First Major Project
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:35 am
So I've got this genius (yes it's genius!
) idea of a website that I want to build, and so far I haven't found anything similar already in existence, so it would be somewhat unique (there are 'small' versions, but are very targeted, and/or closed to the public). This is going to be my first real self-motivating project (non-work project) where I come up with all requirements, all design decisions, and all programming decisions.
I've done a lot of the basic precursor steps, such as come up with an idea, research to make sure that what I'm going to be investing time and money into is worth it (doesn't already exist in a major setting), decide who I want to be my target audience, and do a bit more research to make damn well sure that I won't be spending this much time on something that has little to no potential.
I won't give out all details of the site, because I like being secret, and because I'm paranoid about idea-theft, but the gist is that it's targeted to an education environment, both students and teachers, in all grades or levels of education. It's a "social networking" type site, but has a form of moderation/validation (at least initially) to the content.
I've actually drawn out basic concepts of the major pages that I need, and the overall look/feel that I'm going for, as well as some of the basic database schema that I know will be required.
There's no real definitive question to ask, other than just tips/advice on what sorts of things I should focus on, what should I look out for while designing, and "best choice" approaches I should try and abide by.
Any advice is appreciated, as I want this to be a learning experience as well as a challenge both conceptually, and programmatically.
Oh, and I apologize for the lack of descriptive title, I have no idea what to call it.
I've done a lot of the basic precursor steps, such as come up with an idea, research to make sure that what I'm going to be investing time and money into is worth it (doesn't already exist in a major setting), decide who I want to be my target audience, and do a bit more research to make damn well sure that I won't be spending this much time on something that has little to no potential.
I won't give out all details of the site, because I like being secret, and because I'm paranoid about idea-theft, but the gist is that it's targeted to an education environment, both students and teachers, in all grades or levels of education. It's a "social networking" type site, but has a form of moderation/validation (at least initially) to the content.
I've actually drawn out basic concepts of the major pages that I need, and the overall look/feel that I'm going for, as well as some of the basic database schema that I know will be required.
There's no real definitive question to ask, other than just tips/advice on what sorts of things I should focus on, what should I look out for while designing, and "best choice" approaches I should try and abide by.
Any advice is appreciated, as I want this to be a learning experience as well as a challenge both conceptually, and programmatically.
Oh, and I apologize for the lack of descriptive title, I have no idea what to call it.