CSS
I love css because it allows me to separate my design from my content. I can produce tableless web designs but often find that using a few tables is the most elegant and browser friendly solution.
MAD Juggling - Mark Adam DouglassTue, 09/09/2008 - 16:24 — mattMy friend Mark Douglass is an incredibly talented man. He's an excellent juggler, awesome poi spinner, great at adagio, hula hoop, staff.... the list goes on and on. I was delighted when he approached me to make his new website.  Mark was great to work with. He followed my instructions, gave me everything I needed and had a very clear idea of what he wanted his site to be like. He sent me a mock up of his logo, the hat and test. I modified the font and rearranged the position of the hat so it would fit nicely into a header. I then sketched out some ideas and presented 3 of them to him. We discussed what he liked and disliked and came up with the final design and layout. I then put all the content roughly into place and the site was at a point where we could go live. Within a month Mark wanted to add more content to the site and make a few changes. We decided it would be best if I spent the time developing a system whereby Mark could update the content himself. To do this I integrated FCKeditor into his site, making an admin section whereby he could edit text and layout, upload images, movies and so on. He absolutely loves his site and the tools I've made for him to edit it with. He keeps it up to date and we are both very happy with how this project turned out. |
Methodist Conference Registration FormThu, 09/25/2008 - 16:53 — mattEach year the Methodist Church of New Zealand hold a huge annual conference. The logistics of organising this event puts a large strain on the admin team each year. Whilst I was living in New Zealand I was called in to help them automate the registration with a web based form. At first it seemed a fairly simple task but as time went on it became a pretty complex little website. There are many simple fields, like name and address. But a lot of the fields need to be updated depending on the answer to the previous question. There's lots of javascript in there to show different questions in different situations. Then we needed a way to take the form data and integrate it with the local database at head office. We decided to take the form data and email it to the church with an xml file attachment containing the data for each registrant. This xml file is then imported into their database, this part of the project was dealt with by my colleague. The system saved them so much time, and worked so well in 2007 that they got us back in to improve the system for 2008. They now have an admin page where they can update text on the form, for example they can alter the dates, location, options in the drop down lists and so on. The look of the site was also updated this year to match the theme of the methodist drupal site. Overall they have been very happy with the system.    |
© 2008 Matt Terry
Favourites
Testimonials
Matt was a real pleasure to work with both while we worked together and when he was working freelance for us.
Despite the fact he was 11,000 miles away during the freelance work I could rely on him to get things done correctly.
He seems to be willing to go the extra mile to get things working just right.
I found him friendly and reliable to work with and look forward to working with him again in the future.
Giles Conn - Wildcat IT Manager