Originally called “NASA Cultural Convergence,” Kevin’s first contribution to this contract website project for NASA art was to suggest a re-brand resulting in NASA ArtSpace.
NASA ArtSpace
Design Problems Addressed: The project presented many interesting challenges, including branding to make the concept accessible, infrastructure issues in the hosting and method of production of web pages, development and maintainability after publication. Governmental requirements were also a concern.
Measuring Success: Production of a publishable web site and hand-off of development and maintenance were the key objectives of this short-term contract consulting project.
Process: As mentioned above, Kevin began by discussing the project requirements with the customer NASA scientist and helping re-brand the proposed site. The initial intent was to build a WordPress site hosted on the new Nebula web server, outside the primary NASA web infrastructure. He designed the main feature art, using NASA-related artworks and developed the site’s proposed page structure. Midway through the project, the customer decided to switch to the primary NASA custom content management system, so Kevin learned how to use this CMS in two days and proceeded to build a proof of concept in a NASA training space. He then overcame organizational inertia to secure a proper mount point for the proposed site, then proceeded to build a publishable prototype, including the first 20 pages, then taught members of the New Media Innovation Team how to produce additional pages after the end of the project contract.
Results: The finished prototype was shipped on the NASA public web infrastructure in August 2011 and was viewable to those who had the URL. Unfortunately, inertia re-asserted itself after the end of the contract, and the site was not linked from the official NASA site navigation. The site was abandoned in a subsequent NASA upgrade to Drupal in 2015. Screen shots are all that remain of the project.
NASA Quantum Technologies Conference Mobile-responsive Web Site
Design Problems Addressed: The purpose of the site was to encourage and facilitate enrollment and attendance at a NASA conference about quantum technologies, and the customer wanted to use the then new mobile-responsive approach.
Process: Kevin met with the NASA customer for the site and discussed the project parameters, hosting, and approach. After initial wireframing and approvals, he built the small number of needed web pages in HTML5 and CSS3, making them mobile-responsive. The site was uploaded, tested and approved.
Results: The customer reported great satisfaction with the design of the site, and the conference was reported as fully successful, with compliments made about the quality of the web site. This was likely the first NASA mobile-responsive web site ever deployed. This site is still available. https://quantum.nasa.gov/
