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Competencies

Graphic Design (or Visual Communication)

Graphic design is the process of visually communicating information using text and/or images to present an idea or deliver a message.

Graphic design entails a wide range of cognitive and aesthetic skills, including typography, imaging and page layout. The term graphic design often refers to both the process by which the work is created and the products of the work. These products include a variety of creative solutions—printed media, such as books, magazines and brochures as well as electronic media—often referred to as interactive design, or multimedia design. View Examples »

Digital Imaging

Digital imaging (or digital image acquisition) is the creation of digital images (stored as a computer data file) typically from a physical object. The term is often assumed to imply the processing, compression, storage, printing, and display of such images. A digital image may be created directly from a physical scene by a camera or similar capture device. It may also be obtained from another image in an analog medium, such as a photograph, or printed paper, by an "image scanner."

Many technical images—such as those acquired with remote sensing equipment (e.g. radio telescopes, radar or LiDAR—are actually obtained by complex processing of non-image data). A digital image can also be computed from a geometric model, mathematical formula or by the process of "rendering" a 3-dimensional dataset. These data can be stored in either raster or vector file formats. View Examples »

Image Manipulation (or Photo-Editing)

Simply put, photo editing is the technique of modifying a photographic image.

Digital photo editing (also known as "pixel-pushing") is the process where photographs are taken with a digital camera, input directly into a computer and modified with special software. If a digital camera is not available, a printed photograph may be digitized using an image scanner. Photos can also be obtained from stock photography sets or even created from scratch using computers, software, and drawing tablets. The term photo editing encompasses everything that can be done to a photo (either in a darkroom or on a computer). Edits may be subtle (e.g. alterations to color channels, brightness or contrast), but may also be explicit (e.g. removing the background from an image). Occasionally the "modified image" has little or no resemblance to the photo from which it started. Image editing software can be used to apply effects and change the image until the desired result is achieved. View Examples »

Graphical User Interface Design

The term "user interface design" (as it is used here) is the development of software applications or websites with the focus on the user's interaction with the system.

Unlike graphic design, where the goal is to make the object or application physically attractive, the goal of user interface design is to make the user's interaction experience as intuitive as possible. This is also called user-centered design. Where good graphic design is bold and visually appealing, good user interface design is often subtle and invisible. However both graphic design and interface design are used together in the production of the GUI (graphical user interface). View Examples »

Prototyping (for Software & Websites)

A prototype is the first or original model of an application or piece of software. It involves experimentation and the production of a "mock-up" that suggests viable systems and work-flow. Prototyping may be conducted with or without user involvement depending on the application and the requirements of the project.

The primary purpose of prototyping is to translate requirements into a preliminary representation of the final product. If the requirements for a human-computer interface is ambiguous or inadequate, prototyping is used to define an acceptable solution. This conserves time and resources prior to the commitment of effort to construct a final product.

Web Design & Development

Web design is the design of pages, websites and web applications using markup languages (e.g. HTML, XHTML), styling languages (e.g. XSL and CSS) and may include the use of images and other media. Web design is in contrast with web development, which includes web server configuration, writing web applications and server security. Web design adheres to both standards and best practices yet oscillates between being a science and an art.

Gifted web designers endeavor to construct websites which are visually appealing and easy to use. Truly talented web designers take this further by constructing websites with "semantic" markup while ensuring that the content is accessible to all users—including those with special needs.

Web development is a broad term that incorporates many areas of developing a website or web application. This can include e-commerce engines, content development, client-side/server-side coding, and web server configuration. However, among web programmers, "web development" usually refers only to the non-design aspects of building websites, e.g. writing markup and server-side scripts.

Web development can range from developing the simplest static page of plain text to the most complex web-based applications, electronic businesses, or other related services. View Examples »

Web Standards

Web standards is a general term for the formal standards and technical specifications that define and describe aspects of the World Wide Web.

In recent years, the term has been more frequently associated with the trend of endorsing a set of standardized best practices for building websites, and a philosophy of web design and development that includes those methods.

Usually, when Web standards are discussed, the following standards are seen as foundational:

• Recommendations for markup languages (e.g. HTML, XHTML, SVG, and XForms) from the W3C.
• Recommendations for stylesheets (e.g. XSL and CSS) from the W3C.
• Recommendations for the Document Object Model from the W3C.
• Standards for ECMAScript (a.k.a. JavaScript) from ECMA International.

For more information about Web Standards and the Web Standards movement, see the Web Standards Project (WaSP) website.

Web Accessibility

Web accessibility refers to the techniques and best practices for making Web pages that are accessible to people using a wide range of user agent software and devices, not just standard desktop browsers.

This is especially important for people with disabilities such as visual impairment. In order to access the Web, users with special needs require special software and/or input devices in addition to a standard web browser, or specially designed web browsers.

Rich Media (Interactive Multimedia & Streaming Media) Design

Multimedia is media that uses multiple forms of information content and information processing (e.g. text, audio, graphics, animation, video, interactivity) to inform or entertain the user. Multimedia also refers to the use of electronic media to store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is similar to traditional mixed media in fine art, but with a broader scope. The term "rich media" is synonymous for interactive multimedia.

Streaming media is multimedia that is continuously received by, and normally displayed to, the user whilst it is being delivered by the provider. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather than to the medium itself. The distinction is usually applied to media that are distributed over telecommunications networks, as most other delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, audio CDs). The verb 'stream' is also derived from this term, meaning to deliver media in this manner.

In the Spotlight

OIG

Business in the 21st century isn't just about making decisions. Its about executing better, faster, and making proactive decisions based on actionable information. It is about a vision and a strategy for dealing with today's challenges driven by an integrated view of the world.

Hotrods

The term "hot rod" became popular in 1950's—originally meaning an older car which had been modified by reducing weight, modifying, tuning, or replacing the engine to give more power, as well as changing the wheels and tires to improve traction and handling.

EarthWhere™

EarthWhere is a web-based, spatial data management and provisioning application. It represents a paradigm shift in the ability to acquire, process and provision satellite imagery and other "mission-critical" spatial assets.

Boulderama

This project was inspired from an earlier group of test shots that I pieced together in December of 2006. My "new and improved" panoramic image of the Flatirons (and the City of Boulder) was created from approximately twenty photographs which were taken from the Scenic Overlook in January of 2007.