2nd Year So Far...

So far this year has proved to be very different from the first year. In many way, this has it's foundation in the different kind of assignments we've done so far this year.

Coming back into the second year, it was very much as though we were going straight back in at the deep end. The 'A11 - On The Job' assignment, which involves working as a 4-person team to deliver an interactive media product to a client, has proved to be most challenging thus far. Working as Project Manager has proved to be extremely arduous, yet very rewarding. I feel that as a team we have taken time to truly pass through the stages of 'Forming', 'Storming' and 'Norming', but I feel we are beginning to reach a stage somewhere near 'Performing'. This has not been without troubles and a lot of effort, but at the end of the day I'm now pretty happy with the team I've got around me.

The 'On The Job' assignment isn't like anything I've done before. I've had to learn a lot of new things, and change the way I approach workflow to suit my team, which has been hard. As I've said though, it's been a massively rewarding experience and I've learnt a lot about organisation, working with others, people management... the list is endless.

We've also completed the 'A9 - Outside the Box' assignment this year, which was focused on XHTML and CSS. After a first year which included very little CSS, I was glad to be finally getting stuck into it. I've learnt a huge amount through this assignment, both through lectures and extended research and reading. This includes the methodology behind structuring XHTML and CSS, the syntax/semantics used in Standards Compliant web documents, and I've also brushed up on the use of naming conventions in web documents. I now feel in a much stronger position to be writing standardised, well structured and well formatted web documents, and would now be more confident doing so in a professional environment.

Through 'Outside the Box', I have developed a better understanding of why standardisation and the correct use of XHTML/CSS is important. This put the rest of my learning in the unit into perspective and helped me appreciate the value of what I'd been studying.

We have also begun work on the 'A12 - Culture Vulture' assignment, which is again like nothing done before. Having completed the presentation aspect of the assignment and in effect getting that out of the way, we've moved on to a 'reverse design process'. This basically entails designing before you know what you're designing for. In all honesty, I've been struggling so far with this - I'd maybe even go so far as to say it's the hardest thing on the course so far. I'm fairly sure I'll come up with that killer concept at some point... but at the moment I can only hope it's before we have to apply a design to whatever it is we're designing for!

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