Uconn Historical Costume Archive and Museum

The Uconn Historical Costume Archive was an in-depth and complicated project- the kind you naively agree to help out on and then find yourself in deep quickly. The original idea was that I would build the front end and a comp sci student would build the backend and database portions.

The virtual museum was hardcoded and built with HTML, CSS, PHP, and the database FileMaker, as well as a very cool piece of software called Object2VR which allowed users to see historical dresses in detail in a 360-degree view.

This made the site particularly fun to visit on iPad, where touchpad controls made image manipulation very intuitive.

I worked with the Museum Director to create a design based on her needs, ideal client, market & industry trends, & university branding aesthetics. Then I built all the assets & helped the backend developer integrate the HTML, CSS, PHP, & database work together in prep for our launch.

Two weeks before launch, the backend developer had to back out of the project. I had to teach myself all the backend tools as well as integrate myself into the code of the project very quickly to finish & fix the bugs in time. With my hard work & fast learning, we nailed our deadline for the site launch.

Soon after, the site was sponsored & moved over to USITT servers. I helped facilitate the rebuild on the new server, updated the code, made some small corrections & archive additions, & said goodbye to a very engaging project.

You can still access the site under USITT ownership here.