Term Project

Service Learning

Semester project: set up a website for a project of interest to you Ideas: service, team, organization, club, nonprofit Students will normally work in pairs Drupal projects must have a client

Meetings: requirements gathering, handoff Contact via email, phone

Students will put in about 15-30 hours on this project. It counts for 25% of the final grade.

A Good Recommendation

Lots of demand for website creators

This class can be almost as valuable as an internship. Treat it like one! Act professionally Be responsive to phone calls, emails Meet deadlines Dress well Do a good job Get a good recommendation!

Steps to Building a Web Site

Concept

Audience, use cases

Features

Resources/revenue

Domain name

Web hosting

Graphical theme

Content management system configuration

Custom development

User testing

Search engine optimization

Content creation

Traffic building

Maintenance

Term Projects

Work in teams, usually of two students

Drupal or custom programming

Drupal: have a client (or at least interviewees)

Ideas: Non-profit client, such as a church Club, team, or organization Small business Services

Ride share (use Google maps?) Dorm activity calendar/social network Assassin online (upload funny pictures of victims?) Class web page Student name learning tool Student info aggregation [ethical issues?]

Initial Client Meeting

Concept: what is the purpose of the web site? Who are the users?

Use cases: give short use-case "stories" explaining how users will use the site--one for each distinct kind of use.

Features: what capabilities should the site have? Possibilities include a blog, photo album (uploading?) calendar, discussion forum, file sharing, store, data displays

Front page: what goes on the front page?

Roles: what permissions do various classes of users need?

Artwork/design: where will it come from?

Domain name? Do the clients have a domain name? Preference?

Hosting? Do the clients have hosting or want you to set it up?

Project Stages

Checkpoints: about 4 points at which you have to have completed a part of the project Checkpoint 1: concept, specifications

Go live: move to long-term hosting solution

Handoff: give site with instructions, passwords, etc to client

Concept

Use cases

Concept

Title, Domain name

Three-eight word slogan (e.g. trello, imgur, dropbox)

Mission statement

Clarity of Concept is Crucial!