Design

Change of Status.com Website

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

I have finished redesigning another website called changeofstatus.com the purpose of the site is to help simplify and minimize the confusion involved in an employee’s change of status (sometimes called a “life event”) as it pertains to their various healthcare benefit plans. When someone gets married or looses a dependent, usually things like this are considered life events and allow the employee to change their benefit package accordingly, so they are not paying for something they do not need. Also on the change of Status website there is a tool that converts the complicated employee change of benefits status matrix to an easy-to-use, three-step wizard, allowing employees, employers and administrators to determine what life events are permitted under IRS rules and regulations. I redesigned the site completely, you can see the site images above. The image on the right is the ‘before’ image, and the image on the left is the ‘after’. I used this template before on other company websites and I thought I do the same for this site to keep the branding consistent overall.

The site uses the jQuery Cycle Plugin for the banner rotater so that its visible even on devices like phones that don’t run Flash. Also, the website is completely SEO friendly. This is another case where I put my SEO checklist to work and it has helped tremendously. Previously the site was around 500 hits a month. Now even after a couple weeks, it has raised to over 1,500 hits a month. I’ll post the google analytics pictures as soon as I can.

Cya

Housemadehome.net Website

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

I have finished up another website for a client of mine (my wife), designed for her blog called housemadehome.net. The blog chronicles the renovations and decorating of our house, some recipes, and stories associated with the raising of our family. I worked really closely with her on the design of the site and I think it came out really well. I developed it using the WordPress backend, so she could easily make posts to it and handle the whole site by herself. We focused a lot on search engine optimization and the site has had a really good start so far… she has over 15 followers already. There are tons of home design blogs out there and they are getting bigger all the time. If you are looking for a custom made blog template, contact me so we can discuss the details of the project.

Cya

Flash WordPress Template called RocFolio 2

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

flash-wordpress-template

I have just finished my second website template, it’s a Flash WordPress Template called RocFolio 2.  This Flash WordPress Template is perfect as a portfolio or if you want to display your latest featured work in a great way. If you use wordpress, then it automatically updates itself by getting the information from your wordpress site after you make new posts. If you don’t have a wordpress blog, a sample XML file is included that you can use. This template is very easy to use, easy to setup, and easy to customize all through XML . RocFolio 2 comes with a help file and 5 different themes. The different flash themes include a Dark, Light, Bokeh, Starfield, and Two-Tone version, or you can customize the look and feel of it very easily. Also, each templates include  a contact form with error checking, and a muic player with tons of features. This Flash WordPress Template includes navigation for going between multiple Feeds (or multiple sample xml files) or external links, and another navigational menu  that can be used as social media menu that has a special random letter hover effect. Like I have said before, if you use wordpress then it automically updates itself through the RSS feed of the site, and then it automatically grabs the first image in the post to display. This template can be customizable through 4 simple XML files, uses tweener for smooth transitions, and has a 3 column layout layout with headers that have the ability to add an image, use text, or both. There are tons of other features and options, and I hope you enjoy it.

RocFolio 2 is the second version of one of my best selling items on ActiveDen.net.  First first version, RocFolio, is more geared towards being a Flash and WordPress Portfolio Template, because it can only take in a single RSS Feed, unlike RocFolio 2 where you can go between multiple rss feeds or wordpress categories.  Below is a preview image of RocFolio. It its not fully customizable by XML like RocFolio 2 is but its still really easy to use and setup through  Flash.

flash-and-wordpress-portfolio-template

Cya

Flash Horizontal Menu with Graphics and Random Letters Hover Effect

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

I have just uploaded another file to ActiveDen.net for sale. Its a flash horizontal menu and its great for any site or flash project. It can be used as the navigation on any website and is super easy to use and setup. The main function of this menu allows you to add graphics and text with your links. If you want to use it in your flash file you can just drag and drop it, or if you don’t know Flash and you are linking to several webpages, use the provided swf and XML file and you don’t even have to open up Flash, all you do is just edit the simple XML file. Some other features include that you can easily change the width and height (and a special javascript function handles the resizing in the browser). Also, you can easily change the font color, the hover color, the font size, font type, you can easily position the text, and change the space between items and navigation padding on the left to easily center it. It handles most html tags for even more customization. You can add as many links as you want. To view the file just click the image above.

Cya

Scrolling in Flash

Monday, April 5th, 2010

I have been getting a lot of questions for a good way of scrolling in Flash. So I thought I would let you know about the Scroll Flash Tutorial I made on how to do that. It gives you the code and the explains  basic functionality.  But if you don’t know anything about programming, I also created a simple Auto Scroll Flash file or in other words a Flash Text Ticker / Text Scroller file.  It’s completely customizable by XML so you don’t even have to know Flash to use it and it super easy to add to any website. You can change the font size, color, link color, background color, and add multiple lines of text if you want, and you can even setup a timer to display each text line item. If you buy it, there is also a help file that will give you a step by step process on how to edit the XML file and add the Flash scroller to your webpage.  To see a few examples of this file in action, click the example  image below.

If you guys have any more specific questions about scrolling in Flash,  just let me know by sending me an email through my contact page or leaving a comment.

Cya