kosada incorporated
kosada :: Web :: Portfolio
Portfolio
Jewelry Designs by Di
  • Timespan: 2007.09-present

To share Di's flair for custom designing and assembling beaded jewelry, Designs by Di wanted a new website that was simple yet powerful, eye-catching yet clean. The new design of http://jewelrydesignsbydi.com/ features Di's signature color — pink — and a ribbon graphic to coordinate with her business card. With elegant styling that pleases the eye without distracting from the jewelry, the site is attractive and easy to use.

As for function, Di wanted elegance there too. A few simple modules (with user-friendly embellishments) were sufficient to convey the content — a gallery, products for purchase, news, and events. We implemented:

  • Blog-style news on the main page to keep visitors informed and oriented
  • An e-mail list so fans can get updates about craft shows and other news in their e-mail
  • Image galleries to show off the variety of designs
  • An events calendar with a small fold-out block on the main page that displays upcoming events and counts down the days and hours
  • A very simple webstore that allows users to browse the available designs, then print and mail an order form along with a check directly to Di.

Asian American Community Services of Central Ohio
  • Timespan: 2007.09-present

Asian American Community Services of Central Ohio gave its website a major makeover after the departure of their in-house webdesigner. Kosada has helped them switch from their client-side method of website management to using Drupal. Kosada customized Drupal's functionality to meet the organization's complex needs, and we also themed the layout to match their new company letterhead.

The new site not only looks better, loads faster, and is easier to navigate than the old site; it's also easily updateable and administrable by the users themselves. We've configured it to allow AACS staff to add content, link it on the menu bar, attach files and pictures to it, and style it with a rich-text editor. This increases their self-reliance in making sure everything is just the way they want. Blog-style news at the bottom of each program page keeps users up-to-date on departmental happenings, while a main newsblog on the front page informs the public of organization-wide news. A calendar of events helps alert the public to meetings, workshops, and classes.

But the public site is only part of it. We've also set up a message board for internal communication among AACS staff, and a separate one for their board of directors. Users can make announcements and attach files and images, facilitating convenient communication between departments and coworkers.

Sterling Corporate Development
  • Timespan: 2007.07-2007.08

Sterling Commerce, an AT&T company, already had a public website, but they were interested in a small, simple, fast, and clean solution for internal communication among a small group of corporate development directors. Their requests:

  • A private Wiki
  • A blog for internal news
  • A mailing list for group announcements
  • A simple, clean, minimally-styled interface

They also mentioned that they'd heard great things about Drupal and were interested in using it. Since Drupal is one of our specialties, we were able to provide their requested features at very quick turnaround.

Paper Is Bad Records, Inc.
  • Timespan: 2007.08-present

Paper Is Bad Records, Inc. is a small, independent media distributor in Columbus, Ohio. They were founded in 2005 and registered a web address, but until summer 2007 produced only one release. With the release of three new albums in July 2007, they immediately recognized that a website would be a great way to continue their new growth and distribute the new releases.

Just a few of the custom-installed features of their new website:
  • online store
    • automatically calculated shipping charges
    • downloadable "virtual albums" available for purchase
    • short clips of songs that allow users to preview before purchase
  • easily updateable blog-style news on main page
  • convenient mailing list managed from the admin panel of the site itself
  • user sign-up and login, allowing users to leave feedback on selected sections of the site
Kineme Interactive Media
  • Timespan: 2007.06-present

Kosada's co-founders have been at work since the very beginning on some intriguing side-projects designed to eventually integrate into the Kosada business framework. Kineme is one of the most long-standing and dynamically evolving of those projects. From the new kineme.net:

We have been developing Kineme since 1999, when we began writing some modular audio visualization software for Linux. Along the way, we rewrote and customized it for several specific performances, adding live video processing options for greater interactivity.

When Apple's Quartz Composer came out at the end of April 2005, it looked a lot like what we had envisioned, but were only half-done creating. Since we couldn't beat Apple, we joined them, writing plugins and patches to extend the functionality of QC and implementing a few of our original ideas that Apple seemed to have left out. The rest, dear reader, is history.

As of this writing, the new, drupal-based kineme.net has just gone live, and the kineme plugins are released to the general public for the first time via the site. Also on the site are forums, digg-style voting on bug reports and feature requests, and blog-style news.

Design Preference Survey
Kosada's PHP Surveyor-based web survey for psychology student Berae McClary
  • Timespan: 2007.02-2007.04

Kosada designed and implemented a secure, anonymous web interface for OSU psychology student Berae McClary's junior research project. We built an unobtrusive, user-friendly interface to allow study participants to make their preference decisions as free from outside influence as possible. Users simply clicked on the images in the order of preference — favorite first, and so on. This made for a pleasingly simple graphical interface. We also worked with Ms. McClary to determine the best way to maintain the strict IRB - required privacy standards.

"My survey turned out perfectly thanks to their precise, thoughtful, tasteful, and user-friendly design and interface. [...] Kosada's web design services were more affordable and accessible than even my University's services. I would definitely work with Kosada again for future research[.]"
— Berae McClary, 2007.06.20

Erie Plating Company

Kosada is hosting a suite of TWiki applications for Erie Plating Company — providing a repository for their IT knowledge, IT inventory, IT task management, and, increasingly, administrative documentation.  We've customized TWiki to meet the data storage needs of Erie Plating Company — the goal being that employees will have one common location to store and retrieve data that can be easily customized and expanded when needed.

A packet of information about some basic, non-confidential components of Erie Plating Company's TWiki is available for download.

Mid-West Pediatric Nephrology Consortium
  • Timespan: 2006.10-present

The Mid-West Pediatric Nephrology Consortium is an affiliation of healthcare professionals of diverse academic and career backgrounds who meet together to share their ideas and findings for research on the topic of treatment of kidney diseases in children. Doctors, nurses, pharmacy experts, and others meet in Ohio, Michigan, Ontario, and the surrounding areas to discuss, plan, and learn together.

Kosada designed this website with unobtrusive styling and a highly usable interface. We redrew their logo to look more streamlined and bold, and let the rest of the site speak for itself. It features user self-signup that can be moderated by an MWPNC officer, a mailing list and blog-style news accessible only to members, user-updateable content, and a variety of abstracts, proposals, meeting minutes, and other documents that are shared among colleagues.

Here are a few of the things they had to say about it:

"Great work - I like it and the option to have restricted information and be able to update information easily (and have a front page!) [...] I am very satisfied and I will be showing [at the meeting] tomorrow!"

"Looks great - clean, functional, intelligent - it really represents our organization well!

"Great work to your team (like the kidney!)"

– John Mahan, steering committee member of MWPNC

2010virtual

Kosada has been working with M2M Editions and their web host to upgrade 2010virtual, one of their TWiki-based websites, to the latest version and also to install and customize additional TWiki plugins.  As a result of the upgrade, Kosada needed to re-style the website.  While we did not design the site graphically, we did implement the conceptual design that was provided to us.

Les Wikis

Kosada has been working with M2M Editions and their web host to upgrade Les Wikis, one of their TWiki-based websites, to the latest version and also to install and customize additional TWiki plugins.  As a result of the upgrade, Kosada needed to re-style the website.  While we did not design the site graphically, we did implement the conceptual design that was provided to us.

Beating Myeloma

Kosada is helping the Galen Foundation build an interactive community providing support for myeloma survivors and their caregivers.  The site consists of numerous articles, forums, personal blogs, mailing lists, and subscription-based content.

Goldstar Events

Kosada was given a conceptual site design and the task to "make TWiki look like it."  The TWiki site is not publically available, but we do have a couple screenshots:

Davidson Theatre
  • Timespan: 2004.12 — 2007.11

Kosada worked with Hilliard Davidson High School Drama Boosters to design, host, and maintain a content-rich site with announcements, news, photographs, and online ticket sales.

project ruori

Kosada handles the web presence of performance-art group project ruori.  We provide site design and hosting services, manage the site's e-commerce, and integrate lots of audio/video content.  The front page features a nifty madlib, generated uniquely for each page view.

Plain City Auction
Plain City Auction: website, mailing list, and point-of-sale by Kosada
  • Timespan: 2002.08 — 2007.11

We worked with Plain City Auction to provide a website that would cater to their clients' need for timely and accurate auction information.  We created a simple, customer-friendly web design that has pleased Plain City Auction customers for several years.

fdiv.net

When Kosada isn't designing sites for other people, we do other nerdy stuff and sometimes document it on fdiv.net.  Kosada designed the theme and provides hosting for this blog.

Left Bank Pawtisserie

Kosada worked with the Left Bank Pawtisserie to create a minimal yet customer-friendly site promoting gourmet dog treats.  We're hosting the site on our secure servers and are continuing site maintenance.

Kosada Incorporated

Kosada uses the same technology that it provides to its customers.  We use TWiki for all internal document management, accounting, payroll, inventory, task management, and as a general repository for any "loose" data that would otherwise be inefficiently stored in filing cabinets.  We customize TWiki regularly to meet the needs of new and innovative methods of data storage and manipulation.

A packet of information (.pdf) about some basic, non-confidential modifications to our TWiki is available for download.