Storybridge

During my time in Australia it surprised me how few people in the media industry actually knew how websites and other online media went from that initial wish and idea through to an all singing and dancing live website or application. And some of the agencies that I talked to did not have a web design and build process to work to either. Pretty troubling in this day and age.

So I produced this process overview to help introduce a particular staged approach to designing and building online media. It’s nothing new of course and widely used by most creative and digital agencies, albeit with different stage names and sometimes a stage or two more. My process her was originally formulated by us at Object1 way back at the turn of the century (and that feels quite strange to write!) and has of course evolved somewhat, but essentially works to keep everyone within a structured approach. yes, there are other methodologies and processes that could suit you better. Agile for one. but I thought I’d share this to help those who’d like to know how things generally work, those in need of a process and clients who could do with some more knowledge about what’s going on.

I have included example outputs for each stage, responsibilities and some key things to be aware of. it doesn’t purport to cover everything but I hope you find it of some use and happy to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

Popularity: 7% [?]

My good friend and ex-colleague at Object1 Phillipe Parker has set up an online social network community for us all to discuss and disseminate information on anything of interest to web world professionals.

I’ll let the man himself introduce you to the wonders of Web Innovation UK:

“We’re providing an open discussion forum for professionals who want to push the boundaries of what’s possible on the web, whether for their own online presence or those of their clients. Forums allow you to ask general questions, you can send messages to individuals, or you can just listen in.

Clients get to ask questions, suppliers get to show how clever they are. I don’t want to constrain what gets discussed: it can be commercial-driven, design-led, technological, whatever you like as long as it’s relevant and no one else complains.”

Come and join us at Web Innovation UK and help us grow the network as a spot on resource and place to go for assistance. It is very early days yet so you will get to be a pioneer!

By the way, Philippe set this up using Ning and you can read more about this on one of my previous posts,’Create your own social network with Ning.com‘.

Popularity: 96% [?]

The project management process utilised for online projects does vary of course from agency to agency with wildly varying degrees of implementation success. Often the process or methodology is borne out of some understanding of traditional project management methodologies, such as Prince 2. With hopefully a lot of thought put into adapting such things for real modern day industry use!

I am planning on writing a lot more about process implementation as this is after all something I have been heavily involved with at each agency that I have worked for. At the moment I am working for a very good small agency in Brighton that are testing out the use of Agile methods for running online projects and so I thought I’d share a great blog from Kelly Waters that will help you to gain some understanding of what this Agile stuff is all about. It can be a tricky concept to grasp and there doesn’t seem to be a great consensus about what it actually all means, but Kelly is very good at explaining things and her blog is a very valuable source if you are looking at using Agile instead of the traditional Waterfall approach.

all about agile: 10 Key Principles of Agile Software Development

Popularity: 90% [?]

I was watching an episode of ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip‘ last night which was entitled the 4am miracle, and ostensibly about Mathew Perry’s character searching for that inspiration at 4am that would break the hiatus reached in their creative comedy writing, with only a couple of days to go before the next show.

This reminded me so much of the times we in the web world have been working late and stuck on a coding or design issue with the clock ticking rapidly before launch hour. You’ve all been there, the site is broken and nobody knows how to fix it and you only have 4 hours until it is supposed to be live to the world.

Then your developer goes outside for a cigarette or a bit of a walk and all of a sudden inspiration hits and we are back fixing and rolling again. Usually at 4am.

So I like the terming of such breaks for inspiration as the 4am Miracle, whether at 4am or not. A fine tip for new Producers, Project Managers and Account people to ease off of your dev and design people when it all looks like everything has gone up the swanny. Encourage them to destroy their lungs via a cig break or make them a cup of tea, tell them to sit down and switch off (or take them for a coffee / beer outside) and you will find that inspiration will hit sure enough.

There’s no point getting too stressed and het up as this just carries on the cycle of panic thinking. Take a break, a deep breath and await that wonderful 4am Miracle!

(By the way, why they cancelled Studio 60 I don’t know. It’s witty and engaging and makes you forget that Mat Perry was ever Chandler!)

Popularity: 35% [?]

Whilst I’m on the subject of useful web design tools I thought I’d share the Gemini issue tracker from Countersoft with you.

A lot of agencies tend to treat the whole testing and quality assurance process far too lightly but that is a major issue for another day. At the very least you should have somewhere to flag and track bugs and issues, assign priorities and actually assign the issues to someone to deal with. Gemini does all this and much more. I’ve used it at DNA and LIDA and the Head of QA at DNA, Peter Lewis-Dale, recommends it highly.

And he knows his onions.

Popularity: 83% [?]