Tropic Survival
Information Architect, UI Designer & Developer
2010 – 2014
KFC Latin America
The Challenge
YUM Brands approached Tropic Survival in early 2011 in need of a centralized location to store all of their media files for KFC Latin America & the Caribbean. Aside from the usual UX planning, wireframing, and design, this project also included the organization, prepping, and uploading of over 50GB of content in various media formats. Throughout this project, I worked closely with the development team on all phases of design, programming, and media organization/upload to properly communicate our needs and ensure that the correct infrastructure including the CMS backend was in place to handle all materials.
After the site was built, I represented Tropic Survival as the media library’s webmaster by creating users and uploading content. When it came time to update the library’s backend, I worked with the agency’s third-party development team while they performed the second round of programming that greatly improved the library administrators’ interactions with user profiles and permissions.
Wireframes & Architecture
Below you will find the wireframes I developed for KFC Library Latin America. For site architecture, I used an Excel sheet rather than an information map due to the sheer volume and complexity of content.
Graphics
After the site's infrastructure development was complete and the UI successfully laid out, the wireframes were handed over to Tropic's art department for fully branded artwork to be applied. This was the result.
aParent IVF
The Challenge
aParent IVF (previously Highland Park IVF) is an in-vitro fertilization clinic that required a branding package and a new website.
After full design & development cycles, the new aParent IVF site had some of the original site's elements while incorporating all of aParent's new branding and user interaction goals. A few features of the new site include patient and physician portals as well as CMS-driven content. These features allow patients and physicians to interact with one another through messaging, test results, and photos.
Wireframes & Site Maps
My participation in this project began with the site's architecture. With the original site containing a lot of repetitive content, a cluttered layout, and a few too many redirects, this site's restructuring truly began from the ground up. During the architecture & layout phases, I began with the foundation of aParent's old site (hpivf.com), then stretched and manipulated it over a few iterations into what you'll find in the wireframes below.
Site Maps
Wireframes
Graphics
Once my information maps and wireframes were approved, they were handed over to the graphics department for final art direction. After a branded look was established on the home page by the art director and approved by the client, I was asked to complete all homepage graphic elements and then continue designing throughout the site. The final graphics below are the completed versions of the wireframes above.
Site Development and Final Thoughts
After all of the graphics for the site were approved, the completed PSDs were handed over to our development team. Throughout the entire development cycle of both front and back ends, I served as the liaison between the account executives and developers, many times putting my front-end development skills to use by making site corrections and additions myself.
Once the development was complete, I served as aParentIVF's webmaster on behalf of Tropic Survival for 1 year after the site's completion while easing one of the aParent team members into the role. During this period, I was in charge of posting new stories to the site, making numerous revisions to site design and backend, setting up and managing aParent's Google places listing, and creating event-specific micro-sites.
Young America Microsite
The Challenge
Young America, a child brand of Stanley Furniture, approached Tropic Survival with the task of running online campaigns. After many case studies, the conclusion was reached that the retailer-built landing pages for Young America's online campaigns were ineffective due to inconsistencies between the campaign ads and the landing page. To solve this, we built out a customizable microsite template that each retailer could then make their own, allowing the Young America brand to be consistent across all retailers' websites running ad campaigns with Tropic Survival / CometAds.
I built the UI for, designed, and coded the Young America microsite. Screenshots are below.
Pathman Lewis
The Challenge
Pathman Lewis is a Miami-based law firm that approached Tropic Survival with the task of rebranding the firm. In addition to a new logo set and stationary, they also asked that the agency rebuild their website from the ground up. After building Pathman Lewis' site structure and user interfaces, I coded and maintained the new Pathman Lewis site, updating it with news articles and bios as required.
Home Screen Evolution
After completing the site's wireframes, the client came back to us with a few ideas, prompting a home screen study. You can see 3 iterations of the home screen below before the client finally decided on the fourth.
Wireframes
Here's a sample of the other wireframes created for the site before the home screen study.
Graphics
After wireframes were created and approved by the client, I worked closely with the art department for final designs. Once I had the final designs, I coded the site.
