For my MLIS capstone team project, I built a crowdsourced tagging site for novels. Using a tag wrangling process and dual include/exclude search interface inspired by the Archive of Our Own, we demonstrated how curating user-submitted tags into a detailed controlled … [Read more...] about MLIS Capstone: FictionFilters.org
Publishing
For several years, I had a second specialty: websites for authors. While I loved working with writers and many of my favorite designs came from these projects, I reached the point where I needed to increase my consulting rates on the government/education projects and could not ethically demand the same from authors who were paying for web marketing out of their own dwindling advances.
University of Georgia Pressbooks OER Network
The University of Georgia Online Learning team had a pilot project for their open educational resources: the Physical Education department had written an open textbook for their courses, and it was the ideal project to see whether Pressbooks would serve their needs. If it went … [Read more...] about University of Georgia Pressbooks OER Network
Scott Westerfeld, Afterworlds
Scott's new book, Afterworlds, needed a very different look from his previous WWI-era steampunk trilogy. The change gave me the opportunity to rebuild the site from the ground up--including the mobile first theme, something I'd never done before. The site is now responsive, which … [Read more...] about Scott Westerfeld, Afterworlds
Justine Larbalestier, 2013
Justine still loved the 2008 version of her site, but wanted to refresh and update it a little. We decided to keep the background, which had become a signature look for her, and give the main content more contrast. We rethought the navigation entirely and replaced some of the … [Read more...] about Justine Larbalestier, 2013
Cassie Alexander
Cassie had been using WordPress with free themes for some time when she sold her first novel. As its release date approached, she needed a "more grown-up" look. I took advantage of the striking cover art and worked a little magic so the text of Cassie's blog posts wraps around … [Read more...] about Cassie Alexander
PressBooks Importers
The crew at PressBooks asked me to customize the standard WordPress importer to behave a little differently: instead of immediately publishing the stuff from the old blog, they wanted to put the imported content into a queue and let the user select where it should go: their … [Read more...] about PressBooks Importers
Team Human
The authors of this collaborative novel wanted a small website, separate from their own, to showcase the new book. To get things up and running quickly and inexpensively, I wrote a WordPress theme based on _s and Bootstrap, with a color scheme based on the book's cover. Since … [Read more...] about Team Human
Scott Westerfeld, Leviathan
When Scott's Leviathan was published, his publisher hired a graphic designer to revamp his website in fine steampunk style. Alas, the firm wasn't entirely conversant with WordPress's best practices, and the result was a table-based (!) design that broke every time Scott added a … [Read more...] about Scott Westerfeld, Leviathan
Month of Letters
I worked with Mary Robinette Kowal to set up the Achievements plugin for the Month of Letters BuddyPress site. Members earned badges for sending various kinds of mail, and cumulative points for the number of letters or packages they sent. These were reported via a Gravity Form … [Read more...] about Month of Letters
VP Alumni
This is an alumni network for graduates of the Viable Paradise writing workshop. It's a basic BuddyPress site with a few plugins (maps, extended profiles) and a Gravity Form to let users register for Paradise Lost, the alumni workshop. This was the site that spurred me to … [Read more...] about VP Alumni
