Harder than expectation

To my surprise, it wasn't until one week later that I finally got the document from the client. And the contents seem to be a little clutter and unorganized. Some of them should be defined as functionality requirement, while some of them are more like introduction as whole, and some of them are repeated.  It took some time for me to confirm with the client about what they really wanted to present. I found that they could be very vocal when talking about what they want to achieve, for instance, increasing sales, or providing better online contact method. They also knew well about very specific function details like API installation. But they couldn't tell how they want to organize all the contents.

I started with grouping and labeling. There were over 30 sections of contents, according to their proposal, but of course it would be unpractical if we made a menu following a structure like that. However, dividing a site to 30 pages would probably be working. So my first step was basically categorizing after comprehending the concept of each section, which means, making a sitemap.

My client fully understood that the number of menu items should be limited, but we couldn't avoid debating when things came to a concrete plan. And as the contents they delivered were still not to an end, I was quite sure that there was a possibility of structure-altering in the future. As for me, there is a shackle that I have to accomplish a project during a certain period of time. So I suggested to remove some of unnecessary functionalities, or to replace some with pre-existing plug-in. Luckily we had a final verdict only after a few times of revisions.

By the end of the second week, I was able to finish most of information architecture plan including site purposes, site goals, user missions, user experiences, competitive analysis, functionality requirements, and sitemap. Still it took more time than I expected to achieve this because in reality the client always has different opinions in terms of whatever you can think of.

Mission Start

So I went to Pacific Link Language Centre this morning and had a meeting with my manager, who is basically responsible for all kinds of business in that department, from customer service to course scheduling. Though we spoke English when we first did the interview, I am allowed to speak Mandarin during meetings so we can communicate better.

PLLC already have a website built by wordpress but as they demand more functionalities like different language versions and highly customized template, they would like to re-build the website. It won't be a problem if the website remains its wordpress structure after revising, however, since I'm not a wordpress expert that customizing wordpress sites would take more time than an organic site, I decided to adopt the latter scenario. Though both scenarios will definitely take more than 200 hours for me to finish. I consider this as a practice.

They have no knowledge about building a website. I had to start with educating how the process would be like. I explained every step we must go through and why we had to do so. Considering that the manager initially thought that site-building was just as easy as installing any open source platform, educating could be essential to facilitate the progress. I explained how the planning work would be like by showing her the information architecture document. Having something in hand to show was really more helpful rather than just talking which might cause more confusion.

It took about 3 hours to explain, and another 2 hours to understand their needs and requirements. Unfortunately the client hadn't prepare anything before meeting that they even didn't have an organized backup for the website contents. I emphasized again on what I needed before going on to work. I mean, at least I need to know what contents they want to put on the site. And at this point of time all I have to do is just waiting.