Week 5

Refresher: last week, I wanted to work on the categories pages, get mentor feedback from Annie and get in touch with Laurel, and get some stories in the firebase so I don’t have to test with storystory and story5.

Where am I now?

I did get the previously listed things finished, but I’m not feeling very good about this at the moment. This week, I really need to put in some hours on refining things and getting to a more comfortable spot. I feel like I am perpetually behind… Arg. Next week is 50%, so it is a big one. Luckily, I don’t have much going on this weekend, so I’m thinking some serious project hours are necessary.

Right now, the category template page looks like this:

I’m struggling a bit with my footer, but that can be a later problem.

I did chat with prof. Annie Bruns, though I’m not sure it was the world’s most productive meeting. She did help me find a new source for some of the facts which is interesting, and we talked a little about the progress of the site. She agrees that the lantern is pretty neat, but should be the last priority. Annie also noted that the non-linear nature of the stories could be trouble and I agree—especially if viewers have a hard time getting back to where they want to go.

I really hope that Laurel and I have set a time—we are chatting on Friday, I think (if everything goes as expected in both of our schedules…). I’m looking forward to seeing what she has to say, but since she is a user testing expert, I would like to have a more polished looking product to show her. So:

What do I want to have done by next week (50%)?

I want three pages that are beautiful and polished (by friday, actually) to show to Laurel. These will be 1. home, 2. a category home page, and 3. a story. This is going to take work because I’m struggling with formatting the text I put into firebase, but figuring that out is priority one. This will also just involve a little polishing of CSS and working out a few bugs (looking at you, thumbnail images and footer). Another high priority that I will have worked out by next week is the connections. I’m not sure yet what form they will take, but I need them to be working (at least vaguely) by the 50% mark.

I would also like to have a digital prototype of the lantern. If everyone thinks this is so important (and I don’t disagree), I need to get moving on it. This will take the form of an adobe illustrator file, likely.

Finally, as always, I’d like to continue chugging away at editing and writing the stories, facts, and tips (and interview those last few folks, if they EVER respond to emails… This is the problem with interviewing people who really like to travel/have adventures. They are almost always off running rampant somewhere.)