Having yesterday submitted our team website project I think that the most important lesson I have taken away from this project is a discussion we had concerning the systematic approach to designing a website.
The most technically difficult stage of producing a website is in making small changes at the end of a website project. As all web pages are linked into a complex filing system and a common appearance has to be maintained among all the sites pages, the simplest of changes, for example changing a comma or inserting a new picture, can turn into a complex process and entail changes being made to a number of different pages.
However with a systematic approach the need for small scale changes can be reduced at the end of a project or even be eliminated. A fellow team member pointed out that a systematic approach was patented in the 1990s. And having been through two website projects on this course, I can personally see the benefits in adopting this approach. For example in my own website project I spent an awful lot of time implementing small changes as the deadline loomed.
Such an approach would presumably mean that a project would progress through a number of stages, with each stage having to be signed off at a certain date. Each stage would be mindful of the end product, and of the consistencies that are needed in the final product. By signing off each stage, there should in theory be no need to have to make any changes at the end of the project.
This approach I think, would also work on any type of project, and it is something that I now wish to apply to all of the remaining assignments on this course. Hopefully this will allow me to manage my time better, and hopefully produce better work.
Brian.
