I am titling this blog "Group Poop" because Group Sh!t does not make for a very polite headline. My final group project for this class was submitted this morning, and I am sooooo glad to be done with it! Although the cause is important to me, group projects tend to go like this: one or two people do all of the work, while everyone else sits back and lets them do it. This project was a bit different, but there was still one obvious slacker in the group.
My problem with the group project dynamic is that I am a "recovering workaholic". I am the type of person who will dedicate all of my time to my work/school projects, to the detriment of other areas of my life. Often time I have said that "there is a reason I am [insert age here], never married with no children". Although those reasons are several, one of the big ones is my dedication to my work - and the sense of perfectionism that I bring with it. I can't just let stuff slide and hope that someone else will do the work because every time I try that I end up working double-time to catch up because nobody else bothered to do the work, either! Because I am aware of my tendency to drown my life in my work, I must make a conscious effort to STOP and balance myself or see my personal life suffer for it.
As for the technical extent of this project, I realize that I have experience in web-building; but my experience is in web graphics/design and writing HTML code. Six or seven years ago, web building software was in its infancy, and social host sites like Yola.com and SocialGo were either non-existent or very, very expensive to use ($1,500+ per yearly contract, as opposed to $100 - $300 now). I have had to make the time to learn how to use these sites, just like everybody else. My experience with HTML coding allowed me to work around some of the limitations of the paid-subscription-only features on sites like WuFoo Forms (BTW: I LOVE THIS SITE!!!), but this does not excuse the fact that one of the "founders" of the site that has been our group project contributed NOTHING except her personal profile and a very short, barely researched blog! In fact, her one source of research was a YouTube video that another member had already posted to our site! How ballsy is that? This person has a semester-long history of phoning it in, so to speak, but this move takes that attitude to new levels!
Overall, the group dynamic of this final project has worked well, with each of the remaining members contributing in some important way; I am just wondering if my dedication hasn't made it too easy for my group-mates to blow off a large portion of the assignment - i.e. learning how to use the social host software, or how to create a WuFoo form. Then again, if I were not so dedicated, I am not certain our site would be as professionally done as it is. Fjavascript:void(0)or my last group project, I was partnered with a different student, and the work he contributed was amazing. For this group project, we are separated; and the difference in the quality of work is obvious. I am really not impressed with his group's site, even though I love the topic [responsible government spending].
I just hope that my influence helps to bring out the best efforts of others, without me coming off as a total b!tch...because behind the scenes - away from work and the formal settings of the university - I can be immature, unorganized, crazy, and loud; but boy am I FUN!
Showing posts with label website design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website design. Show all posts
Friday, December 2, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Project #3...
My new project is a group project, wherein we redesign a crappy website. Or should I say, "a website that needs help with its design"? Having spent the last few years of my Marketing career designing websites, I'd like to think I have earned the right to be blunt.
This project got me thinking about why I left creating Marketing, and when I saw the webpage (not even a site, just a page) that my old employer settled on (after I quit in disgust), I remembered. I remembered how I spent 20 hours a week - half of my 40 hours - busting my ass to design a site for the company, only to have the owner reject it because it "wasn't what he wanted" - not that he could tell me what he wanted; just that he'd "know it when he saw it". Gee, thanks for the creative input! I remembered how he brought in one of his buddies - a retired electrician, who had picked up website design as a hobby, and was trying to make a business of it - to "teach" me how to design a website.
That day, it was all I could do not to quit on the spot (which I did a few weeks later; and six weeks after that, my division was closed when they discovered that replacing me for what they were paying me proved to be harder than they thought. I still feel badly about that, considering it put some good people out of work). Anyhow, my point was that I went to school to learn Marketing and Design and Photography; to understand how different cultures reacted to different marketing techniques (the Japanese love pictures, the Germans love text); and in the process of climbing my career ladder, earned a reputation as one of the best in my field thanks to my education and creative skills. This man picked up web design as a hobby and - with no education whatsoever - decided to try and make a second career of it, starting with his buddy's company as his very first client!
I remember asking him if he had any artistic skills, and he responded, "No, I grab all of my pictures and graphics off of the Internet". Apparently, in addition to all his other shortcomings, the man had no understanding of copyright laws. I also remember him trying to tell me how to design a "successful website". Thankfully, the CFO walked in at that very moment and intervened before the flames shooting from my eyes incinerated the man.
At least they used the logo I had to redesign from nothing. (There was no electronic copy of the logo, and the only print copy they had of was so pixilated, it could not be used. The font was unique to the company, so I had to make an electronic version of it, pixel by pixel. It was hours of long, boring work, but at least it wasn't for nothing).
Anyhow, this project is reminding me why I do not want to go back into Marketing Communications - the stress and burn-out is too much to sacrifice. If I don't go the path of education, Public Relations will be what I choose. Why I ever left it in the first place, I can't remember...maybe this project will help with that, too.
This project got me thinking about why I left creating Marketing, and when I saw the webpage (not even a site, just a page) that my old employer settled on (after I quit in disgust), I remembered. I remembered how I spent 20 hours a week - half of my 40 hours - busting my ass to design a site for the company, only to have the owner reject it because it "wasn't what he wanted" - not that he could tell me what he wanted; just that he'd "know it when he saw it". Gee, thanks for the creative input! I remembered how he brought in one of his buddies - a retired electrician, who had picked up website design as a hobby, and was trying to make a business of it - to "teach" me how to design a website.
That day, it was all I could do not to quit on the spot (which I did a few weeks later; and six weeks after that, my division was closed when they discovered that replacing me for what they were paying me proved to be harder than they thought. I still feel badly about that, considering it put some good people out of work). Anyhow, my point was that I went to school to learn Marketing and Design and Photography; to understand how different cultures reacted to different marketing techniques (the Japanese love pictures, the Germans love text); and in the process of climbing my career ladder, earned a reputation as one of the best in my field thanks to my education and creative skills. This man picked up web design as a hobby and - with no education whatsoever - decided to try and make a second career of it, starting with his buddy's company as his very first client!
I remember asking him if he had any artistic skills, and he responded, "No, I grab all of my pictures and graphics off of the Internet". Apparently, in addition to all his other shortcomings, the man had no understanding of copyright laws. I also remember him trying to tell me how to design a "successful website". Thankfully, the CFO walked in at that very moment and intervened before the flames shooting from my eyes incinerated the man.
At least they used the logo I had to redesign from nothing. (There was no electronic copy of the logo, and the only print copy they had of was so pixilated, it could not be used. The font was unique to the company, so I had to make an electronic version of it, pixel by pixel. It was hours of long, boring work, but at least it wasn't for nothing).
Anyhow, this project is reminding me why I do not want to go back into Marketing Communications - the stress and burn-out is too much to sacrifice. If I don't go the path of education, Public Relations will be what I choose. Why I ever left it in the first place, I can't remember...maybe this project will help with that, too.
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