Launch

For my term project, I built a business consulting website.  I have never done anything like this before so I took it one step at a time.  The first thing I decided I needed to do was create a logo.  To do this, I needed to determine what software program I was going to use to build this website.  I chose Microsoft Publisher.  I opened the program, and started a blank page.

Key Demographic

My key demographic is small businesses that need assistance solving a problem or challenge they run into.  It could also be a small business that needs outside assistance during a major change in their organization.  It could also be a small business that needs someone to track progress and lead teams during projects.  The needs are endless.

 Competition

The competition is strong.  There are thousands of business consulting firms out there.  Vashro Consulting will position themselves in the market as a company who has extreme talent, who is incredibly accessible, and has very reasonable rates. 

Brand

A strong brand is such a pivotal aspect of any business today.  The tone in Vashro Consulting’s brand that will appeal to its audience is its simplicity, accessibility and expert talent and website.  The tagline for the company is passionate about your success.   Everything with Vashro Consulting exemplifies excellence in talent and service.

Research

Since I have never design a webpage before, I thought it would be in my best interest to do research at what other companies have done before I design my own.  I looked at several consulting websites  and the two that were most compelling to me were  http://www.accenture.com/, and  http://www.sakson.com/ . 

What I liked most about Accenture’s website was the large picture on their home page.  As I learned in class, a large photo works like white space.  When you reach the site’s home page, you get a good feel for the company by looking that picture and reading a few taglines that accompany it. 

What drew me in for Saxon & Taylor’s website was its simplicity.  Almost the entire website was accessible through their homepage.  The page is very small and entirely fits in on one window, no scrolling down.  There isn’t anything fancy about the site, just function.

Design

I chose navy blue for the color of my logo for a few reasons.  First, it is a strong powerful color.  It is a serious, business oriented color that has purpose.  Next is my logo.  That logo represents a large part of my brand.  Another aspect of the design of my website is simplicity and ease of usability.  I used a one, two, three method.  It only takes three clicks to get to the consumers endpoint (which is contact us).

Context

There is lengthy write up under each sub-heading that shares a business definition of first, what that area is and second, what Vashro Consulting can do for the consumer in that area of business.  The quotes and photos on each page are nice because they work as negative space, don’t crowd the area, but still serve a strong purpose with meaningful written and visual messages.  Finally, there isn’t any noise in the context, everything on the page has distinct function.

Usability

The main goal of my site was for it to be extremely simple to use.  I want customers to enter the site, see their need, read about how Vashro Consulting can meet that need and be directed to human contact.  I wanted to design a website with complete ease of usability.  Three clicks to the endpoint without having to search for anything.

Interactive Website

Corbet Curfman from Riverbed Design explains that an interactive website should be efficient, transparent (simple), receptive and responsive, and supportive.  My website offers all of these things.  It is efficient because the user has only three clicks until he or she reaches the end (contact us).  It is transparent/simple because each page hand feeds the user’s needs or desires without the need to visually search for anything.  It is responsive and receptive in that if you click on email, he or she can reach someone in the company almost immediately 18 hours a day.  Finally, there is supportive.  Varhroconsulting.com is a website that is all about support.  Clients come to our site with a problem, see that there is constructive accessible assistance, and call to get the business support they need.

Conclusion

This process has been very challenging and educational.  One day I would like to use a software program to re-build my website piece by piece making each element stand on its own allowing me to use links.  As for Vashro Consulting, this was a great start at creating a real start-up company.  Maybe one day it will become a reality.

Intro

The quarter has come to a close.  It is time to look back and evaluate everything that I have learned.   Most of the learning happened for me during the class assignments.  This journal entry will look back at each of those assignments.  They started with an evaluation of a good verses bad image and ending with a write-up on service envy.

Good vs. Bad Image

This was the first time that I had an opportunity to critique a webpage in written format.  Carolina gave us some great direction in this in terms of what works on a page and what doesn’t.  It was fun to be the “expert” during the assignment and evaluate what I felt a designer did and did not do well.

Wireframes

Before this assignment, I didn’t know what a wire frame was.  This was a fun assignment because I could create what could be a webpage in very little time.  This was the first time I had to pick a software program to work out pictures and designs for class.  I have had success with simple projects in Microsoft Publisher in the past so I decided to use that.

Poor Usability

This was a fun article to write.  It was fun looking around my surroundings assessing what worked well and what needed improvement.  A few days before the assignment was due, I got a flat tire and experienced the extreme low usability of the car jack while trying to change the tire.  This experience made for a perfect example in this write-up.

Classroom

I liked my classroom design.  It was a roundtable where the instructor had control over the overhead with an in-table computer.  The rest of the class sat in a round/oval table.  This form of classroom encourages ease of input and conversation from each student.  This design also gives a sense of accountability of each student to pay attention and interact with the class.

Term Project Proposal

My term project proposal was the hardest assignment I did in the quarter.  For my project, I chose to design a website by myself.  I had never ever done something like this before.  As I was leaving class, without setting myself up in a group, my stomach began to turn and I wasn’t sure I would be able to pull it off.  To begin, I started where my roots are, business.  That lead to Vashro Consulting being my mock business.  Designing the webpage it in a software platform was very confusing at first but I just started and kept going, and got use to the program.  With endurance things started to fall together.  It is amazing how many hours I could spend tweaking every little detail again and again and not realize the time that had passed.

Use Case

This was a nice quick and easy assignment.  But is was also very useful in terms of learning how define the users path in a webpage.

Task Flow Diagrams

In this assignment we had to find a task that was to be done in Media Space and first map what it currently is and then map an improved version.  This was another thing that I had no experience with so I dove into it with simple white squares.  I was very surprised when I got to class and saw the level of detail that some of my classmates were able to put into their diagrams.

Service Envy

This article was also very interesting to write.  At first it was a bit confusing but as I studied the assigned reading things came together.  It was an interesting notion that the actual product was an afterthought when it came to service and customers saying “what can you do for me?”

Conclusion

This has been an enjoyable and challenging class.  The amount of detail that I learned was unexpected.  As I said in my intro to this paper, the hands on assignments were the largest learning experience for me.  Several times I was forced to step outside of my comfort zone.  That was hard each time, but as the assignment evolved I became more comfortable with it.

This write up will evaluate at&t’s service and one of their competitors in three ways.  First, does at&t’s devCentral enable consumers to identify themselves and define their identity through the service?  Second, does at&t create services that someone can be proud of?  Third, can/does at&t dev Central exchange more than the obvious with its customers?  All of this followed by my recommendation on how to better at&t’s service envy.

After examining at&t’s website, I don’t see much there that would allow their customers to better identify with themselves, define their identity, or create envy from someone else.  Their platform is stale and not creative.  However, Droid from Verizon does.  Right when you enter the website, you are immediately bombarded with “cool.”  It instantly creates an attitude of I want to be cool like that or, this service relates to my inner cool that is extinguished by corporate world.  Fail for at&t at this level.

Second we will look at whether or not the service creates services that someone can be proud of.  It will be easy to get this issue and the former issue confused but they are very different.  at&t’s website offers solid service that one can be proud of.  Steady, reliable, clear and concise service that is easy to fix, easy to access, and easy to maneuver.  Droid from Verizon really took the competition hands down in the identify identity section but when it comes to service, I would question how organized and straightforward their help, service, and accessibility would be.  Win for at&t at this one.

Finally, we look at exchanging the obvious.  Does at&t exchange with its customers more than just the obvious mobile telephone service?  The answer is yes.  at&t offers network compatible devices, business services, and Java supported devices to name just a few.  Droid from Verizon, or Verizon itself, offers these amenities as well.  So, we have a win win on this topic.

To conclude, to better the quality or strength of service envy for at&t, I recommend that they work harder on personal image.  They need to help their customers link their identity to their service.  That starts with redesigning the website and changing their scope of their advertising campaign to be a little more edgy and a little less square or in the box.

User goes to home page, clicks on groups and gets a scroll down menu of all titles of groups available and clicks on chosen group.

Step 1.  User opens home page

Step 2.  User clicks the Groups link.

Step 3.  User sees pull-down menu of all groups available on Media Space.

Step.4  User chooses and clicks on desired group.