majordan.net

Contact me at: michael@majordan.net

Portfolio

Click on an image-link below to view details on a project or view projects one at a time.

  • Red98
  • Batesville Casket Company
  • Boeri Sport USA
  • Cafco Development
  • Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism
  • Fidelity Investments
  • FM Global
  • HomeRuns
  • Web Word Find
  • Spelling Match
  • InnoCentive
  • Puma Spec Creative
  • Salamander Restaurant
  • Sprint PCS
  • Toyota

Red98

While working as a developer/programmer for Red98, I programmed the agency’s website, Red98.com.

Built with DHTML, Flash, and PHP, the site features an online portfolio, an interactive timeline, and a repository for news and events.

The site received a Standard of Excellence WebAward from the Web Marketing Association and was a Finalist for Best Technology Services Web Site from the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council.

Technologies Employed: DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Flash

Comments:

While I’m fairly pleased with the way the site actually works, there are a number of things I’d change or would encourage the designer to change given the chance to do it again.

To provide access to users lacking the Flash plug-in, the site is duplicated in HTML, which made site maintenance kind of a pain. Now that Flash has better XML support, I’d probably rebuild the site to eliminate as much of the redundant data as possible.

Improvements in usability and accessibility could be made. I’m not a big fan of JavaScript pop-up windows, which are copiously used in this design.

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Batesville Casket Company

Batesville, a Hillenbrand Company, is the leading funeral service company and has been helping funeral directors and families for over a hundred years.

They asked Red98 to develop, for their annual roadshow in the midwest, a prototype of a web-based tool to provide funeral directors with a user-friendly way to guide friends and family of the deceased through the funeral arrangement process and ultimately to help them to choose a casket and funeral service that would best represent that person and how they lived.

The demo was a great success and generated tremendous interest at the show.

Technologies Employed: Internet Explorer DHTML, CSS, JavaScript

Comments:

Since the demo was being created to display in a controlled environment, Internet Explorer 4 or later in full-screen mode on a single Windows 98 laptop with screen resolution set to 1024 x 768, I didn’t have to worry about cross-browser scripting. However, without a database backend or even a web-server, all data had to be stored client-side in JavaScript arrays, making the coding a bit more cumbersome.

Users without Internet Explorer 4 or later won’t see much interactivity because of the use of Internet Explorer-specific DHTML.

As a result of this project, I was surprised at a recent funeral service, when I recognized the casket model.

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Boeri Sport USA

Red98 partnered with Boeri, the Italian helmet manufacturer, and Boeri’s North American distributor, MPH Associates, to create a new Web presence at BoeriUSA.com.

I programmed the site in DHTML with PHP and MySQL as a backend for the areas containing dynamic content. I also set up their online store using the Miva Merchant e-commerce engine.

BoeriUSA.com received an Outstanding Web Site WebAward from the Web Marketing Association and was a Finalist for Best Apparel Web Site from the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council.

Technologies Employed: DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Miva Merchant

Comments:

This site, while visually appealing, could use an upgrade to web-standards and a more flexible, scalable, and accessible layout.

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Cafco Development

Cafco is a Boston-based construction management and general contracting firm specializing in customer-driven restaurant and entertainment development.

Red98 partnered with Cafco to create the company’s first online presence at CafcoInfo.com.

The site features a user interface programmed in Flash and mirrored in HTML.

Technologies Employed: DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Dynamic Fonts, Flash

Comments:

I was responsible for the HTML version of the site, but in a recent update I had to revise the Flash files as well.

We were asked to come up with an original music loop for the introductory page. The version the client chose can be heard on the site, but I prefer this version: Cafco Music Loop.

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Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism

Football star Doug Flutie and his wife, Laurie, founded The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism to honor their son Doug Jr., who has autism, and to help other families facing childhood autism.

I developed the site in HTML with some DHTML and PHP sprinkled in here and there for good measure.

Technologies Employed: DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP

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Fidelity Investments

Fidelity’s Institutional Retirement Services Company (FIRSCo) offers corporations a wide range of human resources solutions, many of them Web-based and grouped under the “NetBenefits” title.

These solutions enable Human Resources departments to provide a more efficient, effective way to manage benefit plans within their company, and empower employees to find information and support in a fast and relevant way.

For FIRSCo’s annual Client Conference, Red98 created Netropolis, which integrated a collection of interactive product demos Red98 had developed with Fidelity in a kiosk-based Web site designed around the theme of a futuristic urban landscape.

I was responsible for building the Web site for the conference and integrating the diverse content for a seamless user-experience.

Technologies Employed: DHTML, CSS, JavaScript

Comments:

This site was built for Internet Explorer 5 or later in full-screen mode with screen resolution set to 800 x 600. Users of other browsers, especially Netscape 4.x, may not experience the site as intended.

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FM Global

FM Global is one of the world’s largest commercial and industrial property insurance and risk management organizations specializing in property protection.

Red98 partnered with Microsoft to develop the user interface for FM Global’s intranet portal and its suite of customer relationship management tools dubbed the “Client Servicing System.” The portal was built on Plumtree’s Portal Platform and the Client Servicing System applications were built by Microsoft developers using ASP.NET.

My responsibilities on the project included:

  • developing the CSS styles, based upon our designer’s graphic layouts, for the developers to use in programming the portal and the Client Servicing System

  • programming code-snippets used in demonstrating proof-of-concept and for user-testing of the interfaces

  • writing the user-interface style guide for the Client Servicing System, documenting all aspects of the interface design and interaction for the developers.

I also coded the Canadian French translation of FM Global subsidiary Affiliated FM’s Web site and wrote the corresponding user-interface style guide.

Technologies Employed: DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Style Guide Documentation

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HomeRuns

HomeRuns was an online grocery ordering and delivery service. Red98 worked closely with HomeRuns to plan and launch a complete redevelopment of the site in order to clarify the brand message and make the shopping experience a much more usable, useful, and engaging experience for both first-time users and existing customers.

I was responsible for coding template pages in HTML which were delivered to the client to be integrated into their backend system.

Technologies Employed: HTML

Comments:

HomeRuns was the first project on which I worked at Red98. The week after I arrived, my supervisor left for vacation, leaving me to code the sixty or so pages of our first deliverable alone. It was a baptism by fire I’ll never forget, but I’m a better, faster programmer because of it.

Unfortunately, HomeRuns is no more. The people I know who used the service loved it.

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Web Word Find

Web Word Find is an interactive word search game developed in Flash for Houghton Mifflin's Education Place Web site.

Technologies Employed: Flash 5

Comments:

Web Word Find was the first project on which I worked at Houghton Mifflin. I had to debug another programmer's code and extend it so that the game can be skinned and repurposed wherever a word search game is needed on Education Place. Another version of the game can be found supporting the Houghton Mifflin Spelling and Vocabulary textbook program.

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Spelling Match

Spelling Match is an interactive matching/memory game developed in Flash for Houghton Mifflin's Education Place Web site.

Technologies Employed: Flash MX

Comments:

An extensible matching/memory game engine powers this game for Houghton Mifflin Spelling and Vocabulary textbook program.

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InnoCentive

InnoCentive™, an Eli Lilly e-business venture, enables scientists around the world to solve R&D challenges from leading companies for financial incentives.

I animated and programmed this Flash movie to display at InnoCentive’s booth at a recent ACS National Meeting, presenting attendees with some of the R&D challenges on InnoCentive.com and encouraging them to register as “Solvers.”

Technologies Employed: Flash

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Puma Spec Creative

For its Platinum line of footwear, Puma was seeking an interactive agency to create a Web experience that would integrate with print advertising campaign focusing on a noirish comic book character, also named Platinum.

I programmed Red98’s submission to the agency review in DHTML.

Technologies Employed: DHTML, CSS, JavaScript

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Salamander Restaurant

Salamander was a Boston restaurant serving the Asian-inspired fusion cuisine of chef/owner Stan Frankenthaler.

The site was coded in DHTML using PHP and a MySQL database for storing and retrieving dynamic content. I also developed five content management tools with which the restaurant’s office manager could update menus, events, reviews and press, and an “Ask the Chef” feature without having to know a lick of code.

The site received a Standard of Excellence WebAward from the Web Marketing Association.

Technologies Employed: DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL

Comments:

Unfortunately, Salamander is no longer, but their failure as a business cannot detract from the success of their cuisine. I enjoyed some truly wonderful meals there.

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Sprint PCS

Sprint PCS, an official sponsor of the U.S. Ski Team, teamed with NBC for a promotional sweepstakes, including a grand trip to Salt Lake City, Utah for the Olympics.

While at Red98, I was part of a team that developed an interactive site to promote the sweepstakes, including a multiple-choice quiz, presented in Flash and updated daily from a database of more than 200 questions. Registered users received one sweepstakes entry for each correct answer, with a maximum of five entries per day.

My task was to program the animated Flash interface to connect with a backend system powered by PHP and MySQL to register and remember users, get daily quiz questions, and record user entries in the sweepstakes.

Technologies Employed: Flash, PHP, MySQL, DHTML, CSS, JavaScript

Comments:

The game demo here shows game play for one user session. There is no backend data storage.

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Toyota

To support Toyota’s $160 Million “Making Tracks with Camry” campaign, Toyota’s largest since it first entered the American market, Red98 created an online contest to create awareness and encourage click through to Toyota’s Web site. The contest, which allowed users to nominate their favorite music teacher to win a new Camry, was also supported by a national print advertising campaign with the same look and feel as the site.

I animated and programmed the Flash introduction to the contest entry site.

Technologies Employed: Flash

Comments:

A word of advice: if you ever come across an online contest with a valuable prize, and the contest requires entrants compose a brief essay, write the essay and enter the contest!

This contest had seven total entries, and three music teachers nominated by entrants received new cars!

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Contact me at michael@majordan.net. Last updated: Sunday, January 23, 2005 view portfolio xml file