oncologist to note important events, and define important criteria so that similar anomalies can be picked up in the future by an automated data processing robot. (That I also built.)

Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design

Guest Lecture: "Fundamental Front-End Engineering Techniques"

This was a single day class introducing a group of student designers to some of the realities of web production. I covered topics relating to semantic markup, specifically with emphasis on separation of content from presentation. We used a sample web site that the class had prepared as a group (a prior assignment) and pointed out things that would need to be changed in order for it to be released into the wild.

SchoolFunder.org

Front-End Engineering Project

This was a really simple production job. My goal was to render HTML and CSS in a clean, modular, standards-compliant manner suitable for insertion in a Smarty-style templating system by the primary developers.

The idea behind the site was kind of neat. It allowed for easy funding for kids projects via a a simple micro-donation model. In particular, this site was to be focused towards generating income for school programs. I believe the original site itself has been absorbed into a less targeted funding application. Kind of a shame.

Sphere.com (Now owned by AOL)

Home Page Redesign and Ajax Search Engine Implementation

Sphere is in the business of indexing blogs and relating them to bonafide news. (Admittedly the distinction is vague if you consider Fox to be a news source.) Sphere provides a way for you to read what "some guy with a blog" has to say about events that they don't fully understand.... and quickly!

The goal here was to hilite Sphere's core capabilities in an interactive way. The base purpose of Sphere's software is to make contextual connections between news stories and blogs, so I created a drilldown tool that automated the process that the tool undergoes in real-time via an AJAX drilldown search mechanism.

UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research)

Professional Seminar: "Beginning PhP Applications with MySQL"

This was a 16-hour PHP Seminar offered to employees of UCAR in Boulder. The emphasis was on rudimentary application development including the basics of user authentication and authorization, page construction and interactions with a MySQL database.

In retrospect, I think UCAR was trying to cram a little too much content into 16 hours. Some of the participants of this class had very little programming experience and frankly, I think the raw amount of material was a bit too much for them to absorb. We did manage to rush through a basic application from scratch, which gave them a jumping off point for their own studies.