Started a project..

My friend and I wanted to collaborate with our school’s student government to create a website for our school. Things went well for the first few months.

6 months later and the project is still not finished 😕
I’m having doubts on myself now, also my motivation is at its lowest point.

What is holding up the project? Did you create a sufficiently comprehensive specification for the site? Did you have someone with suitable design experience to put together the front end? Has the brief changed? Is someone managing the project?

Call a meeting and provide a written adgenda of all issues and points of action and responsibilities to het back on track. If the meeting is a sham remove yourself from the project.

The sad thing is, I’m on front end and my other friend is on back-end.
Our only problem is we can’t think of any design or layout for the front end, so the back end is always postponed... something

OK, Heres some advice. Remember your target audience is key. Do not try to design for yourself. It’s about delivering information, prioritising content and information architecture. Put yourself in the mindset of the audience. Do you have content, text/ images and a well thought out site plan? These are all going to make the design process fall in to place.

You are essentially crafting the skeleton on which to skin. On paper place (just boxes) the chunks of information for each page/section, (forget about aesthetics for now). Look at the information you have and wether it is best suited to longer scroll pages or divided into landing and sub pages (research others to qualify your decision, don’t limit it to schools).

Once you have all this in place, and this process can/should involve the primary stakeholders, you can move on to the aesthetic.

cont....

Research sights for the target audience (Not just school websites), look at typography and balance/proportion,use of imagery and hierarchy and colors. Pull together a mood board(or a few options) to show which elements would work ( layout/ typography/ colorways) Think about RWD and look at stats for your current website.

This will inform your design and provide stakeholders with an idea /choice as to the direction you want to go and will eliminate any shocks and deviation as you progress.

Do not design in the browser/with code, an architect doesn’t design with bricks and mortar.

...cont

You can play with the design now don’t be too scared to expand on the mood boards and push that forward, they are in place for direction and not constraint.

Hope that’s enough to get you going and renew your excitement for the project. Have fun ‘cos the design part is enjoyable, but without the leg work it isn’t going to go anywhere.

Good luck and keep us updated!

Good news: We're near 100% finished in the front-end

Bad news: Our "manager" wants it to be deployed by next week