The idea of Frequency Jobs is simple: to aggregate jobs within the media industry and to then publish all those opportunities in one location.  It’s a very niche job search, and you also have to sign up (for free) to be able to access these jobs.

He also wanted to have the ability to publish sample resumes and also a helping guide for a new person in the marketplace to build their own resume.  As of right now (March 2011), he is in the process of filling in his content and also populating his job postings.

Website Info

So what went into this website?  First, it is based off WordPress.  I had not done this type of user log in before (to where all of the content is off-limits to anyone except users), so this in itself was a challenge initially, till I realized how simple it actually was.

The user flow of the design needed to be very spot-on and easy to use.  The navigation in this site is simple: only 2 static pages, category listings of posts, and then the listing itself.  The typical user-flow was taken into account when each page was designed – providing the most stream-lined interface, with all the necessary content standing out, and catching the eye of the user.

Cassandra Drennon & Associates helps communities and organizations achieve their educational goals through research, program evaluation, curriculum design, leadership development, and training. We have special expertise in qualitative research methods, action research, adult literacy education, adult development, community leadership, and measuring the development of intercultural competence. CD&A is a woman-owned small business. We are members of the American Evaluation Association.

Website Info

I had the pleasure of meeting Cassie through a professor I studied under at the University of Georgia.  I went and met with her at her office not knowing exactly what she needed help with.  It turned out that their most pressing needs were to just change some minor elements on their website.  It was fairly simple, and I was able to help them in-house, so the turn-around time was immediate.  Also, they told me that they were considering re-designing their website into something more manageable for them that would allow them to blog more often.  I went ahead and designed them two mockups (something that was similar to what they already had and then something completely different), but for the time being, they would rather keep their current site.

Mockups

Over the past few years there have been several food recalls that have resulted in hundreds of Americans completely abstaining from the particular product being recalled. Even though only a small percentage of the product, be it spinach, tomatoes, or even peppers, is actually affected, all of it is deemed inedible. This issue relates to food safety and traceability and arises from the difference in the responsibilities of the Federal Government and the Food Industry. Responsibility for traceability lies within the Food Industry. This essentially means that the Federal Government can make mandates while not taking on any of the cost itself. Responsibility for epidemiology (study of disease origin and spread) and detecting a food contamination event, however, rests upon various organizations within the Federal Government: the FDA, CDC, and USDA to name a few. This also means that these agencies bear the cost for any improvement in fidelity and such costs must be appropriated prior to implementation.

Our mission statement and objective is to assist in the rapid identification of an event, isolating it to a product, and containing it to as small of a geographical and industrial footprint as possible. We ask that you take some time to review our site and consider participating in this important pilot test.

Website info

I was invited by a classmate of mine to join in a startup company to be the lead web designer/developer.  I was immediately tasked to design a website for the company without too much knowledge of the company and a very limited timeframe.  To the left [will add later], you will see the initial design of the website.  It is very simple and straight forward, with nothing too critical standing out.  The logo itself went through multiple iterations, until we finally settled down and picked this version.  For those within the food industry would understand the concept behind the logo, but to clarify, there is a database “chunk” inside of the apple.  This is to show the basic relation of how we can include current technologies within the food tracking process to provide clients with the most up-to-date information.

Current Revision

In January 2011, we knew that USFT needed a redesign, since the initial layout was designed without any knowledge of the company.  We met as a group multiple times to discuss key elements and how those elements needed to be displayed.  We found out that we needed to focus in on a key report as well as the most recent news.  As you can see on the left, we were able to tackle these issues by providing easy access for the end-user.  The site is still a work-in-progress (as one can see by the News section on the right side), but it is very close to completion.

Meet Justice Medical is a nonprofit organization that trains medical professionals to recognize and respond to victims of human trafficking. Medical professionals are uniquely equipped to identify and intervene on behalf of human trafficking victims.

Meet Justice Medical is working with community stakeholders to fill a major gap in the response to Georgia’s horrific problem of human slavery. Through community support, qualified volunteers and local hospital partnerships, MJM has the capacity to impact hundreds of lives by increasing the awareness of trafficking in Atlanta.

Website Info

Meet Justice: Medical is a campaign of a non-profit organization that tackles social injustice issues.  Jessica, the advertising director, had contacted me needing information about the steps needed to take to redesign and develop a website for their Medical campaign.  They were currently using Joomla as a CMS, and their personnel who made adjustments to the site wanted something more user-friendly.  MJM was also in the process of re-designing their main site for Meet Justice.  Along with that came some color scheme changes and formatting modifications that also needed to be reflected on their campaign’s site.

Main Issues

The image to the left is a copy of their old site.  One of the first problems that I notice was that there wasn’t any path for my eyes to follow to get to what they really wanted to emphasize.  Their logo in the top-left was extremely small, and I didn’t notice it until my eyes went back up to the top of the page for a second time.  The item that attracted the most of my attention was the image of the girl on the left.  Now on a positive note, the picture is great, but, it is not getting any of their action items emphasized.  One of the last things I noticed was the mission statement of the organization.  If I didn’t have any background of MJM, I may have not even seen what their goal was as a company.

To Summarize:

1. Small Logo
2. Mission statement is not emphasized
3. It is not obvious what MJM wants the end-user to do

Problems Solved

So, we went to work to hash out what the new MJM site could look like and how we could drive visitors to where MJM wanted them to go.  Let’s look at these one-by-one:

1. Small Logo
   We decided that MJM needed to show off their logo, so we placed it in the top left corner where almost everybody’s eyes go first.  Now, they have instant branding due to the location and size of the logo
2. Mission Statement
   Since the statement was almost hidden among the surrounding elements on the old page, I decided that most new end-users will want to know exactly what MJM is about as soon as they get to the site.  Now placed right next to the logo, the eye path first goes from the logo of MJM straight to their mission statement.
3. Call-To-Action
   MJM had made it known that they mainly want to advertise their Training Sessions and the ability to donate.  On the old website, these were emphasized on the right side of the page, but the buttons themselves blended in with the rest of the website and didn’t pop out too much at the end-user.  One way to show all three items were to make them stand out in various colors, and to also throw some eye-catching icons on them.  This provided a splash of color on the site, and due to the size, people notice these before scrolling down to see the rest of the content.

The first order of business for ACS was an update on their website.  At the time, they currently had a frame-based website, with large Times New Roman text everywhere.  The owner had a new site design in mind and hired Goldmine! to help him put forth his ideas.  I went ahead and designed him a website, for use in WordPress, based on his specifications, and after a little bit of back-and-forth about the design specifics, I was able to produce him much cleaner web presence in comparison to what he had before.

Business Cards

The next step for the owner was to create more professional looking business cards that matched his new website’s look.  He decided to go with a very clean and simple design since it matched up with the design of his website the best.

Future Endeavors

• iPad web application to accept computer-repair form submissions
• Branding for custom-built computers

Wouldn’t it be cool if an application could help move these connections from the digital world to real life?

Delta Journeys is an online application that uses a person’s social media to accurately suggest places to travel and people to visit, all at the lowest price possible. These recommendations all occur without the user having to input any information. It uses the information that users have already provided on their social media and produces a low-fare ticket to visit a location where the user wants to travel. Delta Journeys is your personal travel agent that understands you and your interests.

How it works

The user first provides Delta Journeys with access to his or her social media though Facebook Connect. This allows the application to access the users profile, status updates, photos, friends, etc. Delta Journeys then makes the following queries on the users’ Social Graph:

1. Buzzwords – Delta Journeys first searches for buzzwords that spur a vacation or a visit to friend. A buzzword can be a phrase in a post from a friend, such as “I miss you” or “come visit me.” These are clues that the user would like to travel somewhere. Then Delta Journeys figures out whom the user wants to visit and where the user would like to travel.
2. Relationship – Delta Journeys then tests the “scale of friendship,” to understand if the user would actually want to visit the friend. If the relationship is strong (eg. many wall posts and photos together) or if the friend is a family member, Delta Journeys can assume this is a person the user would actually like to visit.
3. Location – Next, Delta Journeys will determine the locations for the ticket. To do this, it queries the current location of the two friends. If their current locations are different, it provides a ticket to visit the friend’s current location.
4. Suggest tickets – The Delta Journeys app provides the user with the option to buy the ticket, plus tickets from other buzzwords, relationships and locations. It provides a full travel agent experience with no information provided directly from the user.

Screenshots

For presentation purposes, I mocked up what the portal could have looked like on Delta’s website.

I am working as a contractor for a company called Transformation Education which specializes distance learning and adult education. A client of theirs (Internet Advertising Institute – IAI) needed a school crest. After doing a little bit of research on what some other crests looked like, I mocked up three separate designs. Once that was completed, they asked me to design a logo for a podcast they were about to release called Plain Talk Power. I designed three prototypes for them, each with a couple variations. They ended up going with the one below.

Moodle

For those who do not know, Moodle is an Open-Source Content Management System for education. It contains features where students can enroll in classes, grades can be kept for each student, different activities can be placed throughout the course, and much more. I was assigned to mainly understand the interface of Moodle and then to modify and style content appropriately.

Business Cards

Upon my first meeting with the founder of Transformation Education, she had me design her new business cards since she was about to move to another state, and some of her contact info was going to change. I designed something that was slightly similar to what she already had, but was different enough to where one could see a significant improvement of quality.

Future Endeavors

• Guide Transformation Education into a new Project Management System
• Logo design
• Business Card design

This was a similar project to Fox’s Pizza where I was already given the design of the website.  Carvel needed a website that they could update themselves, so I decided to convert their current design that they liked in a WordPress compatible theme.

Business Cards

The local Carvel shop wanted a way to be able to pull customers in more often.  We decided to go with the Frequent Buyer cards.  On the front of their business card, was the contact information for the owner of the branch. On the back, along the bottom, were 10 areas to hole punch each time you purchased ice cream from that branch.  A great idea to have customers keep your information as well as keep them coming through the door.

Database Management/GUI

A Carvel in Trenton, NJ has an on-going program called the Birthday Club.  When customers come to the store, they have the option of giving their birth day and contact information to the store.  When that customer’s birthday rolls around, Carvel Trenton will get in contact with them and let them know that they can come in a receive a free ice cream cone for their special occasion.

They needed a better way to keep track of all of their customers who were registering for the birthday club.  I was tasked with the creation of the form, database and GUI.  The form allowed the user to input basic name and contact information along with their date of birth and other family members birth dates.  All this information went into a database.  I then proceeded to design a back-end interface for the Carvel owner so that he could look up the information each customer provided.  If there was the need for any change (ex. The customer put in the wrong birth month), he could go in and change it for him using graphically appealing user interface.

Future

We have launched a promotion to Carvel owners.  Due to this, I have plans to design a completely new look for Carvel branches.  Along with that will be business cards which would still keep the Frequent Buyer idea, but also match their new look for a cohesive marketing structure.

Fox’s wanted a clean new look to their website with the ability to update and manage their own content.  I received the design from a designer on my team and then converted it to WordPress which gave them the functionality that they desired.

Business Cards

Fox’s wanted to take a different stance on how they used their business cards: frequent purchasing cards.  The front of the card displays the normal contact information, but on the back, there are 10 places to hole-punch for each entree you purchase.  A great idea to keep customers coming in the doors.