Our Client:
Meet Ray, a professional magician who’s been entertaining guests of all ages for many years in Mississauga and the GTA. Ray is looking to improve his current online presence: http://www.saugamagic.com/
Live Case Study – Website Project:
This project is used as a live case study for the BUS 2504 Web Development/ FASH4500 e-Retailing course during Fall 2019. Ray’s website will be revamped using WordPress.com Premium plan (Campbell, 2018, pp. 15-28)
ARI Award to Support Class Work:
Thanks to an award from Applied Research & Innovation, the funding is used to hire students from various Humber Faculties and programs to support the project in areas that are beyond the scope of the course. The following students will be joining us to support our class work during the semester with various roles (Campbell, 2018, pp. 28-31):
- Darius Jones, Faculty of Business, WordPress development
- Brook Charlinski, Faculty of Media Studies, Graphic Design
- Sydney Schumacher, Faculty of Media Studies, Graphic Design
- Sabrina Atzori, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Professional Writing and Communications
Content:
Initial Meeting with Ray (Sept 10, 2019):
The team met with Ray to discuss the project requirements (Campbell, 2018, Chapter 3), and finalized a first draft of the Project Requirements Document
Progress – Content Writing
- Sept 15: Sabrina sent our client a document that includes the suggested content strategy and an outline of the information she needs in order to start creating new content for the website, as well as ideas for reworking the existing content (Campbell, 2018, pp. 54-58, 78-82, 100-102). View the document Content writing questions – X-Ray Magic
- Sept 15: Ray responded to Sabrina’s email. View Content writing Answers – X-Ray Magic
- Sept 24: Sabrina sent the first draft (PDF) of the website content
- Sept 30: Ray responded with the following email and provided the document first draft – with Ray’s feedback
- Oct 10: Ray provided content for FAQs and examples of blog posts Content Creation – Draft One – X-Ray Magic – RAY’s Feedback and Blog
- Sabrina met with Ray revised the content based on his feedback, Ray approved this final copy: Content Creation – Draft Two – X-Ray Magic
Progress – Graphic Design
- Sept 16: Ray sent Brook logo inspirations, uploaded on the Google Drive
- Sept 24: Graphic design and branding updates presented (Campbell, 2018, Chapter 2). Ray is happy with the direction of the initial concepts, the hands and cards concept will be refined for the next stage of digital roughs
- Oct 3, 2019: digital roughs were presented based on Ray’s initial preferred concept (hands with cards). However, he would like to have a different concept revised without the cards, and focusing on the “X” as he feels it’s more suitable for the “corporate” look.
- Oct 10, 2019: New revisions presented to Ray
- Oct 13, 2019: Ray requested final edits inspired by the following. Our graphic designers will follow-up after the reading week.
Progress – WordPress Themes
- Oct 7, 2019: discussed and confirmed theme preferences (Campbell, 2018, pp. 27-28, 47-51, 58-64, 102-113)
- One page-theme
- Not parallax (as in the example he provided http://www.bobbymotta.com).
- Clean look with white space for the logo & navigation
- The following themes are suggested by our Research Assistant:
- Oct 10, 2019: Ray would like a theme layout similar to https://davidblaine.com
- We suggested configuring the Luxury WordPress theme https://wordpress.com/theme/luxury
Class Work – Design Thinking
Using Design Thinking process, templates, and the information available so far, the class will start with full analysis and assessment of Ray’s business and current website: http://www.saugamagic.com. Note that this an iterative, non-linear process, we will be revising and updating the documents throughout the phases of the process.
The following document includes Agendas and Meeting Minutes for the four team meetings scheduled during class time according to the Critical Path.
Phase 1: Empathize (Monday Sept 23, 219)
- Empathy maps
- Value proposition canvas
- List of questions to the client (notes highlighted yellow in the Proj Req doc)
Phase 2: Define (Monday Sept 30, 2019)
- Problem statement
- Persona
- Journey map
- Suggested themes by the class: will need to be revised based on Ray’s preference (one page, clean space for the logo and navigation bar)
- https://wordpress.com/theme/rockfield
- https://wordpress.com/theme/thefour
- https://wordpress.com/theme/brompton
- https://wordpress.com/theme/leven
- https://wordpress.com/theme/stow
- https://wordpress.com/theme/dara
- https://wordpress.com/theme/novara
- https://wordpress.com/theme/marquee
- https://wordpress.com/theme/ovation
- https://wordpress.com/theme/spatial
- https://wordpress.com/theme/profile
- https://wordpress.com/theme/promenade
- https://wordpress.com/theme/encore
Phase 3: Ideate (Monday Oct 7, 2019)
- Project Plan (Campbell, 2018, Chapter 3)
- Information architecture design / storyboard (Campbell, 2018, Chapter 4)
- The following themes may work given Ray’s requirements:
Phase 4: Prototype (To be completed by our Research Assistant)
- First draft of the website: https://xraymagician.wordpress.com
Phase 5: Test (Monday Nov 11, 2019)
- Feedback and suggestions (Campbell, 2018, Chapter 4)