October 9th Class Takeaways

Project Manager

http://99u.com/articles/6946/top-10-characteristics-of-great-project-managers

Laurie talked about Project Managers today in class. The more she talked about it the more I realized that this might be a good position for me when it comes to the real project we are doing. This would be a good thing on my resume especially because I am also in the Business Management degree program as well as the Marketing Program. I think it would create a strong resume to graduate with these 2 degree programs and have project manager of a big school project on my resume. I looked up a website that explains 10 traits of great project managers. Command authority naturally was a big one. It sounds kind of harsh, but really it’s not. What this means is that you are viewed by your team as a natural leader. You are looked at in a favorable way and you are valued by the organization. Set, observe, and reevaluate project priorities frequently was another one. The last big one I took away was look forward to going to work! A project manager needs to display a positive attitude and have a passion for the project or the team will not follow. All of the 10 traits were very helpful and I would recommend that anyone who is thinking about being a project manager to read these before doing it. This should help you to be a better project manager.

Constructive Criticism

http://www.targettraining.eu/giving-constructive-criticism-tips/

It is important as a project manager to give constructive criticism. This sounds like basic knowledge to do, but it’s not quite that easy when you are really in that position. This is always something I have struggled with and hope to work on. I used to be a team leader when I worked at a restaurant and this was something I really struggled with. Sometimes I would give criticism, but it was not constructive. Most of the time I would not say anything, but then it just kept on bothering me. This website gave 5 tips for giving constructive criticism. The first tip was to give concrete examples. I cannot stress how important this is. I have been told by my boss that sometimes they feel like I am lazy and not fully committed to the job. Then when I ask for examples they can’t give me any. So how can I change things that I am doing if they don’t give me examples. The next tip is to give the employee a chance to speak and help to come up with a conclusion to the problem. The 3^rd tip was to tell the employee your vision for the future and tell them your expectations. The 4^th tip is when discussing lessons learned, make sure you get input from both sides. Lastly agree on specific targets and timelines so both sides of the group walk away with a concrete guide on how to move forward. These were all helpful tips and if I find time I would like to learn more about giving constructive criticism.

Budgeting

https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/creating-a-project-budget-what-you-need-to-know.php

I know for our practice project we didn’t need to much about budgeting, and I’m not sure how much we will need to know for our non profit group projects. I think this is a very important skill to know though when it comes to becoming a project manager some day in the future. I found this website which helped me a lot to learn about budgeting for a project. One main thing this website taught me was that there were two ways to look at creating a budget. The top-down approach and the bottom-up approach are the two ways. The top-down approach is about deciding how much the project will cost and dividing up the money between the sections of the project. The bottom-up approach is about estimating the total cost of the project by costing the lowest level work packages and working your way up. This website explains all the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. The website also explains direct and indirect costs and how they will affect your budget. One thing I found interesting is that there were 5 alternative approaches to estimating budgets. One helpful tip that the website gave me was that it is always better to come in a little under budget than over budget. This website had one review from a young project manager who explained that although the website was simple it was extremely helpful to her and has helped her lead multiple projects.

October 6th Class Takeaways

Different Programming Languages

http://www.devsaran.com/blog/10-best-programming-languages-2015-you-should-know

Paul talked today a little bit about the different programming languages in class. When I took the Web Development 1 class we learned about HTML and CSS and used the program Notepad++. Paul explained that once you know about 1 language it is easier to learn other ones. I found a website with the 10 best programming languages of 2015 that you should know. This explained to me the differences in the program languages which is what I wanted to learn about. There was a similar consensus throughout all of these companies and that was that they are all working to make their programming language more suitable for phones and tablets which are quickly becoming more popular than desktops. I will just talk about the top 3 Python, Java, and C++. #1 Python is an all in one programming language. Python language has the ability to expand web apps, data analysis, user interfaces, and many more, and frameworks are also available for these tasks. Python is utilized by bigger companies mostly that can evaluate vast data sets. #2 Java is currently seen as the top programming language to learn. When someone knows Java they are able to learn other languages. They have grabbed the highest position with Android OS yet again. #3 C++ is utilized immensely for creating hardware speeded games. This is known as the strongest of the programming languages. C++ is applied is in vital operating systems such as Windows.

Creating Websites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhoXZDmf46M

Creating websites is something we did in Web Development 1 as well. I wanted to look at it from more of a design and marketing standpoint instead of looking at it as a whole pile of code much like a web developer would look at it. I found a video on youtube about 22 tips a marketer should know when creating a website. The video went over tips on how to make sure your website is a successful one. The biggest thing that the video stressed was that in order to have a successful website there are 2 things you need to do: Get Traffic, and Convert Traffic into Buyers (Traffic + Buyers = Success). Another thing the video touched on was that it is important that a buyer knows what your website is about within 5 seconds or they will leave. We have learned about this from Mike in our marketing classes before and also in the Emerging Web Trends class when we learned about web usability. One more important thing that I want to mention is that the video explained how important it is as a website to “stay fresh.” By always putting new things on the site it is rewarding customers who come back to look at it more than once. If the website stays the same for a long period of time customers will get bored. This video recapped most of the things we have already learned about website usability, but I think it was helpful to give us a reminder of what a good website looks like and does right.

The Cloud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ-2gYd1Ces

I have always heard about “The Cloud”, but never really knew much about it. When Paul brought it up in class today I thought maybe now would be the perfect time to learn more about it. I went to Youtube and found a video titled “What is Cloud Storage?” This is somewhat of a cheesy video, but what they did was they simplified cloud storage down for anyone like me who does not know much about it. It explained that if I have a document that I want to save, I can save it to my computer or flash drive, but it something would happen to that computer or flash drive I would lose that document. What cloud storage does is it stores that picture in a large data warehouse somewhere and the person who created the document and anyone that person shared it with can view it at any time in any place. This seems similar to google drive to me. I back up a lot of my work on google drive so if anything were ever to happen to my flash drive that I would be able to access all of my work via google drive.

October 2nd Class Takeaways

Catch the attention of the customer first
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/handpicked-printed-brochures/
This website shows 50 examples of great brochure designs. I kept in mind the things that we talked about in class such as fonts, white space, colors, etc. The thing that I noticed about all the brochures that they had in common was that they all attracted the customers attention and that the customer knew pretty quickly what the brochure was about. A lot of them used catchy headers to gain the attention of the customer. These headers included pictures or logos that would catch the eye of the customer. From a marketing standpoint I noticed that each brochure was targeted towards a certain demographic or psychographic. An example of this is that the one for a farmers market. Judging by what I saw on the brochure it looked to me like it was designed for middle aged females. Its graphics were very artsy making me think it was targeted towards the hobbies of middle aged women, gardening, cooking, and art. I have also never heard of balance before today and I noticed in this brochure that it was very balanced. The amount of white space on the left and right were very close to equal.

Balance
http://www.sitepoint.com/principles-of-good-design-balance/
We learned in class today that it is important for websites, brochures, and magazine ads to be balanced. The exact definition of balanced graphic design is when the visual weight is distributed evenly either vertically or horizontally. I learned that darker pictures are considered to be heavier in terms of graphic design. In response to that pictures that are less dark are considered lighter in graphic design. It is important to keep the designs balanced. I wanted to see more examples so I looked up on Google some good examples of balance. The link above is to the website I found. This website was helpful because it helped me understand the idea of balance. I have never been very good at art so I have never heard most of these terms before.

Bad Design Examples
http://logodesignerblog.com/bad-ugly-worst-logo-designs/
I wanted to see some more examples of designs that do not work for people. This will help me in the future if I am looking at designs with a graphic designer that I can help understand what is good and bad in graphic design. The website I found shows many terrible designs. One of the things I noticed is that words are being covered up by graphics in some. This makes it hard to read for the customer because they have to guess what letters are being covered up. Another thing I noticed is designs that almost hurt the eye. One of them had really tight zig zag lines which made me feel dizzy. Another one had the name of the business on fire. Some of these designs have way to much content and need more white space. For fonts I saw Comic Sans a few times. The biggest issue I saw was that I couldn’t tell you what most of these designs are about. Sysomos, Cyrenian House, Fire and Hire, The Pool Doctor, and Titan were a couple of the logo’s that I did not know what they were trying to represent. I think it would be helpful for any amateurs like me to look up some bad designs to realize what to do and what not to do in graphic design.