Nicole Gagliardi

Client: X Shadyside

Web Site: xshadyside.com

Project: Web Site Redesign, Add Business Functionality

Summary: X Shadyside wanted to match the look of their web site with their circus themed ad campaign, as well as include new functionality that would allow them to better serve potential members who sign up for a trial pass on-line.

Rob Larson who was the digital specialist employed by Rieder Photography, the commercial photography studio responsible for the ad campaign, designed the web site and spent additional days at the gym to take pictures for the site. The graphics for the ad campaign are incorporated in the web site to successfully create a sense of unity between the gym’s print and electronic presence.

The web site utilizes WordPress as a content management system to allow the gym to edit it’s own content and instructors may edit the classes on the calendar. A custom plugin was developed to handle the trial passes. The plugin stores the information potential member input when requesting the pass and prints a unique identification on the pass. When this pass is presented at the front desk the attendant enters the identification number into an administrative page and views all the visitor’s answers to the questions asked when they signed up for the pass. This allows to attendant to direct the potential member to a class, area or particular machine they may be interested in and  address any questions or other comments they had, better serving the potential member and hopefully making him more inclined to join the gym.

Client: American Horticultural Society

Web Site: ahs.org/meadow

Project: Create New Web Site

Summary: As the River Farms Horticulturalist, James Gagliardi is primarily responsible for the care of the grounds, including the meadow. James called and asked for my help developing an interactive web site for the meadow to promote it, involve the community, and garner support for an initiative to redevelop the entire AHS web site. James didn’t have a budget for this project and the AHS did not have the proper web hosting package to support it. I partnered with my employer who offered to provide the AHS with web hosting and allowed me to donate work hours to the project.

I built the site using WordPress as a content management system because it offers a solution the AHS can reuse and build upon when redeveloping their site.

To help James create the plant list for the Meadow Plants page more easily, I built a Plant Manager plugin which gives him a wizard to use. To add interactivity, we included a Flickr slide show so visitors may upload their own pictures to a Meadow Wildlife page where visitors may leave comments about the wildlife they spot in the meadow. Both interactive pages allow individual nature lovers to share their experience and help promote the meadow’s purpose, showing that a meadow can be a beautiful, sustainable alternative to traditional lawns, supporting it’s own ecosystem. At the marco level this web site also helps the AHS to support their mission by relaying the educational message and beauty of the meadow to the 23,000 members of the AHS and the public as a whole.

If you have noticed Jame and I share a last name I’ll answer your question… yes we are related; he is my brother. Despite James’ penchant for procrastination and my disposition to work well ahead of deadlines we managed to successfully complete this project together. Our parents are so proud!

Client: David Cooper Photo

Web Site: davidcooperphoto.com

Project: Web Site Redesign

Summary: David Cooper is a professional photographer who wanted an easy to update site, optimized for search engines. David designed his own site, though I advised him on usability concerns as well as how element of his design could help or hinder the optimization of the site.

For this site we chose to use Airtight Interactive’s SimpleViewer because it allowed David to quickly and easily create the photo galleries with Photoshop, a program he is very comfortable using. A text replacement tool, sIFR, is also utilized on the site because David has always used an uncommon font for his business, and without sIFR he ran the risk that the site would not look right to people who did not have this font installed on their own computer. Using text replacement methods, rather than simply putting all text in a Flash object benefited David because he is still able to edit the text himself using a web site editor, and the text is still available for search engines to index.

Client: Raise Your Spirits

Web Site: raiseyourspirits.net

Project: Splash Page

Summary: Raise Your Spirits, a newer company offering luxury experiences, was looking for a splash page to help introduce their brand while the rest of the web site was built.

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