When people ask me what I do I often reply that I am a business information systems application developer. When I get the blank stare or the expected “Huh?” I tell them I build web pages. If they appear in the least bit interested I then explain the differences in the jobs of those who create a web application.

A web designer is someone who creates the artistic concepts used in a web page. They generally use graphics tools like photoshop to create the look and feel of the site. They may or may not be trained to code those pages. Their focus usually tends to be on the customer experience and the marketing of a product.

A web developer is someone who codes the look and feel so it works across multiple browsers and meets the designers specifications. He may use a variety of web coding tools to acheive the results.

An Applications specialist is a developer who provides users with data from various backend databases or links to the information they may need to perform their job or monitor their job performance. The applications specialist may be part of an IT team or be the reporting analyst in a Finance or Sales department. The applications specialist is the one who is responsible for getting data from various sources and making it accessible in an easy to read/use format. They provide the tools to input data, retrieve data, edit data, combine data, and distribute data. They are often familiar with the quantity and quality of the data and help to provide meaningful reports and information to those in need. The goal of the specialist is to help others make decisions based on data available.

I do all 3 jobs. I do much of my design work using Photoshop for early layout and testing of the look, as well as image management. Then I use HTML, CSS, PHP, Coldfusion, WebFOCUS, Javascript and a few other development languages to build website structure. In building the structure I am connecting the databases and other sources of information into the overall application so that the application is always dynamic and changing.

Below are some examples of my work, but since they are work related I can not show them at full size due to the sensitive nature of the data.

This is a home page I designed for the application I work on most. It provides several links and bits of information for those who visit it. It is a gate way to other information in the application. Users can click links or fill in form elements and submit to get some details about orders or products.
It contains news, tips, and other relevant information to the users. For admins there are links to internal tools.

Another homepage design for a different application. Here the links take the user deeper into the application and allow admins to control what the users have access to.

This is an application page which has links to various documents. Admins can add documents via management tools on the page. Users see icons to help them anticipate what kind of document they will be opening (word, excel, pdf, etc…) I tried to provide user guidence by creating categories of data and organizing the most important stuff at the top of each category. Behind the scenes the admins can control ranking and duration of the information available.

Part of any BI application is the ability to input data or to update data within that application. This form utilizes tabs to categorize data elements the user must provide. areas in grey are self populating but can still be edited if necessary. Some forms also allow the user to limit the scope of the reports they require by filling in the criteria needed. Where ever possible I try to pre-populate dropdown boxes or other information so the user does not have to type the values correctly. Its my job to make data/form entry idiot proof.

In my own side business I use the skills from my day job to help small businesses find ways to incorporate data into their websites, or to capture data from their users so they can use it for business decisions. So try to think of your website as more than a sales/info pamphlet, but rather an online application which interacts with your users and your business needs. An evolving informational website will attract more users and keep existing users coming back to see what is new. You can also receive feedback and important information to better reach your audience/customers.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Web Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.