Re: Emerge content meeting - does Sunday @ 11 suit?

[Steph Beath]

Hi there,

 

Glad to hear all went well on the weekend.  I am flying to San Francisco this Saturday and won't be back till September 1st so I need to hand over the reigns to someone else while I'm away. So here's what I thought:

 

Design

- Bryony could you pick up the visual design bit of the work and find a skin or two that will roughly fit our layout and that you think could work for Emerge?

- Kristina - can you keep ownership of the content work and be the liaison for Emerge?

Once you've got something ready to show to Emerge (hopefully by this weekend) Kristina could you arrange a meeting with Susan and Kellyanne (and Bryony) to talk them through the content and visual ideas.  They will be wanting us to have done all the content for them of course so be prepared for that.

 

Dev

- Brett - could you check in with Reed regarding the site as far as you've got it to and see what else can be done in advance of the skin being ready?

- Reed - could you help Brett and also maybe contact Julius to give you some help with designing the accessibility of the site? I believe there are a bunch of things that can be done in the coding of the page layout to ensure the site is accessible to various enablement tools.  ALSO - could you please make sure everyone is keeping in touch while I'm away

Emerge are champing at the bit and I am going to let them know today that there's no way the new site will be ready for them before their Expo.  They will not be happy campers but unfortunately there's nothing I can do about that.  I will ask them if they still want us to continue - and give them an option to drop us - cross fingers they aren't that unhappy :)

 

Thanks and sorry I'm disappearing on you when things are trucking along so well.

 

Cheers,  Steph

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 11:53 PM, Kristina Louis <kristin...@gmail.com> wrote:

I could do 11 on the Saturday. That gives us a couple of hourse before I take off for Yum Char :P~

 

-Kristina

On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 12:23 PM, Bryony Hall <bryon...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Guys,

I think a skin is a great idea for wordpress - we can then customize some parts to be more inline with colours and branding. If we can select a skin that has the basic structure that we want,
I'm happy to help out with visual design by reflavouring it into Emerges brand colours and giving it the logo.

It would be great to run through our content again next weekend - I'm not free on Sunday but could do Saturday midday. What about you guys?

Cheers
Bryony

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 10:55 PM, Kristina Louis <kristin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Steph

 

No probs, I got a call from Bryony and I started an email back to you but then we got stuck into looking at the rewriting we've done so far. We gave each other feedback and both have a few changes to make, and some questions to ask Emerge.

 

Thanks for your edited content - it's much nicer to read than the original,and the important stuff is at the top as it should be. (I especially like the nice crisp action words under 'Emerge will give you so much more than a job.') Bryony & I thought the list of disabilities would be better as its own page, but it is good to have a simple definition of 'disability' and examples.

We thought we might need one more meeting next weekend, depending on our availability, to sort out some style issues, so we know what to recommend to Emerge:

 

* Link style - research & decide on whether to left-align links for ease of scanning and general tidiness, or go with traditional scattered links in context.

* Calls to action - making sure we put them in, and in a consistent place

* Tone

* More practical examples - eg like the 'work experience' section in the 'Employers' page, where it says 'What a work experience involves'.

* Questions for Emerge - filling in the gaps that we discover when we cut out all the crap, I mean, stuff we don't need. (We'll put these questions either in the text in square brackets, or in comments).

 

If you think Emerge need to hear from us sooner, we could just make a decision on these after discussion online, rather than in person.

 

About the Wordpress thing, I can't really say as I don't have experience in that area. It sounds sensible. We'd have to smooth over some developer feathers but the reality is we'll never make the deadline if we have to develop everything from scratch. Maybe they can stretch their wings on the next project.

 

-Kristina

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 10:15 PM, Steph Beath <steph...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi ladies - hope things went well this morning and apologies once again for not being there.  Let me know how it went so I can report back to Emerge.

Also - I haven't managed to get in touch with Julie re the visual design and am wondering what to do about that part of the work.  We really need to move it ahead and as nothing has happened over the last two weeks I think we need a new plan for getting some visuals in place.  I wondered about the option of just looking for an appropriate Wordpress skin to buy from one of the many online sites.  It would probably help cut down the development time significantly as well if we can just tweak the css rather than write it from scratch.

What do you think?

Cheers,  Steph

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 11:07 AM, Steph Beath <steph...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Kristina and Bryony - I am really sorry. I have to bail on today's meeting. My sister needs me to look after her baby for an hour or so from 11:30 (it's all a bit of a drama) so I won't be able to come down.  I am attaching the content I rewrote (plus the old version) and hoping that you can get it to look at today.  It's not perfect of course :)

Cheers,  Steph
027 245 5859

On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 10:58 PM, Kristina Louis <kristin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey I'm still doing mine too ;)

 

See you there!

 

-Kristina

On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 9:31 PM, Bryony Hall <bryon...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi guys,
Turns out I am here this weekend which is great as it means I can finish the pages I have (eeek).
See you at Mojo then :) .
Bryony

On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 8:51 PM, Steph Beath <steph...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Kristina - thanks for keeping this moving. It's really great to have the help in organising things.

From memory I think Bryony is away this weekend.  She was going to email you through the pages she was working on. Unless we hear from her let's plan to meet at Mojo.

I must confess I have not done my writing but I will start on it tomorrow and should have something sorted in time for Sunday :).

11am works for me.  See you then!!

Steph

Sent from my iPad

On 13/08/2010, at 5:43 PM, Kristina Louis <kristin...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello ladies
>
> (this email is brought to you by the 70s)
>
> Sorry I've been a bit quiet - we are very close to a website launch at work so that has been sucking up most of my focus.
>
> Let's bring what rewriting we've got to a meeting this Sunday 15 August @ 11am.
> Bryony are you ok to host @ Provoke again? If so, let's meet @ Mojo as before.
> Otherwise, I can get into my workplace, which is just over the road from yours and also has great views ;)
>
> If this time doesn't suit, I can do another time on Sunday, but I can't do Saturday.
>
> Tips for web writing/editing:
> If you are still rewriting your designated pages from our last meeting 2 weeks ago (I know I am), my tips would be:
>
> * read the whole thing first without a pen in your hand (so you're not tempted to begin editing before you have the sense of the whole thing)
> * think about what they are trying to say. Now think about what you, as a reader, would really want to hear.
> * slash & burn (by 50% if you can)
> * put in lots of subheadings to break up the text
> * use plain English (kill corporate-speak. One that gets my goat is 'assist' 'aid' 'provide assistance' etc - it should always be 'help'!)
> * shorten everything - page, sections, paragraphs, sentences, words. Sentences should be under 20 words long (26 at the most).
> * think of what information's missing
> * maybe have a look at other disability sites.
>
> Agenda:
> * Start by swapping pages and doing the 3-second test!
> * Then we can work on standardising things like link text - working out a basic style guide for Emerge to follow.
> * Next steps/deciding when to meet up with Emerge & what to tell them.
> * Anything else?
>
> thanks!
> -Kristina

--
Twitter: @bryony
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryony

--
Information Architect/Interaction Designer
Comsen Ltd
P: 04 970 7868
M: 027 245 5859
F: 04 976 8794
Twitter/Skype:  stephbeath

--
Information Architect/Interaction Designer
Comsen Ltd
P: 04 970 7868
M: 027 245 5859
F: 04 976 8794
Twitter/Skype:  stephbeath

--
Twitter: @bryony
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryony

--
Information Architect/Interaction Designer
Comsen Ltd
P: 04 970 7868
M: 027 245 5859
F: 04 976 8794
Twitter/Skype:  stephbeath

[Katia Guiloff]

Hey, I've been out for a while, if there's anything I can do to help, just let me know : )

[Dean]

hi all,

Please add me in to the *Dev* group, I'm keen to help out with cutting
the front end code.

cheers,
Dean

On Aug 18, 11:35 am, Steph Beath <stephbe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> Glad to hear all went well on the weekend.  I am flying to San Francisco
> this Saturday and won't be back till September 1st so I need to hand over
> the reigns to someone else while I'm away. So here's what I thought:
>

> *Design*
> - *Bryony* could you pick up the visual design bit of the work and find a

> skin or two that will roughly fit our layout and that you think could work
> for Emerge?

> - *Kristina* - can you keep ownership of the content work and be the liaison

> for Emerge?
> Once you've got something ready to show to Emerge (hopefully by this
> weekend) Kristina could you arrange a meeting with Susan and Kellyanne (and
> Bryony) to talk them through the content and visual ideas.  They will be
> wanting us to have done all the content for them of course so be prepared
> for that.
>

> *Dev*
> - *Brett* - could you check in with Reed regarding the site as far as you've

> got it to and see what else can be done in advance of the skin being ready?

> - *Reed* - could you help Brett and also maybe contact Julius to give you

> some help with designing the accessibility of the site? I believe there are
> a bunch of things that can be done in the coding of the page layout to
> ensure the site is accessible to various enablement tools.  ALSO - could you
> please make sure everyone is keeping in touch while I'm away
>
> Emerge are champing at the bit and I am going to let them know today that
> there's no way the new site will be ready for them before their Expo.  They
> will not be happy campers but unfortunately there's nothing I can do about
> that.  I will ask them if they still want us to continue - and give them an
> option to drop us - cross fingers they aren't that unhappy :)
>
> Thanks and sorry I'm disappearing on you when things are trucking along so
> well.
>
> Cheers,  Steph
> On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 11:53 PM, Kristina Louis

> <kristina.lo...@gmail.com>wrote:

>
> > I could do 11 on the Saturday. That gives us a couple of hourse before I
> > take off for Yum Char :P~
>
> > -Kristina
>

> >>>   On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 10:15 PM, Steph Beath <stephbe...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >>>> Hi ladies - hope things went well this morning and apologies once again
> >>>> for not being there.  Let me know how it went so I can report back to
> >>>> Emerge.
>
> >>>> Also - I haven't managed to get in touch with Julie re the visual design
> >>>> and am wondering what to do about that part of the work.  We really need to
> >>>> move it ahead and as nothing has happened over the last two weeks I think we
> >>>> need a new plan for getting some visuals in place.  I wondered about the
> >>>> option of just looking for an appropriate Wordpress skin to buy from one of
> >>>> the many online sites.  It would probably help cut down the development time
> >>>> significantly as well if we can just tweak the css rather than write it from
> >>>> scratch.
>
> >>>> What do you think?
>
> >>>> Cheers,  Steph
>

> >>>> On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 11:07 AM, Steph Beath <stephbe...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >>>>> Hi Kristina and Bryony - I am really sorry. I have to bail on today's
> >>>>> meeting. My sister needs me to look after her baby for an hour or so from
> >>>>> 11:30 (it's all a bit of a drama) so I won't be able to come down.  I am
> >>>>> attaching the content I rewrote (plus the old version) and hoping that you
> >>>>> can get it to look at today.  It's not perfect of course :)
>
> >>>>> Cheers,  Steph
> >>>>> 027 245 5859
>
> >>>>>   On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 10:58 PM, Kristina Louis <

> >>>>> kristina.lo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>>>> Hey I'm still doing mine too ;)
>
> >>>>>> See you there!
>
> >>>>>> -Kristina
>

> >>>>>>   On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 9:31 PM, Bryony Hall <bryony.h...@gmail.com

> >>>>>> > wrote:
>
> >>>>>>> Hi guys,
> >>>>>>> Turns out I am here this weekend which is great as it means I can
> >>>>>>> finish the pages I have (eeek).
> >>>>>>> See you at Mojo then :) .
> >>>>>>> Bryony
>

> >>>>>>> On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 8:51 PM, Steph Beath <stephbe...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >>>>>>>> Hi Kristina - thanks for keeping this moving. It's really great to
> >>>>>>>> have the help in organising things.
>
> >>>>>>>> From memory I think Bryony is away this weekend.  She was going to
> >>>>>>>> email you through the pages she was working on. Unless we hear from her
> >>>>>>>> let's plan to meet at Mojo.
>
> >>>>>>>> I must confess I have not done my writing but I will start on it
> >>>>>>>> tomorrow and should have something sorted in time for Sunday :).
>
> >>>>>>>> 11am works for me.  See you then!!
>
> >>>>>>>> Steph
>
> >>>>>>>> Sent from my iPad
>

> >>>>>>>> On 13/08/2010, at 5:43 PM, Kristina Louis <kristina.lo...@gmail.com>

> ...
>
> read more »

[hellonearthis]

Hi All,

I can't make it to the gathering because I live in Feilding, I've
sent Reed details on accessing the Emerge Devsite, it's pretty alpha
at the moment but is getting there. I will put some details of what
needs doing and what I hope to do in the
website visual design thread. There is CSS work to do there as well
as tweaking some of the custom pages, it's disorganized but I hope to
get it better organised today.

have fun all
Brett

> ...
>
> read more »