final analysis

I think this web project has been an excellent use of my time.  As a sixth of the degree programme, I was initially unconvinced that designing a web page would significantly contribute to my expected career in a large public library that would undboutedly have its own separate IT department, and I discussed it with Nikola at some length prior to my accepting a place in the programme.  Now, on the other side, I feel that this is perhaps one of the most useful possible classes, and personally helpful as well.  Information Architecture, although perhaps intended for website design specifically, can be universally applicable.  Any time one is designing a presentation, workshop, or project, the same important process of gathering client requirements, surveying competitors, analysing users, and gathering utility feedback will strengthen the end product.  I feel that professionally, my time learning these skills has been well spent.

On a personal level, I've owned a domain name with an "under construction" sign for the past year.  I intend to turn it into a professional site highlighting my writing projects, and I now have a solid handle on how to do it.  I've been surveying other author sites for a couple of years informally, imagining what I'd steal or shy away from.  Now, I have a solid method and experience designing a site, and I feel prepared to create my own, test it, and purchase hosting to go live.

Regarding tumblr. as a blogging platform, I am unimpressed.  I had considered including screenshots, but the apparent inability to back-date posts means they would be clustered at the top when I thought of them, as opposed to integrating in the proper place.  For the purposes of a project log, I think it's not as useful as other software such as Blogger or Livejournal.

bugs

I've been looking at computer screens too long today; my eyes are gelling.

Earlier today I went into the labs to manipulate the image I found for the Views Sent page.  As the Keeper of the Code wasn't around, I posted my page for others to see and comment on.  I also went through the site page by page, link by link (lots of "back" buttons as I checked that every navigation link on the global navigation was working) and I wrote a massive report.  Most issues are stylistic; two are what I consider major bugs. I can't remember if I posted previously, but Safari doesn't recognize that our content continues to scroll down past the container on the two pages that require scroll bars, so it cuts off in the middle of the content.  I've been searching for three hours tonight trying to figure out why.  I even found the Clear-Left guy's forum on common bugs in the browsers.  So far all I can figure is that it's either something really simple, like somehow we didn't get those pages/code validated with w3c (but we did, I swear) or else it's something fiddly, like the "Councillor Profiles" page in which everything is floated in a direction and there was the issue of negative margins.  However, the "About Us" page shouldn't have any floating items, and it's also being cut off.  There's definitely something going on with box height, or containers, or something.  Without the code, though, I can't experiment.   I've suggested emailing Cath over this and the jumping scrollbar issue (when clicking through fifty pages of links, having the content jerk even slightly to the left on the two pages that required a scrollbar is unsettling) but I think others want the chance to try their hands at solving the problems.  More power to them.  I'm just nervous because of our rapidly approaching deadline.

I also recommended putting a purple border around photos in keeping with the blocky nature of the site, but others are tired of the purple.  I've let that one go, as when I make my own site all by myself, I can have everything exactly my own way.  :)

There is an awful lot left to do. 

photos

Paul has totally come through for us with the user surveys!  I wish I would have involved him in November, or better yet, in October.  When I resent all the information, I cc'd him and he distributed user surveys himself.  By Friday, we had 18 surveys to work with.  They would have been so useful when creating personas; nevertheless, there were still useful things we could take from them, even at this late a stage in the game.

It was decided that we could use more photos on our site (and one of the user surveys said the person expected to see empowering pictures of older people on the OPC site) so I spent a couple hours today searching creative commons attribution-only or non-commercial attribution photos on flickr.  It was great fun, and I tagged about 60 in my delicious and sent the link to the group via basecamp so they could see and give me their feedback.

I also tested the site yesterday in Firefox for Mac and Safari.  There were some bugs, which I forwarded on to the group.  I think that "clear left" thing is going to be useful in solving them.  I'll find out Monday when I go in to work more on the project.

I also sent the links to my family, because I figured they wanted to know what I've been up to this term, and also, they could do some extra user testing for us.  ;)

more client (mis)communications

As the contact person, this really has been an interesting experience. It occurred to me this evening that I still hadn't heard back from either of the clients regarding any of my questions in the last email (Tuesday), and wasn't entirely sure if they were even coming to a final meeting tomorrow (Friday). I could understand if they didn't feel the need to, because we've met many times. One of the reasons we continue to meet is because they don't reply to questions over email, and it's difficult to make decisions over the phone that involve the two of them. However, we wanted them to approve the content in its final form, wording and everything, and we wanted to make a decision regarding the blog.

I called Ed. Ed had indeed decided the meeting was unnecessary . . . but apparently decided not to tell us? Anyway, he is still interested in a blog, but couldn't provide any information such as an email address to set one up. His idea was to leave an "under construction" sign up. My personal feeling is that it's not a good idea because they haven't nominated anyone to improve or update the site. I solicited opinions from the group over Basecamp (excellent site, by the way!) and we'll ask Cath tomorrow what she thinks.

He also became confused about the user surveys, suggesting that he had them in his papers somewhere but hadn't distributed them, and if I could just send them again . . .

I have (and I cc'd the email with the last meeting's notes, and the questions the gentlemen still haven't answered regarding certain aspects of the pages--the Jotform, for instance--to Paul). It's only upsetting because at every meeting in the past six weeks, the clients have brought them out, asked questions about them, appeared to understand, assured us that it would be no problem to get them filled out and returned, and then . . . nothing. We've repeated this scene four times, and we even agreed on the date that they would be received by twice. The first was supposed to be the week after our first meeting, and the second time was supposed to be by the second meeting in the computer lab. The last three emails where I've requested a date by which we will receive them has elicited silence. In our phone conversation tonight, I once again emphasized that they were necessary for our grade in the class, and when could we have them? That was when he requested I send them again.

I wouldn't have minded emailing my grandma about it even a week ago, but he promised last week that it would be no problem to get the surveys. And last night my great-aunt died--sad, but not a big deal to me because I didn't know her. Of course, my grandma's kind of a wreck right now. Perhaps the other group members have older relatives that wouldn't mind helping us out? I can definitely see the utility of user surveys, and in retrospect, we should have realized within the first month that the OPC wouldn't provide them in time. It was just one of those situations where logically, they know a lot of older people who could easily fill out the forms, and they kept saying that they would get it done. I feel somewhat guilty as the contact person. I should have been more aware that this would happen and kept better on top of it, and I should have involved Paul in the beginning of November, and . . . well, I should have made sure it happened somehow. I'll do better on my next web project!

Surveying the other group members, we're all pretty terrified we're going to go to class on the 14th and in front of everyone, our clients are going to say the website doesn't have enough content, and it's worded incorrectly, and the JotForm asks the wrong questions, and they changed their mind about purple. Basically, we're all terrified they're going to tell us we've done it all wrong. Because if they told us to be creative with the color, but in point of fact, the only acceptable one was purple, what other surprises do we have in store for us? I can't even guess. Hence, the terror.

I'm not even worried about my grade or the educated evaluations of my classmates.  I'm afraid of the clients.

client requirements and coding

We met with Ed one last time because Harry was unavailable.  He informed us that orange is also a political color, and when we brought up the menu to choose a shade of purple, he chose the default purple as his preferred shade.  He had a few other comments to guide our layout, but I'm glad we got it all approved.

He was surprised we didn't have any content up, but I explained we would just cut and paste from the information he provided us.  I'm in charge of the JotForm and now I'm terrified when we unveil it on Friday, he'll object to the wording or content of the questions.  I guess I should email those for approval with the notes.

This time Ruth's taken the notes, but as usual I'm sending them.  It's been a really good experience being the contact person between the group and the clients.  In addition to booking rooms and negotiating meetings, I've learned when it's important to go up the ladder to get necessary content.  Perhaps I'll email Paul about how we need the user surveys.  We still haven't received them, and I've asked with every single email and at ALL the meetings.

Regarding coding, I tried downloading an Open Source HTML Editor, but it turns out my OS is too old for most of them.  Sad!  I swear, I bought my Mac less than 4 years ago, but it's practically in the Jurassic era now.  I heard Leopard's coming out soon, so if possible, maybe I'll just skip Tiger entirely.  Both Aptana Studio and Kompozer have let me down.  They installed okay, but then I get some funky error messages, and the forums let me know why.

picking up the pace

Paul has been incredibly responsive. Within an hour of my email and Chris's phone call (at the suggestion of Cath), he's sent several pages of information, the councilor photos and positions, and contacted two other people (someone with the Pensioner's Forum newsletter, someone with the monthly radio show). It's good news.

I would like to have all our primary navigation on either the top or the side, but the discussion continues over whether or not to split it. Everyone else is a lot more creative than I am, so I have to trust their superior design sense.

After the phone call, I cropped the logo and made it web-ready. (Note: This version was not the final version we used; a faster-loading, clearer version Tom fixed was our final logo).  I also created an index page based on Ruth's wireframes, and over the course of the week, I've changed or altered it with different colors and placement of the navigation.  Before we meet the clients again next Friday, we'll decide on which template to use, and then get his feedback, and then we can start coding in earnest.

I think we'll have a lot to do from now on.

wireframes, content, and code

Several weeks have gone by, during which time I've communicated with the clients several times about the need for electronic content and the user surveys.  Because the clients didn't respond to my emails or the notes that were sent, I set up another meeting via the phone to present them with the wire frames.  It seemed like a good opportunity to correct any mistakes we had over the nature of the site we were creating for them.  That meeting took place in Watts computer lab, and I was glad that Cath got to see some of it to observe our interactions with our clients.  The frustrations we've felt over lack of communication were particularly clear.  The client prefers a hands-off approach, but in fact has very specific ideas about how the websit should look.  When pressed for those details, we are told to use our creativity.  It's a frustrating circle.

I typed up notes from the meeting and forwarded them to the clients.  In response, Ed scanned in one item from the large packet of information he attempted to present us with in paper format. Ironically, it was the exact same piece of information that we'd previously received electronically from Paul. I thanked Ed for it, and then several days went by and I contacted him about the rest.  There's been no response. Perhaps our site is actually much simpler than we think it is.

Wireframes: when first putting my pages into wireframes, I created my own; then I put them in Sam's; today I've formatted them into Ruth's. I think hers are the clearest, and I hope they're the ones we go with finally. Although the others believe having a variety of options allows us to choose the best one, I know theirs are better.  I'm ready to choose one from the options available.

Code: I feel very confident about my ability to put everything into code. However, I worry because we still haven't received much information from the OPC, and we haven't received the user surveys. I've sent at least four emails regarding them, and at the last meeting, the clients were still carrying them around. It seems as though now they understand that we really do need them, but I think we'll be lucky to get them by our next meeting, which is set to be the 30th of November.

Photoshop: It was very helpful to learn how to make stuff "layer 0." That's something I've been struggling with in GIMP, even though I belong to a livejournal tutorial group.

Tumblr: I'm really not sure how I feel about this program. It's a little too simple, somehow. Never thought I'd say that about web software! I'm used to more stuff, courtesy of livejournal (my favorite blogging-ware, even in comparison to X-journal, the downloadable clients) or blogger.  It doesn't seem to date the entries, at least not that I can see.

client meeting, take two

We finally met the clients, Harry and Ed, on Monday, after the unfortunate Friday incident. Sam asked the questions, when he could get a word in edgewise ;) and Geoff and I took notes. Our clients seem great, interesting and funny, with strong opinions about what they want (to raise the profile of the OPC) without a lot of ideas about how to do it (perhaps with flash animation, popups, and music, to make a "dull" topic more exciting!!!!).

One concern I have is about the content of the website. Today in the mail I received a packet of information from someone at the council named Paul. It's all the publicity materials of the OPC. And it's all in paper format.

When we requested the logo, we were handed a paper with instructions to scan it in ourselves. After some discussion, they agreed to get the original artist's art . . . possibly also a paper version. (Yet it's on business cards and stationary. Where's the logo they're using for that and why can't we get it?) I also very much regret having brought a copy of our user survey to the meeting, as they agreeably took it with the intention of making photocopies, and when it was suggested we could email them the questions to distribute it electronically, they said they'd scan the finished surveys. So I now anticipate getting 10 hand-written surveys, probably on a CD, at our next face-to-face meeting. Our clients seem very responsible, but understandably as this is their first web project, are having difficulty knowing how best to help us make their site. When asked for preferred colors or themes, they told us we should be creative, and it wasn't their responsibility to tell us certain colors. When pressed, they noted that we couldn't use red, blue, green or yellow unless they're on the same page together, because apparently those colors have political meanings in England. So now I'm envisioning a flashing orange and purple site with popups that sing "I was Born to Love You" by Queen when you click. Hey wait, I think I saw a Myspace profile like that once . . .

It will be interesting to see how these communication issues work themselves out. After all, there were three of us and only two of them in that meeting, but they were both ex-mayors, and I think they may have had the upper hand. ;) Once we can present them with a skeleton of the site, and perhaps ask them to look at other professional sites to see what the current standards are, we'll have a more productive discussion of the graphic aspects. I think we have plenty to work with to reach that point.

Note to self: figure out who Paul is and what his connection is to the group. Should I be including him in my correspondence, or is he the OPC secretary?

**Edit** In retrospect, I notice that I didn't post about the previous Friday's incident.  I was nominated to be the contact person with the group under the dubious reasoning that I lived in Brighton, but lacking a cell phone, this assignment didn't, at first, seem like a good fit.  I emailed the clients right away, but didn't hear anything for several days, at which point I called Harry and set up the Friday meeting.  He called Ed, and all seemed ready.  I booked the room at Aldrich library and after class we all went over to meet the clients.  A set of questions to gather client requirements was drawn up earlier, brainstormed by the entire group in the computer lab, and we were pretty excited.  And then . . . they never showed up.  One of the group members did finally call the phone numbers, but they were house numbers and no one was home.  After 45 minutes, we left.  I got home and called Harry again.  By that time, he'd gotten home and called Ed--Apparently, Ed forgot about the meeting and was at his doctor's practice all afternoon while Harry was waiting for him that whole time on the freezing front steps of the Council building.  We rescheduled for the next available time, which was Monday.  Only half the group members were available, and as I said in the post above, we felt out-numbered.

After that meeting, Geoff typed up the notes and emailed them to me.  I made additions, and sent them back, and he posted them to basecamp.  Those notes are the basis for the Client Requirements.

First Day

Pre-project, we haven't received our clients yet but are practicing in Dreamweaver. Everything's familiar and feels safe; I need to work on my design and color skills (I have very bad color taste I wouldn't wish on anyone's website, not even for free) but I definitely remember how to use web creation software. I should check if I can see my old college page on the Way Back Machine. 

*Update* I totally found it.  Wow, I was fearless back in my early 20's.  I put my whole CV online.  Everything but my address and my bank account numbers.