http://blog.monochrome.co.uk/2009/02/if-architects-had-to-work-like-software-developers/

Ready Cab screen shot

Several months ago, I completed a new site for one of the most trusted names in Louisville transportation – Ready Cab. Their new site has a CMS system so they can keep the site up to date, has a Flight Checker so you can see if flights are on time, and you can even place a cab reservation on their site.

Check out their site at readycab.com

Louisville Urban League (Live site)

Louisville Urban League – built on Joomla. This is one of the first Joomla sites that I’ve been able to see from start to finish using the system. I help maintain a number of other sites built on Joomla, and while I’ve upgraded and added on to those sites, I didn’t create the original versions. So this project was a really good chance to get into the nitty gritty of putting a Joomla installation to work. I even got it to validate (CSS 2/XHTML 1.0). Unfortunately, as tends to happen with CMS sites, I’m sure it won’t validate forever once a lot of new content is added, but that’s OK.

Some neat things on this site include fully customizable (by the client) sidebars – I tend to code most sites with hardcoded sidebars to limit the amount of room possible to break away from the design. And absolutely no offense to the clients, but they’re coming to me because of my experience in providing that structure or design. This site is one of the rare cases where I felt that there was a knowledgeable team that could take care of any of those content changes as well as keep a consistent layout.

The LUL can also accept form data that they set up themselves through the CMS. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a plugin that I coded myself, but it will work well for them. If they choose, an individual form’s input can be saved to an excel file, CSV, or other options.

One note about this site – I had more design revisions on this site than any other site I’d worked on at the time. The original designs were a bit more dynamic and had a little bit more “pop” (boss’ word, not mine) in my opinion. But hey, as long as the client is happy, right? I included one of the earlier (but not the first) designs below.

CSS Validation (LUL.org)

XHTML validation (lul.org)

an earlier version of lul.org

After that? Hopefully I’ll be able to finally write the Shows/Event app for Louisville Hardcore.com that I’ve been wanting to do forever. I need to have it read the user tables from the forums, and then allow those users to post information to a separate database that will archive shows/events after the indicated time for each one. Not hard in theory, but it’s something new to try.

I guess once all of that is done, I’ll try to come up with a new design for this site… yeah, right. Thank you pre-fab wordpress designs!

Heimerdinger Cutlery.com Screen Shot

In Mid 2008, Heimerdinger Cutlery got together with Louisville Web Group to not only bring about a change to their existing webstore, but to overhaul their entire business. Breaking everything out into several stages, the culmination of the project(s) has come to bear fruit for the world to see. HeimerdingerCutlery.com is now live, and racking up more and more sales every day!

Step 1

A new POS (point of sale) system – When LWebG came into the picture, Heimerdinger Cutlery was doing business much as they had done for the past 50 years of their over 150 year existence. Everything, regardless of an internet order, phone order, or a walk-in was written down onto a specially printed notepad and placed in-line in a box for processing. It was almost impossible to keep track of inventory, and factors such as ROI and sales trends were a pain to compute.

The old Heimerdinger webstore

The first thing we did was to gather information on what they had and what they needed. The POS system that was in place wasn’t even in development anymore, didn’t interface with their existing webstore, did hardly any reports, didn’t have any peripherals (cash drawer, scanner, card reader), and most of all did not interface with the Quickbooks Financial software that was running in the office. After doing a bit of research about what their needs were, we came down with a solution of purchasing Quickbooks POS Pro and suggested several peripheral packages from local-based POS supply companies. Heimerdinger ended up with a great deal on some of the software and hardware and were well on their way to a more contemporary workflow.

Step 2

Phone orders and preparing to sync everything together.

Step two of the process (besides training) was to get the framework for connecting the forthcoming new website with the new POS. At the same time, we needed to find a way for Heimerdinger’s employees to take phone orders at the same time that customers were checking out in the brick-and-mortar store. After some more research, we decided to suggest using Atandra’s T-Hub software. Certified as a Gold Intuit Developer, Atandra had numerous message board reviews that were positive. I installed the software on 4 of the in-store computers and commenced syncing the POS’s database with the T-Hub software. Within a short amount of time, Heimerdinger went from writing everything by hand to having the ability to make multiple real-time sales tied in with their inventory levels.

Step 3

Heimerdinger Cutlery sample product page

The Webstore. The biggest part of the project. The then-current/original webstore was built on a Cold Fusion foundation and hosted by Rick at Intent.net. This arrangement was working, but not necessarily the best setup at the time. The site had gone done for as much as a week in recent memory, and stability and ease of use was a definite desire. The root of the site was managed partially by Heimerdinger Cutlery (via Frontpage) and partially by Intent.net.

When we were in the process of making our plan during Step 1, we had narrowed down the webstore choices to OsCommerce and Magento. Ultimately, we chose OsCom to be the backbone of the new webstore. This is because Magento is pretty bulky (and at times very slow) unless you have a pure dedicated server environment. While we offered (at the time) various levels of shared hosting, we did not offer a dedicated server nor was that really in the budget. OsCom became the framework of choice.

Over several months of review and testing, the site went live on June 4th, 2009 – several days after the projected launch date. I wish I could say that it was due to the enormity of the project, but everything was pushed back due to a very, very unhelpful payment processor. After a late switch to Authorize.net, the store was ready for action.

Briar Rose Estate

Briar Rose Estate (site offline as of 6/26/09 unfortunately. Thanks, economy) is a mansion outside Shelbyville, KY built in the late 1870s. Briar Rose was recently purchased by an investor from California who was in search of the perfect place to get away and have parties at Derby time. Briar Rose happened to be for sale, and he scooped it up and began remodelling it. He brought on a new property manager to get things done and promote the property for weddings, corporate events, weekend retreats and what have you when he wasn’t staying there, and the need for a website was mentioned. They needed something that conveyed the natural beauty of the property as well as the stately nature, and would compel wedding planners and event planners to keep tabs on the house.

I spent a day on the property taking photos and then built the site. I also integrated some PHP calendar software to help the property manager keep track of the availablility. A PHP contact form is also part of the site to facilitate the booking process.

Century Beauty Webstore

The Century Beauty Webstore project was primarily a redesign which incorporated javascript and installation of a blog on the site. It started off as a heavily customized OsCommerce installation that wasn’t working quite right (and looked pretty gaudy). Customers could purchase items, but ancillary parts of the system were out of wack. Besides the redesign to remove the 5 tints/shades of mauve, we were tasked with bringing the inventory system up to spec and integrating the other parts mentioned above.

The site is currently running just fine over at Bluegrass.net. Century’s internal server updates/receives updates on product information and quantity, the warehouse receives an automated printout of all sales orders straight from the store software, and customers are purchasing at a greater rate than before. While the store is limited to Salon professionals, there is now an expanded area of the site where non-professionals can get beauty tips, product updates, etc. via the blog. I’ve even integrated Century Beauty’s MailChimp newsletters into the site so members can review past promotions and non-members can catch a glimpse of what they’re missing.

OVCE Mockup

Ohio Valley Creative Energy is a Southern Indiana/Louisville based effort to build a sustainable arts facility using recycled materials and waste from the Floyd Co. (IN) landfill. They are currently in an early phase and busy raising capital.

This site was originally designed when I was in the Indiana University Southeast Design Center Internship and hand coded to XHTML 1.0/CSS 2.0 spec around April/May 2008. In December 2008, I brought the site over to the WordPress blogging system to give OVCE a much greater range of freedom with their site. It currently uses WordPress as well as E-blast plugins.

http://ohiovalleycreativenergy.org/