I have performed all web design and applications development for Carson Newman College for the past nine years, based on expressed college/departmental needs and wishes.  The Carson-Newman web presence would best be described as more than sixty separate companies under one company umbrella, each with its own distinctive requirement. My work for Carson-Newman College has won five different national and international awards, besting firms from Madison Avenue in some cases.

The examples featured below illustrate the data connectivity, automation, and design I have built into the CN website.  I constructed many pages in the C-N website to display data for the user that is pulled from the college main frame (such as class schedules, faculty, directory information, etc.). By request, I’ve created content management systems for other sites to allow the appropriate people to control their own content (for C-N news, the C-N Calendar, departmental sites, etc.).

Please note that while these examples suggest a broad range of functionality and design, this is only a small sample of my web work for Carson-Newman College.  Please take the time to look around the C-N website to view the full range of my custom work.

Carson-Newman Alumni: http://www.cn.edu/alumni/

The Carson-Newman Alumni site is a multi-award winning site with the following features. An interactive and dynamic video tray allows the user to scroll through the selections and play panoramic style videos.  The tray sets and resets itself so as to require no other user input except a choice as to what they would like to view. A custom-built content management system (CMS) allows the Alumni Department to create event registration forms for any given scenario, from credit card payments to RSVP event registration forms.  Each form is generated on the fly from the CMS. The CMS also allows the Alumni Department to publish news about the department, which is subsequently fed to an e-newsletter listserv by the CMS. In addition, the CMS allows the Alumni Department to manage different photo walls to present the user with engaging and interactive photos of campus events. A dynamic, self-hiding quick menu provides quick and easy access to the user without getting in the way.

Carson-Newman Academic Affairs: http://www.cn.edu/academics/

The Academic Affairs site was developed to be a clearinghouse of academic news for the school, controlled by the Communications Office. This site is completely controlled by a content management system (CMS) that I built to specification after meetings with both the academic affairs and communications personnel. Custom-designed, rotating banners showcase the academic departments.  However, both the Academic Affairs department and the Communications Office can create their own advertisements or videos, and either add them to the rotation or set the page to display for a particular period of time. The custom-built CMS allows either department to add news items to the site.  Both departments can simultaneously work on the story, or predetermined people can be stipulated with editorial access. The responsible party can then publish the story when they are ready for it to appear on the site. When creating news stories, uploaded images are automatically sized in 4 different copies.  This takes the burden of having to know how to modify images off the user, and makes it easy for them to switch the type of story they wish to publish without having to add or resize images. The users of the CMS also have the capability to upload their own video for use in the story or embed youtube video depending on their need. Along with this, they have the ability to create photo walls with each story to give the user an interactive to view story related photos.

Carson-Newman Calendar/Events tool: http://www.cn.edu/calendar/

I developed the College Calendar/Events tool to achieve a number of goals expressed by stakeholder groups and senior administration. The school requested to have all of its events listed in one place, but done in a way that would not overwhelm the user with data. In answer, I developed a tool with a selectable day view and monthly view. In the day view, it was important to let the user filter the information based on what was important to them (ie academic, athletics, admissions events, etc). Along with this, it was desired to have some of the headlines from the “latest News” be automatically pulled from the academic news and displayed. When the user clicks on an event to get more information, both related news to that event is pulled from the academics news database. Along with this the user has the ability to add the event to their Outlook or iCalendar as well as email the event to friends. The CMS allows authorized persons the ability to add and manage events, with final editorial oversight of senior leadership. To make management of the data easier, the authorized CMS user need only stipulate event information, release date, and removal date, thus automating the management of this large and widely used tool.

Carson-Newman Academic Departments: http://www.cn.edu/education/

All Carson-Newman academic department sites are also fully controlled by a content management system that I developed. This departmental CMS allows the administration to monitor editor access, while providing the designated departmental contacts with full informational control over their sites. Administrative users, along with global control, can add editor-level access to individuals per department which will auto-generate and send notification to the individual with temporary user name and password. The editor can then log in, change their user name and password and begin managing the site for which they have access.  Editors may access only the sites that they have access for. The CMS fully automates every process for the editor, so that all the editor has to do is enter text, upload images, etc. All image editing, video editing, and formatting is handled automatically, although editors may have control over formatting and data layout should they wish to use that capability. The CMS allows administrators and user to collaborate on management of sites and publish final updates after all parties happy with content changes. Each department site within this tool automatically formats itself on the fly for print or mobile device. The CMS is flexible enough to allow more knowledgeable users to edit the HTML for each section to push the system beyond the intuitive automation to meet any need they may have.