Creative Solutions and Interactive Web Design

Why choose me?

Just about anyone, even a 10-year-old, can throw up a static html page nowadays, but there is obviously a lot more to it. There is what you “see” and what don’t see behind the scenes— the site architecture, back-end scripts and server configurations, and more—that makes a web site truly interesting, interactive and worth coming back to time and again. There are well-researched formulae for what makes a site work and what doesn’t. There is what helps you to be noticed or even found in the first place—well you certainly managed to find me, didn’t you?

I have been building web sites professionally since I became active on the world-wide web in the mid ’90’s. My experience ranges from working alone to design monster-sized information sites with more than 100,000 interactive and dynamically-linked files ... to overseeing and maintaining web sites with thousands of happy regular users ... to supervising teams of 150 technicians at a time to design specialized intranet data-matching software for high-end users interfacing with a myriad of databases and operating systems ... to collaborating with art directors and brand-imaging consultants to co-design focused and informative pages for small businesses.

My services as a free-lance webmaster and programmer are available for hire at competitive rates. And, I put my heart and soul into it. With my creative-cum-technical background you don’t just get techie-nerd designs, you get visually appealing pages with a lot of science behind it—if that’s you want.

» Formulate your ideas and get a free quote using my contact form »

What I can do for you:

My clients range from web-novices to professionals with very specific ideas in mind. Whichever you may be, I can work with you and help you identify your needs. The pages I will create for you (unless requested otherwise) will be made according to w3c standards, which in theory should make them accessible by any computer or PDA with any standards-compliant browser software. I can also sign confidentiality agreements if requested.

» Formulate your ideas and get a free quote using my contact form »

back to top

My areas of specialty:

• Intelligent and Elegant Web Design

  I have worked with Art directors and understand color-coding formats used by professionals, Classic Graphic Design Theory, Gestalt Principles of Perception, as well as Human-Computer Interface Design. My web sites generally have a clean look and feel (unless requested otherwise) which enables users to focus on what is important. The logical architecture and design I use is easy to make sense of. ISO-type documentation is available on request, to enable other web masters to take over my work.

• SEO (Search-Engine Optimization)

  Virtually all of my web pages have successfully reached to the top of Google search results when optimized for specific key words. I assist robot crawlers in determining hierarchical structures, identifying context and differentiating between semantics and display data. For businesses, top listings = $money!

• Usability and Human-Computer Interaction sciences

  You can benefit from my hard-earned, intimate knowledge of Internet-user culture: how to target for specific audiences, socio-cultural trends and unwritten rules, what is appealing & to whom, years of professional research on what works and what doesn’t from the visitor’s perspective, zero-learning-time navigational interfaces with instant reinforcement within a single click, data streaming and delivery rates... and much, much more.

• Back-end Scripting

  The magic is what you don’t see behind the scenes. This is where the novices are left by the wayside, and the real web mastery begins. The most interesting pages are those that don’t actually sit passively on a server until someone requests them. They are active pages, dynamically generated on demand and dynamically-linked and updated by site administrators or members of the public. I am experienced with back-end scripting languages such as Perl (my language of preference) CGI, ASP, PHP, etc., for the creation of client-server applications, customized databases, the delivery of text, music, dynamically-generated graphics, etc. My back-end scripts are documented and/or easy to make sense of, should my work be taken over by another programmer.

• Artwork and Graphics

  I design customized logos, book covers, and web graphics. Some of the latter (animated smileys and other fun graphics) are so thoroughly proliferated on the Internet that they have in effect become public domain property.

• Customized Guest books

  My guest books are customized, interesting, exclusive and unique (see my guest book creation at BrianKramerBlues.com). I do not endorse the use of freeware guest books which are generally full of security holes, prime targets for spam and automated email harvesting by spammers, restrictive in format, and/or cheapened by embedded banner advertising (which in turn plants spyware on users’ computers).

• Customized Hierarchical Discussion Forums

  Most forums you see on the internet are the result of canned, "out-of-box" freeware scripts. The discussion are difficult to make sense of because they display in a linear, tabular form—it’s not clear who is replying to what and to whom. I have years of experience designing and maintaining forums with intact hierarchical contexts, which are displayable according to user-determined criteria (date, subject, latest posts, etc). I also create administrative tools which help forum coordinators to block nuisance posters, screen content before publishing, move and delete posts, archive content, etc. Demonstration coming soon at my Articles, Rants & Blogs section.

• Databasing

  As the cliché goes, information is power. Web-based databases open up a world of possibilities, from user-maintained customer data, to content-management systems for publishing within templates, to password and subscription maintenance. I can work with mySQL or design customized text-based databases according to your specifications and needs (even when you don't know what they are).

• Authoring, editing and proofing

  Some clients need a comprehensive site but have little or no existing content. I am an experienced writer and have authored thousands of web pages, often in coordination with print and other media productions. With my English proofreading skills you can be sure of the grammatically and syntactically correct usage of words and sentences. This not only adds a touch of class and makes visitors comfortable, but plays an important role in making your site understandable to a new generation of search-engine cataloguing routines with specific parameters for deriving appropriate meanings from your content. I understand how to optimize for semantics vs. display.

• Security

  This has become a critical issue lately, as poor security, unsolicited mail and virus attacks are costing businesses and computer users billions of dollars every year. I am experienced with data security, encryption, and methods for blocking hackers, spammers and email harvesters. By design, the Internet is never 100% secure, but my customized pages, scripts, and server settings have allowed virtually no leaks and have been adapted to repel malicious users very effectively.

• e-Commerce

  Whether you need a shopping cart system or a one-time “Buy Now” purchase button to sell physical goods, a subscription or a limited download, I've got the solution for you. I can help you set up secure encrypted pages, a PayPal service, interface with other e-Commerce web-hosting commercial enterprises, or integrate third-party software solutions. e-Commerce customization allows for the display of local currencies with current exchange rates, the delivery of pages in local languages, etc.—all shown to be crucial elements in convincing potential customers to buy during the critical 5 seconds it takes to help them make up their minds.

• Legal Aspects

  The cyber landscape is constantly changing, along with the laws which govern it. In the course of my work I keep abreast with Intellectual Property Rights, Fair Use Provisions, the Digital Millenium Act, the Freedom of Information Act, what is permissible regarding sensitive third-party data, the rights of free-speech in different parts of the world, online credit-card purchases, etc.

• Retainer Services

  I currently maintain a number of web sites, some with more than 100,000 dynamically-updated files and thousands of regular users. This involves not only the occasional trouble-shooting or diplomatic replies to annoying customer-service queries, but regular server backups, the creation of zero-maintenance automated server tasks, technical communications with server personnel, log analysis and the tracking of user trends for improvement to the site, etc. I also work to offset new threats in hacker methodology.

• Data Integrity

  An issue all too often overlooked: Your personal information and images can be captured, stored and replicated by search engines or unscrupulous third parties—you then have virtually no control of what you want to be seen, when, where and in what context. Once it's out there, it's pretty much impossible to put Pandora back in the box. When requested, I can use server-side scripts and specially-designed web pages to prevent the proliferation of your personal data and intellectual property.

• Mail functions

  More than just mailbox aliases, or web forms for sending mail, I can create admin &/or user-maintained subscriptions databases, intelligent scripts for mailing lists which select when and who to send mails to, secure web-based mail response systems with hierarchical-threads which allow you to see when an e-mail has been read, responded to, etc.

» Formulate your ideas and get a free quote using my contact form »

back to top

Some of my most elaborate creations involve highly technical work for web-based (server-client) applications running on corporate Intranets. Unfortunately this means they cannot be viewed by the public at large. In addition, most of my work on the Internet cannot be recreated or even linked to because I am bound by contract to respect among other things:

• rights to exclusivity
• representation by authorized employees, not outsourced consultants
• confidentiality agreements
• intellectual property rights
• the sensitive/confidential nature of volunteer work
• issues of defunct products &/or branding
• outdated imagery no longer endorsed by the companies concerned
• etc.

Fortunately, despite the usual restrictions, there remain a few sites which I can link to and/or show snippets of. To see some of my past (and very potentially-outdated) creations:

• examples of my work
  
  

» Formulate your ideas and get a free quote using my contact form »

back to top