Sunday, June 28, 2009
Progress
The website is nearly finished, all that is now required is a re work of the header and more images throughout the site as well as changing the ones on the front page.
The site is now available, and will be for the short term at
http://shephard.is-a-geek.net
Documentation wise i am finishing the gantt chart and am going to try put it all in a folder.
The site is now available, and will be for the short term at
http://shephard.is-a-geek.net
Documentation wise i am finishing the gantt chart and am going to try put it all in a folder.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Alteration
I am now going to use lightbox instead of minishowcase for the gallery page on my webiste.
This is because, what i didn't find out in research was the lack of integration available with an existing site. Minishowcase doesn't easily allow you to put your own page and use their gallery script. You have to use their gallery page which is not what i am looking for.
Lightbox is the next best gallery so i will be using this instead.
Will post progress on how this goes
This is because, what i didn't find out in research was the lack of integration available with an existing site. Minishowcase doesn't easily allow you to put your own page and use their gallery script. You have to use their gallery page which is not what i am looking for.
Lightbox is the next best gallery so i will be using this instead.
Will post progress on how this goes
Key Milestones
These are the key milestones - past and future.
---------------------------------
Past Milestones:
Project Commencement - 23 February
First Meeting - 2 March
Initial POA / Brief finished - 10 March
Sketches Drawn up and shown to client - 18 March
Survey Handed out to customers - 22 March
General Research on Costume hire sites finished - 23 March
Website Code Started - 27 March
Website Version 0.1 finished - 22 April
Survey Collated - June 7
----------------------------------------
Future Milestones:
Website Content all included in site, including galleries (without design being finished) - 22 June
Final Brief Done - 29 June
Hosting research finished - 24 July
Website Finished, final modifications Done - 31 July
Website Handed Over to client - 7 August
---------------------------------
Past Milestones:
Project Commencement - 23 February
First Meeting - 2 March
Initial POA / Brief finished - 10 March
Sketches Drawn up and shown to client - 18 March
Survey Handed out to customers - 22 March
General Research on Costume hire sites finished - 23 March
Website Code Started - 27 March
Website Version 0.1 finished - 22 April
Survey Collated - June 7
----------------------------------------
Future Milestones:
Website Content all included in site, including galleries (without design being finished) - 22 June
Final Brief Done - 29 June
Hosting research finished - 24 July
Website Finished, final modifications Done - 31 July
Website Handed Over to client - 7 August
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Feedback given on assessment schedules
Just recording that we discussed your overall progress today with written feedback given on a printout of blogs. Generally looking good - you appear to be on track for Achieved but have a way to go to complete your concept. More detailed analysis and discussions needed for Merit and Excellence, but still do-able :-).
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Survey results
Survey Results for Indisguise concerning the website
First Question: How long have you been a customer of indisguise?
Most people had been a customer for 6 – 12 months which indicates it hasn’t been a one off and they do come back.
Second Question: Have you been a customer of any other costume hire place in the last 2 years?
No one answered this.
Third Question: On Average how frequently do you hire costumes?
A few times a year was the usual answer, so having the site would benefit these customers as they could see before they came if there was a costume they liked, it could save them time if they planned on buying one too.
The next few questions asked the customer to rank questions in order of importance. 1 is not important at all and 4 is extremely important.
The answers are averages of the 9 surveys and are rounded to 2dp
Website reliability, so can you always access it?
2.67
Being up to date
3.56
Aesthetics
3.22
Relevant information
3.39
Assurance of product, are you going to get what you see on the site?
3.56
Are the costumes going to be the right size?
3.44
Ease of use
3.28
Awareness of site, so how easy is it to get to, from say Google?
3
The site keeps up to web standards
2.83
Is the site as good as competition websites?
2.67
So important factors that I need to consider when making the website are:
- Website being up to date, so making sure that if news is kept on the site then it must updated regularly and old content must be removed
- Making sure that what you are seeing is what you are going to get. So making sure the pictures used are an accurate representation of the costumes. Also making sure any size indications are relatively accurate so the customer doesn’t have to take the costume back.
- All information is relevant to what the customer is looking for and old content isn’t kept up so links in with the website being up to date. But also making sure that there isn’t too much information available, overwhelming the customer.
First Question: How long have you been a customer of indisguise?
Most people had been a customer for 6 – 12 months which indicates it hasn’t been a one off and they do come back.
Second Question: Have you been a customer of any other costume hire place in the last 2 years?
No one answered this.
Third Question: On Average how frequently do you hire costumes?
A few times a year was the usual answer, so having the site would benefit these customers as they could see before they came if there was a costume they liked, it could save them time if they planned on buying one too.
The next few questions asked the customer to rank questions in order of importance. 1 is not important at all and 4 is extremely important.
The answers are averages of the 9 surveys and are rounded to 2dp
Website reliability, so can you always access it?
2.67
Being up to date
3.56
Aesthetics
3.22
Relevant information
3.39
Assurance of product, are you going to get what you see on the site?
3.56
Are the costumes going to be the right size?
3.44
Ease of use
3.28
Awareness of site, so how easy is it to get to, from say Google?
3
The site keeps up to web standards
2.83
Is the site as good as competition websites?
2.67
So important factors that I need to consider when making the website are:
- Website being up to date, so making sure that if news is kept on the site then it must updated regularly and old content must be removed
- Making sure that what you are seeing is what you are going to get. So making sure the pictures used are an accurate representation of the costumes. Also making sure any size indications are relatively accurate so the customer doesn’t have to take the costume back.
- All information is relevant to what the customer is looking for and old content isn’t kept up so links in with the website being up to date. But also making sure that there isn’t too much information available, overwhelming the customer.
research on galleries to use on site
Research on how to display photos in the gallery:
There are a few ways I could display the photos of costumes on my site:
plain html, when thumbnails are clicked just link to another page with that picture on it
javascript, a popular one, plenty of websites use this and it seems to work well as long as they don't have a script blocker running. Will display a mini window with back and forward buttons to go between photos when thumbnails are clicked
AJAX (asynchronous java and xml) this is also a popular option and will output in a similar way to java in terms of when thumbnails are clicked.
Lightbox http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/
Very popular, easy to set up script (AJAX) that works on all browsers. Popular as it is so unobtrusive and easy to use and looks clean. Does what I need it to, and there is plenty of support out there for it! Only lacks the ability to go between photos from the enlarged picture.
Minishowcase http://minishowcase.net/
This is a very nice AJAX script that is easy enough to set up and looks professional. Does take a little longer to load but works well and is easy to use for the end user. Does absolutely everything I need it to as well as being very pleasing asthetically.
http://www.zenphoto.org/zenphoto/
zenphoto is a very basic script again, written in ajax. Too simple for my liking as it takes you away from the gallery and its not quick enough to get back to the thumbnails. Simple and easy to use but doesn't have the look and functionality of the other ones.
http://www.couloir.org/js_slideshow/#2
This is a gallery written purely in CSS, it does not have thumbnails though. But it does have picture animations and is rather asthetically pleasing and very lightweight as seems to be the theme.
Cross Browser Multi-Page Photograph Gallery
http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/lightbox.html#flower8
This is a very nice looking gallery thing that is written in CSS and just uses the hover line. This is a very affective implementation, but I think that the pictures don't get big enough and I need to be able to include text below the image, will have to look to see if I can change this, but I am considering this one.
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/SlightlyThickerBox/#
slightly thickerbox 1.7
This is what I’m looking for in terms of functionality but does no look aesthetically pleasing at all and I don't really have the skill sets required to change this. Also is very slow to load which is not good for the end user, as they don’t like to wait.
What I need from the gallery:
- Ease of use
- Ability to include text above or below the picture.
- Overlays the screen, keeps the thumbnails in the background. Reason for this being, it is the easiest way to get back to gallery.
- Has to look aesthetically pleasing / Professional
- Has to be able to have back / forward function between images
The gallery I will try first is minishowcase and based on how easy that is to use and if I can get it set up right, I will try lightbox. Minishowcase is the only one that does everything I want it to and looks the part, lightbox comes close but lacks the ability to go between photos from the enlarged picture.
The copy with screenshots is included in my visual diary
There are a few ways I could display the photos of costumes on my site:
plain html, when thumbnails are clicked just link to another page with that picture on it
javascript, a popular one, plenty of websites use this and it seems to work well as long as they don't have a script blocker running. Will display a mini window with back and forward buttons to go between photos when thumbnails are clicked
AJAX (asynchronous java and xml) this is also a popular option and will output in a similar way to java in terms of when thumbnails are clicked.
Lightbox http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/
Very popular, easy to set up script (AJAX) that works on all browsers. Popular as it is so unobtrusive and easy to use and looks clean. Does what I need it to, and there is plenty of support out there for it! Only lacks the ability to go between photos from the enlarged picture.
Minishowcase http://minishowcase.net/
This is a very nice AJAX script that is easy enough to set up and looks professional. Does take a little longer to load but works well and is easy to use for the end user. Does absolutely everything I need it to as well as being very pleasing asthetically.
http://www.zenphoto.org/zenphoto/
zenphoto is a very basic script again, written in ajax. Too simple for my liking as it takes you away from the gallery and its not quick enough to get back to the thumbnails. Simple and easy to use but doesn't have the look and functionality of the other ones.
http://www.couloir.org/js_slideshow/#2
This is a gallery written purely in CSS, it does not have thumbnails though. But it does have picture animations and is rather asthetically pleasing and very lightweight as seems to be the theme.
Cross Browser Multi-Page Photograph Gallery
http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/lightbox.html#flower8
This is a very nice looking gallery thing that is written in CSS and just uses the hover line. This is a very affective implementation, but I think that the pictures don't get big enough and I need to be able to include text below the image, will have to look to see if I can change this, but I am considering this one.
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/SlightlyThickerBox/#
slightly thickerbox 1.7
This is what I’m looking for in terms of functionality but does no look aesthetically pleasing at all and I don't really have the skill sets required to change this. Also is very slow to load which is not good for the end user, as they don’t like to wait.
What I need from the gallery:
- Ease of use
- Ability to include text above or below the picture.
- Overlays the screen, keeps the thumbnails in the background. Reason for this being, it is the easiest way to get back to gallery.
- Has to look aesthetically pleasing / Professional
- Has to be able to have back / forward function between images
The gallery I will try first is minishowcase and based on how easy that is to use and if I can get it set up right, I will try lightbox. Minishowcase is the only one that does everything I want it to and looks the part, lightbox comes close but lacks the ability to go between photos from the enlarged picture.
The copy with screenshots is included in my visual diary
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