Projects
Three Night Stand March, 2008 · Permalink
A blog chronicling this year’s South by Southwest Interactive, the tech industry’s biggest conference of the year, from Austin, Texas. Events, videos and plenty of RSS feeds rounded out the website’s “his and her’s” design theme. Twitter tweets were published on the homepage in true SXSW fashion, and the videos were syndicated as a (rudimentary) iTunes podcast and indexed as a Google video sitemap. She chose the colors.
Creating and implementing the design took longer than making the Django backend. Total project time: Five days.
Disciplines
Copy, CSS, Design, JavaScript, MySQL, Photography, Python, XHTML
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Django
- Client
- Self
- Relationship
- N/A
Launch project
Crimes in KU residences February, 2008 · Permalink
In the spirit of EveryBlock’s Chicago Crime, a visualization of crimes reported in residences at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Crime reports can be browsed by year, type or residence.
Where Google Maps don’t accompany crime data, CSS bar charts were created. The homepage’s piechart was originally created using Google Charts, but later slightly customized. Development work by James Bennett.
Disciplines
CSS, Design, XHTML
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Ellington
- Client
- Lawrence Journal-World
- Relationship
- Staff
Launch project
Explore Steamboat February, 2008 · Permalink
Extended World Online’s Ellington Marketplace application, a hyperlocal, robust business directory, to integrate with the existing tourism website of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The first Marketplace application existed at the Lawrence Journal-World.
I performed a myriad of custom design and developer requests and bug fixes, among them markup, stylesheets, some Flash ActionScript modification and Ellington CMS template logic.
Disciplines
CSS, Design, Flash, JavaScript, XHTML
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Ellington
- Client
- Steamboat Pilot & Today
- Relationship
- Staff
Launch project
“Honestly, I think it’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while — both in terms of idea and execution. ”
—Marcel Levy, Senior Editor/Digital Media, Reno Gazette-Journal
Cyndi Loza February, 2008 · Permalink
A journalist’s portfolio of articles spanning her career. One of my strongest typographical and traditional page design efforts; influences include A List Apart, Gapers Block and The Morning News.
Features include per-publication and animated Google Maps, Google Charts, Google Street View, FancyZoom image enhancement, auto-sized and scrollable bar charts, printer-friendly stylesheet and accessible printer link, text resize, RSS feed and XML sitemap file, all of which are auto-generated.
The journalist updates the entire website herself from the user-friendly administrative interface. Created with the Django Web framework.
Disciplines
CSS, Design, JavaScript, MySQL, Python, XHTML
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Django
- Client
- Cyndi Loza
- Relationship
- Freelance
Launch project
“We’re excited about this project and your work comes highly recommended. ”
—Digg
Digg the Candidates November, 2007 · Permalink
Created the logo, page layout, markup and stylesheets for Digg’s first presidential election coverage page. The concept was for users to add candidates as friends as an informal representation of users’ favorability toward the candidates.
Final version‘s font sizes and photos tweaked by Digg’s in-house design team.
Disciplines
CSS, Design, XHTML
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Static files
- Client
- Digg
- Relationship
- Freelance
Launch project
Erin Kross’ ePortfolio May, 2007 · Permalink
A portfolio website chronicling the achievements of a student teacher. I wrote some of the XHTML, created the design, wrote the stylesheets, and helped to put it online at its own, respective URL.
As one of my more adventurous color schemes, the design also features automatic, alternating “zebra” color rows using Javascript. The design works well in different horizontal widths, moving the branch of flowers as necessary.
Disciplines
CSS, Design, JavaScript
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Static files
- Client
- Erin Kross
- Relationship
- Freelance
Launch project
U of I Wiki May, 2007 · Permalink
Dissatisfied with the local media’s coverage of my university’s cities of Urbana and Champaign, I created a hyper-local wiki in a weekend. The wiki is powered by MediaWiki, the same software that runs Wikipedia. I designed the logo and edited the homepage’s markup and stylesheets.
After spending seven years on my university’s campus, I’m astounded by the amount of knowledge I learned “the hard way” that wasn’t available in any easily obtainable format. I’m convinced that the locals and veteran students have a wealth of knowledge that could be shared with new students, and the wiki is a step in that direction. Also covered by the student newspaper.
Disciplines
Copy, CSS, MySQL, PHP, XHTML
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- MediaWiki
- Client
- N/A
- Relationship
- N/A
Launch project
Digital Photography Review (fictional) March, 2007 · Permalink
A fictional redesign of the popular camera review website, Digital Photography Review. Asked to explain my thought process behind designing a website, specifically a redesign, I wrote up my methodology in detail.
Features include a cleaner, tighter logo, a visually and functionally redesigned navigation and a strict adherence to the grid. The deliverables were a homepage and interior page composed as Photoshop mock-ups.
Disciplines
Design
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Static files
- Client
- N/A
- Relationship
- N/A
Launch project
“Rich did a tremendous amount of really good work. Not only did he research content management systems, and come up with a vastly improved design for the College site, but it looks like he actually reconstructed the site all by himself. This is a lot of work, and it was thought through really well.”
—Jack Brighton, Assistant Director of Broadcasting for Internet Development, WILL AM-FM-TV
“All of us were impressed with the site, the scope of the work and the thoughtfulness with which you approached this project. The site itself is very well done and I believe is the direction we need to go as a college. ”
—Ron Yates, Dean, College of Communications
College of Communications December, 2006 · Permalink
My most ambitious project; I designed a college website composed of two departments, an institute and a radio/television station from scratch. I designed the layout while adhering to university colors and typefaces; wrote almost all copy, edited everything and created electronic versions from old paper documents. Photographs were a combination of well-selected campus-specific stock, those by a freelancer and the rest taken by myself.
I wrote standards-compliant XHTML, CSS and Javascript, and I designed a media player and converted a variety of old video sources to Flash video. I interviewed faculty members for consultation and students for informational profiles.
Disciplines
Copy, CSS, Design, Flash, JavaScript, Photography, PHP, XHTML
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Static files
- Client
- University of Illinois
- Relationship
- Staff
Launch project
AORN Fox Valley Chapter September, 2006 · Permalink
A freelance website for a chapter of the national non-profit organization the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, AORN. For the first four years, the website was maintained by a webmaster, but in response, Movable Type was installed to allow members to update the website for themselves.
To aid in updates by members, I recorded video screencasts (third image) narrating the update process. The website uses Google Maps to display the location of meetings.
Disciplines
Copy, CSS, Design, JavaScript, MySQL, PHP, XHTML
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Movable Type
- Client
- AORN Fox Valley
- Relationship
- Freelance
Launch project
“Thanks for all your help. I love the way the site looks now! ”
—Deb Aronson, Writer & editor
Deb Aronson, Writer & Editor May, 2006 · Permalink
A freelance website for a freelance writer and editor, the design uses bold reds and golds with clear typography. Articles feature automated “curly” quotes and other typographical entities and on-the-fly image resizing without intervention by Deb. Articles are categorized by feature or essay.
She updates the website herself with a customized Movable Type installation more than a year and a half later.
Disciplines
CSS, Design, JavaScript, MySQL, PHP, XHTML
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Movable Type
- Client
- Deb Aronson
- Relationship
- Freelance
Launch project
Arrested Development Club August, 2005 · Permalink
Upon discovering the hilarious and short-lived comedy series Arrested Development, I fell in love with it. When I learned about its difficulty in attracting fans, I created a registered student organization at my university and held viewing parties on places at campus.
The design emulates and extends the program’s introduction and quick wit in page elements having a “strewn about” appearance. The website’s news entries mark the first time I used and customized Flash’s FLV Playback component. I also designed and printed T-shirts for club members.
Disciplines
Copy, CSS, Design, Flash, JavaScript, XHTML
- Medium
- Web
- CMS
- Static files
- Client
- N/A
- Relationship
- N/A


































