Steven+Alison Hoober

Old Web Design Stuff

I was entirely un-fascinated with computers, or the internet when it emerged. I used the hell out of it, but as means to an end. In retrospect, I was on the internet daily by 1988. And made a website in 1995. Hell, I've had this site since at least 1999.

But web work was always an adjutant to other work. I did the first website for money (with a WYSIWYG tool) while working at a marketing agency back in the mid 1990s. I had to actually buy a web safe palette for Photoshop. When I got a pure code editor, we had to buy the C++ version, and download the "web" plugins over the ISDN line. Anyway, I ended up doing a lot of work on what I now call the desktop web. As opposed to the mobile web. And with it, I accidentally discovered usability, user experience, process and a host of things I now believe with all my soul to be good and true. I kept in mind that the web is part of your brand, your service, your product and your company, but only one part. And I learned that guidance counsellors are useless; why didn't anyone tell me about Human Factors? I would happily have gotten a cog-sci degree and planned on designing aircraft cockpits.

Anyway, I rarely build or maintain pure desktop websites now, and only as a favor to a friend. Or a paid favor to a client. Or as a "non-pure" site, or as part of a mobile service. The newest items aren't even up here mostly. It's an archive instead, of what I did. So I remember, and so you can – if you care – get a glance at how long I have been doing this, and how much we all improved in the past decades.

For interesting work see the current interactive design portfolio page, such as it is.


Most of the sites have links to several variants. The top one is usually the current, live site. Others are listed by date below. Note that many of these will not look or link correctly, as they have root-relative links which do not function correctly in subfolders on this site. Some are just broken. I guess if you find a broken link, tell me. I might even fix it.

Top Freelance Sites

These are all sites that I did the design and most or all of the coding on. If there is functional server-side software, I almost certainly did not write this. Most of these I also maintain, though less and less all the time. Some of these are also deeply integrated into other products I did for the organization, from brochures to total brand creation.

NOTE: I haven't maintained this in several years, no one much cares if I can code (and if they care, they find out otherwise), and despite my best efforts Google keeps indexing the old versions so I get the occasional C&D order from a stupid, stupid lawyer for the inheriting or acquiring corporation of a previous client insisting that a portfolio site is not fair use and violates their right to have shitty SEO. So, all these links below should now be (deliberately) broken. Ask me if you need details and I'll probably ignore you as you are a most likely a recruiter who thinks I am a dev, not a designer. Jeesh.

Selected Sprint Work

In my years at Sprint I worked on many different websites and applications, not to mention my influence over the overall design standards and information architecture. Let me stop and emphasize the "many." At one point I was on a brand committee (with approval over all site brand elements, which was pretty cool). We did a survey and found 85 websites. Not counting intranets and microsites and other stuff we missed. Eighty-five public-facing sites. Wow. Anyway, many of these products are not as originally designed, were too collaborative to point out as being 'mine,' were implemented poorly, or are simply impossible to get to without credentials. Nevertheless, here is a small represenative selection of items which were visible when I wrote this, over which I exerted greater than usual infuence or of which I am unusually proud.

Other Sites

These are all old, ugly, boring or are not even my design anymore. Some are only designs that never even launched. Oh, all are freelance, or from defunct employers.

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