Web Design
Website Design
Since 2020 I’ve been the sole person at the Oregon Coast Aquarium responsible for web updates, designing new pages or elements, and general maintenance of aquarium.org. This means working with interdepartmental coworkers to update the front end with the most current information, as well as working on the back end that everything is running smoothly and is as optimized as possible. Typically, this has been through GoDaddy supported WordPress.
Notable projects within the web management and development at aquarium.org was the creation of an animal archive. This meant coordinating with the animal care team and educators to get the most correct and streamlined information. Once the fields and required information was passed along in a large collaborative document, it was up to me to upload it to the website. This meant translating a several hundred page word document into a queriable archive, with a system that would easily allow for future animal updates, gallery or animal additions, navigation as well as being generally nice to look at. Through Custom Post Types UI and Advanced Custom Fields plugins I was able to create a custom taxonomy and directory on the backend, allowing for a template based system for animal pages, and the ability to sort and present animals in subcategories, whether it be by habitat, characteristic classification (mammals, fish, invertebrates, etc.), or just alphabetically.
In addition, while it has since been shuttered, I was responsible for the Aquarium’s Capital Campaign, givetoaquarium.org. This secondary site acted as a primary touchpoint for fundraising efforts, grant application CTA, and as a general way to keep donors and members appraised on our progress. With fundraising at a close, the site was shuttered in 2023, and content compressed down into the Aquarium’s future page.
Analytics & Management
More goes into websites than just making them look nice and running smoothly. Over the years I’ve been solely responsible for the analytics and SEO on the backend of aquarium.org. This data was constantly being analyzed and evaluated, both in order to generally improve, but as to present and communicate with my team as a whole with the progress or areas needing improvement. In addition to tweaking things within the website itself, I was constantly behind the scenes in web applications like Google Analytics and Tag Manager. External sites like Google Business, Yelp Business, and Tripadvisor were also maintained and managed to make sure guests received the most accurate up to date information, while any questions or concerns they had were addressed promptly.
E-Newsletters
Websites aren’t the only way to communicate with the public! I am the sole designer and back end person for the Aquarium’s e-newsletter, Waterlines, as well as any member targeted electronic communications. This meant in addition to designing monthly newsletters, I’ve sent out regular membership renewal reminders, exclusive event invitations, and helpful how-to’s over the years.
