SeanMcGary.com - Version 1.0. This was the version of my blog design after migrating from Drupal as my platform to my personal Content Management System. The general idea behind the design was that I wanted something that wasn't your typical run-of-the-mill Web 2.0 design. I wanted something that was unique.

SeanMcGary.com - Version 2.0. A little while ago I felt that it was a time for a theme refresh. I was in the midst of learning HTML5 and CSS3 and wanted to put the new technologies to use. I had also reached a point where I decided that it was time to make my image a bit more professional looking. The main goals out of the redesign were to speed up load times by not using images for div backgrounds, just utilizing the features in CSS3, while giving me a more professional image.

Being that I am always looking for projects to do and looking for things to improve (even for my own enjoyment), the other day I was looking at the current BarCamp Rochester website and thought, "how could this be improved?", and immediately opened up Photoshop and started to map out a new layout. Little did I know, some of my friends who are on the planning committee would get wind of my design and actually want to use my new implementation. See the current BarCamp website is in a wiki format, which fits the nature of BarCamp perfectly, but for the majority of us who have no clue how to work a wiki, we find it utterly confusing and tend to get a little lost. For example, one of the main problems from last year was that it wasn't 100% clear that to get on the list of attendees, you had to sign up and then edit yourself into the list of already existing participants. So here's some features that Im going to incorporate into the whole package.

First off the actual design:



I wanted something that went well with the logo color-wise, so being from RIT, I stuck with the classic orange and brown color scheme. Design wise, I wanted something that was clean and semi-professional looking that was Web 2.0 looking, and hence extremely easy to navigate.

Features:

• This time around, when you sign up, you are automatically put on the "attending" list. Once registered, you can then complete your profile information, and most importantly, start adding a presentation (or if youre really ambitious, multiple presentations).
• The back end will have access for designated administrators and moderators to edit and modify the content on various public pages.
• Attendees will have the option to upload multiple files to their profiles to go along with their presentations for other attendees to download
• The home page will have constant updates running posted by admins/mods as well as an aggregated twitter feed pulling everthing with designated hash-tags, a list of blogs currently covering the event for the day, and a flickr feed that will update as people add pictures to the flickr photo group.

Thats all Ive got so far, but I'll keep updating as features keep creeping in as the site nears completion (looking at post Thanksgiving vacation/start of December).

"Client, Meet Freelancer" was a side project of mine that I started because I wanted to build a site to bring together the freelancing community with the tons of people looking to hire freelancers. It was basically a fancy job board. The idea was that freelancers and clients could register and then either start looking for people to hire (clients) or use the site as a way to advertise themselves (freelancers). Unfortunately on my part since it was a side project, I didnt have time to really advertise and promote it much, if at all, so it never took off. It was however a great learning exercise and I would consider it one of my better designs.