Accurate Data - 2015

Accurate Data Systems was the first company I worked with out of college, back in 2016 or so. They are a small data analytics company run by two modestly self-proclaimed "computer guys" who have been in the field more than 35 years each. They're essentially engineers for hire. They both know their stuff, even when it comes to web development, but they've been too busy to update their website since 2007. They hired me to finish development of their new site.

The designer who came before me came up with the design, but they parted ways after issues with the code and contract; they were asked to deliver plain HTML code to host on the ADS web server, but they had built the site in a CMS. It was my responsibility to clean up the code ADS had been left with. It was mostly gibberish, so I spent a lot of time re-writing the HTML and CSS, removing unnecessary classes, ensuring responsiveness, and making it readable to the human eye. I also got to make the navigation bar red to match their logo, but this was the only design change I made. The rest of the site mimics what code I was handed at the start.

After the homepage design was secure, I built out every other page on the site. There are several hundred pages worth of product information and custom configuration, and each one was done by hand. Additionally, each product sheet was converted from a PDF into HTML, so I spent a lot of time ensuring that the the generated code was displayed correctly, responsive, and SEO friendly. I also set up a massive historical library of Intermec product sheets, which gets visits from all over the world.

Towards the end of the project, we launched a store through Volusion, which I set up to link to specific products through the configuration pages. Each one of these was done with its own chunk of JavaScript, which is certainly not the most efficient way to go about it, but I was ameteur back then. Finally, we started up a tech blog on Wordpress so that ADS could share their expertise through the articles they wrote up over the years.

Since ADS primarily offers their expertise as a service, the intent of the website and shop was not necessarily to make sales, but offer a smooth experience that displayed the prices of hardware before a consultation. However, once the site launched, their number of phone calls went up significantly, which was considered a general success for business.

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