Andy Paddock

He builds web sites and stuff!

Its true I do build web sites. I build sites in HTML and CSS using Dreamweaver, I create sites using Wordpress, I've even dabbled with sites using Joomla and Drupal. I'm also the lead UI developer for the British Army's very own content management system.

All of the former pale into insignificance when I tell you about my main skill.

My ears can actually take the sounds that you omit from your mouth and turn them into clearly defined instructions for creating your web site.

Dorset Museums Association (DMA)

The DMA site started as a small communication site for the small but well dispersed members of the DMA. It has gradually grown into a very large site with a new release due for the 1st April

It's quite google and jquery heavy but they are used to solve specific problems encountered when designing a site for more than 30 different museums

• Home Page
• Maps Page (google map)
• Interactive Curriculum Map (jquery)

In the Arsenal

The link below will show you some of my recent work and I have listed some of the technologies/platforms I am currently using or have used in the past.

• Wordpress
• Drupal
• jQuery
• Google Maps API
• Joomla

Feel free to look at what I've done for others but all site are different and we always start with the basics. "Why do you need a web site?" If you can answer that question (and only that question) then the rest is easy.

Most of the stuff I do day to day is for a secure Military Extranet so screen shots and any detail can't be used on my public site. I've listed some facts that are in the public domain.

• Over 190,000 registered users
• 17,000 Web Pages
• Over 1000 Site Editors
• Several Different Technologies/Platforms (PHP, .Net, SharePoint)

With such a small workforce its difficult to put my finger on my actual role so I'll describe it in the best way I can.
Imagine a workforce consisting entirely of Organ Grinders and their monkeys, most of the organ grinders don't quite understand how the organ works and can't even read music. The monkeys on the other hand play the organs secretly in their spare time and can tell a C# from a B♭. Now imagine one of those monkeys talks to all the organ grinders and works out what they want to play and he then gets all the other monkeys to play the right tune, well that monkey is me.

Did that make any sense?

The Design Couch (better known as the customer forum)

As part of a sites natural progression from conception to completion its important to involve the customer as much as possible. I use the forums to allow a two way dialogue between me and my customers.

They are fairly open forums but please don't think that just because your best friends 10 year old daughter is good at drawing cats she should get involved in providing feedback for your site design

These links should help give you an idea of how to (not) get involved in the design process

• Paul Boags Website Owners Manual
• The View from Oatmeal (How a web design goes straight to hell)
• Web Designer vs Client - Make my web site for free (explicit)