Week 10: Introduction to the Best Practices Article and the Client Project

With the Website Modernization Project almost behind us (I can’t wait to see your finished sites on Monday!), we’re ready to turn our attention to the two remaining assignments that will keep us busy for the rest of the semester: the Best Practices Article and the Client Project. Please read through the details of each assignment this weekend and let me know if you have any questions about where we’re headed.

Here are a few quick reminders about how we’ll spend our time during Week 10:

• Your Website Modernization Project is due on Monday. Please make sure that your project is live and functioning on your Reclaim Hosting site and that your memo of transmittal is uploaded to your shared Google Drive folder (in Google Docs format) before you come to class. In class, we will discuss the Client Project, so if you have any ideas for potential clients, please contact them this weekend to see if they are interested in getting your help. Last but not least, please read the following articles about working with clients:
  • “Marry Your Clients,” by Shane Pearlman
  • “In Defense of Difficult Clients,” by Rob Swan
  • “No One Nos: Learning to Say No to Bad Ideas,” by Whitney Hess
  • “20 Signs You Don’t Want that Web Design Project,” by Jeffrey Zeldman You don’t need to print out all of these articles, but you should be ready to discuss them when you come to class. (When you’re done reading those, if you need a little diversion, check out Clients from Hell.)
• On Wednesday, I will be traveling, so you and your new teammates on the Client Project should use our class session to hold your first team meeting and develop your Unit #4 Memorandum of Understanding, which will be due the following Monday (April 7). (This will make more sense after we meet on Monday; we’ll make sure that everyone is assigned to a team and we’ll do our best to finalize a client for each team.)

As always, I’ll be checking email regularly while I’m away from campus, so if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.