Post Mortem

Each of us has written a personal reflection on our work for the FASTRAC project.

Alex Chung

After working on this project, I realized that Information Architecture is not only Graphic Design. When designing the look and feel of the site, I often find my self pondering between the visual design or the functionality of the website. And it takes time and effort to find a way that will incorporate both into the final development. Keeping up with the time line of the project is also very important on a project like this. We accomplished our goals of each developement phase because we followed through our schedule. I am really lucky to be on this team because all the teammates had different set of skills that contributed to this project and I really learned a lot from my teammates.

I would like to improve my skills on how to utilize CSS and Flash in designing the visual of the website. Also, I would like to use the skills and the processes that I had learned in this project to build a personal website to help manage my personal information, interest, course work, and resume so that these information will become handy during my education or applying for furutre jobs.

Throughout the project, each member of our team worked together to put this project together. The following list is my contributions.

Deliverables

Construction Work:

 

Rachael Gilg

Participating in this project really brought home to me the idea that design is about solving problems. A successful Web site depends on harmonizing a large number of different factors, some of which may be conflicting. Our particular challenge was to merge the primary interest of the client - that the site "look cool" - with the practical needs of their targeted users. All the work we put into the analysis phase really paid off, because the goals we identitified as a result of the analysis helped us determine the best solutions to the problems we faced along the way. In the end, I don't feel that we had to make any compromises - the final design is the best-looking and best-functioning site I can imagine for this project.

In terms of the process, the most important thing I learned is that an information architect must be able to facilitate effective group collaboration. Putting together a web site requires a diverse range of skills and expertise. Constant communication and a willingness to explore new ideas and sometimes scrap the old ones were key to the process. In terms of my skills, I learned more about how to create an entire PHP/MySQL application based on a set of user requirements. I also learned a lot about CSS by working with a teammate on the intranet files. In the future I hope to explore the formatting and design side of things more, since I focused primarily on functionality in the construction phase of this project.

Throughout the project, each member of the team participated fully in each part of the process. Following is a list of my individual contributions:

Deliverables

Construction Work:

Mariela Hristova

Working on the FASTRAC project has given me a chance to participate in a large scale effort (compared to other course projects). Coordination of tasks and establishment of internal deadlines was crucial to my personal success. The sense of a clear timeline taught me that I can be much more effective than I had been in past projects. The collaborative approach to accomplishing tasks that our group adopted kept me motivated and allowed for flexible scheduling on a week-to-week basis.

I was responsible to put together the items listed below, but I do not take complete credit for their content. We worked together as a group and everyone channeled their ideas and contributions to the person in charge of the specific deliverable.

Deliverables:

Construction work:

As a result of participating in this project, I have developed an interest in improving my PHP and MySQL skills further, especially when it comes to customizing applications such as blogs and content management systems. This improvement will take place most likely next semester when I will participate in the customization of a Drupal system at my workplace. Our current project has increased my enthusiasm for contributing to a customization effort. Also, I have decided to develop a professional site for myself using the process we utilized this semester. I don't know how much clients can realize the difference between a hastily put-together and a well-planned site, but I have seen the benefits of following a methodology. Now I will use this methodology to prepare a professional site in support of future job and school applications.

Tammy Latham

Over the life of this project, I learned several things: (1) First, I learned that the time involved for content creation should not be underestimated. It is difficult to begin it early on because so much preparation has to occur before content is settled on, but it needs to be started early in order to have it completed on schedule. (2) Second, I also learned that a huge project is much easier to manage when tasks can be divided among team members and responsibilities shared. (3) And finally, I learned that ideas resulting from the synergy between team members and clients makes for better ideas than from one person working alone.

I was responsible for putting together the items listed below, but (as Mariela notes) I do not take complete credit for their content. We worked together as a group and everyone channeled their ideas and contributions to the person in charge of the specific deliverable.

Deliverables:

Construction work:

After working on this project, the skills that I'd like to refine include the following: (1) How to use CSS styles to their full potential and (2) How to use PHP scripts and databases in site development. I'd like to use these skills to build a database driven web site that allows me to easily input my resume items for storage and pull them back via a web site. I'd like to be able to control the visual style with CSS and use the php/database to be able to sort resume items by employer, industry, year, skills used, etc. In addition, I'd like to use the database knowledge to pursue research on sites developed with content management systems.