Working as a WebSite Developer

JOHN GATES

Web Producer, Designer, Developer
Resume || WebSite Screenshots

As you can see from the rest of this website I have spent 50 years playing music. I became interested in computer technology when I realized that MusicLab, the music instructional program I was developing could best be delivered via the computer. As a result, I got a Masters degree in Instructional Technology from Teachers College, Columbia University.

My first "computer" job was at AT&T where I participated in an interactive television project. I worked for Steve Plastrik (later VP of Internet Technologies at Viacom) who taught me to "see" the screen... from the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of the overall content design and layout to the smallest graphics problem or typo.

I started building websites while at IBM in 1995 and for the next six years I was involved in the development and deployment of professional sports websites -- as the Internet Technology Director at the National Hockey League website (www.nhl.com) and the Internet Technology Manager at the PGA TOUR website (www.pgatour.com). While ultimately responsible for technical issues, most of my day-to-day focus was on the design, structural integrity and effectiveness of the website content presentation.

To that end I:

  • Developed procedures, page structure and design templates, and standards and practices for both content and technical requirements, including navigation design, HTML coding, graphics standards, content development and publishing practices.
  • Designed and developed site "experiences" and branding strategies based on client and end-user requirements.
  • Contributed a strong knowledge of design: navigation, page layout, typography, scale, and color; and cross/browser and usability issues.
  • There were 1000's of pages on each site (most of which I designed and built), and over a quarter of a million people looking at over a million pages a day!

I learned two VERY important things in the above process:

  1. IF YOU ARE THE BEST SOURCE OF THE INFORMATION "THEY WILL COME" (and usually return) -- The golf tournament "real-time-scoring" pages were the most popular pages on the PGATOUR.com website and were served millions of times a day in spite of number 2 below...
  2. IF THE USERS EXPERIENCE IS BAD THEY WILL "NEVER RETURN" -- the "words to live by" regarding page design at IBM were "I don't care how long the page takes to open as long as it beautiful when it does." The IBM created site design for the PGATOUR.com website was a perfect example... the home page took over 2 minutes to open (1998 and modems). However, since the site had the "real-time scoring" it still enjoyed huge traffic. The users soon learned how to bypass the home page and go straight for the scoring.

    Note: Have a look at the current (05-04-2006) Leaderboard Scoring Page. See all the sponsored features... the TOUR continues to sacrifice the user's experience to the advertising dollar!!!

Have a look at other websites I've built

Here are important and informative "papers" I have collected from the web... some are wordy "academic" papers and were not intended for web consumption... all address important issues...