Web Design/Group Activities/Scoping a Small Project

Web Design → Scoping a Small Project

This page is part of the Web Design project.

This activity is best suited to small groups of 3-4 people.

Time required: 30 minutes in groups, then 20mins+ discussion, reflection.

Scenario

Bluetech is a small factory automation company with three employees, situated in your local area. The owner of the company, Jillian, is a friend of your Uncle's. Jillian has mentioned to your Uncle a number of times over the past 8 months that she's wanting to contact you to talk about "putting a site together" for Bluetech.

After a phonecall, you finally meet up with Jillian for an initial discussion about his website. The meeting is only 15mins long (due to Jillian's busy schedule) and is interrupted a number of times by one of Jillian's employees. You come away from this initial meeting with the following details:

Jillian just wants a small website (3-5 pages)
The purpose of this website is to expand Bluetech's customer base.
The specific goals are:

Demonstrate Bluetech's professional work through an online portfolio of recent work.
Enable users to find out more about the company (history, mission statement, etc.)
Encourage users to contact Bluetech for a quote
Entice users to re-visit the page every so often.

Jillian would also like the site to include a bio of her own education, experience and background.

Other points you've noticed:

Jillian doesn't understand a lot about web design, but is keen to understand your needs.
The company is quite busy.

You leave the meeting a little dazed and with more questions than when you first entered.

Your group's task

Create a list of tasks for this project.
Create an initial quote based on one person working on this project (cost and deadline).
Design a very brief prototype (storyboard or wireframe, no images/designs required just your ideas for structuring the information).
If you have time, create a list of further information that you need from Jillian.

Reflection

As each group presents their project outline, you might find it helpful to discuss how you came to your decisions in each area. Remember, there's no 'right' answer - our aim here is more to discover the problems!