My intentions were to implement a more modern look representing an organization that is maturing with the times while presenting an aesthetic “wow” factor from previous years when we were very limited by the technology platform. While still limited by the same platform, we maged to find dozens of whole in which we could implement client side JavaScript hacks to further design and functionality.

The following screenshot represents the final outcome of what seemed like dozens of compositions created. Please keep in mind that this represents the 2010 sites and that I have nothing to do with the 2011 sites that are starting to pop up.

You can view the previous years walk screenshots at the following link: Walk Now for Autism

Originally I had some great ideas that were ultimately thrown out the window due to “brand violation” in which I show a couple here on the site which includes a puzzle piece missing in a globe.

This site also uses light window in the Sites section to view external sites owned, created or maintained by the organization.

In 2008 I assisted as a lead role in developing approximately 80 stand-alone event sites using Kintera’s Custom Friends Asking Friends (CFAF) module and Content Management System. While the events still managed to function there was a lot of bugs a holes in the application and prompted us to not change vendors but use a more archaic module of Kintera’s called Thon (FAF).

For 2009, the same number of sites are being built and under the Thon model I have redesigned (mainly color scheme to rid the site of bad pretenses from 2008), developed and launched dozens of these sites already with a 6 month fundraising window before the event. The 2009 Walk Now for Autism campaigns are projected to raise millions of dollars for Autism research and support.

One of my primary charges as a Product Architect for Kintera was to improve the user experience and efficiency of their proprietary content management system. I wrote and designed 6 product functional specifications and managed expectations, timelines, and engineers and QA personnel.

Replacing Ektron Editor
The first task was to replace Kintera’s current WYSIWYG Ektron editor throughout Sphere to be compatible with IE7 and backwards compatible with IE6. This was no easy task as there are were 16 slightly different instances all of which contained custom dialog windows proprietary to Kintera’s infrastructure. After that spec, there was a follow-up release for Firefox compatibility as Kintera made the business decision to informally support the browser for their Apple Mac clients.

AJAX User Interface
Kintera has a decent content management system however it was often hindered by load times, pop-ups, and productive workflow. My task was to improve this experience by converting it to the first AJAX driven interface in Kintera Sphere. WE took an incremental approach by dividing it into 4 product specifications.

1. General UI & Site Structure
2. Content Management
3. File Libraries
4. Revisiting & Cleanup

The specifications added new functionality such as drag n’ drop menu trees, rollover contextual information, edit in place, modal dialog box (stylistically similar to lightbox), multiple pages or pieces of content open and the same time. Ultimately the functionality included a completed revised middle tier development architecture to separate back-office presentation from the code layers making it easier to update, manage and make changes in the future using object orientated interfaces.

The purpose of the application is intended for the migration of client’s web sites to Kintera content management system. The spider tool allows a start & end tag to be crawled for to assure that only content is being grabbed from the HTML.

I have owned the architecture sinse late 2005 and have made significant improvements to the application. Some of which include URL mapping, complete .NET 2.0 GUI, image path redirecting and live update.

I also had the daunting task of porting all content from the previous version of their site and hundreds of Microsoft word files. Overall, I am pleased with the final product.

This is an animated card created so their supporters may spread the word and forward to friends and family. This was created in October 2005. The card can still be viewed on their site at http://www.acsevents.org/site/apps/ka/mt/chooseCard.asp?c=agKJLTOyEpH&b=269951

Click for animated gif:

I created this comp in September 2005 on behalf of Kintera Inc. when I was apart of their Created Services team. This was one of many comps submitted by the team and am uncertain if it has been used.