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Webmaster

Children’s Campaign, Inc. – Tallahassee, FL

May 2008 – August 2008

Job Duties

This position was an internship/directed individual study. With this position I was able to get some of my first real corporate web design and development experience. I was able to build a site from the ground up, which I had done before, but never in the corporate setting.

My first duty was to create wireframes for the site. For the most part I had very little experience with wireframes. For most of the sites I did prior to this, I basically coded the design without actually sitting down and planning anything out. So this wireframe experience was a big help. I designed several wireframes, roughly nine in total by the time it was done. After getting feedback on several wireframes, I would make modifications to them based on the input I received from the organization's leaders. Once the final wireframe was decided on, it was time for coding.

This was my first real experience designing a website based off a wireframe. I can easily say that it is much easier to code off a wireframe than it is to do what I was doing (designing "on the fly" as I like to put it). With my wireframes I was extremely detailed so I had all margins, padding, fonts, colors and everything else ready to go. Since everything was mapped out, I knew exactly how it needed to be coded, making the coding process a breeze.

Once the site was coded and ready to go, I installed WordPress on the server. Before, the users would take a long time to post new articles because they had to edit the HTML and only one person on staff knew how to do that. My duty was to set up WordPress so that a variety of users could post articles. Once it was setup, I continued to maintain the WordPress blog to ensure that it was running correctly and that the users were correctly posting articles. I also monitored the transferring of the archived articles.

I was also responsible for updating, and converting many of the old content pages to the new design. This was a pretty daunting task considering how many files there were and how disorganized the content was. Finally, I was also responsible for documenting any new processes and procedures.

Technical Skills Acquired

• Professional Web Design - I had a lot of design experience prior to this job, but nothing like this. The experience I gained here closely resembled what I would get in a real webmaster position. It was experience I had never gotten by merely designing small sites for school or for myself. I learned how to create various wireframes based on user input, and learned that the wireframe makes coding easier. I also learned a lot about the problems that can happen during a website development cycle. In the end, the experienced I gained here will be very beneficial to my advancement as a web designer.
• Advanced XHTML and CSS - Coming into this design, I felt pretty good about my XHTML and CSS skills. This design gave me a big boost of confidence. Working off the wireframe, I had the site coded in no time. I ran into very little issues during coding. The site is some what complex. It has a three-column layout and several content boxes. Each box has three pieces, a top, middle and bottom, all using CSS backgrounds. Each box has float properties included to make it align and come together. The hardest part of the design was getting the margins and padding to look good across all browsers. I learned how to use CSS hacks to fix weird problems with Internet Explorer, something I had never known possible. This design was also the first time I got the chance to work with header and footer include files. The experience I gained designing this site has polished off my skills and I now feel that I have a very solid understanding of advance concepts.
• WordPress Installation & Maintenance - I had installed WordPress twice for a couple of classes, but never really had to use it much. With this site, it was a crucial part. I had to set it up in various locations at first to test it out, so by its final destination, the installation had been transferred a round a lot. With this, I gained some experience extracting and editing a MySQL database using phpMyAdmin. I learned a great deal about WordPress and its abilities. I learned how to set it up for multiple users, I learned how to create a custom template for it, and I learned how to upgrade it and maintain it so that the users could continue to post articles without a hitch.

Transferable Skills Acquired

• Training Users - I had done some training before this, but it was mostly for friends and family. This job gave me my first real professional computer training experience. I had to teach the users how to interact with WordPress and how to post new articles for the site. I also had to show them how certain parts of the new design worked. Overall, I learned a good deal about training users and I feel it is good experience to have.
• Professional Meetings - In my previous jobs I had meetings, but nothing to this extent. This was my first real opportunity to run a meeting. When working on the wireframes I had to come back to the heads of the organization and pitch them ideas, show them updates, and ask for input. I also became a presence in meetings relating to things other then just the website. I had to be present to learn the company's plans and ideas so that the new site could fit their needs. I learned a great deal about meetings, a skill that I will no doubt need for the future.

Samples

• New Website Design - This is the design that I developed for the Children's Campaign, Inc. I would say that this is one my best web design samples. I designed the site as well as transferred over old content, but I am not responsible for any of the current content.
  
  Visit the new Children's Campaign Website