Finishing the ap

A lot has changed since I last posted about the app, I've still carried on creating the application, however I just don't have much time nor do I have much content, but I've kept the same thing and used all the art work that has already been created, and the music that I received.

So this is what I have for the app, I have music on every page but it's all the same song, except from India and Russia. I got sent a UK file, but wasn't asked to put it in the list so there isn't any artwork for it and won't be included in the app.

This is the navigation menu, I kept it plain as I don't want users spending to much time looking at it, I want them to get inside the application and start looking and listening to content.

This navigation menu also contains all the countries that we have artwork for, however we only have music for Russia, Italy and India.

Home

It isn't very glamorous however, I've learnt a new language whilst doing this, becoming more and more comfortable scripting jQuery Mobile.

About

Japan

USA

Ireland

France

India

Russia

Italy

This concludes the whole of the app, I wish it had gone a little bit smoother and the design turned out better. But if anything I've taken from this the idea of production practice I understand the processes you must go through and that you can't be afraid to speak up when needed, become your own boss rather than be guided by others.

Moving on

Much to my own disappointment, I've had to end up making half an app, this is down to a lot, if questioned why this has happened and  it all comes down mainly a lack of communication.

As a my own manager for this project I didn't push them enough on my own personal deadlines, and they have worked to there own. 

I was told many times I would get music and every time I would get nothing, which is super frustrating. If I had told them my own personal deadlines maybe they would have co-operated more than they did do.

However there isn't much I can do about it now.

I've finished designing the website and it is now live at:

www.tsds-exhibition.com

I kept the design simple, I didn't want to do loads to as there was time limitations. It is a basic mark up on HTML5 and CSS3. It serves it's purpose.

I also designed the logo for the group, 

The group is called Digiplex, (which was also my suggestion, and won the majority vote) I also had the final say of the logo.

The whole site has been down to me, throughout the design and decision what to put on it, i have been asking for feedback from others though so that I can be confident that I am going down the correct road and its what the majority are happy with.

Final Logo

Latest Information

So after 8 weeks of waiting yesterday I got sent 3 new bits of music and some facts to put within the application.

Now this would be okay, except the bits of music I was given are for countries they didn't specify. This incidentally has lead to us having no artwork for these bits of music and them trying to pass it off as a prototype, when they knew full well that it isn't, they have just been incredibly lazy and not done there work, which is down to them at the end of the day.

I've learnt a few things through this production practice and will take from it what I can. However the main thing I have learnt is not to work with people outside of our class group.

When questioned in a recent presentation I was ask this question 'So what are you going to do next year when you have to work in a group?' the answer to this is simple - I'm not working in a group, it has been the most frustrating experience I've had in university so far. 

I'm hoping all young professionals aren't the same otherwise this is going to be a infuriating couple of years, trying to break into the industry.

Aside from people being lazy, I have worked on what I can work on, improvements there is a still a few things I want to change, but I don't feel proud towards this piece of work, I've learnt a lot about jQuery mobile because of this experience, and can confidently put together a basic application, from here my knowledge can only grow about the language and soon enough I will be able to put it as a language I am confident in! 

After Resignition

After resigning from the other project, I need something to keep me occupied. There was two of us that came forward with wanted to design and create the website. Carys was going to do originally, however her work got a bit too much and I ended up taking over from her.

I first started by creating a blue page and creating a filing system menu, however this turned out to be a bad design and I couldn't get the colouring correct so I completely scrapped the idea of doing that one.

I then took a step back and had a complete redesign I wanted something that was simple but effective.

I had this, which I was okay with but, I really didn't feel that the logo was fitting nor did I feel people would take it seriously, not because it is a bad design just is doesn't represent what we are doing.

So I changed to this one which I still wasn't 100% happy with however I really liked the logo a lot more. It just feels like it needs to pop some colour more in the nav.

I finally decided on this as a final, I felt this was adequate and was happy with this.

Letter Of Resignation

When I first started with this production practice I took 2 projects on. One was with a group called Mo Music, the second was with other games design and music tech students.

The original idea with the other games design and music tech students was to create a website where they could advertise the game that they are making. We had one meeting in which nobody from either games or music tech spoke to us about they wanted, they then proceeded to mention that they wanted a meeting soon and that they would get in touch with me, which never happened. I still have no information about what they require, which is why I have taken the decision to not work with them anymore.

Content

The application isn't too content heavy and very basic.

However because I'm not creating the content its very difficult for me to build it, due to the speed of the content creators, I am often left in limbo, waiting for them to create the songs and provide facts.

So far I have one of the pages done, not completed but it has content, I need to make this responsive, however just for now I have something within the application.

Foundatio

I've started building the foundations for the application.

The colour's I have picked suits, the whole movember sort of feel to the application, it uses black and white predominately.

I haven't added many features yet, just set the basics up, allowing users to hit the menu and scroll through the page.

This picture is a representation of my navigation menu, although it only says page 1, 2 and 3 so far I plan to change these. I am also getting rid of the horizontal bar at the top and just keeping the vertical menu.

This is the body of the application, the header will change to something relevant to the app design, eventually content will be added and made responsive.

Character

Once I finished the logo design, I received the character designs.

In total there are 7 Characters.

The Characters where designed and created by Kirsty Northcote.

France

India

Italy

Japan

Mexico

Russia

United States Of America

Icons

Jquery Mobile has icons implemented within itself, however you can add your own custom Icons.

To use custom icons, specify a data-icon value that has a unique name like mo-moustache. After you have done this the button plugin will generate a class by prefixing ui-icon- to the data-icon value, so when you apply it you must use: ui-icon-mo-moustache.

To keep inline with the rest of your icons create a white icon 18x18 saved as a PNG-8 with alpha transparency.

We use custom icons, for our own custom uses - jQuery mobile also has icons built within it, however sometimes they will not suit the application you are creating.

Theme Roller

Using Theme Roller, I have developed a theme for the app.

The guys have opted for the same sort theme as the Movember, and we are it keeping as black and white.

Additional icons will be added, such as a moustache amongst other illustrations.

Theme Roller is fairly simple to use, it allows you to pick and choose colours for certain elements within the app, it then puts it all in a zip file and creates CSS files within the zip file, once you download it you can then place them within your app.

jQuery Mobile Swipe

Im not entirely sure what to do if I need to create a swipe event on the page.

jQuery itself supplies the API documentation for this function, and there is also plugins out there to help with swiping functions, for the app itself I have been asked to make it available to swipe page to page.

Looking further into this I've decided to look at some YouTube tutorials, so that I can get a visual idea on how to do this. I work better by seeing someone do it first then start doing it myself.

Project Proposal

For production practice 3, my project is to build more on a portfolio.

I will be freelancing between 2 different groups, one group requires an app for the Movember music theme, I plan to use jQuery Mobile to create this, the app requires interaction, using swipe gestures to navigate around it

For my second group I have been asked to create a website, which will advertise a game that they are creating, mostly focusing on the sounds of the game. Rather than the aspects of the game.