• The Sounds of VTech – At what first was a project writing a video plugin for WordPress for their existing website. This spring we had the chance to redevelop their website with many great improvements; including updates to their video quality, adding an audio player, and adding sections to more easily browser through all of their archived multimedia!
• Phthalo – This has been one of the most complicated websites we have built, and the first of a new kind — a community website! It has many other great features such as continuous navigation while being able to listen to audio!
• Walldogs – A one of a kind website that is almost entirely HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but it is far from not being advanced. The video feature on this website work for both HTML5 and Flash, and is also viewable from mobile devices minus video features. It has started a new phase of intensive JavaScript development!
• Flying A Garage – This website is characterized by it’s large archive of images for automobiles. It’s part of an ongoing portfolio series.
• Joy Yoon – This was our first website to begin to use custom post types in WordPress, as well as using custom types on the web! It’s another portfolio website, and will characterize many websites coming in the year 2011.

Plus updates to the websites

• Mochilla – Optimizations for higher traffic. We added an events section, video improvements. We also wrote a lottery application for a ticket giveaway! We are also in the works of a redesign and development that will be launching in spring of 2011!
• Poo-Bah – Over the year we have added small improvements over all. We’ve added a sound player, a live feed, video features, bug fixes and more!

Design Direction: Ashley & Aris

Features include:

• An alternative JavaScript based URL system, so that audio is able to play in the background while navigating the entire site!
• Heavy use of JavaScript for status updates, post publishing, uploading, page retrieval, behaviors.
• Custom post types for albums and streams in WordPress.
• Multiple levels of custom user capability roles defined.
• Synchronization with other websites.

Adding an Event

Adding/Editing the Landing Page Slideshow

The plugins were written to create the node types using the Drupal API rather than using the Drupal CMS interface as much as possible. I dislike the UI of Drupal as a CMS, now things could have improved I haven’t stayed completely up-to-date with Drupal, but there are realistic benefits in the way that WordPress has emphasized creating an admin interface that is separate from the site. Separating form handling makes themes easier to develop, so there is less of a barrier of entrance for designers to get their hands into the CSS/HTML to fine-tune the layout. WordPress also has a stabilized user interface so that technical support and documentation remains similar among many sites, also lowering the barrier of entrance and in-depth knowledge required to edit the website. While the idealistic side of be knows that in-place editing, integrating the admin interface with the front-end interface, is more efficient and gives opportunities for higher degrees of finesse because it’s quicker to switch between edit and view, the realistic side of me knows that being able to edit the site without intensive training is important, and without intensiveness development. WordPress cares about lowering the barrier of entrance, and so it is my preferred choice!

SaegerMediaGroup.com Landing Page

Schematic Client Page

Art Direction: Alexander Mitchell
Development: Braydon Fuller
Website: JoyYoon.com

Plugins Used

Custom Post Type UI This plugin provides an easy to use interface to create and administer custom post types and taxonomies in WordPress. This plugin is created for WordPress 3.0. Author: WebDevStudios

Lightbox 2 Used to overlay images on the current page. It works by placing an image with a link to a larger image. Series of images turn will be navigable via the Lightbox via next and back buttons. The Lightbox features titles and captions for each image. Authors: Rupert Morris, Lokesh Dhakar, and Michael Tyson

Simple Facebook Connect A series of plugins that let you add any sort of Facebook Connect functionality you like to a WordPress blog. This lets you have an integrated site without a lot of coding, and still letting you customize it exactly the way you’d like. Author: Otto

Wordbook This plugin allows you to cross-post your blog posts to your Facebook Wall. Your Facebook ‘Wall’ will show your most recent blog posts. Author: Robert Tsai

Update

Initially we were using the Custom Post Type UI to create the gallery post type, however a custom interface was needed to more easily handle image attachments for a post. We put together a plugin that adds a Gallery post type with it’s own post editor, and adjusted the theme files to work with it.