Ted Goas. Web Design + Front-End Code.

The pharmaceutical industry meets thoughtful design.

Canfield Scientific

This is my current day job, where I'm the lead designer and front-end developer. With a few launches waiting in the wings and a few others I cannot talk about yet, I will say this about my time at Canfield so far:

1. I've learned a ton about fluid layouts, responsive & adaptive web design, and cross-browser issues while front-ending dashboards.
2. I've learned what ExpressionEngine is and is not meant for.
3. I've learned how to create jQuery effects using just the core (no plugins).
4. I've learned how to prototype using HTML5 + CSS3 while accommodating less capable web browsers (I'm looking at you, Internet Explorer).

More to come!

Wordpress + Form design = A huge jump in conversions.

Insurance Quotes

I designed and coded a custom Wordpress theme from scratch for a startup focused on both paid and organic search traffic.

Almost all revenue generated with the Insurance Quotes website came from organic and PPC traffic. My goal was to make landing pages that funneled visitors through lead forms. And that's just what I did, designing online forms and testing the heck out of them.

After my redesign went live, revenue from the site increased 140% in just two months.

When I left Insurance Quotes, the site was pulling in well over $-200K a month with minimal expenses. I hear the site was subsequently sold for a pretty penny… Guess I missed my payday.

Email templates and CSS frameworks: all in a day's work.

Insight

I led Insight's html email overhaul, creating the visual designs and coding them into html/css templates that look good even in Gmail and Outlook. Analytics reported 20x more click-throughs than previous designs.

Upon joining the company, I walked into three months of backlogged microsite projects. Long story short, the department hit its deadlines and met partner commitments despite being understaffed. In the process, I created a digital style guide and CSS framework to enable rapid page prototyping.

Helping Santa make good on those promises.

Toys “R” Us

I coded and released over 300 projects in a 6 ½ month period. I'd tell you the environment was high-volume and fast-paced, but just imagine what the world's largest Toy Store is like a few weeks before the holiday season. And I often had to be creative with my code to get around a restrictive safe content management system.

I led the charge in improving Toys“R”Us's website performance (speed) and constantly examined the way our department approached HTML emails. I also helped digitize a print-centric style-guide, including some creative fonts stacks.

Helping enroll college students nationwide.

Nelnet

As the lead web designer at CUnet (a Nelnet co.), I designed for severel web properties focused on lead generation for universities nationwide. Projects ranged from homepage design to landing pages for PPC and SEO.

They all required heavy form design.

Each project was driven by analytics, so our team constantly examined our analytics and tweaked designs until the results where they needed to be.

Needless to say we didn't get too attached to any neat design or cool jQuery animation.

Doing some heavy lifting for Latin Percussion's flagship sites.

Latin Percussion

I worked for Latin Percussion as an employee from 2003 to 2005. During my time with LP, I really cut my teeth learning the ins and outs of writing HTML and CSS, separating content and structure from layout and design. I was also responsible for design, html emails, and audio / video production. So I was a “jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none”.

I continued improving my front-ending skills after leaving LP. I periodically contract with my old department, primary working on building new features for their websites. jQuery sliders, scalable templates, CSS3 transitions, and other things like that. Basically the things the staff doesn't have time to learn and tackle, but can maintain after I provide the initial build.

Freelance gigs, agency work, and one-off projects that I'm proud to have helped with.

Seat Geek

Seat Geek, a data-driven ticket search engine, had designed a stellar website. But their HTML emails needed help and that's where I came in. Using the brand's style guidelines and tone, I designed and coded three separate email templates. And each renders accurately in even the most strict email clients.

Make Paper Easy

I help Make Paper Easy with it's online presense. I handle their HTML emails occasionally design and do front-end development, and advise on things like SEO and Wordpress plugins.

Gig Salad

I created a few new home page comps for this startup. My design didn't like the cut, but I'm proud of the result.

Makatto

I wireframed and designed several interfaces for this eCommerce startup. After a few weeks they hired a full-time designer and my design work was gradually handed off.

Red Bull

While working at Terralever, I worked on the front-end of the Red Bull Flugtag and Soap Box Race websites. Built in C#, these sites were flash-heavy and required live-updating during events.

Nasa

While working at Terralever, I helped write HTML, CSS, and PHP for Phoenix Mars Mission website. The project ended in an on-site training session at University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. I got to work with NASA!