Kathryn Blair

Redesigning the UBC Arts Co-op Program website was the main project of my most recent work term at the UBC Arts Co-op Office. I led the project from beginning to end, identifying the needs of the program for its website, creating a timeline, designing a new logo, organizing a photo shoot, and driving the project to completion. I designed the site in Adobe Illustrator, coded it by hand in HTML, CSS, and Javascript in Notepad ++ (a text editor program). I also coordinated an update to the content and structure of the website, migrated the updated content to a new server and to the Typo3 content management system, and adapted the design to a Typo3 Template. Migrating the website to Typo3 was challenging because I had no prior experience with Typo3, or with designing such a complex website. However, I was able to learn “typoscript”, the markup language used within Typo3 to control the function of websites, and implemented dynamic features in the new site including RSS feeds, a news page, and rotating profiles. Moving the site to Typo3 not only enabled the program to make use of these dynamic features, but it has also made the site much easier to update. You can view the site live at co-op.arts.ubc.ca.

This is the home page of the site. It incorporates dynamic features such as the Important Dates box and the rotating profile. It also makes use of Javascript (a combination of original code and use of the MakeTree script for the subpage trees) to allow experienced users to get directly to the page they want to go to, while hiding the large numbers of subpages from less experienced users, who can move through to the appropriate audience page. You can view the home page live at co-op.arts.ubc.ca.