Web Development pt. 2
The Main Street Corner Store saga continues!
This week we kick off with the looming presence of assessment over our shoulders. The innocuous yellow box in the top right corner of Moodle states that Marcus is away this week, and Assessment 1 is due at the end of the week.
It’s go time!
A quick look at the assessment shows me that I have 4 parts to complete.
- Summarising the brief.
- Evaluating Social Media Options
- Design Sketches
- Provide constructive feedback and respond to feedback on my own posts.
1. Summarising the brief
The client is after a web page which has an online ordering system that customers can use to place grocery and takeaway orders. They are after a simple page that is easy to use for all audiences. In the case of the Main Street Corner Store, I would recommend a website that is compatible with mobile devices, as it’s possible that people that are short of time will want to place orders whenever they can, perhaps on the way to work, maybe on public transport or walking, where they may not have access to a computer. Another key point in the brief was that customers make calls to order takeaway and groceries at the moment, so customers are already using their phones to place orders. A mobile compatible page would be important. This also means that the contact details need to take pride of place on the page, so that they are easy to find.
The resources available for this project are of high quality; there are multiple hi-res pictures of menu items and a picture of the menu itself is provided; albeit not text, it’s still readable and would take only a few minutes to type out.
My first imaginings of the site are dark green, probably from the Voki window in the client package! Even with that obvious influence in mind, I think that green or dark green will be my colour of choice, but that’s a decision for later.
2. Evaluation social media options
The Social media options for the client are minimal. The main social network the client utilizes is Facebook. Other potential options are a picture hosting site, to lessen the requirements of the web hosting server. Because of the high quality of the images, the bandwidth required may increase the hosting costs and requirements. I'm not sure how viable it would be to host the photos elsewhere on a site such as Imgur.
One advantage of having an online presence in the form of social networking is it provides publicity, and a good way for customers to interact with your company and provide feedback. If the client has in-store promotions, they can advertise for free on a social network, and they can promote their Facebook page by having ‘like and share promotions’, and other offers.
One of the drawbacks is that it requires careful attention to ensure that the page is monitored, and feedback is considered and handled appropriately. In some cases, mis-managed Facebook pages can cause serious harm to a business’s image. One example that springs to mind was a few years ago where an employee of a local cafe chain was disgruntled, and left a review of her treatment on the cafe’s facebook page. This was brought to the attention of many people through Facebook’s sharing function and became a viral call to action, where people left many negative reviews in support of the employee and denouncing the manager in sometimes petty and personal attacks.
In conclusion, social media can be a good option for advertising and company awareness when done right and managed effectively.
3. Design Sketches
And the part to come: the start of my webpage designs! This part is a work in progress, and I am drafting some designs at the moment. I'll continue working at this, and post my final designs when I settle on a layout.
EDIT: And here they are!
