Toby's Portfolio

During my internship at RPM, I did a number of updates to the site of the Red Cross of Greater Cleveland. The biggest by far was an entire site redesign, changing the appearance and a fair amount of content as well as adding some functionality. It involved changes to almost 275 ASP files that were needed plus a number that weren't. I cut up an image provided by a designer and used CSS mixed with tables to create the layout. Functionality changes included adding back-ends to allow Red Cross to modify some data and the front-end to output it. There were many problems encountered in turning the old files into the new site. I learned a lot about taking something that was already built and updating it completely.

This report is the HTML version of RPM's 2008 Annual Report. I took the PDF version of the report and converted it to HTML with CSS styling. The project was very good for learning HTML and CSS, especially since sections were image laden and varied greatly in appearance. It was also difficult because the primary browser target was Internet Explorer 6, notorious for CSS issues. Just moving all of the content from the PDF and marking it up took some time, and I got very fast with this.

For my Web II class at Tri-C, we (the six students and our professor) built a site for a local non-profit, Stearns Homestead. Their previous site was only a single page on the city's cite, so we started basically from scratch. The site was built on Wordpress, using it as a CMS so the people at Stearns could update the content more easily. I had used Wordpress before for my own blog, but this project was much more complex. I learned a lot about working with Wordpress as well as working with clients from start to finish on a project.

I did a number of updates to the site of the Humane Society of Greater Akron (HSGA) while at RPM. The largest was implementing a "Virtual Adoption" online application. It allows people who don't want to adopt an animal but still want to help out the HSGA in a fun way. Donors "adopt" a kennel spot of a dog or cat and pay via credit card to support the spot for the selected number of months. They receive an email introducing them to the animal in that spot. They receive updates on their animal as HSGA staff submit them in the administration section. They also receive emails when their animal is adopted and then when a new animal moves into their spot. At the end of their adoption period, they receive messages telling them their period is ending and allowing them to readopt their spot. There were many issues faced ensuring administrative updates to the animals were easy to accomplish and handled appropriately and the emailings worked correctly. There was a lot of testing to make sure no data problems could occur, such as multiple people getting the same spot or a spot not being released available again once an adoption period ended. It was a big project and I learned a lot.

I was once in the band The Yars. During my time in the band I did a number of things to help out with the website and myspace site. After leaving the band, I remained friends with the guitarist, Dwight Henson. Dwight went on to create a full length album. For the album, Dwight wanted an interactive part that would also function as a website, and he promised me a copy of the CD and acknowledgement for doing it for him. I built slightly different versions of the site for the two supply mediums. Because it was built to work from a CD and cheap hosting, I used client-side scripting in some places to simulate what would otherwise be done server-side. I did the design for the site, except for the banner drawing, with input and some help from Dwight. The website is no longer up, but I am "rebroadcasting" it here.