Working together
Thank you for your interest! Strategic communication is a fascinating challenge, so I look forward to hearing what new project may cross my path…
I´ve worked with HTML, CSS, and Photoshop since 1999 and with datatabase-driven websites such as Drupal since 2005. I offer one-stop-shop website design, including the creation of a graphic identity, a custom implementations of a database-driven content management system, and a standards-based, cross-browser, accessible theme. Whew, what a mouthful. I am bilingual in Spanish and English.
In order to show a little about how I work and what I can offer, I´ve drafted here an overview of the stages that many projects follow:
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Initial brainstorming and intensive communication.
- What is to be done? In order to design effective solutions, I need to understand in depth the daily functioning of your organization, short and long-term goals, target audience/community, vision, and capacity. If you choose, I can facilitate our meetings with a methodology that I’ve found useful in order to cover all the bases.
- What tools do we have available? The most important asset I offer is my 10+ years of experience with an incredible wealth of free, open source tools. Most of my experience is with Drupal and WordPress. Each of these content management systems (geek jargon for a website that lets you log-in with a password in order to quickly post updates and make changes), are continually improved by communities of literally hundreds of thousands of designers and programmers. Each of them enable people like me to implement functions and features that meet the specific needs of a client. From shopping carts, to slideshows, to image galleries, to forums, to multilingual solutions, to custom workflows, to mailing lists, many of the most common features required by a client are best achieved by configuring and customizing existing high-quality tools.
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Informed decision making, planning.
- Based on our discussion, we will choose software, define keyword priorities, and agree on a work plan and timeline.
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Presentation and evaluation of design prototypes.
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Site building, with scheduled periodic progress updates and consultations.
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Evaluation and improvement.
- Upon completion of a draft of the new site, we review it against the criteria we specified in steps 1 and 2. I make needed changes for another round of review. This is the stage in which good communication throughout the collaboration process pays off.
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Training
- The best sites are those that truly empower their owners and users. As a bilingual educator, I´ve learned about the importance of using modern user interface design, and lotsa patience, to bridge the “digital divide.”
¡Saludos!
- ryan