Web Studio Delta

Hello,  my name is Christopher Donnelly and this section of my website is about me and the work I do. In this section I will expand on my current and former employers, education, knowledge and experience. In addition to extending my resume which is available for download as a PDF (stylized) or Ms-Word document (basic-formatting) for your convenience.

Current and Past Employers

MRM Worldwide

At MRM I work tirelessly to deliver top notch products to important clients. In just over half a year I have already:

• Built and ported custom AJAX forms for major names in the pharmaceutical industry.
• Worked on micro-sites and performed site maintenance for the one of the largest testing services in the world.
• Begun front-end development on a new large scale, highly interactive, socialized and localized web site for a world leader in casual dining while working to maintaining their current web presence.
• Built facebook tabs for clients in the educational, pharmaceutical, dining and aviation industries.

At MRM I also assist in managing and acclimating development consultants in an incredibly fast paced and high pressure industry. I have also become well accustomed to the flow of a major design agency. Here I am working closer than ever with creative, account and project management to deliver amazingly intricate, near perfect products on time to clients who expect nothing less.

Lexis Nexis - Martindale Hubbell

At LexisNexis I was responsible for building and maintaining hundreds and hundreds of law firm web sites. I have at times developed up to five sites in a single week at Lexis. During my 3 years at LexisNexis I've worked with at least ten different designers, each with a peculiar style presenting unique challenges. All the layouts I built for the company utilize the Site9 content management platform(CMS), which like any CMS presents its own challenges. For over a year I managed publishing and URL mappings for all of the custom legal websites. When the task was moved out of department, I created the detailed documentation, as well as a troubleshooting guide. I also created the departmental process for converting sites built outside of house into the Site9 CMS platform and the process for moving our older .jsp sites into site9.

In my time with LexisNexis I have became a layout coding machine.  I maintained my own modular code library of HTML, JS and CSS (which I have freely distributed to co-workers and will soon be revising for distribution here at Web Studio Delta) which allowed me to create a site from scratch in under a day, cleanly coded and working cross-browser and cross platform (even IE6).

Ramapo College of New Jersey

I spent over two years employed as a 'super skills intern' on the Ramapo web team, in addition to being a graduate employee working for the web team. Ramapo.edu is a site containing over 5,000 pages which receives millions of visitors annually. At Ramapo I was responsible for many tasks which included designing the current site wide sub-page and the 2008 homepage (pictured) and creating flash slideshows, banners and pages, implementing third party chat and contact software, in addition to creating and editing countless forms.

Ramapo's size, coupled with departmental demands, lead to extensive user testing and careful navigation design. In 2007 the department began importing content into the Ektron CMS and I then assumed the role of in house support for our CMS users, receiving calls to correct permissions issues and other errors, as well as guiding users through the process of editing and creating pages.

As a credit to Ramapo's liberal arts philosophy, I have served as a multi-media expert, filming, editing and posting weekly interviews with important staff. Also being under Ramapo's communications department I was somehow assigned to run Ramapo's large LED sign and create graphics and effects for it. I only mention this because it illustrates my ability to be versatile in a high tech world where things like audio, video, flash, or even 3D tours need to appear on a website.

At Ramapo I always had a say in information architecture, as section overhauls were frequent and complicated enough to require meetings and discussions. I created many of these overhaul proposals myself, for both the extranet and the intra-net site, which I had worked on daily. I attended inter-departmental board and committee meetings along with and sometimes in place of my supervisors, advising on site structure and design, the compatibility of various softwares, and development time.

Ramapo.edu in many ways was my education in web development, more than the courses I studied at Ramapo.  While I took numerous classes pertaining to the subject more often than not, I came in knowing the material and had to do a few independent studies, for instance taking the final and building a CSS Zen Garden rather than code book examples.

Education

Ramapo College of New Jersey, Bachelor Arts Degree, January 2008
Major Communication Arts: Design and Interactive Media

At Ramapo I received my four year degree and studied beneficial classes like computer science, web site design, web publication, interactive media (Flash), digital art, print design, and many additional liberal arts and communications courses.

Technologies, Languages and Libraries

HMTL
I code clean HTML without using tables for layout. My markup is valid and my classing is thorough and descriptive. HTML is the foundation of any web site and it has to be exceptional. I have been told by other developers that I don't need to put in the effort of commenting my HTML/CSS, the code is so easy to follow on it's own.

CSS
I have been fascinated with cascading style sheets since 2000 when I created my first CSS Zen Garden. At this point I now know all of the hacks and tricks, how to make IE6 behave and even support most of the more advanced design features and how to gracefully degrade the site where it can't. I know all the browser and OS quirks and how to address them before they happen.

My knowledge of CSS also comes into play developing more advanced Js apps as it helps make better use of jQuery selectors and effects.

Javascript and Jquery
I've coded complex JS applications as well as many simple scripts. Large applications include the featured Js BlackJack game I coded for this site as well as advanced AJAX forms and menus for pharmaceutical and casual dining and other clients. I also have experience with both the flickr and facebook APIs

Smaller Js apps include rotating text and photo boxes/banners (occasionally with advanced content selection features and/or controls), style sheet swappers, simple drop down, fly out and accordian menus, photo galleries, bookmark buttons, alert boxes, light boxes, etc.

PHP and SQL
Server side programming is a topic I am more and more enthralled with as it lends one the power to create dynamic, content driven sites. Drupal, Word Press and Joomla all run PHP and MySQL Knowing how to query a database, use PHP tokens, send email, etc. allows me more control over my sites. I'm also familiar with PHPmyAdmin and have created, backed up, restored and moved databases. I understand the table structure and how to reference data.

Content Management Platforms

Drupal
The 2010 edition of Web Studio Delta you are currently viewing is running on Drupal, which is by far the most complex and powerful CMS available to date.  I have created sites from scratch, moved sites, themed sites, customized output, created views, customized content fields and types, created forms and created blogs. I have also managed the complex, legally muddled permissions of an investment firm site. I am currently exploring more advanced Drupal development such as custom modules.

Site9
I have coded over 150 layouts into the Site9 platform and am very familiar with managing Site9's output, content types and other features.

Ecktron
I worked with Ecktron cms400.net during my time at Ramapo and I know it well. I have served as in house support for Ramapo's Ecktron users and have created sites using Ecktron content blocks and managed permissions, revisions, and approvals.

Joomla
I have a bit of experience with Joomla since I prefer Drupal and they both fall into the same modular/open source CMS niche.

WordPress
A simpler open source CMS which is great for blogs and which I have some experience with.

Programs

There are a great many programs that I use or have used as a web developer over the years and although I feel it is important to list these programs, many overlap.  I do feel, however, that it is important to note that I am adaptable and well versed in computing.  I possess the ability and skill level to readily learn and become familiar with new programs.

Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver is my number one program.  I spend more time in this program that any other and I am proficient in its use.   While realizing that Dreamweaver is just a friendly coding environment and really doesn't require expertise beyond knowing the languages themselves, I am a skilled and at ease with its use

Photoshop
I have spent an abundant amount of time in Photoshop and have taken courses to perfect my usage. I can do the web developer techniques like slicing and exporting as well as the designer skills like layer effects, shapes, masks, selections, vectors and color conversion in addition to the photo editing stuff like curves, black and white points, the heal tool, burn and dodge, etc.

Illustrator
While I am not presenting myself as a pro in illustrating, I can create simple vector art, re-shape fonts and take advantage of some basic 3D functionality that it offers. The Web Studio Delta logo was designed in Illustrator.

Flash
Flash is Adobe's proprietary interactive software and I am moderately good with it. I can create slideshows and animations, manage multiple scenes and even create multiple swf projects (flash calling flash).,   I am able to import XML for text or variables, create shared libraries and write some basic action script. I am also familiar with using flash to embed and play video and have coded entire sites in flash.

Indesign
While not entirely relevant for web applications I have some experience in print and have used Indesign and its competitor QuarkXpress.

Microsoft Office
I can create word docs (the well formatted versions with tables and styles), as well as power-point presentations and basic Excel documents.

Cinema 4D
The only 3D animation program I've worked with is Cinema 4D. While I not proficient enough to create the next Pixar blockbuster ,I can render simple 3D logos, shapes, and icons and make use of lighting and effects.

ProTools
I took a course on audio engineering and have a firm grasp on ProTools, which is the industry standard for audio editing. This has some web applications, such as the ability to create/edit background music for a flash presentation or podcast.

Final Cut Pro
I also have experience with the industry standard for video editing, Final Cut Pro. Again, while not directly related to the web, it does come into play for creating things like podcasts, or video interviews, both of which are becoming more and more prevalent as bandwidth costs decrease.

I encourage employers to please contact me with any questions you may have or additional information you may require.