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“ We’re
a multimedia and interactive web company and we’ve
just been commissioned to build a site for young people
on the theme of Rights and Responsibilities but we’re
too busy. We need to sub-contract it out and we’re
inviting YOU to design and build it for us. I can spare
you one of our web producers to give you some support
and technical advice, but basically, it’s up to
you to come up with the best designs that you can over
the next few weeks. I’ll be back in six weeks time
when I want you to show and pitch your ideas to me.
The best design will be turned into a real website…"
And that’s
how it all started. If the Year 10 ICT BTEC students
thought it was another “if” project, a “lets
pretend it’s real” affair, then they soon
learnt otherwise. When Paul Bennun, Director of Strategy
at Somethin’ Else swept into the room, suited and
booted, with a laptop under his arm, it was clear that
he meant business. This was real. This was serious.
This was exciting.
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Afia: “
Good proportions on the banner, navigation and
content and great use of questions to lead people
into the site” Paul Bennun, Director of Strategy,
Somethin’ Else
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Afzal: “Very
appealing colours, very clear what it's about,
good choice of colour. Good choice of links and
really discussing the subject matter.” Paul
Bennun, Director of Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Antonio: “Good
choice of navigation words” Paul Bennun,
Director of Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Ashley: “Really
understood the brief and site clearly differentiates
between information on rights and responsibilities
and other information. Good choice of colour for
that reason.” Paul Bennun, Director of Strategy,
Somethin’ Else |
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Cem: “Very
clear -- nice to hear what ‘articles’ are!
Also empathetic text to introduce what the sections
are about, esp. the bullying thing.” Paul
Bennun, Director of Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Cemal: ”Immediate
visual impact and the update idea is nice showing
that it's a site to come back to and get involved
in” Paul Bennun, Director of Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Elijah: “Good
to have an imaginative title for it, and the headlines
work.” Paul Bennun, Director of Strategy,
Somethin’ Else |
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Kieron: “The two-screen
approach is something that is very popular with
hardware and advanced bits of software like windows
itself” Paul Bennun, Director of Strategy,
Somethin’ Else |
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Kirin
Sultana: “All
above the fold, which is a really good idea. Really
clear what was on the site and it was nice and
easy to get back to the home page.” Paul
Bennun, Director of Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Mehmet: “Great
that it talks about community and uses headlines
with subheadlines which makes it clear what the
site is about.” Paul Bennun, Director of
Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Ojay: “Great
that it talks about community and uses headlines
with subheadlines which makes it clear what the
site is about.” Paul Bennun, Director of
Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Renaz: “Great
that it talks about community and uses headlines
with subheadlines which makes it clear what the
site is about.” Paul Bennun, Director of
Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Rukshana: “Advanced,
in terms of both text and image navigation. The
search "by subject" is a good sign and
shows an understanding about templating.” Paul
Bennun, Director of Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Sean: “Nice to
have a combination of text and big pictures.” Paul
Bennun, Director of Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Shireen: “Very,
very clear what the site is about and it's a good
idea to us images for links. Nicely proportioned.” Paul
Bennun, Director of Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Shoeb: “It's friendly
and clear - good navigation and colourful with
some nice rollovers.” Paul Bennun, Director
of Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
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Tai: “A different approach
to navigation and a much more campaigning approach
with a statement on the front page. A lot of thought
obviously went into the layout which is good.” Paul
Bennun, Director of Strategy, Somethin’ Else |
Planning
Almost 70 per
cent of the time dedicated by the ICT students to
the project was spent on planning. Where students
would normally race to get onto the computer, instead
they sat with pens, paper and rulers refining, refining
and re-refining their site designs. The Somethin'
Else sessions run by Interactive Producer Adam McGrath,
giving his top ten tips for website design, meant
students learnt how to evaluate the good and the
bad and make sure they applied the best principles
to their own site design.
“I have never
seen students so focused on one project over such
a long period of time. It worked brilliantly.” Anna
Gluckstein, Head of ICT, Stoke Newington School
Building & Testing
Once the planning
stage had been completed, students began to start
building their sites. With help from Deep, the school’s
web technician, students worked on their Photoshop
and Dreamweaver skills and designs on paper began
to take shape on computer.
All sites had
to go live on the internet in order to be assessed
and so the class had a session with Somethin’ Else
Senior Project Manager Sheila Menon to make sure
that they were as good as they could be before receiving
their final grades.
Sheila showed
them the Somethin’ Else method of web testing
and they learnt what to look out for before putting
their sites online.
But not only did
students work in lessons they also worked after school
to make sure that their sites were built to the best
of their abilities, because as the end of February
loomed nearer, our students had another incentive
to ensure their sites were online and thoroughly
tested – the pitch!
The Pitch
Date: Friday March 3rd. Time: 1.30pm. Venue: C21, Stoke Newington School.
Nineteen nervous
Year 10 students were called up one-by-one to present
their five-minute pitch to a panel of four judges
from Somethin’ Else, the school and Creative
Partnerships London East.
The
panel listened intently as each student stepped up
to the challenge,
talking through their concept and demonstrating the
functionality of their site. Everyone received feedback
from Paul Bennun, the panel’s very own Alan
Sugar, and the rounds of applause at the end of each
presentation proved that the project had been as
much about team building and peer support among the
class as well as a healthy amount of competition
and a desire for the best site to win.
The
panel’s
deliberations resulted in not just one winner but
also the work of another three students being highly
commended. Congratulations of course
go to Kalenn Marshall, whose design was selected and whose brand has been extended
into invitations, brochures and posters, but also to the rest of the group
and to those students whose work was highly commended: Kirin Sultana, Renaz
Kara and Ashley Beeharry. |
