Project Type: Websites

The Richfield Reaper Best of the Best website design and development is one of the projects that I’m most proud of creating and grateful for being involved in.

What started in 2013 as a simple web form that would email each submission to the sales department evolved over the years into a fully functioning database system. That first year we received ~500 entries via email, and we realized that there was quite a need!

Since I’d taken on the challenge and trusted with it … the next year it evolved a little into something like on the right. Which was easier and more efficient but, it still left Roxanne counting every vote individually. Which she already does with the old paper ballot.

When I left The Richfield Reaper in 2015 to start freelancing full-time, I wasn’t sure if I’d still be involved in the project at all. But, luckily I was trusted to continue working with my baby … and it’s evolved even more since!

Since I was freelancing full-time, I had more time and resources to put my back into the creation of what it’s become today. Which is faster, more efficient and more compliant than ever! It’s also structured in a way that makes changing the topics and categories easier, and it automatically counts the votes! (If you guys would start spelling things right it would help even more! lol.)

This will always be one of my favorite projects, not just because it’s beautiful. It’s a testament to how I can assess and address a need … and work diligently to solve a problem! It’s also one of the reasons that Best Website and Hosting was formed!

If you’ve got a problem (online or off) that needs the care that only a seasoned professional to take care of, contact me and let’s get it done!

The annual Best of the Best online ballot is a long web form that submits to a mysql database. Each year it evolves and grows with 2016 hitting more than 1200 votes from 544 individuals in our small rural county. The evolutions this year included an email script, a page for counting the votes (total pain previous years) as well as a page that would figure out who had voted more than so many times to cut down the ballot stuffers (some of people were getting a bit carried away. When I first took on the project my knowledge of application development was pretty minimal, my php/html/css rusty at best. So the current database is incredibly difficult to work through and getting information involves some clever php and query trickery. For next year’s ballot I’m developing an application that will be easy to administer and use, it will separate business data, user data and the actual voting data and hopefully I will be providing it as a Open Source project for others to use and expand!