DATES:
January 2002-March 2002

SPECIFICS:
Creative direction, HTML and graphic design and production, copy editing, ecommerce activation, quality assurance testing.

OVERVIEW:
I took the contract to design and build Realty Radio Rentals off a referral. The clients sell a product that helps marketing FSBO (For Sale By Owner) homes, by using a low-powered radio transmitter to narrowcast a pre-recorded message on an infinite loop. Really quite ingenious, actually.

The clients were very good with real estate and complete neophytes as far as technology and online marketing went. I had a lot of experience with this kind of person from my days at the California Association of REALTORS, and had a decent understanding of the issues involved. I set about creating a simple, crisp, clean online experience that would convey confidence and professionality, the most important things for people dealing with multi-thousand dollar deals and properties.

The site was designed to a lowest-common-denominator specification, meaning if the client's grandmother showed up using AOL 3.0, she'd be able to experience the site as well as someone using the latest browser. I sketched out the design specs and style guide for the site in about a day, and spent most of my time haggling with a product called Miva Order, which the clients wanted to use despite my recommendations to the contrary and despite Miva phasing the product out of their lineup. In the end, I got everything online (a month later than I anticipated, as Miva seemed reluctant to admit they'd ever heard of a product called Order, much less sold one), and the client was ecstatic. It's one of the very few sites I've worked on that's still online (as of the time of this writing).