Demo

I had the demo yesterday. I felt it went well but I was a bit nervous. The nerves came out of nowhere for me. I'm not sure I answered all the questions right even though I know the project inside out! I was concentrating too much on the plan I had for the demo and not enough on the project itself. I felt that the lecturers were impressed that I managed to get it up to the MMserver as well as Register365 and how I bought the domain name www.theseasonedbackpacker.com. The project seemed a bit askew in places also. The search bar had previously been in the centred but went askew in the demo.
Overall, I am happy with how the project went. I put a lot of time and effort into it and it paid off.

Server

Got project up to server on Friday. Wrote final report over weekend, finishing and printing it off today.
Fixed issue I was having with server by deleting an extra column on database.
Uploaded final report to Moodle. Taking a copy of everything on CD now.

28/04

Created a video yesterday. It is in the about section of the website. The idea behind the video is to give users a taster of what is to come on the site.

25/04/2017

Today I will tweak the rest of project. Then tomorrow I will carry out testing and then for the rest of the week I will finish final report. On Tuesday I will put it on a server and get bound copies and then the demo is the 4th or 5th of May.

24/4/2017

I made some more progress. I finally got the profile picture working. It looks really good. Also tweaked a lot of other elements.
Updated database to include new content.
General cleaning up.

More progress

I hooked my project up to a new database that I created. It's called 'travel' and I have an 'article' table instead of 'notice'. I also created an animated 'down' arrow for the index page. I also tidied up some bits and pieces in the project.

Progress

I worked solidly on FYP today. I made some good progress but have a way to go still. I have a checklist of functionality that I would like to achieve. I managed to make a responsive sitemap and navigation bar. Along with tidying up some surface items. I added the rating widget and like button also.

Tutorial

I had another tutorial today. I feel like I'm back on track now. I need to delete some stray fields from my database and project. This was causing issues. Also have fixed header issue I was having. Next week I will concentrate fully on my FYP.

Struggling

I am trying to manipulate the CodeIgniter PHP project and when I try to it throws out the whole project. I think I am going to need to peel it all back and look at the easiest way of doing things.

Rating widget

I had another tutorial to discuss my project yesterday. I wanted to chat to Sharon about various features on my site and the best way to go about implementing these before I star. Sharon agreed that the Rating Widget I found for the star rating was the best option. I am happy to go with this also. I couldn't think of any other questions to ask her so I think I just need to get on with finishing the project now. She said it looked good, which I was really happy about.

Better understanding

I have gained a better understanding of CodeIgniter through doing the news website projetct for the Advanced Web Programming subject. I will apply all of this new knowledge to my travel website in the coming days. I had a chat with Sharon about the star ratings and we have come up with a plan as to the best way to go about this. I am researching star ratings through PHP and social media plugins today.

Importing HTML and CSS into PHP

I have successfully imported all of the HTML and CSS for my project into the PHP. I am happy with how it is going so far, I have also added some extra styles. The presentation of my first prototype has been deferred until tomorrow, this means that I will have more to show my supervisor. I am nearly two thirds of the way through. All I need to do really is add the 'wow' factor functionality.

Tutorial

I met with Sharon today. I learned a lot about CodeIgniter today and how my HTML will hook in with PHP. I am happy with how it is going. I have the first presentation of prototype tomorrow. I will do more tutorials to become more advanced with programming. I gained a lot of clarity today.

Project Development

I have been in contact with the LSU for extra tutorial for the database side of my project. I have organised a session for Tuesday at 12. I have been trying to do the development side of my project for the last two days. But I heard that we should really do the database side of things first and then do the HTML side CSS. Build the site around the database instead of vice versa. We have the presentation of first prototype next week. Hopefully I can pull it all together before then. I have the components for HTML, CSS, Javascript etc but I need to be aware of designing around a database.

Development

I started my Dev today. I think there will be a good bit of work in it but I aim to have all of the design side of it - HTML, CSS etc side of things done by the presentation of prototype time next week. I will then connect the database side of things after that.

Presentation

I feel that presentation went well.... I was nervous but felt less nervous towards the end of it. I feel that my project will be do-able now. I am starting on development now.

Practice presentation

I have my presentation tomorrow. I have added some slides to it to update it, I will practice it tonight, keeping it to 5 minutes.

Presentation

Working on my presentation today. Working my way through navigation, moodboard, wireframe etc. I am getting a better understanding of my project as I go. Nervous about presentation as we will have 5 minutes of questions at end but am ok with the 5 minute presenting part.

New logo

I created this logo today for my FYP project. I am happy with it. It's kind of retro. I installed the font Swistblnk Monthoers for the name and traced a rucksack for the image.

Project user requirements

I am pressing pause on my project for the moment to concentrate on other projects but it is constantly at the back of my head....I am thinking of ideas for it on a daily basis. I will get back to it next week to finalise user requirements and draw up my wireframes etc.

Research report

I just uploaded my research report in pdf format. I think it looks neater in pdf format. I am happy with the outcome of the report. I have a clearer mindset of what I want for my site. Particularly design wise. My research report was 22 pages and around 2 and a half thousand words. But I feel that it is an image driven report to give the reader a better idea of where I am going with this.

Case studies

I am working my way through my case studies. I am examining competitors and now I am looking at designs which inspire me. One thing that just ocurred to me is that I don't have example of content that I will show yet. Perhaps I will expand on the mock-up I did for my project proposal. You see, I don't have any example of content to show... In the 2 research reports supplied the students show examples of the content that they will provide. I will make up stories to provide examples. Right now I am looking at websites that I like that will inspire my design.

Research report

I made some good headway on my research report today. I answered all of the questions and displayed my market research findings from the Survey Monkey survey I created. I will do my case studies at a later time. The deadline is Friday.

Link to project proposal in Google Docs

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UhGi4DNXIeu-x7_8BEibFNAUVKYNGEge0J3dS3Ul8xg/edit?usp=sharing

Ratings

I had a good chat with Lorraine, my supervisor today. She reassured me that I am on the right track with my project. I'm going to keep going with my idea and concentrating on a key difference between my site and Trover : that I have ratings to go with my stories. I will put my energy into creating a great modern sleek interface with a supporting database. I'm just going to keep doing my best. I have a love for travel and social media, I got 13 responses to my survey and the data gathered confirms to me that there is still space there for social media for backpackers.

Competitors

Lonely Planet Thorn Tree
Off Exploring.com
Trover.com

Trover

I just came across www.trover.com I am so sad .... it is exactly what I wanted to do....very similar functionality. I really thought I had something original! I might go ahead with my travel app and think about how I can make mine different over the weekend. The only difference with mine was that it was for 'off the beaten track' travel...whereas Trover seems to be everywhere.

Survey Monkey

I created this survey on Survey Monkey and will send it to 14 friends to see if my travel social media network will be as popular as I think it will. The survey will give me an idea of whether or not there is a gap for it in the market.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/883C6NL

Research report

It's time to start my research report. Not sure where to start! But I have left myself a week to do it. I am just hoping that I do not come across any website that is the same or similar to my idea...at the moment I feel that it is completely original as I haven't found anything like it thus far!

Submitted proposal

I submitted the proposal last night. I then came into college for 1pm and realised that I forgot to write 'CD' under deliverables in the report. I updated this and re-submitted my report. It was 5 minutes late by the time it was submitted, hopefully this is ok and won't affect my grade for being 5 minutes late!

Proposal 2

I have finished and uploaded my proposal, I am happy with it thus far. I feel that I have successfully expressed where I am at with this project at the moment. My Gantt chart and basic mock-up design are attached to document also.

Proposal

I have been working on my project proposal more in-depthly today. I feel that the proposal is helping me to get my ideas straight and helping me in generating new ideas also.

Gantt Chart

Travel app

I met with Lorraine on Thursday to discuss my app. I was very happy when she said that it sounded like a good app as I had put a lot of thought into it over Christmas. I have started creating the Gantt chart today also. Some ideas that I have so far on the app are:

Beyond borders: promote engagement between people of diverse background in ways that recognise difference, create connections and cultivate respect.

My aim is to connect people through travel. There is no better way to promote cultural understanding than travel. Seeing other people's cultures first hand and connecting people from diverse backgrounds with a common interest on social media. This app aims to engage people in positive ways by celebrating cultural differences. I want peopple to be able to share their own story to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even LinkedIn. I want this app to give hope for a better world of cultural understanding, an interest in travel and understanding other people's lives. This app will host positivity only, there will be no negative options. Also, the people who will be drawn to this will be people who already have an interest in travel and hopefully they will tell other's about this so that it reaches a diverse audience.

This app will essentially be...in a line... 'social media for the seasoned backpacker'.

I have checked many domain names for this app and some of my favourite ones that are currently available are 'seasonedbackpacker.com' and 'Itooktheroadlesstravelled.com'. I will check with Lorraine if we can use any name we like or if we are limited to free domain names. This is just a prototype for an app so maybe this rule does not apply.

I will have a bit of a spiel to promote the app:

"Calling all travel buddies far and wide, I have created this app for the seasoned traveller....Where is the most remote place that you have ever been? Where is the hidden gem that you can't wait to tell a friend about or hear about yourself? Share your story or verify other people's stories by giving it a green tick. Feel free to like any stoies you see by giving them a star. This app aims to celebrate off the beaten track travel. Unlock a whole new world."

It's a big world out there and every nation can benefit from income generated through tourism. I want people to share hidden gems. The places you don't find in your average travel guide. Wi-fi is everywhere in developing countries. I aim to diminish the use of travel handbooks, find travel locations for free online.