Stonefield Villas Homeowners Association

We were asked to redesign the web site of the Stonefield Villas Homeowners Association. It had been running on WordPress but WP’s document upload process was rather buggy and didn’t work on all browsers. And since they weren’t going to do any blogging, we suggested a “hard core” CMS, CMS Made Simple. It has an intuitive User Uploads module and an easy to use photo gallery module. They were sold. Other modules used include Calendar, Bookmarks, Events, and a relatively new module, TrueType, which allows renderable text to be displayed anywhere on the site. (We are using Edwardian ITC on the titles, to match the banner font.)

BLUSD.org

We were asked to redesign the web site of a 501c non-profit, Blues Lovers United of San Diego (BLUSD). The site was running straight HTML/ASP pages on a IIS server. We converted the site to an Apache server environment and redesigned it to run with the latest and greatest WordPress. The main feature of the site is a comprehensive “gigs” calendar. We are still working on the perfect solution for that now, since it was formerly an Access database. Right now, the organization is taking advantage of the Event Calendar and GigPress plugins to manage various events. Custom code pulls in a featured event onto the front page and there are custom Links and Member Bands pages that pull in selected Link categories. We also designed a host of banners which change depending on which WP page you are on. This too is customized PHP coding. The organization is very pleased with the new design and the site is much easier to navigate.

GNOICS.org

We were asked to set up a new web site for a fledgling non-profit, the Greater New Orleans Italian Cultural Society. Like most non-profits, it will be updated by a staff comprised of volunteers of varying degrees of expertise on the Web. We decided to base the site on WordPress and employed the Event Calender, Role Manager, cFormsII and NextGen Gallery plugins. The NextGen Gallery plugin is also driving the Flash-based rotating banners.

I was asked to help design a resource site for recovering drug addicts called America in Recovery. I had to leave the design team shortly after drafting the design due to Robert’s failing health last September. The project never got off the ground.