Dice Designer Week 4 Project Update
My name is Samuel Cohen and this is how I single-handedly designed, developed, and launched a website where you can customize a die and have it 3D printed in 30 days. Below is a project update post. If you wish to read more about the project, the landing page is here.
This is the fourth and final project update post for my month-long project. This week I focused on polishing my website and documentation.
What I Accomplished in Week 4
- Finalized Colors for Designer
- Added Banking and Tax Information to Store
- Technical Documentation Posts
- Business Documentation Posts
- Week 4 Update
- Landing Page
In-Depth Details
Finalizing Colors for Designer
Since I was getting ready for launch I had to make the decision of which colors I would allow users to customize the dice with. Up to this point, I had been using basic colors as a placeholder. I now had to consider what I could print based on the materials that I currently have. I ended up choosing to use 9 colors based on my printing and software limits.
If you are interested in a more in-depth look into color choice and pricing, you can read the post below.
The color and price rationale post is here.
Banking and Tax Information
One of my major limits for this project was time spent waiting for the government or banks to approve my paperwork. I was actually able to form the LLC fairly quickly, but it has taken almost two weeks to get approved for a business bank account.
Once I received those important documents I focused on inputting the relevant information into WooCommerce.
Documentation Finalization
Now that I was mostly finished with my project, I started to focus on documentation. I determined that most of my documentation would be tutorials because it fits my writing style and the content.
In the end, I have a total of five technical posts and four business-oriented posts.
Obstacles This Week
Time
My biggest obstacle this week was time. I may have become a little too ambitious in my total amount of documentation. I had originally planned to write four posts total and make a couple of videos, but my documentation ballooned into nine posts. Also note that each post has tons of images, which each take time to import and format properly. In the end, I made the deadline even though I cut it close.
Medium Posting Limits
I figured that I would post all of my content at the end of the month because it all needed to be connected. I figured that it would be easier to organize that way and not leave links that didn’t go anywhere for two weeks. This was a good plan, if not for the fact that Medium only allows you to post three articles a day. I had fifteen. I had originally planned to be completely finished on the 28th of July but needed a couple more days to post the rest of my content.
Things I Learned
Technical
- Writing Technical Tutorial Documentation
Business
- Expectations for Paperwork Time
- Operations Business Postings
- Business Tutorial Postings
Summary
This week I was able to finish my project and accompanying documentation. I am very happy with the final results and I want to continue the development of this project in the future.
Check Out the Website at www.dicedesigner.com.
