Although my main job is in IT, web development is really just a hobby for me. I have had an interest in web development since before university and have tried to stay involved until now. With rapidly changing trends and practices it is certainly an interesting field to be involved in. I don't have much time these days for web development so the site will probably become less and less focused on web stuff!
My first experiences of web design involved building the most horrid, non-standards compliant code that one has ever seen. Since then my interest has developed to such an extent that web coding and development is now one of my main interests.
Most of the sites I build are hand-coded and I aim to build everything to a high standard with fully standards compliant code (where possible!). I host any sites that I develop which are based on cPanel enabled servers for easy management and site deployment. There are many new and exciting technologies out there and my aim is to use this site more as a personal test site with a public facing interface rather than some hidden away treasure chest that will never be seen. I don't know if anything special will ever result but we will see what happens.
Most of my sites are PHP/MySQL based with the occasionally usage of javascript frameworks to add some spice to the front end! JQuery has to be one of the best things ever invented. For other personal projects I use ASP.NET and other .NET Framework technologies. Of course SharePoint Server is another fantastic bit of technology but not really relevant for small web design projects. SharePoint 2010 will be a huge leap forward in the collaboration and enterprise CMS space.
In the last few months I have been developing a new system based on the concrete5 content management system. This has totally changed how I build sites. It is basically an application framework with a CMS built on top enabling developers to extend functionality easily but also presenting a beautiful UI for the end users. Many clients want something that is easy to update and manage and concrete5 fits the bill totally. Smaller static sites maybe don't require a CMS but for the aim of extensibility I plan to use this amazing platform going forward. It really does change how websites are created!
Web design is really a hobby but I aim to meet professional standards to ensure that my projects are very much more than hobby quality.
Build websites in my free time for the fun/challenge of it. Based in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Check out my portfolio of some of my recent web development work.
If you want to get in touch you can do so by filling out the web form.
