The defining thing about my life is my Christian faith. It shapes all that I do from family to design to choice of career. I joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ after I graduated from the University of Kansas.
I started this blog to share helpful resources, software and other Web sites that I have benefitted from in my personal and professional life. Most of my writing is related to Web design and development. I also created the site to be a "sandbox" so that I could play around with different design and development ideas.
The rest of this page focuses on my role of a Web professional. If you would like a more personal perspective, you can BridgforthFamily.com.
Getting My Start on the Web
I have always had an interest in computers. I remember summer programs in computers and a basic programming class my senior year of high school. But that was before the age of personal computers and the Internet.
I started tinkering with Web design in 1997. I learned some basic html from a workshop I found in the Compuserve community. The foundation of my knowledge started with a book called Creating Cool HTML Websites. I ashamed to admit that the first site I designed was in frames (ahh). That site was a precursor to our current ministry site (bridgforthfamily.com).
After spending 5 years working on a college campus , we moved to Orlando to work at the World Headquarters of Campus Crusade for Christ. During my first year in Orlando, I learned things about my gifting that gave me the confidence to pursue doing Web design and development with Campus Crusade.
After getting my feet wet with my first professional website, I started working on GodSquad. It was a great opportunity for me. I was able to use my ministry experience as a foundation for creative work on the Internet.
GodSquad is a site that resources students and volunteers that are launching and/or leading new Campus Crusade ministries. GodSquad is a lifeline for these leaders because there are no Campus Crusade staff on their campus. They connect with a staff coach through phone calls and occasional campus visits. GodSquad is a way to resource them 24/7 with Campus Crusade’s proven resources.
Since starting to work with the Web, I have had many opportunities to create and develop websites that help to fulfill various aspects of the mission of the Campus Ministry. My passion is to serve students, volunteers and Campus Crusade staff members and make them more successful in their work through the work that I do designing, building and maintaining Web sites.
My Professional Skills
I hand coded the HTML on the first sites I worked with. FrontPage was the first WYSIWYG editor that I used. I quickly abandoned FrontPage for Macromedia Dreamweaver 3. Combined with Fireworks, I now had some powerful tools to realize my design ideas and concepts. I became a huge fan of Dreamweaver and use it on a daily basis until 2007. I went back to handcoding and primarily use Coda and Textmate
I have been working with CSS for page layout since 2003. The first year was mainly learning through tutorials from Macromedia and trial and error. I also spent time away working on fund raising for my ministry role with Campus Crusade for Christ.
In May of 2005, I was very excited to implement my first site using CSS and XHTML for layout. Since then, I have done about 8 more designs including several for this site, now using version 3.1. I would consider my CSS knowledge and experience as advanced.
In 2007, I read Andy Clarke’s Transcending CSS. This book has had a huge influence on my practice. I am writing more semantic code and using as much of CSS 2.1 as a I can.
