Rachel the Web Monkey
Semantics, Usability and SEO
Believe it or not, all three of these things are related. If you take them all into account, your site will be 90% better than most of what is online. Semantic CSS means something, not just to browsers, but also to users and search engines. What happens when a user turns off their styles? Or images? Or makes the text display larger or smaller? A site built with an eye for usability won't break under these conditions. By their very nature, user-friendly sites must be semantic. Semantic code will also appeal more to search engines (and with a few extra flourishes, it can even bump your site up a few notches!).
I take extra care with my coding and design to ensure the following:
- W3C compliance
- usability
- accessibility
- search-engine optimization
- cross browser compatibility
It's time for a markover!
I love taking table-based sites and converting their code entirely to tight CSS. It's good for the site, and I get a strange thrill out of cleaning up and slimming down the code. Is your site's layout table-based? It might be time for a CSS markover!
Opensource Solutions
I have experience working with such opensource solutions as Drupal, OSCommerce, Wordpress. I'm very fond of working with opensource scripts because they tend to have many free third-party add-ons, and I've always been able to find a kind soul to help me out if I get stuck or want to make it do something it wasn't designed to do (which is often!).
Social Networking
For five years I promoted my comics at gURL.com using MySpace, Facebook, blogs, photo and art sharing communities, email newsletters, and just about anything else that would help get me and my work to our audience. I have experience with promotion, with keeping people in the loop and holding their interest without pestering them with a barrage of spam. It is a fine art, one I'd like to think I've mastered.
I'm a mother hen when it comes to web sites.
When I'm developing a site, I'm like a mother hen setting on her eggs, attentively checking and turning them to make sure they grow evenly. When the site is live, it's like a chick, able to stand on its feet, but still needing attention until it comes of age. I repeatedly come back to it to make improvements, to make sure it's behaving well and growing correctly. A site is rarely "done". Sites are living things in a living environment. As the web changes, so must the site, or it risks being outcompeted by other, better adapted sites. My job is to keep the site adapting and growing with its users, its company, and the Internet.
Live Samples
In order of most recent to least recent, here's a showcase of sites I feel particularly proud of:
- The Rubifruit Exchange
- This banner exchange was crafted with a commercial script solution. I had to gut its table based design and convert it to semantic CSS, though. The end result is clean, straightforward, and userfriendly, especially on the backend. I wanted to give it a charming, tropical feel with Hawaiian prints and fruit crate wood.
- Percolate TV
- The client wanted a strong, Fifties TV dinner feel for the design, and I was only too happy to deliver. I only designed this one; I did not code it.
- Manga Punk
- My first Drupal site. This is an oldie, but a goodie. I made it as my online home away from home.
Or, you can just use my email:
