Portfolio - Enseignement Supérieur Saint-Louis

Overview

This project has been accomplished during my year at France. The assignment was to analyse their current web site, and come up with a new design proposal. The web site is based on the under graduate courses (Enseignement Supérieur).

The work was devided in different parts:

Creating monthly bills

The first functionality that made everything started was the request of easily creating monthly bills without much manual calculations to do. I came up with a way of creating all bills with just one click on a button.

But first the data needs to be inserted in the database. The data is represented in ordering form. Every time a delivery has been made, a form is created with all details. I created a form that looks exact like the paper document, which makes it easier to fill in.

All that has to be done is copy the data from the paper document to the electronic form and all calculations are automatically done by the computer.

Creating a bill is then simply done by selecting one option (creating all bills for an entire month, or just for one customer) and click 'Create'.

Analyse of current web site

Looking at the current website, writing down the architecture and gaining a good understanding of what us currently happening.

Benchmarking

Looking at other web sites of universities and collages (national and international) and making a general architecture that will serve as a base for our web site.

Collecting information for current web site

Talking to teaching and administrative staff about the desired information on the web site, functionalities, etc...

Creating multiple prototypes

Learning basic web design techniques such as HTML and CSS and start creating different designs, which is later been discussed with the staff.

'Final' product

At the end of the year, I handed in a final proposal for a web design, keeping user friendliness as the main goal. A lot of context needs to be changed, and I haven't spent any time on programming or maintenance of the site. I wrote a document and made many sugestions on how to improve it. The project needs to be submitted to the board for further decisions. Today, they still haven't changed their original web site. They did place my proposal on a free server and can be accessed here.

This project was my first experience with pure Web Design. I learned design aspects such as CSS and tools like Dreamweaver and Fireworks to make things happening. I also learned the differences between developing and designing web sites and why there are so many conflicts. Since then, I try to make my development as compatible as possible with a good design. I learned also the different aspects of a good and bad web design, and how to keep the user focused on the application without triggering a boring or un-professional effect.