Blueprint (The Proposals)
Before work could get under way, we not only had to pick our clients, but define what the work would be. A proposal needed to be created specifying what the clients’ needs were and what we were to deliver. This defines the scope of the project
Students developed questionaires that we used in our meetings with prospective clients. Our job was to learn their needs and decide which projects we could undertake. Projects that we took on had to be completed within the time frame of the course. Each client's task was to provide content for the web sites, so they had to be prepared to provide that content in a timely manner. As these projects are showcases for our abilities, the businesses needed to be viable and the owners would have to commit to keeping the site as we designed it intact for at least six months. The meetings were a way to determine which prospective clients would be a good fit for us and the goals we were trying to accomplish.
This was a new business for Lynn Shelton. YrdSale4U would organize and run yard sales for its clients. They would assess and price the items for sale, set things up on the day of the sale, run the sale and clean up afterwards. Lynn needed a web site to reach out to new clients and also to keep site visitors apprised of upcoming yard sales. All of us met with Lynn one day during regular class time for the initial interview.
She initially wanted just three pages; a Home page, a Contact Us page and an Events page. After some discussion about typical web design, an About Us page and a What We Do Page were added. Lynn had a logo that had been designed for her which she provided to us in Adobe Illustrator format.
View the YrdSale4U proposal (PDF)
Kristy, Dale and I met with Petite Boutique co-owner Laurie Roe at a Starbucks one Friday morning. The meeting was hastily arranged so Jenn and Melissa could not attend. Laurie would be our point of contact for the duration of the project.
Petite Boutique wanted a redesign of their existing web page, which was currently hosted by Google and somewhat limited. She ultimately wants to run an online catalog which will accept orders over the web. That was beyond the scope of the course and what we could accomplish in a 14-week time frame. However, we could provide her with a product gallery, an online view of the product lines she carries in the store. The shopping cart feature can be implemented in a later 2nd phase of development. We would use a content management system to maintain the web site. In our case, this would be WordPress.
Laurie also had very specific ideas on how the navigation of the site would function. General navigation at the top, product navigation on the left side, links at the bottom. Each of the web pages that we would design were already defined and awaiting the designer’s touch. The existing web site and a number of brochures were to be used for design inspiration. Laurie also provided us with a logo and a pledge that all product content we would need for the product gallery pages would be made available.
View the Petite Boutique proposal (PDF).