One last thing...

Forgot to mention that my final act as Project Manager (before presenting the site) was to draw up a presentation outline/rough guide so as to make sure we mentioned the main points of the project (although I missed a few points out in this, I think we covered the most important issues...if we went into fine detail, I think we would have bored everyone to death!).

All the detail needed will be accessible via the DVD of the site given to the lecturers, or in the reports attached.

Seya!!

Finito...hopefully!!...

So, we've done our final presentation a few days ago, and I just remembered that I haven't done my final blog entry!! So here goes...

I spent most of the week leading up to the presentation trying to speak a number of different languages (liaising with our Web-Designer, Audio Engineer, and Marketing Director)...that's how it seemed to me...my head was kind of spinning by the end of it all, but I'm proud to say that I managed to keep my team on schedule, and that we presented ourselves in quite a good manner on the day (despite a few unforeseen difficulties the night before, and on the day...but this is par for the course when dealing with a big project).

I think we did a good job in clearing the obstacles...we were well prepared, in my opinion...we got our website to a passable standard by the 16th of May (the original deadline), so the rest of the time we spent on it after that (amidst other assignments) was focussed on making the website more than just functional (the 'icing', if you like)...

I spent a lot of time with Eugene the night before the presentation working on importing music and video to the website, and with Eranta, speaking about why we made certain decisions in design and marketing so that I could finalise the Project Report and know that what I was saying there would be consistent with what was published in the Marketing Report that she was finalising.

Eugene spent a lot of time getting to grips with Flash in order to import the little audio players on the pages, as well as coming up with original audio layers (I asked him to give us something along the lines of "Flawless" by George Michael, in order to kep witht the whole "Celebrity" feel of the site)...Thanks for that Eugene!!

Adrian used Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, and Dreamweaver in making the site, as well as making the video of the rollercoaster ride and putting that together. Eugene made the music for this.

Like Eranta said in her blog, you will see the work that we did when you read the Project Report (and when you play around with the site for yourself), and I don't want to repeat myself here...

I referenced all the images that we used from the web, and provided details about the project in the report...so I guess all that's left is the conclusion of my blog...

As Project Manager of our project, the main thing I have learnt is that you need to be able to learn the basics of each area that you will be working in and be able to communicate technically with each "Deptartment Head" on at least a basic level...this means that you must know at least a little bit about every aspect of the project, from which colours convey which emotions, to what HTML tag you should use to give the desired result on your website...

Finally, timing a project, and being able to prioritise the elements of the project so that, if working to a tight deadline, you can achieve something presentable on time...meeting the deadline is essential...having a lovely product that you obsess over, but deliver a week late, is not usually good enough...harsh but true...

I've learnt to make important decisions quickly, to organise a team with efficiency, and convey the priorities of the project to them in order to allow autonomy with cohesion...

So, I think that's it for this module...

Any other questions?...

Playing around...

I've just found some free photo-editing software called 'Picasa', by Google, online, so I've just been playing with some images and seeing how the software works. This will be useful if I need to help Adrian out with the visual stuff.

I've also been looking at some elements that I would like to incorporate in our website (like a functioning search bar) and, by right-clicking on these images, I have been able to 'View Source', which means that you can see how the various elements of any site in HTML...this is useful, as it gives me more of an idea about what code is needed for particular functions ('align = center' is a nice function...I believe I am correct in saying that this tag means that, when you resize your viewing window, the relevant info stays centred in that window)...

Is it plagiarism if we use images from the web even if we edit them? If so, how do we reference these images so as to avoid any infringement on the academic rules?

I would appreciate if anyone could tell me the answer!!

Thanks for reading...

 

 

 

Oh yeah...

...I forgot to mention that I've ben putting my new-found HTML skills to use in Dreamweaver recently, which will help us in joining our pages together...

Gotta sleep now, work in the morning...

Thanks for reading...

Bringing the elements together...

The 'presentation' class that we had on Wednesday was pretty pointless and a waste of time in my opinion...I don't see how this module can be weighted with 30 Credits when we only have 2 hours of scheduled classes a week? Even then, the lecturers aren't there most of the time...we got no feedback on our project apart from the recommendation that we should 'just get it done', and that 'it's going to be hard'...I don't need to be told that...

I thought we'd turned a corner a few weeks back when we actually had some semblance of a lesson, but the guidance has just fallen away again...

I'm sorry, but I think these things need to be said...I can't understand why I have to keep going to Adam Procter and Mark (who have been very helpful and obliging, so thanks for that, guys) to ask them about the basic skills that should have been taught in this module in order to allow me and my group to produce a decent project...

However, despite all of the above, me and my group are slogging away and producing the necessary material for our project...I assigned individual tasks (I sent a Gantt Chart to my group members), and we will meet on Monday to bring the elements together in order to proceed to the finalisation stage of the website...

If we didn't have Adrian Sinatra in our group, we would be totally lost, as he studies Media Production, and is a lot more comfortable with the visual software than myself, or the other members of my group (the three of us study Music Technology, and I don't feel that we have been provided with the necessary tools for this type of project by the teaching of this module...but we're working it out ourselves...).

I have a good team, thankfully...Eugene Lemanissier is a real maestro, so we'll have some beautiful music and effects, and Eranta Zelmene is our very thorough and passionate market researcher...thanks for all the hard work up to this point, guys...keep it up, and let's see this thing through...

I have been looking at the article on the design features of 'Web 2.0'...it was actually really interesting, and the main things I took from this artice was that your site should be bold and confident, but simplistic and functional ('each website has a reason for existence'...what are we trying to get the users to do?...make this function central...)...using as little clutter as possible, and minimising features so that what we have onscreen is just the essentials (however, there is always the need to draw the attention, so naturally some design flair is 'essential' in my opinion...).

To sum up the article...'if there are two ways to do something, you should go with the simplest one'...sound advice, I reckon (see my previous blogs for my thoughts on 'simplify,simplify').

Good luck to all the students involved in this module! I hope no-one has to repeat this!!...

Feel free to comment if you agree/disagree with what I've said...

Later, people...