Dream like scene on Abraham Mountain

Hi, I'm Michael.

I'm a web professional at the City of St. Albert who's passionate about user experience design. Whether working on a full website, a web-based application, or even a single page of content, I’m always striving to exceed the expectations of clients, champion the needs of users, and incorporate the latest best practices. Here is some of my work:

City of St. Albert Homepage

City of St. Albert Homepage

City of St. Albert Homepage on Mobile

Same Homepage on Mobile

Content Page

Example Content Page

Calendar Page on Mobile

Calendar Page on Mobile

• • • •

City of St. Albert

Design / HTML / CSS / PHP / JS / Project Management / Research / User Testing / Optimization / Content Development

I project managed and handled all research, information architecture, design, and development aspects for the City’s second generation responsive website, one featuring over 20 distinct templates and over 2,500 pages of content. The new website focused on improving the user experience, mobile device support, and accessibility (WCAG AA compliance), and was developed entirely in-house.

The new website fared very well in user testing and was warmly received by both internal stakeholders and the public when it launched.

Visit St. Albert

Smart City Alliance Homepage

Smart City Alliance Homepage

Founding Member Profile Page

Founding Member Profile Page

Applied Smarts Article Listings

Applied Smarts Article Listings

Article Page on Mobile

Article Page on Mobile

• • • •

Smart City Alliance

Design / HTML / CSS / PHP / CMS Integration

The Smart City Alliance is an advocacy group that helps facilitate technological collaboration between governments, academia, and business while promoting Alberta as a thriving innovation centre.

Working closely with stakeholders, I designed and developed a responsive website for the organization that offers access to several newsfeeds, the secure sharing of research, and smartly connects related content throughout the site via a robust metadata system.

Visit the Alliance

Giant's Gate Homepage

Giant's Gate Homepage

Trip Report for Nigel Peak in Jasper National Park

A Sample Trip Report

Trips sorted by Peak Elevation

Mountain Trips by Metrics

Resource section for scramblers

User Resources

• • • •

Giant's Gate

Design / HTML / CSS / PHP / JS / Maps / CMS Customization / All Writing, Photography and Illustrations

I'm heavily involved in Alberta's thriving scrambling and mountaineering communities and Giant's Gate is a personal project where I share the knowledge I've acquired over the years.

The core of the site is a collection of over 70 trip reports, covering mountain objectives throughout the Rockies and around the world with detailed descriptions, thousands of photos, maps, and relevant metrics. All of this content was gathered the hard way, by venturing into the field with a camera and GPS-unit in-hand.

Visit Giant's Gate

Inquiries Tracking System on Mobile

Inquiries Tracking System on Mobile

An Education/Orientation Module

HTML5 Video Player on Mobile

HTML5 Video Player on Mobile

Typical Resource Section with Local Search

Typical Resource Section with Local Search

• • • •

Council Extranet

Design / HTML / CSS / PHP / CMS Integration

I was tasked with developing a secure extranet website to facilitate information sharing between City Administration and our Council better. The website and related applications I developed helped to streamline several laborious processes, saving staff time and providing our councillors with a dependable, easy to use resource for operational information.

Mobile device support and performance was a key focus with the front-end design. With a handsome, low bandwidth aesthetic, navigation elements optimized for touch use, and the conversion of video resources to HTML5, I ensured that the solution would be highly usable, fast-loading, and platform agnostic.