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Web development in the “real” world

Web development in the “real” world. Dave Tanchak COMP 1536 – Feb 16.09. Me. Manager, Web Services, BCIT (2 years) With BCIT since 2002 Stints as Web Producer/Architect and Manager, Student Recruitment in MarCom PTS Instructor, BCIT (10 years) COMP 1850 COMP 1955

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Web development in the “real” world

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  1. Web development in the “real” world Dave Tanchak COMP 1536 – Feb 16.09

  2. Me • Manager, Web Services, BCIT (2 years) • With BCIT since 2002 • Stints as Web Producer/Architect and Manager, Student Recruitment in MarCom • PTS Instructor, BCIT (10 years) • COMP 1850 • COMP 1955 • Web Professional (13 years) • Designer, developer, UX specialist, cmns strategist

  3. My world • Manage a team of 11 people: • Project managers • Designers • Developers • Administrate BCIT’s public web properties • Educate BCIT’s community of web publishers (200+) • Work with IT and MarCom groups to promote BCIT, recruit students and facilitate task completion

  4. Real world web development is: • Web design • User research • Information architecture • User experience design • Usability engineering • Writing and editing • Content management systems • Web server administration • Database administration • Software engineering • Project management • Network security • Search engine optimization • Measurement and analysis • A balance of business of objectives and user needs

  5. Developers often specialize • Frontend: • focus on the client-side, markup languages, ECMAscript and its variants (JavaScript, JScript, ActionScript), CSS and the DOM. • Backend: • focus on the interaction between server-side frameworks using PHP, Python, Ruby, Perl, JSP, or .NET and databases

  6. Be user-centred • The web is not about technology – simply a means to en end • Understand the value of user research and design to meet the needs of your customers • You are not your customer – don’t design for yourself

  7. Be a team player • No person is an island • Even if you freelance, you still have to be able to deal with clients • Work on your communication skills – need to be able to communicate ideas clearly, to both tech-savvy and n00bs alike

  8. Learn your layers! • Content: Learn your XHTML! • This is not an option. Learn it inside and out. • Presentation: CSS • Keep it separate from your content. • Behaviour: JavaScript • Keep it separate again from content and presentation • Much easier to edit, maintain, redesign; faster load time (CSS is cached) better SEO (content not watered down)

  9. Be a good thief • Learn how to reverse engineer a page • Content • Presentation • JavaScript • Understand patterns • Don’t recreate what you can steal and bend to your own purposes

  10. Case study • Whatwouldyouchange.ca (WWYC) • General customer demographics/needs are well known (or at least assumed): • Want to know what we have, how much it costs, how they get in, what the days will be like • People online today are increasingly: • Creating • Connecting • Collaborating • Critiquing • Consuming • We need to be more than a brochure

  11. WWYC business goals • To increase awareness of breadth of BCIT offering • Turn “suspects” into “prospects” and “prospects” into students • Build relationships through the use of technology that support face-to-face efforts • More than broadcast advertising or web banners

  12. Join or build? • We joined all the sites (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc.), which gets some breadth of coverage • Needed a place to send people that engaged them • bcit.ca was not equipped to handle the social networking, user-generated content, etc. • So we opted to build as well

  13. Process • In-house team had skill to build site – if we had a 3-4 month timeline • Utilized strength of the team Web Services for: • Site concept development • Technical and feature requirements definition • UX definition and design (wireframes, storyboards, etc.) • Interface design • Art direction and copywriting • System development and admin

  14. Collaboration • Sourced and signed two separate contractors within two weeks:: • Flash application development • Detailed Drupal development • Highly compacted development schedule: • Oct 5 – Nov 10

  15. Launch and maintenance • Soft launch Nov 5 • Flash app fixes and sign-up process corrected by Nov 10 • Web Services responsible for ongoing maintenance, upgrades and updates

  16. Final thoughts • Build stuff • Show it off • Get involved • Have fun!

  17. Questions? • dtanchak@gmail.com • Blog: http://www.tanchak.com • Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Tanchak/129400053 • Twitter: http://twitter.com/sharpener • LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dtanchak

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