Johnsville Centrifuge and Science Museum

I am so happy to spotlight my latest Website implementation, The Johnsville Centrifuge and Science Museum! I worked with Mark, Mike and John who are heading up the museum efforts.

The project started with a tour of their fantastic museum! Mike and Mark gave me a personal tour of the entire facility! I got to see rooms that aren’t open to the public. As a Star Wars geek and a Mid-Century Modern fan, I was giddy looking at all the retro-50/60′s space age memorabilia! Here’s a picture Mark took of me IN THE GONDOLA!

Astronaut Donna riding the Johnsville Centrifuge

The guys had a bunch of domain names and a loose design concept but weren’t sure where to go. Their big concern was they wanted to have control of the content. They wanted keep their site updated with news and pictures but didn’t want to have to rely on someone to do it for them.

I stepped up to the plate and took their design concept and smoothed it out a bit and added some of my own flair to it. I installed WordPress (because this would give them the autonomy they craved) and created their pages. I loaded it up with a bunch of useful widgets and gave them a Flash header. They were dabbling in some social networking stuff and so we decided to take a couple more steps in that direction. I set up a Twitter account for them and recommended they get started with Flickr. Once the profiles were in place, I connected their blog to their Facebook page and connected their Facebook page to Twitter.

Last night, in a marathon session fueled by chocolate chip cookies, I trained them on WordPress so they could post content and make edits to their site. I also trained them on Twitter. They wanted to immediately follow Ron Howard and Tom Hanks! (I think they were fans of the Apollo 13 movie!) Looking at their faces, I could see how happy they were and I was so happy I could help them!

I can’t tell you how much of a joy working on this Website was for me! The guys were so great to work with– their enthusiasm was absolutely contagious! And I got to learn so much about our area’s history with the space program! And I now know more than I ever thought I would ever know about G-forces!

I definitely recommend checking out their museum. It’s great for kids but equally great for adults who love space and science and all things 50′s and 60′s. It amazes me that the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts trained right here in Warminster, Bucks County! They are open almost every Sunday afternoon. If you go, make sure you tell them that Astronaut Donna from DonnaTechDesigns sent ya!