Jason ener

my status : currently building an eCommerce site for a fishing company and some commercial apps for myself, mostly in PHP

I am a Developer

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to explore my accomplishments as a Developer. I've been a Developer for 13 years as both a freelancer and employee. There is quite a bit more I could put here. However, I have specifically chosen these 5 examples to get across the key aspect of my work and myself that sets me apart from your average programmer or designer: I can do both equally well, and each one better than many who specialize.

I know what you're thinking: "shouldn't this page be impressing the hell outta me right now?" My reply is 'No'. This page's purpose is to present the work I have done in helping others convey their identity and goals on the web or off. Click on them below. Those will impress you. This page does its job best as straight text and links. I am a big fan of simple perfection: design for the goal and not one inch further. Carefully chosen words for links and labels. All buttons work as expected. Just enough graphic design to convey your identity to your audience. These things together make a site that will last many years without embarrassment.

Beware

Most developers will tell you they can make The Matrix for you. They're not lying. They're just challenging themselves without telling you. If you hire them you will at best get The Matrix feeling for a few minutes before you notice "bugs", freezes in movement, a broken link.. At worst you will get a developer that just disappears with your money - a tortured, twisted wreck of a soul that did in fact spend a thousand hours trying to deliver but it was just too much for their production skillset. These poor wretches justify stealing your money because they've done nothing else for the past 6 weeks but kill themselves failing to deliver your dream and now really have to feed the cat.

If your looking for the developer that will make your site or application feel like The Matrix, you've got the wrong geek. I speicalize in the classic principles of design, not trends. My sites do not "wow", they please. They are like jeans and a white tshirt: they don't go out of style. Only one client has ever ditched my site and had it redesigned by another group. They have recently come back to me after years of disappointment in trying to maintain the monster site they created.

Feel free to click on all the sample images below. They all lead to the real thing. Feel free to contact me with any questions. Sincerely,

1. Dentistry@2000 & Britannia - Partner Flash Sites

The primary business goal of my client in the development of 2 sites - one for each of his dental practices - was to help his junior dentists gain exposure and build their clientele. Other goals that became apparent during our meeting was low-maintenance and calmness. When a person is shopping for a dentist for themselves or a loved one, ease of use and a soothing tone make sense.

This site has a backend area whereby the client can upload new pictures and bios of staff. There is no need to hire someone like me to update the site everytime the staff changes. As for look, my own timeless style suited this project to begin with. The client did not want to be stuck with a website with a dated design in 3 years.

I managed to convince the client to use the same interface for both but use different colour sets. He felt that it was a strange idea but in the end I convinced him that it was a good thing to make the partnership between locations obvious and also it would cut costs by thousands. He agreed.

2. "Bomb Ardier" Music Video - Director, Writer, Animator, Producer

I am in a rock band called Dirty Penny. We've produced 2 albums. This piece is an animated video for our song "Bomb Ardier". It was created in Flash using my lovely Wacom drawing tablet. This is one of my favorite production tools. It allows the designer to draw directly into Photoshop or Flash with the same pressure sensitivity and feel as a real paintbrush. This took me approx. 300 hours to complete. It sounds like a lot but if you've animated before you know that it's not.

This piece tells the story of a pretend turn-of-the-century Montreal, my hometown. I've made a few other animated music videos for my band but this one has gotten the best reviews. Put your headphones on and follow the story. This is a spoken-word story song. Your average computer speakers don't do it justice.

3. The Marge Simpson Project - The art of Les Paterson

I can build enterprise class applications AND draw you as a Simpson's character.

Painter Les Paterson was the hottest thing on the art scene in Toronto in the summer of 2006. Les had reproduced in lifesize all of the fictional paintings of the Simpson's mother, Marge, that had been seen over many episodes. That's right. Not many people know that Marge was an aspiring painter in college before she met and married Homer. Les' show received full page spreads in all the major newspapers. Part of that success was due to the online popularity of this fun Flash site I created for the show. It showed up on StumbleUpon's list of best-of-the-web.

If you manage to find a picture of Les Paterson I think you will agree that this charicature of him sitting on the sofa is bang on.

4. Hair by Victor Allen - Custom Application/Site

Yorkville’s high-end hairstylist, Victor Allen, wanted a website that would above all serve his longstanding, loyal client-base.  Victor needed a way to tighten up his booking process.  As a lone cowboy in the world of hair, Victor manages his own schedule but what happens when a client call and he’s in the middle of doing someone’s hair?  They leave a message.  Victor picks it up later and returns the call “Sure thing, Sally, we can do Tuesday..” or “Sorry, Sally, Tuesday’s not good..” in which case Victor leaves some alternate times on Sally’s voicemail.  Sally calls back “Sure I’ll take..” or “Uh oh, I can’t do any of those..” and the phone tag game continues.  

The challenge was that this custom booking system had to be “loose” – computer people and computers hate that word.  Victor doesn’t like computers.  He was willing to update his availabilities once or twice a week at most.  We we’re looking at a system that would cut down the phone tag to a maximum with a minimum of effort on his part.

I designed the free-form system/site with a whole backend user/pass administation interface that Victor uses which you can’t see, which is a pity, because it’s exceptionally user-friendly.  Victor doesn’t like computers.

5. Rogers Communications Inc. - Sr. Online Learning Consultant 2004-08

It is a pity that I cannot show off some of the great work I did for Rogers here. Confidentiality agreements prohibit me from doing so.

While at Rogers I got to use my Computer Science degree in some amazing ways. Most notably, I designed, developed, and launched Rogers' first internal Wiki. Rogers' Training department had suffered from a string of unpopular intrasites. The content would quickly become stale in the absence of a dedicated webmaster and users would gradually stop visiting soon after the buzz and excitement of the initial launch. Why didn't they just assign a dedicated webmaster? If you've worked in a big corporation you know the answer to this. Creating an entirely new position within a department - in this case, one that is not directly tied to the business goals of the department - is not easy. Nonetheless, a vibrant internal training portal was needed and desired. They wanted their cake and to eat it, too. Luckily they had a guy on their team that had a great passion for the web's innovations and a gifted problem-solver. "Make the intrasite community driven!" I said. This demonstrated my natural ability to think outside-the-box and my excellent business communication skills. Selling the idea of a Web2.0/social networking model inside the walls of a big, conservative organisation was no easy feat. It took 3 months of design, development, and a lot of fast talking. It's still in use today.

Some more of what I accomplished at Rogers:

• Migrated legacy data from old LMS (Learning Management System) to new, 1.5 million records
• Designed, developed, and launched 12+ applications
• Lead Advanced Flash training sessions to the junior developers on-staff
• Consulted throughout the company as a Multimedia/Application expert
• Created 2 Flash Training games for in-class group sessions
• Produced 50+ eForms
• Administrator for Rogers' departmental web server

But you don't have to take my word for it. Click on the doc/image above and you will find my former team leader, Victor Sherman's contact info. Phone him up and he'll tell you about all the great applications I developed and launched for Rogers and how they are still in use today.

NOTE Jan14: My former team-leader and author of the above reference letter, Victor Sherman, is undergoing some contact info changes. Please do not try the number mentioned in the letter. Please contact me directly if you wish to reach him as a reference.