Welcome to my web work portfolio. I have been designing and building websites for several years now. What started as just tinkering with HTML and learning how all the webpages I loved were constructed quickly became a passion of mine. I started this site, benmcmath.com, on April 4th, 2002. Back in those days the site was updated with straight HTML editing on my local machine and uploading to my school's supplied web space.
After getting a job in the Auburn Engineering department as an associate webmaster I became intrigued with building dynamic webpages. I was growing tired of having to update my site with complicated HTML code rather than just writing what I wanted and having it all inserted/displayed dynamically. I began researching and converting the site to a PHP/MySQL back end. I built a custom CMS specifically for my needs. I switched the site to the new design in February 2005 using the CMS and it has been running it ever since.
Having my own site to learn new things and implement them was great. But what I discovered is greater is to use my skills to help others. I have built several sites and what follows is a small portfolio of my work.
Circle of Love Weddings is an Atlanta based wedding planner who contacted me about redesigning her web presence. There was a rudimentary static site that someone else had built previously and the owner was interested in updating the look of the site, along with adding the ability to make modifications herself.
For this customer, I had three challenges. First the owner was having the site's look and feel designed by a professional graphic artist. I was presented with photoshop PSD's that I was responsible for turning into a web template.
Secondly, I inherited the code from the old site that needed to be retooled to fit the new template and the several new features. I reused a large amount of the code to keep cost down
Finally was creating a Content Management System (CMS) that would allow the administrator (someone not very technical) to add, edit, and delete several sections on the web site. The CMS was designed specifically for this customer to make all of the administrative tasks as easy as possible.
This customer was so pleased with my work she has come back to me for what is now the third update to her site which turned out to be mostly cosmetic.
Technology Used: PHP, MySQL, HTML, Javascript, AJAX, email gateway interaction, Photoshop and other image manipulation software
Ciloa is a non-profit organization that came to me looking for some help sending out a weekly newsletter with a distribution list of over 10,000 people directly and an estimated 100,000 indirectly each week worldwide. They were painfully managing the email distribution list by hand and were looking for a more automated system. They were also looking for a way to publish an archive of notes to their website.
I was able to help them by building a new website and a custom content management system (CMS) that would manage the email distribution list, actually send the emails automatically and help manage many other dynamic areas of the website. I continue to work with them to keep their website fresh and develop new ways to reach an even bigger market.
Technology Used: PHP, MySQL, HTML, Javascript, CSS, Sendmail, Photoshop and other image manipulation software
Transit Scheduling Solutions is my father's consulting company. He wanted a simple static site that would showcase what he is capable of and show off previous work.
Technology Used: HTML, Javascript, Photoshop and other image manipulation software
Platform Products Inc. is a small company providing supplies to ocean oil rigs. The site needed to be built on a budget to get things started, but needed to be designed to be flexible for additions as funds came available.
This site was intended to be used privately and had a unique set of constraints. First off, it needed a simple password protection system to keep unwanted visitors from getting to the information. But it also needed a simple way for the company to be contacted to request access to the site. Secondly once someone was granted access to the site, there were other more sensitive areas that needed to be further password protected. Having the main password did not grant you access to the more sensitive areas.
For this site I designed and built the entire site. I created a password system (with no username) for the home page along with a separate password system for the more sensitive areas. I also built two contact systems. One for visitors to request access to the site, and another to contact the company without publicly displaying the email address.
Technology Used: PHP, MySQL, HTML, Javascript, AJAX, email gateway interaction, Photoshop and other image manipulation software
AU on the AT was a site I built for my little brother and his friend (both Auburn graduates) who were hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2008.
They wanted a site that they could update from stops along the trail along with the ability for me and other trusted administrators to update when they couldn't get to a computer. For this reason I chose to go with a Wordpress installation with several customizations. I also built a map that would track their progress along the trip so with a click glance the folks following their journey could see a visual representation of just how far they had traveled.
The site's look was customized to fit the travelers along with several customizations to make the site as useful and easy as possible.
Technology Used: Wordpress, Photoshop and other image manipulation software, CSS
How I Met Your Blog is a wordpress site that I set up to blog about the popular CBS show How I Met Your Mother. I fell in love with the show during the first season and went looking for a community to talk about my predictions and interest in the show. I couldn't find anything great out there so I decided to start my own. This was my first experience with Wordpress and I really dug deep to figure out how it all worked.
Through my time running the site, I met lots of other HIMYM fans and even directed / edited / produced a podcast for the show with a couple other HIMYM fans.
Technology Used: Wordpress, Photoshop and other image manipulation software, Audio editing software, CSS
Would You Rather was a little side project of mine. I bought one of those "Would You Rather..." books and loved the random questions. The problem I had was that I didn't want have to carry the book with me everywhere and couldn't remember all the questions that I wanted to ask my friends.
So I built a very simple site that would display the questions from the book that could be used from any internet device. I manually typed out all the questions and broke them down by categories. I even created a Mix-and-Match category that would generate completely random questions by combining parts from other questions.
Technology Used: PHP, MySQL, HTML, Javascript
