Portfolio - Highlighted examples of our work
Presented here in my portfolio are some highlighted examples of previously constructed and ongoing websites to give you an example of my work. Simply click on an example below to view screen captures and links to each website.
Friends of the Prestatyn Scala and Arts Centre
Client: Friends of the Scala
URL: Prestatyn-Scala.info
Brief:
To design a new website providing up to date and historical information on the Scala Cinema and the structure and goal of the Friends of the Scala community support group. To install and configure professional message board forums as a more suitable replacement for an MSN Group facility. The existing MSN Group was a victim of free hosting, completely overwhelmed with pop up advertising windows and banners, slow to navigate with poor functionality.
The Friends of the Scala are a community volunteer based group of individuals who work to raise funds and maintain awareness of Prestatyn's cinema The Scala which sadly closed due to neglect and lack of maintenance in December 2000. The Friends have worked hard with the local community through a variety of fund raising initiatives such as coffee mornings, carnival involvement and running a charity shop to raise money and help promote the need for a planned replacement cinema and arts centre.
The completed website is now online which accompanies the forums with information on the historic cinema courtesy of local historian Harry Thomas. Pages include historical information on the cinema and its creator plus future plans, information about the Friends of the Scala and its members, how to become a member, online donation facilities, a spam proof guestbook and links to relevant local information, websites and other community groups.
I recommended the use of a professional paid for product known as Invision Power Board rather than a free version, to host the new Friends of the Scala's discussion forums. A new domain and suitable Web hosting were also procured and supplied at cost to the Friends of the Scala by way of assisting their goal and helping to keep costs low. Invision Power Board offers extra security, functionality and better technical support over free alternatives and is a market leader.
The message board is a perfect platform for supporting an online community with complete Administrator and Moderator control facilities to prevent any unwelcome content from appearing. Members can enjoy speed, reliability and cool posting features like Ajax powered quick editing, image attachment uploads and a Rich Text Editor or WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) style text posting screen which makes it easy for visitors to layout forum posts and content.
The website's latest news section on the home page uses one of the message board forums as a CMS (Content Management System) so that it can easily be updated by the website's owners, without having to learn any web design skills. Therefore updating the site is as easy as posting a message in the forum and it appears instantly on the home page when the message is saved.
The website is coded in accessible and standards compliant XHTML using PHP and Flash for dynamic content areas, CSS Style Sheets and provides accessibilty for example in the form of access keys and alternative text to all non-background images.