Technology
Descriptor: Facility with, critical understanding of, and ability to learn technologies
Following are examples of websites I created for the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, websites and assignments completed for academic assignments at NJIT, and some personal whimsical websites. All of the sites listed below benefit from CSS. I learned both Dreamweaver and CSS on my own with the aid of carefully selected books, and through trial and error.
The Department of Art and Archaeology home page features a subtle Flash movie which rotates six images by slowly fading one out while fading another in. The images represent the different areas of art history that the faculty specialize in. In 2008, I updated the site to the content management system, Roxen, to conform to University recommendations.
The capstone project of my master's degree was to rebuild, or rebrand, the Master of Science in Technical and Professional Communication (MSPTC) program for NJIT. I researched accessibility guidelines for educational institutions, employed primarily HTML and CSS with a bit of Javascript mixed in, and I conducted usability tests which led to further refinement.
The Visual Resources home page also features a subtle Flash movie which rotates six images by slowly fading one out while fading another in. Visual Resources supports the Department of Art and Archaeology by providing an extensive slide library and digital image database. I am currently working to move this site to Roxen
The The Tang Center site includes a photo gallery created with Adobe Photoshop. The Tang Center site menu is one large image with hot spots and slices. It utilizes the html "map" tag to create the links.
The American Views site is a simple site that uses a Dreamweaver template. It also utilizes a CSS trick to expand the colored columns by using a background image. The registration form collects registrant information in an Access database as well as sending an email to Princeton's Conference Services every time someone registers. I also get an email so I can gauge the traffic and usage of the form.
Cicadas Invade Princeton University was my first attempt at utilizing CSS. My discovery of Eric Meyer on CSS coincided with the Brood X emergence of millions of cicadas right on the campus that I traverse daily. It was an ideal opportunity to experiment with CSS. The site received millions of hits between May and July of 2004. The site is whimsical in tone. I have elected to not update it, even though my level of expertise has increased. It gives me, and anyone else, a feel for how far I've come.
To Cheat or Not to Cheat was built for an assignment in PTC 626 Hypertext Design Studio. The site is structured so that the user will wander on a non-linear path. The topic is about cheating on a spouse. Regardless of the path taken, each user will get the same message. Dreamweaver was used to build the site, taking advantage of Dreamweaver's template function. Fireworks was used to create hotspots on the images.
Observations was also created as a PTC 626 project. The assignment was to not only create a non-linear hypertextual document, but also to use more imagery than text in a creative way. I used my fascination with nature to select images from Microsoft Clip Gallery and clips from YouTube. I also wrote the Penguins in Love poem.
PTC 620 required internet research of websites about rhetoric and famous rhetoricians. Most students used a table in Word to report their findings. I felt that a webpage would be more practical in that I was including URL's. Rhetoric Research is the result.