Work: Recent Website Projects
Paschal McDonnell - CMS
This was the third revision on Paschal’s website. There was a slight redesign and tidying up of the design from the previous version designed in 2006. Not much was changed but some features were added, content was made clearer and the site was ported to wordpress, so Paschal could blog and add news (whenever he gets the time) and where viewers can sign a guestbook. At present working on creating a small online shop to sell his CDS. More on this here soon.
The site has many interesting features that showcase Paschals musicianship as a composer of celtic, folk music. There are numerous photogalleries (see concerts section). Audio excerpts are presented with a simple flash media player (see celtic drift cd page).
See: http://www.paschalmcdonnell.com
Garrendenny Lane Interiors
Garrendenny Lane Interiors Website is one of the most recent sites designed and developed by Maura McDonnell. The site was developed over several stages, mainly to accomodate the business needs of the client.
The first stage involved designing a logo, setting up up domain and hosting, and then creating a static website, presenting information about the newly opened Garrendenny Lane Interiors business.
The second stage involved setting up a blog, using the same design as the website in order to provide consitency of brand. A unique header was designed to reflect the more informal nature of the blog and to present relevant images and a lovely photo of Lorna the owner of Garrendenny Lane Interiors and author of the blog.
The third stage involved adding in features such as an easy to update online gallery to showcase the fabric and wallpaper available and a selection of the furniture for sale at Garrendenny Lane Interiors and other functional features such as a newsletter.
The fourth stage involved in setting up and installing a content management system (cms) for the client to update all aspects of the website themselves. Training in updating the site and using all the various features of the site was provided.
Setting up the Online Shop
The final stage involved the setting up of an online shop facility for Garrendenny interiors to sell some of the products in stock online. At first the intention was to sell about ten items, however, the online shop now sells several interiors products. The technology used to build the online shop is shopify. This is a relatively new technology, it is a small fee based hosted service, very much geared to the small business set up for selling products online. The service provides a very good secure method of managing online sales. From a web designers perspective, the shopfiy product is also able to be customised according to the design of the client. I set up shopify for Garrendenny Lane and I also redesigned the standard template designs that come with shopify in order to make the shop front have the exact same design as the website and the blog. I built the first few products, then I provided training and documentation for Garrendenny Interiors to update the products to the shop themselves. I provide ongoing support to the online shop as new new features are added to the shop. However, Lorna completely manages the online shop herself.
This is a great website. This is also a site I am very proud to have been part of the making but it is really nice to see that the site is definitely Lornas as she makes regular updates. The products that are stocked at Garrendenny Lane Interiors premises and those stocked on the online shop are a must buy for those who want to have access to purchasing the most amazing products for the home and gifts for family and friends. Lorna keeps regular posts to her blog, a must read for those interested in Interiors and reading about family life on a busy farm, events around her local area and just great writing. Check it out if you have time.
Site Url: http://www.gdlaneinteriors.ie/
Blog Url: http://www.gdlaneinteriors.ie/blog/
Online Shop Url: http://shop.gdlaneinteriors.ie/
Irish Rubies
Irish Rubies website was launched March 2008. The second stage of the site development involved providing and installing a cms in order to easily update the website. This was completed in August 2008. Irish Rubies are updating the content of the website themselves.
See: http://www.irishrubies.ie
Leinster GAA
The Leinster GAA website was launced in November 2007. The content of the website is updated by staff from the Leinster GAA Council. Support is however still provided on an ongoing basis.
This website is a very large website, consisting of a large number of pages. The brief was clear and easy to follow. There was a lot of archive content from the previous website to be included in the new site. The site needed to be re-organised so that updating it was be easy to follow and maintain. Training was provided in the updating software used to maintain this website.
The site was really fun to design. Green and white of course! The photograph stock that the Leinster Council had access to, made this a very image rich site.
Trinity Today 12 - Online Magazine
I have been creating web content for the Alumni Office and Trinity Foundation at Trinity College since 2002. The Trinity Today 12 - Online Magazine, is an online version of their annual publication “Trinity Today”, that is sent to all the alumni of Trinity College. It was launched in September 2007. The site is within the Alumni web pages, and hence takes on much of the design of the Alumni pages, however, it also takes design cues from the print publication, for example in heading areas, layout and colour scheme.
See: http://www.tcd.ie/Alumni/news/trinitytoday12/index.php
Ward and Burke Construction Ltd.
The Ward and Burke Construction Ltd. website was designed around the logo of the company. Several designs were created and one was chosen to be finalised for the website. The company were incredibly organised about their content and one of the directors provided the most detailed and efficient presentation of content for a website. The company wanted to appeal to engineering graduates to join their company. It also wanted to document that kinds of work undertaken by the company and to make their website visually pleasing and easy to use.
See: http://www.wardandburke.ie
Trinity College Immigration Initiative
Trinity College, Dublin - Immigration Initiative was launched in January 2007. For this website, the brief was to create a website that was visually pleasing, easy to use and easy to update. The design for the site took its inspiration from the invitation designed for the opening event launching the Immigration Initiative at Trinity College. This was a small website, but it is regularily maintained by The Trinity Immigration Initiative Staff.
See: http://www.tcd.ie/immigration/
Dublin Gaa Games
The Dublin Gaa Games development office employed me to design a bright easy to navigate website, that provided information on the many courses, venues and locations provided by their children camps programme. Aileen provided me with a really fun and bright graphic to use as the main navigation menu, and I provided the layout and design. The office also commisioned a graphic designer to create a map with numbers on it denoting the venues for each training camp. I then built the map using html to link to the relevant page, that provided contact and venue information.
Training was provided in updating the website and in particular in building a unique version of the site each year as dates and titles changed. The office update the site themselves and again I am available for any ongoing support.
See http://www.dublingaagames.ie
Paschal McDonnell
Paschal asked me to re-design his website in 2006 in order to showcase his music and to advertise some concerts he put on in both the US and in Ireland. Paschal has produced a number of CDS of his music. The website showcases his music, providing excerpts from some of his CDS. I had already created a website for Paschal a number of years previously. This was a simple 5 page brochure site. This time paschal had more information and photographs and audio files to put on his website. The re-design was launched in December 2006
Paschal is my brother in law and so doing this site was fun. I also play keyboards and guitar and sing harmony for his Celtic Drift Concerts when he organises his concerts. I have met many musicians at Paschal’s gatherings and it is always a pleasure to work with them. His latest CD that is being produced in 2008, features harmony vocals by myself, tin whistle playing by my husband and concertina playing by my daughter…not to mention the brilliant Raphael (my brother in law), one of the best bazouki players in Ireland.
See: http://www.paschalmcdonnell.com/
Dublin Gaa Games Development
The Coaching Development Manager of Dublin Gaa Games Development wanted a site that could provide online information about up and coming courses that they run. He also wanted to provide information on the calendar of these courses and up and coming events. Up till then, they provided information via a brochure and by telephone and email. By providing all this information online, then he could provide a useful service to all their audience and to those interested in finding out quickly what a course entailed and when it was on. As the site developed, more information areas were provided and many resources such as video clips, training documents were all put on the site. The site was designed and built in 2005. Training and ongoing training was provided to the Dublin GAA Games Development office. The site is updated by the office and they do a really great job in adding in regular content and adding in pages and new links. I provide support whenever it is needed
See http://www.dublingaacoachingdevelopment.ie
The site is in the process of being redesigned for a late 2008/2009 launch.