Arley.me solves a number of problems for me; not the least of which it will catch the people who hear, but phonetically misunderstand “rle.me“, and hopefully improve my search engine ranking on just “Arley”. More than that, I find personal projects an awesome opportunity to cut my teeth on new technology and practices.

Arley.me was my first foray into HTML5 and CSS3. While the site isn’t completely done up in the newest markup (I do want this site to look decent in older browsers!) I was able to get a bit nerdy with some new layout and style practices.

In anticipation of the new printed DEBUT business card I also wanted this site to act as my ‘card’ in a much more literal way. I have designed this site with the mobile user in mind. Android, iPhone and other smartphone users should be able to experience the site perfectly – and without zooming or horizontal scrolling (when viewing in landscape), and hopefully with very little vertical scroll.

Would love to know what you think: http://arley.me

More Reading

Six Revisions: 30 Impressive vCard Web Designs

Smashing Magazine: Coding A HTML 5 Layout From Scratch

The recent announcement of tr.im to shutdown caused some panic. Even though they later recanted, the damage was done. Many in the community started to wonder; “What happens when the short URLs we’ve used die?” The answer of course is that if a service like tr.im closed, all of the links you made would effectively no longer work; rendering countless articles, tweets useless.

Who can fault tr.im for wanting to throw in the towel? More popular shorteners like bit.ly, tinyurl and is.gd must have massive server bills, and few opportunities to monetize their sites. Nothing lasts forever, so relying on these sites started to feel a bit dangerous. The solution is simple; create your own private URL shortener.

I set out to do this after seeing an article on Digg on the subject. When the time came to set it up, it was easier than I had originally hoped! Using a little PHP app called Lessn (linked below in the example) I was able quickly get my own up and running. The hardest part was thinking of a URL! I chose rle.me (RLE said quickly sounds like Arley, it was a high school nickname) as it was the shortest URL I could get (I think all two letter combinations of popular extensions are taken).

Now a long URL like http://www.shauninman.com/archive/2009/08/17/less_n can be as short as http://rle.me/1

Also notably;

• this was the third client that I’ve been approached by in recent times who has been stung by another developer.
• It’s the first site I used the CSS export from Fireworks
• It’s my first live site that I worked on with a sub-contractor.

Check it out, http://furnitureoutlet.ca/

You can see it here http://www.nipissingu.ca/prospectivestudents/

The other site I wanted to feature on this recent work post is a charity piece I did for the North Bay & Area Community Foundation’s Stache Bash fundraiser. This was a quick-turnaround site that had to be out the door in a couple of days, but it was a lot of fun. I even got to do some of the ‘manly’ writing encouraging men from my old community to grow moustaches for a good cause.

http://stachebash.ca/

With the launch of their redesigned paper we wanted to give the site a bit of an update too. This version of Independent is made with the Drupal CMS and is a lot more interactive for readers. I didn’t want to alienate the current reader base so I kept the redesign simple and familiar.

This is the first Drupal site I have made to this scale, check it out
The Kincardine Independent.

It’s been a very busy summer for me! I’m working on several larger sites that employ varius Content Management Systems (or CMS). One that launched recently was for PADDLE. This site has two parts, the public side as shown, and a private blog for members of PADDLE. These sites were built in WordPress which I feel has the most user friendly backend dashboard.

http://paddlenorthbay.ca/

Here’s to a productive summer!

Also in recent weeks I have been diving deeper into the world of CMS. With sites in Textpattern, WordPress and Drupal on the horizon it’s very exciting times indeed!

http://jakeandthefundamentals.com/

It has inspired me to start a Recent Work section of my site. It’s the perfect compromise; updating my website while highlighting a few client projects.

Today marks the launch of the Campus Trails website. Campus Trails is the network of trails behind my Alma-matter Canadore College / Nipissing University in North Bay Ontario. Working with Rebecca Barker and the Comm team I helped come up with the name for the trails, the logo, trail signs and this website.

http://campustrails.com/

House Works Company site went live last week. This was another Benjamin James Marketing Communications job that went perfectly. The combination of team work and fast acting clients brought this project together in nearly record time.

http://houseworkscompany.ca/