Last weeks usability testing

Even though Christmas is nearly a week away I don’t feel like it is. I usually look forward to Christmas as I get to see all my family but this year I am not. I feel like I have loads of work to do. I still haven’t finished my CSS assignment, I still have some touching up bits to do. With the CSS work if I get a problem I don’t usually know how to fix it and if I done fix them it takes me hours.

The usability testing went good this week, it was quiet boring and I couldn’t do it as a full time job. It was good to get a go at doing it though. As I had set up most of the usability testing I got to read out the questions and guide the users though the web sites with the help of Gary and Shaun. I was abit nervous because I hate reading out aloud.

The software that Shaun downloaded was really useful, there was only one person who said they didn’t want to be videoed which was fine and she actually give us a lot of good written feedback.

The team work seems to be going really well and I have enjoyed it, I wish if we had more time on the course so we could have done the team assignment on it own.

Usability Testing

Usability Testing

Such an eye opening experience! I think that we all agreed that the usability gave us a much valued insight into how people use not only the sites that we have built but the internet in general.

The feedback that we got from the users proved to be very useful.

A large part of my time has been spent waiting for the videos to export from Silverback into .mov ready to upload to a video sharing site for all to see.

The Silverback application has proven to be an invaluable (though it sells for $49.95 ;-) ) & I would recommend it to anyone doing this kind of work; providing they have a Mac of course.

... more to come.

--
Usability is like oxygen - you don't notice it until it's missing.

CMS nightmare!

Building Bob's website this week has been very very challenging! This is the first time that I have ever touched Wordpress, so trying to figure out how it was to integrate into a website using CSS and PHP was beyond me at first. I don't know if I was just too tired when I first looked at the coding for the CMS, but for some reason, the next day when I tried to sort things out - it worked!

This week has been the biggest learning curve for me, firstly getting to grips with the CMS and then also dabbling with the PHP side of things. Customising headers and footers so that content can be generated is tricky and I've still to get the images page to work as we designed it to.

Once problem I have had to encounter this week was concerning images. Putting a background image on things like the header div didn't want to work, which mean our header image and rollover images didn't show up. This problem took me quite a while to sort out, I had to insert the image into the xhtml for it to work properly, which meant that the rollover hovers won't work now because the CSS required them as a background image. It's a small sacrifice when you consider the amount of time and effort that has gone into building this one page.

I've still got a considerable amount of work to be doing, firstly I've got to finish off building the remaining pages to Bob's website and write up a user manual for him. Then when Chris has chosen a design, I need to commence building that website too. We've haven't got much time left before client handover now and I need to be thinking about my evaluation. I would really like my Christmas holidays to be a relaxing time, so would like to get most of the work out of the way for our group submission in January.

The time has gone so fast over the past 3 months, it almost seems unreal to think that around 12 weeks ago, we were just returning to college after the summer holidays.

UPDATE!

We have progress! Watch this space!

UPDATE: I have called Chris & we will have sign off by noon today with all the content by tomorrow! This is fantastic news! His initial thoughts are between 'Design A' & 'Design B' (see below)


UPDATE 12:06: Chris has signed off of design A (see above).

PANIC!!!

I can't really say I was surprised to find out that Chris had let us down again. This puts us in a really bad position. We have so much to do but we obviously can't get on with it until we get signed off.

I have scheduled Tuesday to work on the projects.

Things to do:

User Manual (Chris)
New Design for Chris
Pick out ideas generation for the submission folder.
Start Evaluation

I am happy with the way the build for Bob is looking. However there is a little alignment thing to change. The text should start from where the "Home" link is in the navigation.

Usability testing week

On Monday Bobs meeting went well, there were a few things that Shaun had to talking Bob out of having, but apart from that signing off of the design was quiet simple. One of the things that Bob wanted was a splash page, Shaun said in a nice way that he couldn’t have it but Bob still wanted one then Shaun said they were out of date and he still wanted one. In the end whatever Shaun said didn’t make a difference he really wanted a kind of splash page, and if the client wants it you have to make it.

Bob seemed to really enjoy the meeting and that helped as he gave good feedback and told us everything he wanted.

Chris hasn't been as helpful as Bob this week, the meeting we had planned on Friday he was 1 hour late and then he canceled. I kind of think that he had no intension of coming to the meeting and that was quiet annoying, I would of preferred it if he had said in the first place he couldn’t make it to a meeting and we could have sorted something else out. Now we have to wait till he has chosen the design he likes then we can get on with building it and then testing.

The usability testing is going good, I have the main parts finished I just have to make some more questions and tasks. The usability test as been designed for testing both Bob and Chris’s websites, so alteration to how testing will be done will not need to be changed.

Last push everyone, lets keep at it!

Bob
This week has been eventful to say the least. The meeting with Bob went fantastic. He provided us with plenty of great feedback about the design ideas that we presented to him & we even got a design signed off by Bob [progress]. Bob, though different to anyone that I have met before, has been helpful, considerate of our time scales & accommodating.

Regrettably, the CMS integration is proving to be little more difficult than Sue's research first indicated it would be; this coincided with a limited amount of time remaining is concerning me.

Chris
This concern has only been worsened by the non-reactive responses from Chris. I feel both disappointment & frustration towards Chris currently; though of course I would never let that affect how I deal with him.

When I arranged the meeting with him for Friday gone [5th December] I informed him that was leaving things a little late & that things had to progress before then. to aid this, I created an account with Getsignoff.com, emailed him the details & followed it up with a phone call to ensure that he understood the instructions & process involved; which has so far been three phone calls chasing him.

The great thing about getsignoff is that you can monitor client activity within the site. Unfortunately, this has only shown me that Chris hasn't even logged in yet! Needless to say this isn't great news.

When Friday came around, I was up early [as always] & called Chris to confirm the meeting. We agreed to put the meeting back 1hr to accommodate his travel; not a problem. Then less than an hour to the meeting (Viki & I had met & fanalising our approach for almost two hours at this point) my phone rang... it was Chris cancelling for 'personal reasons' & though a promise to get in touch with me over the weekend so far I have heard nothing.

I will follow it up with Chris tomorrow first thing with both an email & phone call; if need be I will go where ever he is to get sign off.

I am unwilling to let his lack of commitment to the project affect the teams performance. As mentioned earlier, Sue has her hands full with ensuring that Bob's project is ready for the usability testing on Thursday morning; which realistically means that it has to be finished for Wednesday to ensure that things run smoothly.

Usability Testing
The usability testing preparation is almost complete. Viki has prepared the qualitative, quantitative & demographic questionnaires alongside the consent form & tasks for the test subjects to complete at different stages of the test.

Whilst we are currently undergoing major stages of the project, it is vital that the lesser famed tasks do not fall by the wayside.

I have asked Gary to create the hand-over manual for Chris; this will form the starting point for the CMS orientated manual for Bob.

Whilst I appreciate that Christmas is just around the corner, we don't have long left & it has never been more important to retain focus, drive & motivation for the task(s) at hand. Lets keep up the hard work & we can do our selves proud!

Shaun Bellis - Project Manager

Progress!

Today was the meeting with Bob Milner regarding the designs that have been done for his website so far, Shaun contacted me a short while ago to let me know that Bob has chosen a final design and
we're finally in build mode for a website! Woo!

It feels nice to finally get to the point where we've pitched and successfully had a design chosen, there are still a few tweeks to be done - but still, the progress is great. Now it's my turn to really get stuck in and use a technology I've had little experience with - WordPress.

I'm looking forward to getting this build going and finished, so that when Chris chooses a design, we can solely concentrate on his project too. Timing couldn't be better at the moment, we're at the point where we've finished the pitching for the college projects, the eCards are done now (except for final tweaking on Gary's design), so we're ready to move on.

So my tasks for this week are:]

• familiarise myself with WordPress, its layout and how to incorporate it into a design.
• build the template for Bob's website.
  

We have signoff.com

Bob
GREAT NEWS! Bob has approved the below screen design concept; with a few tweaks of course. Bob's enthusiasm has proven to be a real asset during this project. There are a few things that Bob has asked for that are generally regarded as a 'no no' such as a splash page :-S which, despite my best efforts (and I am sure that Viki will agree) there is no detracting him from.

I am sure that the usability testing will highlight the splash page as an issue but until then Bob is sticking to his guns; to the point that he repeatedly renamed the 'splash page' and approached it from different angles.

The design that Bob has approved was a 'make weight' design to fill a void. This has reinforced what Steve has said about 'throwing a design in'.

I felt much more comfortable showing our idea's to Bob around my laptop in a conversational manor than stood in front of a projector with eyes on the presentation skills rather than just the designs.

The minutes from the meeting will be available later tonight.



Chris
Being a fan of the Boagworld Podcast I hear them bang on about getsignoff.com and just had to give it ago. Getsignoff.com is a free to use (basic package) web based application to aid the design approval process. The weakness of the application is commonly known as the client! I have noticed that Chris tends to me more reactive than proactive with this project & has unfortuntly taken some chasing throughout.

Time is moving on now & the next few weeks is going to prove to be extremely busy for us all; I can't wait!!

Almost there.....

I refer to the comment shaun made about there being 6 months left of the course. I make a similar comment "Shit there is only 5 college WEEKS until the end of this unit".

As I type this, Shaun and Viki are pitching our Ideas to Bob.

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3
http://picreative.co.uk/bob

I think design 1 is the most likely design to be chosen as it fits in with his publication. I think it stands out the most in terms of artistic value. I do however think there needs to be something a little more artistic to do with the navigation, in how the "pages are turned"

Design 3 I built on friday to take a little preasure off Sue, I am really happy how it came out. It is my personal favourate. It is pretty simple and plane, it puts the work in spot light. The design was origionally Shaun's I think the header and navigation really worked. After a little re-organisation of content and more thought as to how it would be displayed we came up with the final design.

I enjoyed building this mockup. It enabled me to practice my XHTML/CSS skills learnt in the last assignment.

I am now eagerly awaiting the resonse from bob. Hopefully we will know within the hour.

Christmas is soon

For last week I had to create a usability test for the designs, but it’s not like you can test the ease of the use of something that you can’t do anything with a part from look at. So the testing was more getting feedback on the designs. This is still a good thing because testing and feedback continuously thought the projects can only benefit the project. I did find it difficult to make up the testing for the design, as there is not a lot of questions I could think of for the designs.

I do think I could have done better with this testing but most of my attention was on my presentation this week. Now I think that I should have evened the time out between the tasks I had to do this week, as I have to re do the presentation so really it seems like I wasted some of my time putting my effort into the presentation, has that time could have been used better toward A10.

Wednesday I enjoyed getting to do the creative things but when I got my feedback for my presentation it kind of upset me so that took the focus off the creative work and made me lack confidence in the work I had to do. This year is so much harder than last year, and seems to be getting harder. It’s not just college that’s hectic at the moment, Christmas is soon so everyone’s stressing about that and it’s really busy at work, but at least I have my birthday to look forward to this week.

Surface Design Photos

Here are the pictures I took on Wednesday; I have saved the best one for last!

My designs..

Here are my designs for Chris at Wakefield Studios. There are more designs to come, but these two are the ones that are fully completed so far.

This first design is a clean and simple layout which tries to keep all emphasis on the photographs on display:

My second design is something more graphical, sometimes when photographs are on display, you need smart looking website so to help sell the work on show and this is what I have tried to do in the design below:



I am still coming up with ideas for Chris and will also add Bob's ideas during the remainder of this week. It's nice to be designing for something while being the developer too, but I think I have slight designer's block at the moment which needs snapping out of. My sketchbook has helped a lot with this and doodling lots of mini ideas is better than having none at all.

--
Suzanne Hullah, Developer

Chris

Home Page


Portfolio/Gallery
The last image on this page will act as a link to the next page of thumbnails. On any page after the first there will be a similar link to go to the previous page (top left square).

Light Box
I have tried to keep this design quite simple to let the images do the work. A light box EFFECT will be used to display the images, which will cover the textual content on the portfolio page.

I have used blues which were mentioned within the brief.

Design 2

Again I have kept this page quite simple. I really like the very structured look of the thumbnails in this design. I also like the denseness of the content surrounded by a clean background.

Comments would be appreciated.

I will post Bob's Design's when they are at a suitable stage.

Preparing usability testing

I got quite a lot e cards designs sketched in my sketch book with week but I did have a problem sticking to the contemporary theme. Also not been able to use religious ideas or traditional things I associate with Christmas, even though they we asked to do a Christmas e card they didn’t want it to have hardly anything to do with Christmas. It seemly like anything you do will somehow offend someone.

I didn’t get many designs on the computer but that was because I felt like they were appropriate for the design brief. Also my experience with Illustrator is basic, so I didn’t know how to do a lot of things I wanted to do, but with some help I got a design done and you could tell what it was meant to be so I was happy with it.

This week I have the presentation for the design icon. I wouldn’t say I have a big interest in phone boxes but I am looking forward to doing the presentation. I like researching the topics for presentations and make the presentation, it’s just the presenting I am not good at but at least I am getting better at it.

This week I am preparing the usability testing. When I did the summer assignment and we had to learn about usability testing, I found it quite interesting as it’s something different to what we normally do. So I am pleased I am getting to have a go at actually doing the testing.

eCards submitted
Following much frustration caused by my limited experience using Illustrator and Photoshop, the eCards have now been submitted for review.

Overall, I am pleased with the results of the team & I though I feel given that the next time such a project arises that we would all have a much better understanding of what is required.

We now eagerly await to find which (if any) are chosen.

Westgate Studio's Progress
The team is progressing well (from what I can tell) with the design tasks that were assigned during last weeks meeting; though I am as yet to see any of the designs.

The paper based usability testing that we will participate in next week is quite exciting for me as it will be the first time that I have conducted such a test; though it will be Viki that manage the testing from beginning to end.

Presentation Preparation
I am really pleased that I was permitted to present on the mini for the culture vulture task. I have a genuine interest (and dare I say passion) for the mini from times past and present. The research has filled in many gaps in my knowledge about the timeless classic that is favoured in the hearts of many.

As part of my research I watched back to back the 1969 & 2003 versions of 'The Italian Job' and thoroughly enjoyed every second!

The presentation & handout is coming together well though I feel that some 'trimming down' may be required.

Dog Bite & Poorly-itus
Monday saw a 5hr trip to Barnsley General District Hospital, Accident & Emergency Department after splitting up a fight between two of the three dogs in the house where I currently live. Butterfly stitches and a pile of tablets later I was on my way back to base. My hand wasn't in any fit state to computer based work; although that didn't stop me making major updates to the 'Pi Creative Team Area'.

To add illness to injury, I have been suffering a stint of man-flu for the majority of this week & have been my usual 'wussy' self when dealing with it. The additional medication I have been taking to combat the near fatal illness that is the sniffles that I have been taking means that I rattle when I walk with 29 tablets per day in my system; roll on Tuesday when they run out!

In Closing
This week is going to be full of mixed emotions and enough work to make the entire week pass like a blink of an eye! Stay tuned...

Shaun Bellis - Project Manager

Pitch

Ok so we didn't get the pitch but I think it was a success. It was a vast improvement on our last attempt. I felt quite confident and this time I didn't want to run out of the room. I think the learning experience was worth the stress.

I think it helped just taking one design in to pitch, it is hard to say "This is the solution to your problem" then the next completely different design "This is ALSO the perfect solution". I think having just one design which was very polished was a good Idea.

I think Friday took a lot of pressure from the team as a whole. We now know where we stand for Games Design, also we are able to start work on Bob, Things are starting to move along with Chris, we now have the images.

I wasn't sure what to expect with Chris. I was kind of worried it would turn into a disaster, like Bob's project. I am quite confident that it will be a nice little site to work on. Chris' images were totally different from Bob's which is a great relief.

eChristmas Cards
I am currently working on some designs and mulling round how to display them. I am considering Steve's comments about it needing to be obvious that it's interactive media. I have been having problems with GIF animations due to the image quality and lack of colours. The only other alternative is Flash, which requires pulg-ins and is an accessibility issue.

At the moment I am thinking about HTML eMails to distribute them.

E-card designs

This week I feel like I’m progressing better with this assignment as the other assignment (A9- Outside the box) is out the way. Last week I didn’t do much for this assignment as A9 took my full attention but I am back to trying my hardest for this project.

This week at college seems quite stressful, as the team had to get the pitch completed for Friday. I didn’t have much to do with alteration of the pitch presentation but the atmosphere on Thursday was tense and quiet panicky.

This week for self study I have been doing some e-card designs, I have enjoyed doing them. Last year we got to do some sketchbook work but we haven’t done any this year yet, so it was good to get a chance to add more colour to my sketch book, so it doesn’t look like it’s just full of writing. The main thing I am finding hard when designing the e-cards is trying to make the design contemporary. Also when I think of winter holidays (Christmas) I think of more traditional, and it’s difficult trying to see pass thinks I associate with Christmas. So I am trying to base the designs mainly on winter themes.

This week we got Chris images, his images aren’t shocking or anything that is too eye catching. The images look like photos took on a mobile phone that has been taken on the spur of the moment. I do prefer Chris image more than Bob, mainly because I think photos are more interesting. The photos show older people’s homes and environments, some quite dull looking and others with a friendlier atmosphere.

Proof that team work, works!

We were unsuccessful with the Games Development pitch against Blu-Box Creative but never the less I am proud of the achievements of the team (and in particular Gary) in getting the pitch together in time.

The assembly of the re-pitch coincided with week of the A9 hand in and so regrettably this diluted the amount of available free time to work on the A11 project; though significant improvements were made despite this.

Using an interactive PDF for the pitch I felt worked well as it gave us greater control over the navigation of the slides above the sequential back and forwards. Additionally, by adding the navigational controls into the mock up, I feel that it gave the perception of a working build but without all of the associated coding and cross browser issues. I feel that with a little polishing, this may be the solution I use for future pitches.

Mike certainly was difficult to read and gave nothing away during either pitches; though his feedback to Steve afterwards has given me a much needed insight into client phycology.

The morning (and I mean morning - 4am) of the pitch I was physically sick and overly emotional; I have never been like this about anything in my life before (and I have been through a proposal!). I really did not want to go into that room and face the impending pain that was going to be the presentation.

I was thinking of a million different ways to get my cool back and that only made things worse. When the daylight broke in through the window of the room I had been mindlessly staring at my laptop screen for I made contact with Gary. A few calming & encouraging words were enough to get me moving in the right direction (thank you for that) but it wasn't until the minute that I got into the presentation room only to join into a conversation about my monkey & star chart that I felt comfortable once again.

In the literal minutes that we left the room I felt like a weight had been lifted; I was me again. Presenting wasn't half as bad as I had somehow talked myself into thinking it was and regardless of the result, we had achieved greatness.

After the presentation Steve & I had a meeting with 'Mr. Boss Man' of the Thornes campus to discuss some of Bob's images and to seek permission to proceed with the project. Thankfully, we were given the proverbial nod to proceed. This combined with the receipt of Chris's images I am pleased to say that things are shaping up nicely; though time is of the essence.

The focus now is on the eCards for the college but with the submission date drawing ever closer, it wont be long before we are back into the builds for Bob & Chris.

Once again, big thank you to the team recently. Everyone has pulled together fantastically.

Shaun Bellis - Project Manager

Growth Galore!

Photography Pitch
The pitch to the photography students proved to be insightful to say the least. It certainly was a different experience to what I was expecting.

The opposing team lead the pitch to group but given that they had substantially more time working on the project as well as the supporting communication with the photography tutor.

It would be a lie to say that I wasn't disappointed when I found out that we were not successful in our pitch to Amanda and the respective students; after all no one likes rejection. Though, in the same breath, I breath a sigh of relief that we were not selected due to the clients tailored CMS requirements alongside the almost design by committee approach to the project.

I wish the best of luck to Tom & his team.

Games Development Pitch
I want this project & from what I understand so do the rest of the team. I consider that the Games Development pitch was the first real pitch that I have ever had to do & differed greatly from the co-pitch with Tom for the Photography site. With that in mind I feel that Gary & I did really well. The designs were fantastic!

The only real kink in the armour was our inexperience in what is expected during these pitches. The client & Steve were expecting to see a greater depth of site by showing addition pages such as the calender, etc.

The designs were overshadowed by the shortfall. We have been fortunate enough to be able to re-pitch for the job; this time we will be considerably more prepared as we know what will be expected.

Westgate Studio's
Hearing from both Bob & Chris this week has reinstated some needed confidence in the pairs willingness & commitment; though I am still awaiting feedback from Chris.

There is much to do this week... no rest for the wicked!

Shaun Bellis - Project Manager

After the pitch on Friday I have taken forward the first screen design. I have made the colours brighter as asked from the feedback given from the pitch.

There was a problem with this layout, when there were large amounts of textual content on the page there was alot of white space on the right hand side which was very uncomfortble. I have since tuned the content into two columns.



I have also started placing content from differant pages into the "template". Below is a sample of how the calendar could look. I will be uploading a few other designs tomorrow.



I was thinking for the next pitch, it may be a nice idea to have the layout fully working, or at least have the template coded?

Also it may be a nice idea for the presentation slides to be created as HTML files instead of PDF. This will allow us to have links to the built website without changing windows. It will enable us to show the designs off in the correct size and demonstrate navigation etc.

Does anyone have any idea as to what other design we should take forward, as we are only allowed to have 2 designs for the next pitch.

Likewise if anyone has any other advise as to changes to the above design please let me know URGENTLY.

Moving ever forwards!

A hectic few weeks are ahead of us, this week being the start of the very hectic ones. Having so many clients to pitch for and design for is certainly a juggling act! During the past week, the team has had two clients to pitch ideas for; Amanda (Photography) and Mike (Games Development). Amanda has already come back to the team with news on the pitch and told us that Blu-Box had won us for the commission. I'd like to say I'm unhappy about this, but in the end, compared to the other team we have plenty more chances.

On Friday, the team pitched to Mike, one of the designs pitched was one of my own - a late effort but one nonetheless (see below).


In my honest opinion, I'm glad that the photography pitch went to the other team. If we'd have been commissioned the job by Amanda, we would have had a lot to take on considering we also have Bob and Chris from Wakefield Studios (and also not forgetting the eCards that we're pitching ideas for!). Our work wasn't in vain as it can be used as great submission evidence.

This week is time to focus on the Games Development re-pitch, once we've had our online meeting and received the feedback from the first pitch, we can set about amending our current designs to suit.

Then there's the eCards, so far I have done 4 flat designs (see below), please could you provide feedback on the designs before they are animated and also suggest ways in which they could be animated (if animated at all, a still card is also an option!)

[Idea 1 - Winter]

[Idea 2 - Robin]

[ Idea 3 - Snowflake]

[Idea 4 - Snowman]

Until next week, the work shall continue!

--
Suzanne Hullah, Developer

Better late than never... Oh wait, used that title once already!

This week has been very demanding, CMS (Content Management Systems) are a struggle to get to grips with when you've not had any real experience with them - especially when they're not just for a blog or a news reel, but for a photography image gallery! This has certainly left me with a challenge as the best CMS that I found during midweek was Coppermine, but this was rejected by my fellow team mates as being too bloated and more than we needed for the brief.

The thought of having everything ready for a pitch this Friday is quite daunting. I have yet to receive a design for the Games Development website and now Bob's brief is written up, I have plenty to be doing for that also. Then there's the flash eCards which we need to bring our ideas together for and so as you can see, its all go!

My work over the past two weeks has gone well beyond the minimum of 8 hours self study and that was just on implementing Coppermine! Busy, Busy, Busy!

--
Suzanne Hullah, Developer

Half term

This week as been really busy for me, I was hoping to get loads of work done but I haven’t got as much as I wanted to do, and I am not looking forward to the CSS test which is soon so I have been trying to work on that more.

The Gantt chart is looking good so far but I need a bit more information to complete it and that will probably need all the team members say, as there is no point setting unrealistic task time limits. I will have sort out a way that all the team members can view the Gantt chart, but has the file type is a Microsoft Project file and some people don’t have the program they won’t be able to open it. The Gantt chart file can be made to be PDF but my computer won’t allow me to make PDF’s at the moment, so if I could get that problem sorted out then that could give out the Gantt chart as a PDF.

The designs for the Photography course website are looking good, I like the design with the images as the banners and it’s a good idea for the student to put their own images as the banner. There isn’t a lot of links to confuse them so it a simple layout which is good as it will make the website users focus on the students work. I have showed Jo the designs and she says she likes the layout and the look of website design 2.

Great opportunity...

The working half term has proven to be a valuable catch up opportunity for me.

Though I have had contact with Bob of Westgate Studio's I am still as yet to hear back from Chris; dispite another email earlier on in the week.

During my last communication (email) with Chris I said that I would give him a phonecall on Monday; it may be as simple as having the email address wrong? Regardless, I am concerned about how Chris will interact with the team.

The screen designs that I have seen so far certainly do look promising. I am looking forward to the pitching sessions and feel confident with the work that we will be presenting.

I have had to use a proportion of this week to also catch up on my A9 assignment which following the weeks previous difficulties had taken a back burner.

I feel that by learning CSS earlier, the now first years are at a bit of an advantage to us. The A9 unit has presented me with the opportunity to read into CSS theories, tips, tricks and I wish that I had discovered how deep the rabbit hole goes much sooner on.

EDIT: I have had a reassuring email from Chris today (Monday 3rd November).

Shaun Bellis - Project Manager

Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up

Following on from last weeks difficulties, the team has been much more positive and as a result much more productive.

Team Area
Identifying that there was a weakness with how information was distributed certainly has worked in the favour of the greater good. The progression into the 'team area' has been a welcomed and well received one.

Briefs / Scoping
The long anticipated briefs have begun to materialise has provided much needed reality to the project.

It was great to have the other team members scope the games development project to give them an understanding and experience of the process and hopefully some of the difficulties contained there in.

Assembling the brief for the games development was a team collaboration, utilizing the format established for the photography project.

Pitching
Generally speaking, I don't have too much of an issue talking in front of groups of people; regardless if I know them or not.

From the ideas that have been shown to me so far, I would have no issues standing in front of a client and 'selling' those.

The idea of pitching against Tom's Team is becoming ever more of a reality since over 50% of our projects overlap. Whilst I feel that competition is healthy, going up against the other half of the class (almost) doesn't come without some apprehensions.

Working Holiday
To ensure that the efforts put in last week are not lost over the holidays, we have to consider this to be a 'catch up' week rather than a week off.

Inadvertently & regrettably, I have let my A9 work slip a little over the last week in order to bring the A11 unit back to where it needed to be.

There is, as always, much to do.

--
"Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late" - Felix Frankfurter

New design and updates.

Thank you Shaun and Sue for your feedback.

I half agree with Shaun about the space at the top. I don't know why but it feels "right" to move it down SLIGHTLY. So I have. Just to clarify. I think this layout needs to be fixed width due to the image. perhaps about 1000px in width. A max width could also be a possibility. The content divs will not be fixed size and will expand according to the content.
Below is a sample of how other pages could look.

Below is another quite simple design which just makes the work the center piece.


Comments please.....

Better late than never...

This week has been extremely busy, due to the low moral in last week's journal entries. A lot of work has been done to bring the team motivation levels back up and I think we're at the stage where we're back on track. It's the start of half term now and we as a team are preparing ourselves for two pitches during the first week back - one for ND Photography, the other for Game Development.

It's quite nerve racking trying to bring everything together for a pitch, we're having to put our ideas on the line so that someone can decide between us and the other team. A lot of research is being conducted on my part, Content Management Systems for the photography pitch mainly. Working with Gary, we're trying to find the ideal CMS for an image gallery where we can still change the design of the page layout. It's quite difficult!

The Pi Creative website is now completed, just a few 'housekeeping' issues that need sorting. The brand colours are now in stone and we have all our work flow documents to suit, the organisation levels within the team are getting back on form and communication will be something that's an ongoing task.

Generally this week I'm feeling more optimistic. We have to get our heads down and work hard for these pitches as I don't want to feel like we've lost the opportunity of experiencing a good pitch. Hopefully, the hard work will pay off.

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Suzanne Hullah, Developer

Geting into it.

The design has finally started and It feels like I am now getting somewhere. I ham really enjoying it.

I have come up with 2 screen designs for the Photography course which I am quite happy with.

The first one:


I was quite happy with this quite simple design. I wanted to keep the colours down and quite plain so it did not distract from the work. The response from the team was quite positive.
Steve's Feedback - In Summary
Was expecting something a little sexier.
Pointed me more in the direction of a web 2.0 feel.

Second Design:
I am extremely happy with this design. I like the contrast between the bright photograph and the quite plain background. I am happy with the secondary navigation, I think the glass like box really works for this design. I think the tabbed navigation needs working on a little. There will be a different header photograph for each page. They will be similarly simple. It would also be nice if they students could provide pictures like this to insert there!

I would like formal feedback on both of these designs (via the Journal Comments).

Goals and Aims

At the moment I am getting on with making a Gantt chat for the team projects. I have produced a production schedule which can be used for all the projects we take on, as it is a list of tasks that need to be done to get the project completed. The production schedule is mainly based on our first project (Bob) and alteration will be made for different projects. The Gantt chart will give the team goals to reach and dates to have tasks completed by and it will give a clearer view of what tasks need to be done. Plus the Gantt chart will be really good evidence to hand in at the end on the assignment.

This week when we got Bob’s artwork that he wishes to have put on his web site, I was quit shocked by some of the pieces of work. He’s work isn’t something I would normally look at and it’s not something I personally like. It would be good to see what Chris’s work is like, see how different or alike it is to Bob’s artwork.

The games course project seems quite interesting. It’s good the client knows what they want and as a bit of web design knowledge. Using the information the client as given, gives us a good starting point with the designs and the colour scheme has been chosen by the client which saves a bit of time for the designer. The client wants something nearly opposite to the current web site they have, so that could be a good thing when it comes to designing.