Day Forty-Six: Monday 07.29.2013

Only three days left of documenting my internship! The time has gone fairly quickly, but I can't say that I will miss writing down what I do each day, it has become a pretty tedious task. However, it will be interesting to read back over everything and write a reflection. 

Today I continued reading the homepage design article and planning our new homepage. I would love to get this done by the end of the week and possibly include it in my practicum book, but I just don't think that's possible. Right now my goal will be to make more detailed wireframes and begin gathering and creating content. If I were to try and get much more done I think it would be rushed and definitely not up to par. 

I have found out a lot of good information about homepage design. Since my previous work experience was all at Taylor, I have very little information about what corporations want or expect. After just a couple days of research I understand a lot more; like why there is an About Us page or Contact Us and what type of information to list there. I would not have thought through how the information on those pages changes for each type of company. Also, I learned that having a designated "In the Press" page can encourage more coverage because journalists see you value their work. All of this is so interesting! I know our new page is going to be pretty simple, since our web presence is focused on the actual application. But, that does not take away from the value of knowing this and it will definitely help when explaining the design I come up with.

I know that I've said I think my education was missing a lot of web information. There is so much out there and I think we only skimmed the surface. However, this internship is a part of my education and I definitely think it helps prepare me for the corporate world. I am doing my internship a little out of order, normally I would take it before or during my senior year. Instead, I am taking it as my last class and I'm at the job that will become my full time career after the summer. Being in this position has made me very aware of how important real life experience is. You cannot understand how being a designer actually works in a class room. You can gain a lot of great tools and get really prepared, but it's not the real thing. Internships are just such an important stepping stone before a "real" job and I'm really happy that Taylor makes us do them. 

Day Forty-Five: Friday 07.26.2013

It's Friday!! Wooo! ...That's not as much fun to say outside of chapel. Nonetheless it is Friday and today was a great end to the week. I think I have completed the Yield Environment/Zone Edit mock up; it's at least at a point that I would greatly defend against changes. I haven't come up with a title for the expected yield range, every so often someone pitches a new idea, but none have worked yet. Otherwise I really like the layout, it's clean and organized, there is clear hierarchy and I think the user will be able to quickly adjust.

The rest of today I continued reading the article about homepage design. It is very long and tedious, but I am getting some good notes from it so I definitely think it's work my time. I take some breaks and peruse the web for visual examples of good homepages and jot down some content ideas. It helps me break up the content and digest it so I actually remember good points and weed out inapplicable things. I also caught up on my practicum documentation and timesheet entries. I will be sending in my internship book next weekend, so I wanted to take some time to make sure everything was in order. I collected previous weeks form my sent mail, sense I lost the original files with my hard drive, and made sure their formatting was correct. This way when I set up the book to be sent I can focus more on the design/layout and get my images of my work together and not worry too much about the copy.

Day Forty-Four: Thursday 07.25.2013

Since this week ended up being a little mixed up, today was the day I worked from home. Being able to work from my (new!) couch was so wonderful and ended up being perfect. I had no idea how tired I had been, but it felt great to lean in to a comfy couch while working. I embraced the relaxing feeling all day and took it kind of easy. I continued reading various articles about homepage design, focusing mainly on one from Nielsen and Norman Group. I've come across other helpful articles from them, and the one I read today was more like a book. It's 113 Design Guidelines for Homepage Usability and I know I will have lots of useful notes to work from. 

I've said this before, but I think web design principles is a topic really lacking from my education. I took Web Design, but that was focused on how to make menus and a basic web page. I would like a class more like Visual Communications, but focused on the web. The principles I'm reading about now are really helpful and very web specific, they are not something I could transfer from basic design classes. I'm learning about usability, what a business will want and how that might not be best for design purposes, especially when it comes to advertising for partners. I've also learned about the benefit of having some kind of call to action with a button or some other action the user will do. This makes perfect sense, but with nature of our site I might not have included it, or made it a less prominent feature.

Day Forty-Three: Wednesday 07.24.2013

Wednesdays are normally my day to work from home, but since Chris is in town for a short time we all came in. He didn't actually need me there, but I figured I'd change my day just in case. 

I hit a bit of a slow spot with mock ups and decided to work more on the homepage design. Since I had found some interesting articles yesterday, I thought I would continue this research. I found lots of smaller articles, some really not helpful and one really great (long) one at the end of the day. I have not added to my sketches, but it is helping me know how to organize information and which pieces to cut out. Since my sketches were more like wireframes, I don't really need to adjust them at this point. I still want to keep the simple idea I started with, using three images and a tag line. However, now I know why this will be most successful and I have a better idea of what the pictures should be. 

Another thing I need to do is go and photograph more farm scenes. I had done this a couple weeks back and I got some amazing shots during the golden hour. Unfortunately that was included in the files I did not back up, so I have to redo them. I'm a little worried the corn will be too tall and I won't be able to find high enough ground to shoot from. However, if I can, I think the tassels on the corn will look really great with the sun setting.

Day Forty-Two: Tuesday 07.23.2012

After getting feedback from Tim today I set off to get these mock ups done. I ended up changing quite a bit today and put most of my time into discussing and editing them. I am really happy with where they stand, but I think there will be some more alignment adjustments. 

I started working on redesigning the homepage, something Chris had mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago. I started sketching some ideas and looking up information about good layouts. Right now we use the home page as a "splash page" and the user will only see it once, before logging on. However, other people who find our site may look to it for information about what MyFarms is and how to contact us. The current design is four different tabs the user can click through, each having a catch phrase about the process of increasing your yield by using MyFarms. The major problems I've identified are: the page doesn't clearly state what MyFarms is, it doesn't show how we are different from the competition, and there is way too much copy in each tab. Finally, there is a bar on the left that links to various articles/publications we are mentioned in. Chris explained to me that each of these publications are well known and help establish our credibility. I understand that, but right now they are too big and command too much attention. On top of that, they're kind of out of date and none of the recent ones focus on us. If I were a user and clicked one, I would not take the time to figure out why this link was important and where (or if) it talks about MyFarms.

Day Forty-One: Monday 07.22.2013

Today I emailed Phil and Tim to remind them about the mock ups I had done to see if we could make a decision. Both of them are pretty busy getting ready for the release later this week, but I started to get comments from Phil at the end of the day. I will remind Tim tomorrow and begin editing them from what Phil has written. 

Tim was in an out of town wedding this weekend, so we were gone on Friday. That day off helped me move on from from the branding project and the frustration with my computer. Today I reprioritized my to-do list and continued installing programs and trying to organize files. I also backed up current projects on to my google drive. This way if I am at home and can't access the shared drive, I'll still be able to work. Of course this is in addition to my local files and it will probably never actually be necessary.

Day Forty: Thursday 07.18.2013

Yesterday was a complete bust. My hard drive is gone, nothing could be salvaged. The worst part is that I hadn't backed up in a couple of weeks. So today I started from scratch to try and get the seed link icon done for the code freeze on Friday. This project somehow spun out of control in the last week with a major communication break down. The specifics of what was actually needed by Friday had been misinterpreted by all parties. The designers and developer had thought we were doing the general branded experience, but the logo was coming later. Management had gotten their wires crossed and seemed to communicate everything was due Friday, but it ended up only Chris was expecting this. It was really frustrating, especially combined with my computer breaking. I would get a call from Chris asking if he could see something, but I had nothing because of my computer. Plus, in the end (today) we decided to use a padlock icon from Font Awesome. I really like this final choice, but that means all my time was for nothing; or at least it feels like it.

The rest of today I did more mock ups and kind of remade the ones I had previously done. I got a little feedback, but I think this project will be stalled until development time. If I have some down time this next week I'll push for more conversation, but we'll see.

I am trying to carefully reflect on today because I don't want to be in this situation again, it was really frustrating. Most me thinks that this is just a one time situation and it will help me speak up earlier on in a project if I think I'm getting different directions. Before I had assumed the due date moved up and it just needed to get done. Next time I will ask why it's been moved up and make sure everyone working on this project is aware of the changes. I think it can be easy to assume that people know what's going on in a small company, but for now I will assume not.

Day Thirty-Nine: Tuesday 07.17.2013

Today my computer broke. It had been acting up the night before and in the morning it couldn't even handle two browsers being open. Tim thought we should run a memory test on it which would take a few hours, so I went home. He and Phil checked it again before lunch and decided the hard drive was corrupt. So I couldn't access any of my files and was out of commission the rest of the day. Chris called me in the afternoon (he's out of town) and we talked over the branding experience more. Unfortunately there was some miscommunication and he thought I was doing parts that Kelly was doing. I think we got it all straightened out; it's at least clear between Kelly and me.

Whenever Phil or Chris check in with me, I feel a ton of pressure to list lots of things I'm working on. I don't think they're expecting me to do this, I just finish the list so fast I question what I'm doing with my time. Design takes a lot of though and time spent on versions no one else will see. So when I tell someone what I'm doing, I'm going to skip over those parts or summarize the hours as, "I sketched a few ideas.." There are hours of work behind that tiny sentence, and that's kind of really frustrating.

Day Thirty-Eight: Monday 07.15.2013

This morning I came in bright and early to print off the brochures I made over the weekend. This project was a little different because I didn't check in with anyone before calling it done. I had Tim give me his opinion, but other than that I got to call it. This job was a little bit of a reality check because it wasn't something I was super proud of or anything that was terribly original. It made me realize that sometimes a brochure is just a brochure, and while it's not amazing and beautiful, it's also not bad. When I would do a class assignment the goal was always to create something amazing and ground breaking. However, that's not always going to be possible in the real world. It's not that I'm aiming for mediocrity, I have just realized that setting my goals so high will lead to a lot of frustration and probably no sleep.

The afternoon I continued to work on the icon for seed company links. I'm getting a little frustrated with this because the final product is going to be very small and my illustration just isn't translating. We also had a meeting for new employees and "unaware" employees to go further in depth with the placement program. Those of us who don't constantly work on the code don't necessarily know how exactly it's being used and what each input variable means. The meeting was to go (thoroughly) over the raw data and algorithm of the placement program. Just about everything is clear to me now; I can see how each company can adjust the inputs and why they use what they do. I also understand some of the problems the developers have been handling, especially the bad data. I really appreciate knowing this because I think it's important for me to thoroughly understand how we work and why seed companies use us.

Day Thirty-Seven: Friday 07.12.2013

Today was an odd day of schedules getting changed and mixing up. The showcase had been a long 13 hour day, so all of us who went were in a weird fog today. Originally there had been multiple meetings scheduled for the afternoon, two for both Tim and me. We usually have just one a week and these were in addition to that one. However, one meeting ended up being short and casual. It is called Tech Time and it's just a scheduled time for Tim to update all of us about any new features or answer questions about the framework. The second meeting was canceled for both of us, even though they were two seperate, unrelated meetings.  

I worked on the icon for the seed company links some more, I also read back through some changes suggested on the mock ups I had done. At the end of the day I was given a brochure to design for Monday that will be a guide for seed consultants at Mustang Seeds. I'm actually really happy that this was handed to me, because it was another project that our support guy had done himself. I will complete it this weekend and print it Monday morning.

Day Thirty-Six: Thursday 07.11.2013

A few weeks ago Chris told us the Indy Innovation Showcase would be July 11 and anyone who wanted to come was more than welcome. I immediately said yes because I thought it would give me a really good idea of how Chris networks and presents MyFarms. All of this was true, but I kind of overlooked the fact that I would be there representing the company as well... I would have to make pitches and talk to investors. Oh boy was that a big oversight. That reality check came during practice when I was not entirely sure how to do a field placement. I made sure to shadow the others as the day went on and by the afternoon I was much more confident. I ended up pitching solo to 4 different people, one of whom made sure to exchange business cards. 

It was a really interesting atmosphere, one that is entirely different from any academic fair. Everyone there was in business and was passionate and intentional about being heard. I am not a schmooze-y person, so it was a little overwhelming being surrounded by good talkers and being expected to be one. 

One company I was really impressed with was Adproval. They had an amazing design campaign that seriously stood out from all the other booths. Everyone had nice printed signs, some had some form of a screen to show off their product. However, this company had just hand painted words on a black board. The sign was not only really questionable looking, but they also hung it sideways. It was amazing! You noticed it right away because it completely stood out, and you took the time to read it because you're thinking, "Which company made such a crummy sign?" It was completely memorable and made you want to go talk to the guy and hear what exactly the company was doing.

The setting also made me really happy that I have a grounded, Christian boss. He is determined and hard working, but he will not play games or put us in any uncomfortable situations. I noticed some booths pretty clearly used the attractive girl from the office to draw in interest and keep investors listening. Also, there was a bar open at the end and it wasn't such a big deal to us. The guys had a drink, but it was never uncomfortable or concerning that someone would drink too much. It made me really grateful for this company and my position in it.

Day Thirty-Five: Wednesday 07.10.2013

Today was my day at home and it was a distracted one. We found out on Monday that we were going to get possession of our house on Tuesday or Wednesday; so we were both antsy waiting to get a call to pick up the keys. On top of that my new phone came today... so today was kind of a half day.

I worked on the icon for the general link. Phil set up a story for me on tracker to work on that and discuss it, like we did with mock ups. Logos are not my strength, I tend to go with the obvious. For this icon I'm trying to challenge myself and work out the bad ideas first. This is ending up like the 101 challenge from Visual Communications. I think I will end up making a bunch of these little icons and putting them all up on my white board. This way i can cross out the bad ones and then get feedback from others.

Day Thirty-Four: Tuesday 07.09.2013

Half of today was spent working on mock ups and the other half was spent on the icon for links from seed company's sites. We also had a meeting about how to handle "The Branded Experience" for seed companies. Kelly had done mock ups for this and we (Chris, Phil, Kelly and I) had been commenting and discussing. After a few days of this we had deicded to just sit down and talk through the different ideas. Chris had also created a few of his own mock ups that he and I had talked over on Monday. We came up with a game plan and Kelly will be working on those mock ups further.

It's a little hard for me to understand the direction we're going with the branded experience. Right now we're changing the website layout to highlight the seed company's logo. The trouble we're dealing with is how to place our logo so that it doesn't clutter or unalign the header bar and to not be too small. In class we always focused on treating your brand with highest importance and why it was important to not downplay it. We're not doing the opposite of that, but it sort of feels like it. My gut reaction was to say "NO! DON'T DO THIS!" but as I listened to Chris and thought about it more, I agree with his goal. Now my problem is making sure the end product is balanced and purposeful. It's easy to just agree with Chris and put things where he says, but I don't think that's being a good designer. The main point is, we're heading in to unfamiliar ground and I'm trying to make sure I have secure footing.

Day Thirty-Three: Monday 07.08.2013

Happy Monday! I started my day by preparing to work on tutorials, only to find out I had some mock ups to create. This was a nice change of pace and it's a task that will be pretty common later on. The project was to  mock up a menu that combines two (currently separate) menus. I needed to keep continuity with the other menus, but I could choose how to do the headers, alignment and I could suggest a change of input method. I created three choices and talked them over with Tim, Phil commented on them on our tracker. Later in the day Phil asked me to add another piece of information, so I did this as well. I ended the day with 5 mock ups and a tentative decision on one of them. However, this project is in the "Icebox" right now, so we might change things once it becomes a working project. We shared these images and commented through Pivotal Tracker which is what we use for our job process. I have not been using this previously, it seems more targeted for developers. However, after seeing how fast the response can be, I might go ahead and post work there.

In between the mock ups work I continued creating more ideas for the general button. I am trying to create something interesting with our name on it. I am also still working on creating an image with a safe (as Chris had originally wanted), but none of them are clearly relating to us. As I said before, there is no deadline on this, just as soon as possible. The mock ups on the other hand were and open-shut situation, which is why I did them first.

Mock ups are kind of time consuming, but I gain a lot of knowledge about functionality and information our site is providing. In creating the new menu I had to talk through the pieces with Tim about what the user would be expecting the data to do and which parts would be used.

Day Thirty-Two: Friday 07.05.2013

Somehow it was harder to get up today than it is on a Monday. Once Tim and I were up we were both pretty unfocused, so we packed up and went to Starbucks. I decided to work on the button for seed companies to use that links to our site. Each seed company calls us something different, because to them we are a tool/service that they brand individually. I don't quite understand why we do it this way, but I just have to make some sort of outline or graphic to have next to all the links. Chris doesn't necessarily want it to be our logo, he wants something like a safe. I am trying some options that might have a more direct link with our brand and then we'll talk them over. We actually aren't even sure if seed companies would be okay with using this, so it probably needs to be on the neutral side.

In the evening I headed to the office to take care of our bunny. With everyone being away for four days I wanted to at least get her some water and exercise. Tim came with me and we timed the trip to head back during sunset so I could take some more pictures for the overview document. I shot non-specific farmland, just in case someone would have a problem with their barn or house in the background. I got some really great shots, the sunset was amazing! The sky was so orange and the clouds were really cool and streaky with darker colors. I will edit them on Monday and try to get the document put together. 

Day Thirty-One: Wednesday 07.03.2013

Wednesdays are when I normally work from home, but this week has changed around because of the holiday, so I will be at home on Friday instead. I continued working on JQuery and I actually finished this afternoon. Apparently I was wrong in thinking it would take me a while to complete. I think I have a solid grasp on it, but I think I'll be looking up more information when I have to work with it. That is fine with me, I actually expect to do that a lot once I'm working on our site. Whenever I start coding again I look up a lot of things just to make sure I am doing things right the first time, so I avoid wasted time debugging later on.

After I finished JQuery I went to the Project section which uses the past three languages to create something.  I had anticipated this section taking quite a bit of time, but I was once again wrong. I actually finished it this afternoon after a couple hours. I had thought I would have to review quite a bit, but they had very clear instructions and set it up so you won't get stuck. Also, half of the projects were under development so I couldn't do them... that was probably the main reason it went fast. 

I still plan on doing php next, I haven't worked with that since I was in IAD (Interactive Application Development). It's a server language, but it's very useful and straightforward. I know we use it and even if I don't edit it, it will be helpful to understand.

Overall work has been going well. I started to feel like I was spending too much time on these tutorials, but I know they will need to get done and nothing else is pressing. Today Kelly showed me how we do mock-ups and I think I will be doing some of those for Tim. It's essentially taking screenshots and moving elements around in Photoshop. I definitely think that the design work expected of me is pretty simple, so I am trying to stretch myself and think beyond the current outlines. Hopefully this will show through with the overview page and the homepage on the website. The deliverables page was good, but I want to improve with each project, so hopefully these will be even better.

Day Thirty: Tuesday 07.02.2013

This morning I wanted to take a break from tutorials, so I went back to working on the overview page. I started by looking through the photos again and editing a few more. I am not thrilled with how they turned out, especially to use with my original plan. It is times like this that I wish I would have taken more photography classes... but nothing I can do about that now. I thought I should explore other layouts to see if there is something that would work with the photos better. While browsing through google I realized I had been stuck on an 8.5x11 portrait layout. I found two layouts that I really liked, one is a simple landscape layout with three images going across and the other is a tri-fold but with the outer flaps folded like doors. I think the latter could look cool with an interesting edge using the hexagons. After this exploration I realized how important it will be for me to push myself and break out of the box with layouts. I can usually be creative on a plain page, but I don't always turn the page or cut it down or fold it. It was easier to think this creatively in class because assignments were set up to be that way. However, when Chris brings me something he doesn't have that same expectations and somehow that caused me to forget to be creative in this way. I plan on going with each of these ideas, as well as the original and then get Chris's feedback.

In the afternoon I went back to the tutorials. I am still on the JQuery section and I think it will last a bit longer, like Javascript. There are fewer lessons, but it is definitely a language I don't know well. I am making sure to take my time and ask Tim lots of questions because I know we use it quite a bit. I also think it's something I will be expected to work with and edit, not just read through and work around; which is what I expect to happen with php. After JQuery I plan on doing a section called "Projects" which I understand to be developing web sites/applications using html, css, JQuery and Javascript. Then I will do php and Python, although I think I'll do the latter more on my own time. I don't think we use it much, if at all, so I don't want to take too much time away from other things for it.

Day Twenty-Nine: Monday 07.01.2013

Happy July! This morning I spent a fair amount of time updating my intern journal; I had forgotten a couple of days and the others needed editing. I usually end up revising them a bit on mondays, but since I had skipped a couple days it took a bit longer. I also did some other documentation things, like time sheets and checking on other practicum requirements.

The rest of the day I worked on JQuery tutorials. This has proved to be a really good section to work on. Whenever I have used JQuery I would use plug ins, so a lot of the heavy lifting was done for me. The lessons help explain how exactly JQuery is different from Javascript and how to use it correctly. Even if I don't end up using JQuery here, this has definitely been helpful for me and I know I'll use it down the road. I am really grateful for my background in computer science, it makes the lessons on Codecademy make a lot more sense and I can more easily translate concepts. It also helps by giving me a foundation/starting point when talking with Tim or any of the other developers. Usually the technical conversations don't involve me, but I can pick up on what they're talking about. I can also pipe in and voice why designing sometime might be best in a way that will carry more weight. 

This is an area I wish the Taylor Art Department would cover more. I bring it up only because this was a point we are encouraged to cover in our journals. I think I'm well equipped on the coding side because of my previous major, but there were times I was shocked by things my art classmates didn't know. I think understanding some broader coding concepts could be so helpful, especially in the job market. It was one of the biggest selling points I felt I had, and one that I thought would help me stand out. I've always thought it would be awesome if there was a year long class for graphic design and new media concentrations (and perhaps some from media comm), where they learned design principles for the web as well as coding principles of html, css, Javascript, JQuery and probably some others. Then, on teams of mixed majors they would design and develop a website for a client so they can help each other and use the lessons in real life. I can't image the amount of planning and restructuring the majors that would take, but I think it would be awesome. 

Day Twenty-Eight: Friday 06.28.2013

Today I finished html tutorials! This one, as expected, went extremely fast. It was all review for me, including the more complex css. The one section that felt like a necessary refresher was the position property in css.

I also worked on something else today - I edited a picture for our support guy to use on a document to a seed company. Does that sentence sound strange to anyone else? We have two designers here, I think at least one of us should look over a spread before sending it to one of our clients. In my opinion, all exiting documents are a marketing piece and as a young company we need to take advantage of each of them. We should at least make sure our brand is consistent and communicates a high level of quality and professionalism. No offense to our support guy, but text boxes in Word doesn't say high quality. I have the entire Adobe suite, let me use it! This is something I will pay closer attention to so I can bring it up to Phil next time. Tim and I were discussing it and we think it would be best if I were more straight forward with my perfectionist designer brain. Tim and I both agreed that as the company grows it will be important that people stick to their focused area and go to others if their project needs another area of expertise. And for something like design, that isn't always clear and often people think they can pull together a layout themselves. Like I said before, it's probably sufficient, but it could be better and when there are two designers already being paid they should be used.

I also put together a to-do list for myself since I have quite a few abstract jobs that I could be working on. I often forget about them when I could use them as a little break from tutorials. That list includes the general logo/button for seed companies to use, the home page redesign, blog layouts and to push forward with the overview page.

Day Twenty-Seven: Thursday 06.27.2013

I finished javascript tutorials!! Hooray! I hit this "milestone" a little before lunch and it was absolutely wonderful. From here I had to decide whether or not to go all the way back and do the html and css section or to completely forget this and do the jQuery sections. I looked over the section titles of html and thought it might be good to review, it definitely couldn't hurt anything. As I started the lessons I realized it was extremely easy and it definitely wouldn't take me long to get through. By the end of the day I was almost half way done and was still going strong. The lessons start with basic html and then goes to simple in line css and finally external css files. Those were what I completed today and the in line css was the most helpful, but still just a simple review.

Day Twenty-Six: Wednesday 06.26.2013

Today I worked from home... on tutorials. However, I ended the day being suuuuper close to finishing Javascript. The office has been really stuffy lately, so I thought my cooler apartment would help me focus better. This proved false, but mostly because I hit some tough lessons on objects. Being at home ended up being a good thing because Tim was literally right next to me. He was able to help me when I was stuck, as well as talk through concepts after I finished their lessons. This helped smooth out any unclear details and I would not have been able to talk with him as much in the office. Another good thing about working from home was being able to take longer breaks and work through the evening. I completed the same amount of hours, but at a much more relaxed pace.