Time Management
I predicted my time management using a Gantt chart at the start of this project which was included in my project proposal. I predicted that this project would take the full ten weeks allocated to complete however, I finished two weeks earlier than expected.
Research Phase
Initially I predicted that the research phase would take me one week to complete with three days focusing on 'Coding WordPress Templates' and one day researching WordPress Plugins. This stage took longer due the initial research I completed on WordPress and decided that I would achieve a more professional result if I decided to handcode the website using a BootStrap template. Therefore I spent, one week researching 'WordPress Interfaces' so that I was able to understand the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com and to experiment using these systems. I spent a day resarching 'WordPress Plugins' so that I knew what components I could easily put into the website by using WordPress. I spent a day researching 'Website Marketing' so that Ramsay Safety Solutions would still be able to be recognised on popular search engines and so that I knew what basic marketing I could implement when building the site. I spent a day researching 'BootStrap Templates' so that I could discuss with the client which template would be appropriate for the website. Therefore, this phase took me two weeks in total.
Layout Designs
Initially, website sketches and a high-fidelity wireframe was predicted to take a week in total. However when explaining wireframing techniques to the client, he found the website difficult to picture therefore I decided to create Adobe XD mockups and an Invision Prototype to help with visualisation. I decided that I would begin with the landing page because this was the longest page on the website and most important as it will be the first page potential clients will see. This took me a day to create this mockup and another day to make modifications from feedback given by the client. Another day was used to create a mockup for the other pages on the site and another to create the Invision prototype. This really helped the client as the final website design shares the same layout and similar design decisions (images etc.) as the mockup. The process still took approximately a week in total and therefore I didn't loose any time creating a more detailed mockup.
Spending more time on the research and layout design stage really helped when it came to the implementation phase. I believe that implementing the website would have definately taking me longer if I had kept to using a WordPress template instead of a BootStrap template. Designing the mockup to look similar to the final website design helped to keep me focused and I knew exactly what I needed to do.
Promotional Video Re-creation
I noticed that the Welcome video on Ramsay Safety Solutions' already-existing website was outdated and included a lot of inaccurate information. Therefore I decided that I would recreate this video for the new website to keep all content consistent. As this was a new task I needed to find time to complete this however as I have experience using Premiere Pro and the video that needed re-creating was quite short I was able to complete this within two days.
Implementation Phase
I predicted that I would spend the majority of the allocated time on the implementation phase of the project. Although this was the stage that took the most amount of time, I originally predicted that this would take me six and a half weeks to complete (with two days continency at the start, middle and end). The total amount of time this actually took was around three weeks. One week was spent on the website template while around two weeks was spent adding content to the website. Compared to my prediction where I would have taken two weeks on the website template and four weeks on adding the content, this project took a significantly shorter amount of time.
Testing
I initially thought that I would be testing the website while I was implementing the website. This was true to an extent, however I was mainly using a preview to view what the website would look like as a guide rather than testing it's functionality. I originally predicted that this would take me six and a half weeks however I performed the majority of my testing at the end of the implementation phase once I had hosted the website. I decided that this was the best way to test the site because this was in a true live environment instead of being viewed locally. This was a better option as any errors with programming and layouts would be true to life. For example, when viewing the website locally, I thought that the contact form wasn't working as my email test was not sending however, this was due to the testing environment rather than the form itself. I tested Ramsay Safety Solutions' website using different browsers (Google Chrome, Safari etc.) to ensure that the website would load correctly. In total testing took me approximately a week to complete.
Documentation
I originally planned to:
"...write 200 words in the last 30 minutes of Wednesday’s
session documenting my progress on Monday and Wednesday. Similarly, during the last 30 minutes of Sunday’s session, I aim to write another 200 words
documenting my progress from Saturday and Sunday. An extra 100 words will be used for major changes/outcomes and therefore will total 500 words for each post." (Gattuso, 2019 taken from Project Proposal) Following my gantt chart, I have adhered to the days I have been working on the independent project. However during my researching phase I have been documenting my progress on each day rather than in Wednesday's and Sunday's session. This was because I was making discoveries and design decisions on Monday and Saturday's sessions that I would have to wait to document in the following sessions. This wasn't ideal as I would have had to make notes on each session so that I wouldn't forget what to document. When documenting each session, instead of writing 200 words, I have been naturally writing closer to 500 words per each post. This allowed me to fully explain what I had achieved during that session. During the layout design phase I was documenting whenever I had completed a mockup which was every day. During the implementation phase and beyond I was barely documenting as I felt as though I didn't need to however I made sure to document my design decisions once I had finished the final website design as I compaired this to my original mockup.
Research Phase
Initially I predicted that the research phase would take me one week to complete with three days focusing on 'Coding WordPress Templates' and one day researching WordPress Plugins. This stage took longer due the initial research I completed on WordPress and decided that I would achieve a more professional result if I decided to handcode the website using a BootStrap template. Therefore I spent, one week researching 'WordPress Interfaces' so that I was able to understand the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com and to experiment using these systems. I spent a day resarching 'WordPress Plugins' so that I knew what components I could easily put into the website by using WordPress. I spent a day researching 'Website Marketing' so that Ramsay Safety Solutions would still be able to be recognised on popular search engines and so that I knew what basic marketing I could implement when building the site. I spent a day researching 'BootStrap Templates' so that I could discuss with the client which template would be appropriate for the website. Therefore, this phase took me two weeks in total.
Layout Designs
Initially, website sketches and a high-fidelity wireframe was predicted to take a week in total. However when explaining wireframing techniques to the client, he found the website difficult to picture therefore I decided to create Adobe XD mockups and an Invision Prototype to help with visualisation. I decided that I would begin with the landing page because this was the longest page on the website and most important as it will be the first page potential clients will see. This took me a day to create this mockup and another day to make modifications from feedback given by the client. Another day was used to create a mockup for the other pages on the site and another to create the Invision prototype. This really helped the client as the final website design shares the same layout and similar design decisions (images etc.) as the mockup. The process still took approximately a week in total and therefore I didn't loose any time creating a more detailed mockup.
Spending more time on the research and layout design stage really helped when it came to the implementation phase. I believe that implementing the website would have definately taking me longer if I had kept to using a WordPress template instead of a BootStrap template. Designing the mockup to look similar to the final website design helped to keep me focused and I knew exactly what I needed to do.
Promotional Video Re-creation
I noticed that the Welcome video on Ramsay Safety Solutions' already-existing website was outdated and included a lot of inaccurate information. Therefore I decided that I would recreate this video for the new website to keep all content consistent. As this was a new task I needed to find time to complete this however as I have experience using Premiere Pro and the video that needed re-creating was quite short I was able to complete this within two days.
Implementation Phase
I predicted that I would spend the majority of the allocated time on the implementation phase of the project. Although this was the stage that took the most amount of time, I originally predicted that this would take me six and a half weeks to complete (with two days continency at the start, middle and end). The total amount of time this actually took was around three weeks. One week was spent on the website template while around two weeks was spent adding content to the website. Compared to my prediction where I would have taken two weeks on the website template and four weeks on adding the content, this project took a significantly shorter amount of time.
Testing
I initially thought that I would be testing the website while I was implementing the website. This was true to an extent, however I was mainly using a preview to view what the website would look like as a guide rather than testing it's functionality. I originally predicted that this would take me six and a half weeks however I performed the majority of my testing at the end of the implementation phase once I had hosted the website. I decided that this was the best way to test the site because this was in a true live environment instead of being viewed locally. This was a better option as any errors with programming and layouts would be true to life. For example, when viewing the website locally, I thought that the contact form wasn't working as my email test was not sending however, this was due to the testing environment rather than the form itself. I tested Ramsay Safety Solutions' website using different browsers (Google Chrome, Safari etc.) to ensure that the website would load correctly. In total testing took me approximately a week to complete.
Documentation
I originally planned to:
"...write 200 words in the last 30 minutes of Wednesday’s
session documenting my progress on Monday and Wednesday. Similarly, during the last 30 minutes of Sunday’s session, I aim to write another 200 words
documenting my progress from Saturday and Sunday. An extra 100 words will be used for major changes/outcomes and therefore will total 500 words for each post." (Gattuso, 2019 taken from Project Proposal) Following my gantt chart, I have adhered to the days I have been working on the independent project. However during my researching phase I have been documenting my progress on each day rather than in Wednesday's and Sunday's session. This was because I was making discoveries and design decisions on Monday and Saturday's sessions that I would have to wait to document in the following sessions. This wasn't ideal as I would have had to make notes on each session so that I wouldn't forget what to document. When documenting each session, instead of writing 200 words, I have been naturally writing closer to 500 words per each post. This allowed me to fully explain what I had achieved during that session. During the layout design phase I was documenting whenever I had completed a mockup which was every day. During the implementation phase and beyond I was barely documenting as I felt as though I didn't need to however I made sure to document my design decisions once I had finished the final website design as I compaired this to my original mockup.
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| (Previous Gantt Chart from Project Proposal, Own Image) |
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| (Current Gantt Chart, Own Image) |
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