Website Squash Club (2019)
Former website for student squash club, aimed at serving existing members with news, forms and (members-only) photos and documents, while also serving Dutch and international potential members.
Roles and Responsibilities
I was responsible for the entire project;
- client interview
- user interviews
- prototype building (HTML/CSS) and user testing
- development and release
- final user testing
- polish and after care (manuals)
Final Product
Homepage with news messages, monthly events and information for potential members further down the page.
A training sign off form, of which the entries can be exported to .csv, so it's easily imported into Excel, reducing the workload of the board.
Tables per competition level that will only appear when filled.
Some parts of the website appear on various pages, but are only maintained on one page in the back-end for ease of use and contradicting information becoming impossible.
Documents and pictures for members of the club, accessible only by login. Wordpress dashboard access is restricted to normal members.
English page for international students new to the club. Left out navigation as this confused the users when testing, instead it has a clear link back to the Dutch site.
A footer that can be maintained on a separate footer page in the back-end, with the international page also being updated (with English text on that page's back-end)
The website is fully responsive, as was the prototype.
Process and Methods
I set up a plan including the following stages:
- client interview
- user interviews
- prototype building (HTML/CSS) and user testing
- development and release
- final user testing
- polish and after care (manuals)
After the prototype was approved, I started development of a custom theme in Wordpress. This was the first website project w`here I didn't use a style guide and just (very agile?) chose fonts and styles on the go, while not straying too far away from the approved prototype, and making lots of small improvements in the process.
Toughest Challenge
As in all of the other website projects I've done, the toughest challenge wasn't in the interaction design part, but in the technical side.
It features a custom built calendar, messages that can be posted in any of the three categories and are featured on their respective pages, restricted user access for the members account, a training sign off system that exports to .csv and a back-end that's optimized for user friendliness by using smart defaults and loads of conditional logic.
What I'd do Differently
I spread out the work a bit too much, also because it was an entirely unpaid project and some requirements changed during development.
Tools Used
- Notepad: documentation, todo lists, code building
- LibreOffice Writer: client manual (all as .pdf)
- Trello: checklist and project planning
- Notepad++ & Dreamweaver: custom theme development
- Xampp: local hosting
- Wordpress: CMS + plugins (Advanced Custom Fields (+ACF Table Field), Contact Form 7 (+CFDB7), Duplicator, Peter's Login Redirect, Remove Dashboard Access and Restrict User Access