Week 13

This week, the designers worked on their case studies, and the computer science folks continued coding away in order to make the clients' websites top quality. I decided to change the theme from the modern coffee-shop theme that is relevant to the website, I decided to go a different route and branch off of the theme of our team's website. I give you...

It is obviously still a work in progress, but now that I am satisfied with my theme and established the design, I can begin to add the content. Since we used comic book-themed photos for our team website, I decided to use those for the team page and do some magic with our clients' photos and give them a comic book-type look in photoshop. So far I got Jeremy's photo edited, and followed the tutorial that I found on Youtube.

BEFORE

AFTER

Client page in-progress

We also learned about how to assemble instructions for the client in order for them to understand their website. In order to get a feel of how we should implement this, Alyssa, Jamie, and I followed instructions on a board game called "Bookworm."

We found the instructions to be rather wordy, but nonetheless gave every detail of how to play the game. However, the instructions were so wordy that several times we were confused on what to do.

 Either way, we had fun playing, despite how bad we were at answering the questions on the cards!

Team Geek: Epilogue

The epilogue of this book pretty much summed up the whole book, and came to the conclusion to why companies end up failing, which is HRT (humility, respect, trust). If an industry is lacking one of these skills, it can severely harm the production of the workers. This book taught me a lot about working together in a team. I feel like I could utilize some of the advice and information given in this book in the future when I start my career as a designer to help ensure a productive, well-mannered, hard working group of people who work together to successfully get the job done.

Off Campus Event: Coffee and Critique

Today Jamie, Raechel, and I went to the AIGA Coffee and Critique at the Midtown Scholar library in Harrisburg. There was a good group of working professionals and other students like us, who showed their work and received comments suggestions on their work. It was overall a great experience and the president of Central PA AIGA, Tim McKenna made us feel very welcome. We might go back to the next one in December to actually show our work.

Week 12 and Client Meeting!

This week in class Alyssa and I looked at images on the iStock website, and chose more finalized images that we would like to use for our website. So far we bought one image for the homepage and another for the 404 error page. We are going to purchase them this weekend with the credits provided by our client, Audrey and share them with the Computer Science guys so that they can be applied to the actual website for Sven's. Currently, they are finishing up the actual content blocks, which is harder coding, and will add all of the physical content in within the next few weeks. We decided to not do online ordering at all, simply because Audrey and Jeremy aren't really sure if they will have the capabilities of providing that service with how small their potential cafe space will be, and the CS guys faced difficulties with implementing it since nothing was ever set in stone on how it would be implemented. We also got rid of the catering for the same reason of Audrey and Jeremy not being big enough to carry through with it quite yet. We are on a great path, and the website is looking great!

Client Meeting:

     During our client meeting with Audrey she looked over the website that the CS guys have coded so far, and she seemed very pleased with it. She agreed on the fact that they are not big enough yet for the catering and online ordering options yet, given that they are just starting out and have a very small space. We are however leaving the catering option there, but the CS guys are turning it "off" for now so that it is not visible to the user, but can be activated when Audrey and Jeremy decide to begin their catering service.



 Mobile Homepage (new background image from before):


- Alyssa and I felt that this image is much better for the mobile home page in terms of readability. It also has a warm, welcoming feeling with out being too heavy in the dark color of the coffee beans. After all, first impressions are very important, and we want users to Sven's Cafe's website to want to explore and see what they have to offer.

In-progress website:

Case Study:

I also began my case study this week, and finished the list of content that I would like to use. My idea is to tell a story of the process, and present the deliverables and other information in chronological order, as it was a roller coaster ride with Audrey and Jeremy with finding space to officially begin their business. It is obviously still a work in progress in terms of design, but I am trying to tie in the theme of our creative brief.

Team Geek Chapter 6 Reflection: Users are People Too

Chapter six emphasized the importance of the user when creating a website or application. In order to initially attract the user, you must manage the public perception of it. It is best to try not to distort the truth with flashy advertisements. You must also pay attention to first impressions, because they will determine whether or not the user will stick with your website or app. It is very important to have a fast loading time as well, because it is easy to get impatient. Usability is important as well, because if the user gets frustrated navigating your program they are likely to not come back to it again. A lot of these points that were discussed pertain to the design field as well, especially in the User Experience/ Interaction field, because their main focus is to design for the user in order to provide them with an enjoyable experience.

Team Geek Chapter 5 Reflection: The Art of Organizational Manipulation

This Chapter mainly focused on how to get the best out of the place you work for in order to benefit your success as well as your team's. One point made a few times was to under-promise and over-deliver, which means to focus on the task at hand as given to you by your manager, but over deliver what is expected of you. That way, it saves work for your manager to do as well as proves that you can go above and beyond what is expected of you at your current level. Some other points of advice included were to take risks and don't fear failure. I found this to be particularly helpful because we all have to dare to take risks in order to have greater chances of advancing.

Two ways that your environment at the workplace can prevent you from succeeding because of either bad people or bad organizations. Insecure managers who are afraid of failure and hoard information for their own benefit should be considered poisonous people, as well as office politicians. Bad organizations are obsessed with titles and organizational hierarchy, and don't value engineers and their work as much.

Week 11

This week, I compiled all of the elements for the website into a folder on Google Drive and shared it with the Computer Science guys, as well as the content information from the client, which we received this week in addition to their business plan that didn't contain all of the information we needed. Alyssa and I are currently sorting through images on istock photography that we would like to use on the website. So far, we have been staying right on track with the project plan, and have even gotten ahead on it on the Design side, which essentially benefits the Computer Science guys so that they can look over everything, and let us know if we need to make any changes. Alyssa and I are meeting up and deciding exactly which photos we are using for the website, as we need to buy them using our clients credits on the istock account. After that we just need head shots of Audrey and Jeremy, and we will be done with the Design part of the website building.

Week 10

This week, each member of the team, including myself worked on completing the tasks established in our first sprint. Alyssa and I got all of the typefaces and their sizes and weights together, the hexcodes for all of the colors, font licensing, as well as saved all of the icons into images for the computer science guys. I also completed the favicon, which is basically the mug with steam that is seen on the homepage of the computer-version of the website to represent whether Sven's Cafe is Open or Closed. So far the are doing a great job putting together the website, though it is only the logo and navigation bar, it looks exactly like our prototypes.

Project Plan:

Coded Homepage:

Favicon:

Team Geek Chapter 4: Poisonous People

This chapter discussed so-called "poisionous people" on a team, and how to deal with them. Instead of identifying them as bad people and filter them out, we must filter out their negative behavior, because it is a negative threat to a high-functioning team. In order to help prevent poisonous people, you must fortify your culture within the team, so that bad behaviors cannot penetrate the air of attention and focus, which could be put at risk by it. Some examples given to identify poisonous people are ego, overentitlement, immature or confusing communication, and perfectionism. The solution to these examples of poisonous people are to redirect the energy of perfectionists (because they do have good intentions), don't feed the energy creature, don't get overly emotional, repel with kindness, and know when to give up. I feel these are very helpful in repelling the negative behaviors of poisonous people, and ensure a high-functioning, hardworking team.