My Web Development Portfolio
Solo work
These are the websites I've done from start to finish by myself-- the designing, the coding, the debugging, everything. I have received great feedback from all of my clients and look forward to working for you too!
BulliesForYou.com
I did this site up in a few hours for a friend that is trying to sell their bull terriers. I'm happy with how it turned out, considering the small amount of time invested.
I also think it's a good testament to the opportunity for individuals or small businesses to get their web presence without paying huge amounts to a large web development firm.
Bullies For You home pageAllTheParksAStage.com
NOTE: Since this site was for an event in 2009, it has since changed. I did not design the new site.
I put together this website inside a relatively quick timeframe, as it is for an event that's coming up very soon. It is for a summer even put on by Calico Underfoot at Riding Mountain National Park. I did the entire design and back-end coding, except for the main banner which was supplied by Calico and the large Calico Mainstage logo. Photos and content were also supplied.
It was a good test of my skills-- the website is kind of a mix of everything. There's a photo gallery and a feedback forum, both of which I wrote PHP scripts for, in addition to a contact page. I'm happy with how the design turned out, though I probably would not have chosen to use that particular banner and Mainstage graphic if it were my own website.
The rotating image and music banner was also put together by me in Flash.
All the Park's a Stage home pageFourStaples.com
Though it kind of goes without saying, I developed this site myself to promote myself and acquire more development jobs. I'm very happy with how it turned out-- the design is different from any of my other works, and it provides an easy way for me to keep in touch with my clients while acquiring new ones as well.
Oddly enough, from my experience in the field, there are a lot of web development companies that hire others to develop their own websites-- I've never understood this, as it seems to me that your website should be the primary place for displaying your own abilities.
Four Staples home pageCDAwards.net
This was my very first serious web development project. I took it on about 4 years ago-- right when I was first starting to learn about server-side scripting and databases (PHP and MySQL in particular). Because I was not yet adept enough to create a site that ran itself entirely off a database, the first version was all done by hand.
Needless to say, it was not easy... a lot of resizing and editing images to make it work, and editing one page meant I had to go back and edit all the others. Once I had learned more, I went back and redid it, this time using a database to store all of the product information. It went a lot smoother, and the result is the website you see today.
Shortly after, I developed a simple CMS (Content Management System) for the CD Awards staff to use to update their own site, since updates were required on a fairly regular basis. This is something I want to allow all of my clients to do, or at least give them the option. Scheduling site updates/maintenance can be troublesome if you need something changed right away, and with a CMS for your site, this will never be a problem.
The CDAwards Homepage
The custom-made Control Panel(click to enlarge)
TownOfCarberry.ca - 125th Anniversary
My home town (Carberry) had its 125th Anniversary celebration a few years ago. I put together this website to help communicate the plans with the town. Since it was a sort of rushed project, and I was already doing the CD Awards site on the side, I didn't put a whole lot of focus onto the design of the site. If it were still in use now, I would go back and redo it, but it's sort of just sitting and collecting dust since the event has passed.
The website features a form to submit Carberry residents' family history. The submissions could then be accessed by the history book committee and added into the book (which was also released on the 125th anniversary). I also made another form where people could add addresses of former residents so they could be contacted about the history book.
This is the only section of the Town of Carberry website that was done by me.
Note: this was a volunteer project.
The Town of CarberryThe Name's Dan + Old Portfolio
This is what's left of my original personal website... it used to have a blog, but I took it down after I stopped updating it for a while. It also used to reside at TheNamesDan.com, but I did not renew the domain when it expired, so some advertising company owns that now. The two links to my new / old webserver do nothing, as I no longer run a public web server-- only a private one that I do all of my testing on.
The only link that currently works is the link to my old portfolio, which I will no longer update now that I have this one. I will leave the pages up for use in my current portfolio, and also for the nostalgia.
I don't know why I used trees on both pages... I guess I just liked how they looked.
The Name's Dan (old personal site)
My old portfolioYour Website
I designed Your Website after You saw my site, liked my work, and decided to give me a shot. It has no doubt been my favourite project, and the one I am most proud of.
The site features everything that lets You communicate your message to people, and also allows those people to get back in touch with You.
I don't even need to charge You for updates, since it features a flexible control panel that lets You take control of what is rightfully YOURS!
You were very pleased with my service and even told me You'd tell your friends about me. Working with this client has been a pleasure I will not forget!
Your Website - my finest work yetAzroTech Work - HTML Splicer Extraordinaire!
For about a year off and on, I did work for a company called AzroTech in the states (Tulsa, OK to be specific). I was not actually employed by the company, I just did freelance work when they needed an extra hand. All of the work I did involved HTML splicing-- which is basically taking a design that their designer had mocked up in an image editing program, cutting it up into smaller pieces and writing the HTML and CSS so to turn it into a working web page. Not all of the sites made it online-- or if they did, it was short-lived. Unfortunately I didn't think to take screenshots of them at the time. Although, since I didn't design the sites myself, seeing a screenshot wouldn't be very useful anyway!
AzroTech company website
Power of Realty Coaching
Zion Oil
I also did a re-code of a shopping cart system for one of AzroTech's clients-- however, their site is no longer online.
Other works of mine
Here are a few other random things I have made. The first is a fun pen-and-paper time-killing game that I wrote in JavaScript. The second is the result of playing around in Fireworks, and the third is some early logo concepts for Four Staples.
Morpion Solitaire
"lots of logos and lighting"
early Four Staples logo concepts (NP stood for New Palette)
Technical Skills
Here is a list of skills I've developed over the years. I use a scale from beginner to intermediate to advanced to expert to describe my competence with each technology.
- PHP - I would say I've reached the expert level with this. I have comprehensive knowledge of objects, patterns, and best practices, and how to structure applications in general.
- CakePHP - I would say I'm only a beginner as far as CakePHP is concerned, but I could pick it up very fast. In fact, one of the major contributors to my PHP expertise was a project in which I developed a framework very similar to Cake, entirely from scratch. I think if I were to sit down and play around with Cake for a few days, I could go from beginner to advanced very quickly.
- MySQL - advanced, particularly when it comes to integration with PHP.
- (X)HTML - advanced
- CSS - advanced
- JavaScript - I'd say I'm an intermediate JavaScripter... I don't have the same full-out knowledge of the language like I do with PHP, but it is sufficient to do just about anything.
- jQuery - intermediate
- Flash - While I have done quite a bit of work with Flash, none of it has been overly involved. I'd put myself somewhere between beginner and intermediate.
- Fireworks - advanced
Non-Web Skills
Needless to say, this list is quite small, but I'm assuming it will grow over time as I get closer to my degree in Computer Science.
- Java at the intermediate level