Overview

This section contains information about some of the fun and unique projects I was involved in while employed with the City and County of Denver.

Background

I joined the city's Internet team in early 2001 before the launch of a redesign of their Web site (www.denvergov.org) to integrate a custom-made content management system. I left in early 2006 before the beginning of a second redesign project to upgrade the system.

The CMS featured a variety of standard templates that enabled site editors and authors in city agencies to publish content to their own Web sites without changing the overall look and feel of the site or its navigational elements. Developers on the Internet team supported and maintained the CMS, including bug fixes and creating new templates.

My Role

It's hard to summarize five years of work in an environment where you wear multiple hats. It is easiest to think of my role as a combination of User Experience Architect and Managing Editor.

In one capacity, I served as technical advisor for the overall structure of the Web site as it evolved and as new features were added, including determining how and where they may be integrated into the site (information architecture), how they may be designed or displayed (design, usability, accessibility, functionality), and how people might locate those features (content hierarchy, navigation, marketing).

In the second capacity, I served as creative manager to present site-wide content in a friendly, easy-to-understand manner using a consistent voice and style so that it could be easily digested by a wide and diverse audience.

My deliverables were typically things like identifying business requirements, functional specifications documents, content outlines and site maps, graphics design, user interface prototypes and layout mockups, Web page construction and front-end coding, writing and copywriting, fact-checking, copyediting, and content development. This was in addition to my typical day-to-day responsibilities of training and supporting agency contributors, graphics optimization, content maintenance, and other site management tasks.

All aspects of my work involved regular collaboration with teams of people, including designers, project managers, city agency representatives, offices of elected officials, developers, public relations staff, public safety personnel, community representatives, subject matter experts, the general public, and even the city's legal counsel.

The production process often entailed coordinating site features and content with other projects and the city's marketing initiatives, so prioritizing work to meet multiple deadlines was routine.