Special Projects

Book Covers for Author

2024-03-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

As part of my services as a Graphic Designer and Artist I'm especially proud of my work for this particular book author. Dr. Rafael Batista.

He entrusted me with the concept and design for several of his books. Resulting in a variety of book covers that are available to purchase as they are published within the amazon books platform.

All these book covers were designed specifically with the author's instructions and I'm glad he was quite pleased with the results.

More works as a Remote Graphic Design Service for SBD and their clients.

2024-02-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

For many years I have been giving design services in one way or another to SBD(Solutions by design) Most of those are web administration and designing services in which I have to work directly with WordPress and add some features that are specific for the clients and may require a bit more "creativity" to accomplish.

These features may include whole site re-design, re-branding and in some cases re-programming. Some clients like simple things and some like fancy/extravagant interactive elements integrated into what may otherwise be a static informational site.

This is one of the sites that went from the old version (on the left/first image) to the new re-design according to the new branding book the client provided. I managed to integrate their new branding into our template and modify their menu structure to accommodate the many features and levels of separation within the website and their curvy footer with off centered semi-transparent logo. With that said, I also managed to script my way into some elements being designed to keep their branding working such as the hexagonal list items and gallery image hexagons within the articles. The goal is to keep the branding and keep the site responsive with mobile access and adjustments being done on the fly. I believe this to be one of the hardest yet most satisfying implementations.

This other site has some modifications for translations including image swapping, also has a nice script for "anonymous" case reporting that fills the form in the corresponding fields before sending it. The website includes animated elements within some of the headers to give them some additional depth. It also includes one of the first versions of my interactive map which became quite popular within their government clients and it is used there after in other designs in more advanced versions.

This project is one of the hardest so far. Its a large complex site with a dynamic design which I had to assemble from a teammate's design with an array of several complex elements the client needed withing. Everything from moving elements to interactive SVG, an additional backend(other than the one in WordPress) to load certain objects such as quick articles, pdf with descriptions, images etc. (all of which WordPress can do but some clients want certain things ) This website also features the most complex version of the interactive map. a Fully SVG based map that generates locational pins and filters the TablePress table based on region clicked, filtered dropdown list of regions or search. The table itself is converted via script into content blocks/cards instead of having just a table -for aesthetic reasons and to give a more "directory" feeling. Originally I was just going to assemble the website but due to some unforeseen reasons I ended up making the map implementations and modifications as well.

There is a lot of CSS,HTML and jQuery which I had to experiment on to make things work. I pride myself on getting things done and as I tell my friend: I'm not a programmer I'm a Graphic Designer... he laughs in my face because whenever he brings me this hard things to do I make every effort and get them to work.

So far I have learned to use the templates to my advantage and with Elementor, Enfold or some other tools which let me integrate script customizations I have been blessed enough to be able to accomplish many things that at one point were deemed impossible(or improbable). I have been using JSFiddle to "fiddle" around for my implementations and it has been quite a Godsend as I'm able to modify ideas, scripts and, keep what I make for later use. Maybe playing around with AI will get some more oomph into the sites in the future as well.

A year and a few months at ICC Thermal

2020-05-05T12:42:00.008-07:00

In my time in ICC so far I've been doing some serious work. ICC is an analytics company that specializes in moisture intrusion and helping save money to their clients by pinpointing where the roof problem areas are on their buildings so they can repair rather than replace the roof insulation. This saves them money by showing them where the problem areas are, if any, how big the problem is and should they repair or replace. They use a forensic method to ensure the clients the accuracy of the information provided and the client in turn can use this to evidence their claims to insurers like FEMA. I sure have learned a lot about a topic I had no idea would be so interesting to work with.

I worked on their reports by assembling the imagery and report. During this time I optimized processes and enhanced imagery so that the product would look its best and came out faster each time. Additionally I implemented tracking sheets and processes so we knew in which stage we were standing and how long it would generally take to finish one project or another.

I took a look at their dated website and developed a newer version that meets their needs while keeping up to date with today's technology.

I did the same with their web reports although for those I used a web template which I modified with PHP and other scripts to meet their needs and enhance user experience.

I've learned some interesting things about thermal analysis and moisture intrusion while implementing modern methods to aid production in a company that has had 20+ years in the market and needed some updates to keep the fire going.

Made an experimental Flipbook for the marketing: designed some elements and the magazine also made some articles and script modifications for loading a separate html into the front page for "special effects"(animated cover page).

This is a sample of the interactive magazine with the animated cover page. It has links to the articles within it and you can zoom and scroll around navigating it. This is not the production version or size and may have some slight inconsistencies.
Open in new window

Here's a few video promotions I was working on as well. Worked on Photoshop, Illustrator, After effects and blender depending on the materials needed.

Single small project.

2019-01-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

CHEMOLEE LABS CORPORATION WEBSITE

Added this one to my repertoire of works rather recently. Designed the logo and website to have their old website remade as it was pretty outdated. This was a quick work thanks to the team as they provided the needed assets quickly and sped up the process quite a bit.

SBD Remote

2018-08-10T13:34:00.006-07:00

This year because of hurricane Maria I had to forcibly make the decision to move out of PR. This made a severe dent on my ability to work in PR with my former employer or rely on my usual contacts, however, I was blessed enough to be able to work remotely with Solutions by Design. I used to work with them and have kept contact for many years.

Usually we do consulting and design for government or private clients.

I'm proud to have been working in many of our island's public service's pages, their design and the development behind some or all of the applications that make them work(mostly made with Wordpress and custom design and coding by our team).

I was able to participate in the design and see the progress of a project for a back to school program sponsored by the Canovanas Municipality and several other agencies.

Here are some pictures of that specific project as it developed from concept to reality.

Initial concept.

3d test of location.

Work at location.

More Work at location.

Final setup at location.

Red Dog

This was a request from a client through SBD. They were attenpting to make a commercial with their logo. This was my take on it at the time.

Personal app for kids.

2017-08-31T10:13:00.001-07:00

I usually post here works I've done for others, however, I'm making a real nice app for kids.

I'm taking my time making it right and cleaning up details one by one but the sum of it is it's an activity app with 3 basic but entertaining and repeatable activities.

Here are some screenshots. It's a work in progress but I'll make this a finished product soon.

It's based on a "farm" and helping the farmers with some basic chores.

Chores include matching shapes and colors. The shapes and the colors are random so every
time it will be different.

The app includes a memory a shapes/color match and a coloring book with images specially made for the app.
The memory game has 3 skill levels increasing the ammount of cards. Placement is also random every time.
The game is based on re-playability and short bursts of play.

I'll add the finished product's link as soon as the product is finished.

Some works while at WAPA.tv

2015-01-08T14:03:00.001-08:00

Here I'll be adding some of the work I've finished while at WAPA.tv

I'm working in the interactive department as their web architect. Amount the responsibilities I have of maintaining the web applications and sites I have to develop new site scripts, some interactive applications and, in some cases games.

WBC webpage project for Wapa.tv

Made a wordpress theme template modifications.
Added some external data integrations (json and xml)
Kept the site up and running with the most recent data until the WBC 2017 ended.
Made some modifications so that those interested could see the historical data.
Managed the site and the implemented widgets so that they adjusted to the responsive layout.

Several scripts integrations

I managed to integrate several scripts that were needed into the main website design.
Custom script solutions were created and implemented into the site so that they worked with Its overall look.
I also took some ideas and scripting I've developed over the years and integrated them into some of the main site's areas so that we can custom change backgrounds or call special elements into view that were previously "impossible" to accomplish.
There has been changes made to the overall look and feel of the site.

Mobile web

Adjusted the old mobile site and implemented the new design provided by the designer.
Included new features that were previously unavailable.
Created a weather widget that takes the data from the provided xml weather data as needed.
Implemented a solution to sort some specific content and display only the desired amount of items,
Included special views for live events and live audience participation. (these features were made on the main site and included on the mobile version as they were not previously available in either version)
This site is actively being maintained.

Trullas de Wapa

This project was especially painful to make in my case. There was a short development time period and a lot of content to be included, coordinated, synchronized and optimized. The object of this is an application which lets a user take a picture of his/her face after choosing the character's gender. Then they choose their preferred program from a menu and there is an avatar created with their face which is in turn placed on a scene with the crew from the chosen program. They are singing a "bomba" and dancing to music. The end result is an animated post card they can share on Facebook or twitter. The animated final post card also re-directs whoever is viewing it and clicks on the "make one" button back to the creating site. I'm happy with the final product although I'm not happy that there was so much work put into something that was not advertised as much as it could have. Such is life.

Noticentro América press release webpage.
This webpage had to be somewhat responsive and adapt to a mobile format. Includes video a small gallery and some document. It also contains a small form and a switch link from Spanish to English which swaps English and Spanish content of the webpage. I didn't make the graphic design however I translated it to the actual webpage and made the webpage keep the overall design trough it's responsiveness. I regard this web page as quite a feat because it had to be made in record time with little or no data to use all the way up til the very last minute in which I had to add all the actual text into it.

Basketball Challenge game /app:
This game app has proven challenging but with the research I did for the christmas postcard app and some of the plugins I used the process of setting it up was a bit more streightforward. I had to do some last minute changes to the final layout, fonts and details but the whole thing was done and working on time. The art and design was made by the team designer. I did the backend programming and webapp setup and funcionality.

Features:

Uses Parse to create and maintain user accounts and data.
Gathers user basic information.
Can share on facebook your high score.
It updates the user score if higher than previous.
Has a leaderboard.

Scripting and modifications:

Developed a script for the galleries template so when the a client hosts a specific gallery we can place their logo in a cool background thus branding that particular gallery.
Did the same for the programs template this way they can be branded and we can even add a poll for each program without making a separate page for eah program. I'm trying to keep things as simple as i can and as reusable as possible.

Miscellaneous work:

There was many miscellaneous images, sliders, banners, transnationals, that had to be created. We are a skeleton crew so I had to perform such tasks in many occasions Which is good since it serves as a respite from all the scripting and coding which at times tends to become tedious. This also helps take the mind of the code and rest so when you hit the code again you may have a different solution to a previous issue that you didn't think of before.

Some projects for SBD while I was still there.

2014-12-11T11:15:00.001-08:00

Here I'll add some images and information about some projects I worked on while at SBD.

Aside from working with their webpage, optimization and programming I was part of several other projects that varied in difficulty and proved challenging either because of the time they needed to be completed on or due to some complexity that added to the usually short time frame made them rather difficult.

Political promotional material concepts and design:

This is one of many projects that required me to work on political campaign graphic design. The challenge here mainly being that I'm a completely apolitical person and it tends to go against my nature to actually help such efforts. My professionalism and my conscience were constantly at odds on these projects because as a professional I like to make quality products that take the message and gets it to the people however as a person I am completely against political campaigns and how they are aimed at manipulating the ideals and minds of people for the benefit of a specific group. Which in turn gets me pleased at the quality of the work I made and displeased at the use its being given. I have very strong ideals of how things are, should be and I can see past the shrouds placed in by people with my own skills who are also payd to create images that display a "controlled" image of reality.
During this period I made several products which include but are not limited to:

Campaign and group logos
Social webpages
Banners in different formats for several groups (3x6, 6x3 3x12...)
Promo brochures
Id cards
Stationary
Video and sound editing
3d placing concept for a big event.

Program user interface and design:

Services Application

This was a particularly challenging thing to work on. It had many "moving parts" to apply design to and to make work. I even went as far as to directly program some of the applications functionality myself along with the programmer whom I worked with hand in hand to make sure every part looked as good as it needed to and kept a level of consistency and efficiency for the client and users not to get lost in the many depths of the program application itself. Achieving this was very challenging while keeping aesthetic values in check because the time frame and the complexity of a completely new product were keeping tensions rather high. Everyone had to take part in one way or another on this product and the end result is a combination of the efforts, ideas and coordination from all the team members involved.

A similar product was developed later which required some adaptations as well. Fortunately the experience from the original product helped speed up the development cycle.

Skills used during this product development:

Concept design
Interface design
HTML/CSS and Jquery programming
Programming logic (used to interpret the lead programmer's code to implement modifications as needed for performance or aesthetic optimizations)
Graphic design
Digital image optimization
Mobile interface design and prototyping.
Project management and tool development. (made a change and but tracking sheet in excel to simplify the process and quantify progress)

Progressive development and design:

Here I'll include some projects that were a bit too advanced for the time they were considered. These projects usually require higher amounts of research and development time for the concept to be finalized.

Augmented Reality:

I had the opportunity to research and play around with augmented reality as a marketing, educational and informative media. This allows for a simple product like a bottle of water, a postcard, a poster or even a sticker to be able to expand upon itself and the information it provides by adding digital elements to the physical world. You could say I was able to work with interactive enhancements to the real world that are rendered in the digital world. As abstract a concept as this is, its also a very real and useful tool. Some museums, advertisement agencies and even educational institutions are testing, implementing, and innovating on this field. This is what I call experience that will be really useful for the recent future that I wish most designers got a chance to be able to work with.

Game Application:

Project Freefall Bird:
Yes it came to be that as a special project I managed to develop my own game under the SBD name. The process took me a while to get the kinks out but the end result was a fully functional game app that you can download for free from the Google app store. This project involved many hats:

Character Design
Interface Design
Game environment design
Game assets design
Level design
Concept art
music and sound effects(the music was composed by a co-worker but I was involved in the creative process and the final decision as to which music was applied to which stage)
Database and mysql setup(this is for further expanding the capabilities of the game)
Beta testing(lots of bug hunting and squashing)
Prototyping, Social webpage design, and website inclusion in the SBD main page.
3d design to get the character prepped for promotional 3d animations that are still in development.
Lots and lots of research and development including lots of forum diving in the development community.
Documentation and project management.(made a modified version of the excel sheet we made for the Cidra product so that we could track the changes and progress of this product)

I did not get much sleep time or time to make the game gather hype tho. Eventually I'll have to make a publicity strategy to make the game more known.

As of march I moved to another job as a web architect which will prove challenging as well however the experience and acquired knowledge will be useful for the challenges ahead.

[update: 4/2017] I did however keep contact with them and some freelance work has been done after the date.
I'm currently working on implementing an online course platform for them.

New webpage for SBD

2012-09-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

I recently switched working places and re-joined a company I've known for over 10 years. I've been harrasing them to make a new webpage since their old one was quite outdated. After joining them again and a few projects we finally had some time to work on the page design. Here's a sample image of the change. On the left you can see the previous incarnation of the page. An outdated design with hard to update methods and rough graphics. The new one is using wordpress as a CMS and has a very flexible base template we purchased called Affinity. Of course being who and how I am I couldn't just leave the default styles alone so I messed with the whole colors, the backgrounds, generated tons of images and added a little more pizzazz with the help of animate.css so that the page content is not static and boring but responsive and dynamic. I will be tweaking the thing a lot more in the next few days by adding a map to the contact area and probably a form for contacting us instead of the basic "mailto" which always gets on my nerves. Hopefully I'll be able to work on some more tweaks and projects soon. I have some other pending articles and two books on the writing... and a baby comming... life just got a little more interesting :)

Team Docusign Training

2012-03-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

This is a short form training I gave to a small group of teammates that are going to be working with the Docusign service we use at our institution. The training was quick and to the point and it focused on how to upload, edit and send documents using the platform. I also added some best practices and at the end I stayed with the managers so to explain and Identify the different challenges they will be facing when sharing the service among some related departments that will be providing service to our students.

As to why am I dressed preety... well I take pride in giving a good training and it helps give the message that this is serious business and it merits dressing-up for it. Plus I make this look good :)

Some numbers taken from the evaluation charts. I do wish some of the people that couldn't come did come... most of them really needed it.

Oh well... it probably means I'll have to eventually give another one.

9th SUAGM congress conference at Caribe Hilton

2011-11-21T10:59:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday, I was blessed to be able to participate in this congress. I learned a lot when working for SUAGM, and it’s only fair to give back some of that knowledge to the educational community, even if I work for a competitor University, the main goal is to educate. I also had the chance to share some information about Copyrights in the instructional and graphic design field.

My participation was focused on the US Copyrights and its implication on course graphic design. It included some examples, a simple plea to the conscience of the educators to properly ask for permission to use content, and an explanation on how to obtain the proper licenses to enrich their courses without putting themselves or their institutions in legal jeopardy. All in all, it was a great experience! I was able to be part of a great team of professionals each with their own expertise and background in the field. My background flows along the lines of my own research as a designer, artist and educator: ensure that my work is not only compliant with the law, but also protected by it.

Here are some pictures of the presentation:

The auditory was filled with many educators from different fields. At one point there were people standing because there was no more space.

That's me! Yes, I'm wearing a suit :) and I make it look good! Here I was explaining about the different licenses available, and how they differ from one another. I was also taking questions with my awesome finger gun. **pew pew**

This specific conference had 3 speakers, each an expert on their field with great passion for their profession.

From left to right:
Manuel Carrión (Instructional Content Editor), Bessie Rivera (Instructional Designer), Juan C. Peña (Graphic Designer).

This is me posing on the suit because it's a rare sight, and one worthy of keeping in the annals of history. :)

Google and the final frontier:

2011-11-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

Space, the final frontier... these are the goals of a great company, to seek out new ways to do your computing, to seek out new ways for our civilization to boldly go wherever they want to go.
Or, something like that...

Google has been helping users cast out the limitations of computers and porting most of the data and programs to the "cloud". Finding new freedom and new ways to interact while not worrying that the computer will be afflicted by lack of space since the important documents and files will be hosted, accessible and available in any and all devices capable of accessing the internet.

Before They had added the Notebook(now unsupported though I still use it to write my stuff), The Google Docs, along with their whole "Office Like" program set which adds extra capabilities like multiple sharing, turning the documents into web pages directly and multiple "working" on the same document that lets teams work on concepts and projects.

They developed their Android OS and integrated it to their infrastructure to create a pretty solid system in which the user has little worry about where the document was or if it gets lost or if his hard drive dies because its all in the clouds.

They integrated speech to text technology to ease the pains of our aching joints and simplify the process of jotting notes for us the "lazy ones" who are full of ideas but have "no time" to jot them down into cohesive concepts and documents.

Also they are offering an onslaught of technologies like Google Powered TV's , Chrome OS laptops and other such products. Most of this technology if not "freely available" still costs a fraction of what we are used to seeing in the market.

It makes the geeky-ness rise a little with the similitude with Star Trek technology, tablets that wrote our stuff for us, with the knowledge of whole worlds available at the touch of a screen or the sound of our voice, wireless communication that can share different format media and "understand" it, multilingual translation, GPS and much more. Albeit I do not discount the strong influence of apple and the now diseased Steve Jobs, who dared to think different, in this process. He who denies his influence shall be burned on the stake. However Google chose a different path, open source it and open end it... make it the people's and the people will follow, and so they have.

Then there is Google+, an interesting "attempt at face-booking Google?" I say there is much more to it than that description can ever say. It integrates the greatness of "social networking" and their own "everything for everyone everywhere" Philosophy at least in this humble viewer's eyes.

Don't take me wrong, there is much to still worry about like security issues, safety, and the impact on cumming technology... however WHY focus on the possible negatives when there's so many possible positives.

Consider this:

A doctor with a handheld device is able to access complete medical databases with one "search" and able to come up with possible solutions for a problem... including treatments that when he/she was in school were not even available in fact when the books they use for reference were printed were not even thought of.
A Parent is able to access similar information to treat his child's illness or injury while the proper medical teams are made available.
A cook or a housewife have access to millions of delicacies to enrich their menu and change the routine, along with the techniques, ingredients and materials needed to make it.
A programmer or designer has access to millions of lines of codes, tutorials and programs that will make their product a much better product and in turn advance technology.
Technology which in term will retroactively become part of the cycle and some day maybe take us where no one has gone before.

What is next... only time will tell and probably their business plan too :) I'll just say I wish I had the money to invest when I saw their stocks at $37 way back then, I wanted to, I saw their potential... such is life.

Miami Florida NUC-Online Promotions

2011-09-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

I made the design for the promotions now running in Miami FL.
So far they look very nice and the printers made a great job with the matching of the design and the colors. I wish the picture sent to me was better lit or from a few more angles though hahah... oh well I know how it's supposed to look like. Now if I could get my hands on one of the actual brochures for my portfolio it would be awesome. :)

Here are some of the Banners Used for the FL promotions.

This was used on some Nice T-shirts.

What? More work!!! Heck yes!

2011-09-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

I've been working hard on the current institution I'm in. Many promotional banners and gimmicks and web-modifications and designs among other things. Many of this works are kind of blue ... I've got nothing in favor or against the color it's one of the main institutional colors and I kind of have to keep the "feel" for branding reasons.

Some promotional Brochure Design ... Barn door opening.

Triptic Banner Design for our FL incursion.

A Template for multiple promotional emails for our leads and student support.

Illustration and design for an institutionally hosted art expo.

There is no impossible just highly improbable or better yet... Dude! Wheres my flying car?

2011-06-30T07:26:00.001-07:00

by Juan C. Pena on Monday, April 11, 2011 at 4:06pm

A long time ago I herd a speech that stated that there's nothing impossible just highly improbable. I pondered the meaning of those words in my own field (Art - Education - Computers) One day I found myself watching a cartoon episode of the Jetsons and had the speech still lingering in my head. Shortly after while driving on a ridiculous traffic jam I said to myself... Dude!!! Where's my flying car!!!
It became painfully evident that this is 11 years past the year 2000 (which many movies and series depicted as this ultra advanced future) and still no publicly available flying cars. Do we lack the technology for it? ... hmm... possibly... I'm certain we do have enough tech for at least some form of flying car or at least a fully electric one... oh wait there's the Tesla(which is awesome but still pricey) never mind that one. Who cares right we want flying cars... however what does a flying car mean to us the common users?
Traffic jams in the sky, air crashes that end up in gravity based secondary crashes ... kind of scary. People required to take flying lessons, flying licenses and hopefully a checkup or two along a period of time to ensure the person is still able to fly it... unless they're automated which still leave a bunch of questions in the air.
So, how are we to solve this economic crisis? When are we getting the flying cars? Why are the students able to read 500 pages of facebook and not able to read 3 pages of a real book? I kept musing and thinking and my mind working in its abstract form came to realize we have too many distraction and frankly our education is not the best. Education is something that never stops, most of our students just jump in the " oh when I finish high school ill go work" or worse wagon. Individual issues aside, most of our educators are still living in the 40's (at least locally) and struggle with the constant bombardment of new technology. Those managing the education centers believe that eradicating access to social media will ensure the "proper use" of the "educational technology tools" they have setup.
I just wanna smack educators when I hear them say "I won't allow any quotes or citations from Wikipedia because its not trustworthy" to which I reply "and a thousand(or two) year old compendium of multiple publicly available pamphlets and letters selected by a king and the religious leaders of an era where people would kill each other because of a difference of opinion with clubs and swords IS...?" Because we all know it, we were there right? ... with a smirk and a wink. Hey I'm just saying... and I know some people don't trust the info on Wikipedia either but I know for a fact that they check up on their information and put little tags about the matters being discussed and tweaked and cleaned up ... they are paying attention to it. It may take some time to get all the facts right but he who is without sin can try and trow the first stone here... I happen to have quite a few boulders for ye. I don't want this to turn into a religious bashing or inquisition so just take that as an example of what we are walling to believe in and what we are shedding doubts on proportionally.
Back from digression land... Where's our flying cars?, Why are we paying electricity TWICE in our bills? (yes twice because we pay for the KWats we use and we are paying for the gas they're using to produce the energy consumption we are already paying for)
Why? Because the people in charge don't want us to... simple as that. We've given our decision making to them and they decide to flip us off and do whatever they want. Because the companies in charge are making millions of dollars daily from our hides and the use we give to fossil fuels. Because its more expensive to buy a Hybrid than it is to buy a regular fuel drinking car. Because when in the Engineering schools someone comes up with the better electric motor that goes from 0 to 60 in 10 seconds they go an buy off the motor from the poor-now-rich-and-soul-less person and then vault it so that it doesn't come to market in at least 20 more years instead of developing it right away and out selling their competitors. Among other many reasons each of which will sound probably more like a conspiracy theory than the previous one.
True reason... Created interests, and Greed.
So where is it then? My flying car is still in the vault waiting for revision... and were already 11 years overdue...
About robots and mechas and other tech... well I'll leave that for another ramble. Try and think a little, look around you, don't get so involved in the game that you end up loosing the sight of the true goal. Making this a better world for all of us... not just for a few.
~JCP

Joomla NUC|Online Website Design

2011-06-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

This is the NUC|Online Website design. It's based on JSN Epic.-Pro template. With several customizations made by hand (Graphics, backgrounds, special positions and icon menus, not to mention the removal of their flash based image rotators for a more "friendly" CSS and JQuery version that is compatible with iPad and other like devices, it even has an iPhone andmobile device layout thanx to the JSN people including this functionality which looks awesome with my icon menu.)

Herramientas para todos

2011-06-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

Por: Juan C. Peña Martínez

{This is one of the articles I made for the newsletter it generally talks about the design improvements and tools I added to the online team's websites}

La implementación de herramientas y funcionalidades nuevas permite que se logren las metas y se provea soporte adicional a nuestra comunidad. Constantemente se está investigando e implementando nueva tecnología a nuestras páginas. Las modificaciones y arreglos que se integran responden directamente a las necesidades e inquietudes de nuestra comunidad (Facultad y Estudiantes). Esta línea de soporte adicional usualmente se ve cuando una persona tiene la necesidad y se da cuenta que la herramienta para su solución ya está implementada en la página que visita con tanta frecuencia.

Se ha creado este tema para ayudar a identificar y mostrar estas herramientas nuevas y estos cambios de importancia. Los cambios en tecnología son súbitos y acelerados y es nuestra meta el proveer estas nuevas tecnologías a nuestra comunidad manteniendo así al día nuestra institución.

Herramientas de Soporte:

Prueba de Compatibilidad: Poco conocida por nuestra comunidad pero es una de las herramientas más poderosas ofrecidas. Esta prueba revisa su equipo en especial su browser de internet para informarle si es compatible con nuestra plataforma educativa (Blackboard). En el login de nuestra plataforma la encontrará en el primer botón llamado Prueba de Compatibilidad. Para su beneficio la misma prueba le indica que plug-ins tiene instalados de los requeridos y dónde conseguirlos en el mayor de los casos. Su meta es mantener al usuario al día y eliminar los problemas más comunes encontrados por nuestros usuarios cuando interactúan con la plataforma.
Centro de apoyo técnico (Support Center ): Esta herramienta le permite llegar de una manera directa con sus problemas de conexión, issues con la plataforma, portal, password o preguntas adicionales a nuestro staff de soporte técnico(Administrador de la Plataforma, Administrador de Portal, Etc.). Es la forma más directa de llevar su inquietud a la persona indicada. Desde su implementación inicial esta herramienta ha provisto soporte y ha sido fundamental en la resolución favorable de múltiples casos. Puede acceder directamente desde varios lugares.
- Página de NUC Online – Menú de Ayuda – Apoyo Técnico
- Facebook de NUC Onlin e - Tab de Apoyo Técnico
DocuSign: Esta herramienta es bastante reciente en nuestro repertorio. Nos permite enviar documentos (solicitudes) a nuestros prospectos y estos tienen la habilidad de llenar y firmar digitalmente dichas solicitudes y documentos.
Sistema de Chat (LiveChat): Para facilitar la comunicación con nuestros oficiales de admisiones y aclarar dudas. Encontrará esta herramienta alrededor de nuestras páginas. Esta herramienta está dirigida a nuestro visitantes en las páginas y promociones para ofrecer información en vivo y en directo a los usuarios y prospectos.

Herramientas sociales:

Bulletin Board o Tablero de Anuncios: Esta página es básicamente eso, un tablero de anuncios. Este tablero de anuncios es una funcionalidad adicional de nuestra página para ayudar a la comunidad hibrida y online a mantenerse al día de las actividades y promociones importantes provistas por nuestros diferentes equipos de trabajo. Actualmente contiene promociones generales y/o promociones locales. Para simplificar el proceso se limitan la cantidad de promociones que se colocan en este tablero a las más recientes arriba y las mismas van bajando según pasan de vigencia hasta desaparecer del tablero.
Facebook de NUC Online: Adicional a el Facebook oficial de NUC también tenemos uno para NUC Online. En este puede enterarse de actividades y eventos haciéndose fan del mismo. Esto le permitirá compartir con la comunidad y es un eslabón de comunicación adicional con su institución.

Actualizaciones:

Para mejorar nuestros procesos y dar un look más profesional a nuestra institución se está desarrollando un set de páginas institucionales utilizando la plataforma de manejo de contenido llamada Joomla. Esta nos permitirá actualizar la información en la página con mayor velocidad y nos permitirá expandir las posibilidades de la página.

El proceso investigativo en torno a la tecnología es uno perpetuo ya que la tecnología cambia constantemente y esto nos provee oportunidad para experimentar e implementar nuevas herramientas para mejorar los procedimientos, dar soporte y aumentar la comunicación, enriqueciendo así la experiencia de nuestros usuarios.

Presentation with the Design Progress

2011-01-20T07:53:00.000-08:00

A year of work and maybe some change. Now here i'll use this presentation to keep track of all of it. I originally wrote "Graphic Design department however I'm the only graphic designer :P I just like feeling part of a team.

A year's work in Design at National University from Juan Pena

Many projects done while on National University College

2010-11-12T07:26:00.000-08:00

Web page Design

Designed the webpage and added some neat tricks to have it become a "desktop" with icons that help navigate the page and focus the eye of the user on the needed tools. There's an up and coming new design on the works.

Blackboard Login Page design and programming.

This was quite a challenge and had several previous versions until this one was perfected. Still now I'm working on a new version for it which I'll hope to have finished for the next trimester.

Promotional Designs at National College

2010-03-03T12:46:00.001-08:00

Thisone is an example in heavy photo manipulation. Used a Few co-workers to make the Female with the Technology Orb.

Smaller Scale Manipulations adding the laptops and making it "online" This is one of my "cool-techy promotion pitches" ... they liked it.

Basic easy concept for a promotion. Used my ever usefull 3d studio made laptop and cutout characters manipulated from photographs and rendered directly in max.

Went kinda classic on my first promotion tomake sure they didn't freak out too much. I like adding extra twists to the promotions since my target is the students not the teachers but decided against going too overboard on the first one.

Christmas at National College

2009-12-04T09:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas lights activation at National

Graphics design for a promotional postcard about the Christmas lights activation activity. A new year at a new institution brings new challenges and new projects.

Taller de Captivate 4

2009-05-11T13:51:00.001-07:00

8 de mayo de 2009 Di taller acerca de Captivate 4 junto con un compañero de trabajo. Preparé la presentación e hice la investigación pertinente para que la información fuera lo más completa posible. Este taller se dió anteriormente con los compañeros de trabajo para ver que le faltaba y que modificaciones se le podía hacer para que al darlo con los profesores, estos le pudiéran sacar provecho.

Captivate Taller from Juan Pena

Acción de Gracias

2008-11-10T09:26:00.000-08:00

Tarjeta de Comentarios, Invitación y programa para actividad de acción de gracias del sistema.

Humanidades 101 - al Aire

2008-08-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hoy comienza el primer programa de Humanidades 101. He trabajado en los elementos gráficos, simulaciones y animaciones para este programa incluyendo las escenografías "croma" utilizadas para el mísmo.

El equipo de trabajo junto con la profesora se ha botado y contra viento y maréa ha conbatido para que este proyecto salga de la mayor calidad y escelencia posible.

Información Acerca del programa:
Nuevo Curso Televisado - Humanidades 101 por NuevaVisión/Canal 40

El Sistema de Educación Universitaria Externa (SEDUE), ha completado el proceso de revisión de contenido, del tele-curso Humanidades 101 – Civilizaciones de Occidente I. Ahora con visuales y temas actualizados, el curso será transmitido a partir de mañana, todos los martes, sábados y domingos, a las 2:00 p.m., dentro de la programación de NuevaVisión/Canal 40.

La Prof. Sonia Cabanillas, discutirá el significado de las Humanidades, El Prisma Pre-Histórico y otros interesantes temas. Si interesa recibir información adicional relacionada a éste y todos los cursos que ofrece la oficina de SEDUE, puede comunicarse al número (787) 766-2600 ext. 6486, 6487.

Puede sintonizar la programación de NuevaVisión/Canal 40 a través de los servicios de cable TV: Onelink (Canal 3), Liberty Cable (Canal 40) y Choice Cable (Canal 26).

Intro de Creación de Papel

2008-05-06T13:01:00.001-07:00

Esto fue un pequeño proyecto que hice como parte de una precentación en un ejercicio de Televisión educativa. Este fué el intro que se utilizó para el ejercicio de una teleclase acerca de Creación de papel artesanal.