This weeks lecture started off by going over what we will be covering for the next couple of weeks which is ‘Earning and freelancing.
This week were also were given a new task, to design and create a proposal for a project. Firstly we discusses what a proposal document is and when we might need one.
Firstly we looked into the proposal and what should be included in the actual document.
What’s included;
- Overview – define what needs to be done in the project
- Approach – how it will be done
- Scope of the work– what’s involved in the project development
- Assumptions – client provides what you need and expectations
- Deliverables – what’s produced + extra
- Ownerships + rights – work for hire + licensing
- Additional costs – fees and expenses
- Pricing + payment schedule – your quote
- Acknowledgement + Sign off – agreement to start (your property until they pay you).
This week’s lecture went through all of these points in detail. However I needed some extra detail describing what’s involved in the assumptions section so I used this website, for help.
Assumptions
The website gave this example “a good assumption could be that you will be limited to four weeks [for this project]. In this time you will have space for a maximum of 5 revisions over the course of 3 weeks” – It may take more than this amount of revisions but the assumption is still necessary since you’ll need to budget for time and cost and you need to set goals. This is necessary to help you track progress.
The website states ‘ it is necessary to set up accurate and slightly challenging assumptions ‘
We then discussed the benefits of using a proposal.
The main benefit of using a proposal is highlighting the end goal and ensuring this is well outlined in the document.
Proposals are also really useful for tracking the success of your project and evaluating the progress over time.
The proposal also offers a great time to explain to the client the final product and if there is an original product you are updating, it allows you to highlight the changes. It helps you explain exactly what will change and the steps involved.
The proposal is a great opportunity to let everyone involved in the project know exactly what is happening and how it will be done. This allows the designer and client to cross-communicate effectively and ensure everything will be processed efficiently. Proposals also decrease the risk of mistakes.
Proposals can act of a form of legal safety for the designer if the client decides to change integral parts of the project or would like to argue the pricings- it has already been agreed and signed off on by the client themselves.
We also discusses writing invoices in this week’s lecture, in an invoice we should itemise each stage of the project with the cost next to each as clients are less likely to argue the price is it is explained and shown to them. We should also write a quick summary of what we did for the same reason.
Proposal Project- Similar Website Research
The proposal brief was to create a proposal document for a ‘project’
The project given to us to talk about was to design a brand and website to represent ‘Hill Street’ in Belfast.
The deliverables of this task will be a pdf or a webpage proposal and its respective invoice.
Research
To begin the research for this project, I began an audit on similar websites to the one I am proposing to build for.
Hill street is located near the Cathedral Quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It hosts an array of restaurants, bars, entertainment, retail and businesses.
We have been asked to create a brand and website to represent this street with a lot to offer, similar to how Titanic Quarter and Cathedral Quarter have their own respective websites.
To begin this task I looked at both of these websites to gather an idea of what I should be doing and include in my website.
From looking through this website I’ve learned the important things to include in my own website:
- explain what it is
- what it’s used for (including statistics)
- short bio describing the area
- list of placed there such as offices, retail, media, tourism, leisure etc…
- important things happening there – news
The navigation bar in the titanic website includes;
- live
- work
- visit
- stay
These are verbs to describe what you can actually do at Titanic Quarter and each link takes you to a page with more details. Deciding to design the navigation bar in this way is very smart as it draws the user in and puts them first as each heading describes what they- as a person, can do there.
live
This page gives the user a list of apartments and describes them as a ‘sought after location’ adding to the importance of this area.
This page also gives users some history on the area and gives them sale lettings and prices. This enforces the idea that this is a great location and there are homes available to the user.
The live page also covers the restaurants and cafes the quarter hosts to imply that this area can give the user everything they need to live comfortably. It also includes the Belfast MET under ‘education’ to further emphasise this idea.
Work
The ‘work’ page includes the 100 national and international companies that have buildings in the Titanic Quarter.
This page also includes the list of offices, media campus, retail, industrial projects and the efficient telecom coverage the quarter hosts. Along with future offices and projects.
This is very useful to show users exactly what is happening in this up and coming area and how they could get involved and the opportunities the Titanic Quarter hosts.
Visit
This page explains the maritime mile and a short history behind the Titanic Quarter.
It also includes the places the user can visit such as the ‘Titanic Museum’ ‘Vertigo’ ‘SSE’ and the ‘marina’. Each of these places when clicked on gives the user more details and contact information.
At the bottom of each page the user can click on buttons called ‘what’s on’ ‘news’ and the ‘media room’
These are obviously important pages as they are directed to for the user at every page. They allow the user to access important information without having to go through specific pages or the nav bar at the top of the page.
Readily accessible means the user will definitely see it so if I intend on using this idea it must be for pages that are important and well developed.
The CQ website is similar in terms of content to the Titanic quarter, however it focuses more on the events and news in the area as their isn’t as much of a hotel or B&B market there.
The launch screen of this website is a full screen image rotation of news/workshops/events and a link to each respective topic. I liked this idea as it is something interesting for the users to see straight away. The navigation bar as at the top of the screen and can bring you to the following pages;
- What’s on
- For Business
- About CQ
- Explore
- News
- Contact
The launch screen also has a vertical navigation to the social media links of the website. This was a feature I didn’t like too much as having 2 types of navigation might be hard for the user to understand, there’s a bit too much going on on that screen.
If you scroll down you will be able to read a description of Cathedral Quarter, its history and what it includes. In this section there is also a link to the ‘about’ section of the website and ‘destination CQ bid’ Titanic quarter also contained some information and history on the home page. I think this is a good idea , as it explains what CQ is to the user without them having to click through all the navigation to find this. I’m not a fan of how they laid out this section in particular however, as there is 3 columns of writing in this one section. I think if it was a bit more streamlined and in one reading direction it would be more accessible for the user.
After this section is a short description and link to CQ’s directory and a grid of logos of companies in the Cathedral Quarter. The user can then click one of these to bring them to the selected website.
The next section is some news of upcoming events in the area with links and dates to these.
The last section is a full width image of the area with the tagline ‘Where Inspiration Awaits’ on top of the image. Below this are some contact links and the opportunity to sign up for weekly emails.
The footer contains a secondary navigation, contact links, copyright and legalities.
I then looked through the navigation to see what content they had on the other pages of the website.
Whats’ on
This page is focussed on the events in the area in which the user can filter by date and/or category i.e Business, Comedy, Film…
For Business
This page is dedicated to all the business insights for the area. From how to improve your business workshops and. articles to the services the area provides.
When the user hovers over this link in the navbar they can select from a short list to go to a certain section directly.
About CQ
This page has the same short description and history of the area, below this is some links to other parts of the website. This page also contains images of the team at Cathedral Quarter Trust.
Explore
The explore tab brings you to a map of the area, which the users can explore. They’re are some filters at the top of the map;
- Sleep- shows user only hotels
- Eat/Drink- shows user only restaurants and bars
- Places of Interest- shows users important buildings such as the ‘Cathedral’ or ‘Albert Memorial Clock’
- Parking- shows users car parks in the area
News
The news page contains all the information of what’s going on in the area from business insights, job vacancies, events and more.
Contact
The contact page brings the user to a form they can fill out to make an enquiry or the user could use the address and phone number of the Cathedral Quarter Trust.
Summary
The websites for the Titanic and Cathedral quarter were very helpful for the initial research of my proposal. Knowing what is involved in a website of this nature and the scope of it makes it easier for me to break down the steps in the process for the proposal.
After this I did some research on what Hill Street consists of so that I can think of what webpages would be needed. Hill Street hosts a lot of restaurants, bars and cafes, some nearby hotels and it also hosts a variety of businesses from advertising agencies to solicitors.