Dara Skolnick » Web Projects

U of T Research

Dara — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:24:47 +0000

I have been designing and developing this website for the past few months during my full-time job at U of T. The site isn’t launched publicly yet, but I wanted to share some of my work on it.

This is a complete overhaul of the current Research site. The aim of the redesign is to drastically declutter the site and to simplify the experience for all visitors, from external audiences to researchers looking for information.

On the technical side, I developed this as a WordPress website using the new HTML5 semantic tags. I also took advantage of CSS media queries and a fluid layout to make the site scale gracefully from full-sized to mobile. This was my first big mobile project, and although it took a bit of time to wrap my head around it at first, it was really rewarding.

Toronto Kiss Map

Dara — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:10:41 +0000

My latest client project (for Chris Kay Fraser of Firefly Creative Writing) is the Toronto Kiss Map, a fun interactive web app where people place kiss stories on a map of Toronto. This was definitely the most comprehensive project I’ve done to date, in that I did the design, front-end development, and programming. It was definitely a challenge, but very worthwhile. Instead of creating a simple database to store all the kiss stories, I instead routed all of the map submissions through WordPress and have them storing as comments (for ease of moderation and spam filtering). Definitely my most “outside the box” use of WordPress to date, but it worked out well.

jennhicks.ca

Dara — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 05:17:15 +0000

I designed and developed jennicks.ca, a website showcasing Jennifer Hicks and her three distinct practices: speech-language pathology, Nia, and Reiki. In building this site, my challenge was to encompass all of Jenn’s diverse areas of expertise while letting her personality shine throughout. This site was completed in August, 2010.

STAND Canada

Dara — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 02:16:00 +0000

Starting in the Spring of 2009, as Web Manager of STAND Canada I was responsible for directing a full site overhaul, as well as designing, developing, and managing the site’s operations. I rebuilt the new site using WordPress as its content management system, integrating the blog (previously on blogspot) and the website. With usability in mind, I completely reorganized the static pages so visitors wouldn’t get lost in layers of pages while trying to find information. The new site is dynamic, easy to navigate, searchable, integrated with STAND’s social media (e.g. Twitter in the sidebar) and easy for staff to update.

918 Bathurst

Dara — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:00:07 +0000

In December 2009 and January 2010 I designed and coded a new website for 918 Bathurst, built on WordPress as a CMS for ease of updating by staff members. The vibrant look of the site captures the high-energy mood at the centre.

Note: I no longer maintain the website and some things have changed! The image here reflects the site as I created it.

Gerine de Jong

Dara — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:11:51 +0000

This is a small portfolio site that I built for Gerine de Jong, a Toronto-based interior designer. The look of the site matches Gerine’s print materials, which include a business card and a portfolio book. This website was completed in March of 2010.

Henderson Avenue Public School

Dara — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:40:13 +0000

In 2009 I created a new website for Henderson Avenue Public School, an elementary school in Thornhill, Ontario. My aim was to make the site clean and easy to use. I integrated a Google Calendar for school events, which is very easy for staff to update.

The Love Show 2009

Dara — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:30:56 +0000

Website for The Love Show, a charitable miniature art exhibition in its seventh year that was held from November 20-22, 2009 at 918 Bathurst. The design of the website matches the marketing materials for the show (e.g. postcards, posters), which I was also responsible for developing. The site first served as a call for submissions, and later as an informational page about the show.

[Note: This is a local version of the site, as I designed it. The live site has been changed and it's not my work anymore!]

laforet.ca

Dara — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:55:21 +0000

In the summer of 2009 I redesigned laforet.ca, the online home of community activist and citizen journalist John Laforet. The project, which started as a simple redesign of the existing WordPress blog, developed into a major reworking of the website. I implemented a search feature, made RSS and email subscription options more prominent, made the top and side navigation more user-friendly, and reorganized the static pages. I also took all of the pictures that appear in the section headers on the website.

Click here to read a post on laforet.ca about the redesign.

Lonsdale Gallery

Dara — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:21:55 +0000

Website for a contemporary art gallery in Toronto. The objective for this redesign was to create a website that was clean, minimalist, well branded, easy to navigate, and easy to maintain. The result is a very customized WordPress website, which has the advantage of being dynamic (constantly changing) and easy to update. In addition to the usual HTML and CSS, the site uses Javascript to power the image rotation seen on the front page, Flash to power individual artists’ photo galleries, and a lot of PHP in the background to pull everything together.