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Six projects, oldest first. This is the same list I mailed in with my letter in May,
plus the first project from my new job. None of these pages are on GeoCities.us, and some
of them aren't on the Web anymore at all, so there are no links. I've described each one
in words: who it was for, exactly which parts I did, and what I'd do differently now. That
last part is the most useful thing on this page, so don't skip it.
1. MY OWN HOME PAGE
| FOR | Me. April 1997, rebuilt three times since. |
| WHAT I DID | Everything: the words, the HTML, the graphics. Two cats, Pepper and Chico, my grandmother's green chile, and later a page of links to everything I was learning from. |
| DIFFERENTLY | The first version had frames, purple words on black, and a MIDI that played by itself. I'd skip all three. I'd also have put the date I last updated it on every page from the start, instead of after a friend asked whether I was still alive. |
2. OUR PARISH FOOD PANTRY
| FOR | Bobbie Hoff, who runs the food pantry at my church. Spring 1998, kept up for a year. |
| WHAT I DID | All the HTML, and the buttons (the eleven-tries buttons). One page: the hours, how to get help, what to donate this month, and the volunteer schedule. Bobbie wrote the words and I typed them in. I updated the "most needed" list on the first of every month. |
| DIFFERENTLY | I made myself the only person who could change it. When I had the flu in February, the page said "canned tuna" for six weeks after they had a closet full of it. Now I'd set it up so the person who knows what's needed could change that one list herself. |
3. MY UNCLE'S UPHOLSTERY SHOP
| FOR | My Uncle Leonard, who has re-covered car and truck seats in the same garage for twenty-six years. Summer 1998. |
| WHAT I DID | Three pages: what he does, the hours and directions, and a page of his best work. The layout, the HTML and the logo lettering were mine. He took the photographs himself, and we had them scanned at a copy shop. My cousin wrote the "why choose us" part, which says he's been doing it longer than anybody in the neighborhood, which is true. |
| DIFFERENTLY | I saved the photographs as huge JPEGs, about 60K each, eight of them on one page. It took over two minutes to load on a modem. Now I'd make small pictures that you click to see the big one, and save the big ones at a lower quality. I'd also put the phone number at the top of every page instead of at the bottom of one. |
4. MY COUSIN'S WEDDING
| FOR | My cousin Jennifer and her fiancé. Up from November 1998 until a month after the wedding in January 1999. |
| WHAT I DID | The design and the HTML: when and where, directions to the church and the reception hall, the hotel with the block of rooms, where they were registered, and a map I drew in Paint Shop Pro. Jennifer wrote all the words and picked the colors (silver and dark blue). |
| DIFFERENTLY | The map was white lines on dark blue. On the screen it was pretty. Printed out, it was a solid black rectangle, and half the guests printed it. I'd test anything people might print by printing it. I'd also write the directions out in words under the map. Most people use the words anyway. |
5. OUR NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION
| FOR | The association on my block, which puts out a two-page newsletter every month. February to May 1999. |
| WHAT I DID | Turned each month's newsletter into a page, with the meeting date at the top, the street-sweeping schedule in a table, and the old issues on an archive page. The president wrote the newsletter. I did the typing and the layout and kept the archive in order. |
| DIFFERENTLY | This was the first project where I planned before I built: I drew every page on paper first and showed the board. It was the smoothest of all six, and I'd do every project that way now. The one thing I'd change: I found a missing </table> on the archive page in April that had made it blank in Netscape since February. Nobody told me. Test in both browsers every time, not just the first time. |
6. A RESTAURANT'S MENU PAGES (AT WORK)
| FOR | A client of the shop. I can't say which one. August 1999. |
| WHAT I DID | Built five menu pages from the senior designer's layout: cut the graphics apart in Photoshop, built the tables, typed in about two hundred menu items with prices, and tested the whole thing in both browsers at both screen sizes and on the Mac. The layout and the photography were other people's. The HTML and the testing were mine. |
| DIFFERENTLY | The menu came to us by fax, so I typed every item by hand, and the client changed the font on the headings three times. Next time I'll ask for the menu on a disk, and I'll ask for the font decision in writing, before I start. Mike says that second part is the most important thing anybody learns in their first year. I believe him. |
If you're putting together your own portfolio and want me to look at it, send the
address. I'll tell you what I'd want to know if I were the one hiring.
Back to my story · [email protected]
Last updated Sunday, September 12, 1999
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