I have 20 years web design and development experience, beginning with Notepad for Netscape Navigator. Most of my recent web design and development work has been at The Warren Centre as Digital Communications Manager. My recent projects have been developed in WordPress, and I also have recent experience editing and managing sites using alternative CMSes.
Inclusion2
In 2018, I designed and built a website for The Warren Centre’s Inclusion2 project to promote inclusion of women and girls in STEM industry. I was lead designer and developer, going from wireframing through to publication, based on sketched/hand-drawn briefs from the non-technical project lead.
The core content part of the website featured inspirational video messages from women and girls working and studying in STEM, provided as compelling content to drive readership. The project lead commissioned the videos from an external agency; I cut them and mastered them for online optimisation and designed the video content page.
The website featured regular blog posts by women active in STEM and connected with The Warren Centre as a way of driving ongoing visitors. I designed the blog page to be reactive so that new content could be added by non-technical team members without negatively affecting the page layout.
The Warren Centre
In 2016 I redesigned The Warren Centre’s main public website to reflect its organisation-wide rebranding, to cope with the requirements to support multiple types of text, event and media content, to support mobile viewers for the first time, to meet accessibility requirements, and to reflect best practice in visual design .
The rebuilt site was led around optimising for compelling text content, supported by images, to promote the organisation’s work and events, and to provide regular updated STEM/built environment news. It incorporated dynamic elements across all content types to direct viewers to events and newsletters and to promote social sharing.
PPIR
In 2017 I built a website for The Warren Centre’s PPIR project, based on a highly detailed brief and wireframes from an external contractor/project manager whose background was not as a web specialist.
As part of my brief from the project manager, the website was required to impart dense technical information and complex conceptual diagrams that had been specified at the brief and wireframe stage. There was limited flexibility to go beyond this brief, although I attempted to resolve the tensions as much as possible.
Compromises between usability, aesthetics and meeting the original project brief whilst managing the expectations of all stakeholders were a key aspect of this challenging project.