Self initiated project – Gantt chart

I went on Tom’s planner website (http://www.tomsplanner.com/) and in few quick steps created my own account.  Following this I could start creating my own Gantt chart.  However, as I was going through their website, I found that they have already created Templates for different purposes. 

After clicking on ‘Web Design’ template, I have been redirected to actual Gantt chart, where I already had included Phases for different tasks. such as Preparation, planning or designing.
Of course list of these Phases is three times longer than what you can see above. But most of these were going too deep into details. So I have created my Gantt chart by taking ideas from the list, naming them on my own, and adding extra notes to some of them.

---

This was the first time I have created my own Gantt chart. It shows clearly, on which task I should be working on and when. There are two things that are eye-catching straight away and these are two longest ‘tasks’ of ‘Constantly updated Blog’  &  ‘Ongoing research’. 

Ongoing research
I have created  phase of Research between 25th of March and 1st April. However I know from my own experience with different project, that through out whole Projects I have been continuously researching, as during project many things might change, or not go as we have planned. And sometimes it is necessary, to do extra research either to fix any issues that we have faced and can’t resolve or just to get more information or knowledge on something that we are currently working.

---

 Constantly updated Blog
Updating Blog on daily basis is as important as project it self. Everyday working on project, researching different things, learning new stuff or trying something new, should be immediately documented on Blog.  Reason is very simple. not updating blog and leaving it to the end will have catastrophic consequences, as project might take up to few months, and remembering everything that should be wrote about from each day is simply impossibly.
I have also been trying just to take quick notes of what I have done for certain project. Then at the end, I would write up the Blog using these notes and what I have remembered. Even though this is better than just leaving it, nothing beats Blog that is updated on daily basis.

---

 

 Some of the phases have red triangle in top right corner which indicates that there is more information written on that phase.  On picture below I have mouse over ‘content outline‘ phase and little pop up window came up with extra information that I wanted to include in this Phase.

New design

So i have decided to give my self maximum two hours and try think of something better, as previous design was very colorful.

Changes:

– I have used two colours which are red and orange and grey but only for text, as black text won’t look too good as it is simply too dark.

– Like i have described previously, using photoshop i have removed kid on the right side

– Removed all colours and effects from my title, and used gradient with red and orange, and added copied title behind original but in white colour, to add a bit of white to header.

– Using photoshop i have edited few cartoon kids and used them on my website.

– moved contact section to the bottom of the page

– much more space between sections

Basically I wanted to redesign my website so it would look much more clean and tidy, i have tried to add much more space between text pictures and buttons, and instead of squares used as a background for each section i just added simple lines which in my opinion looks great.

Also due to time restriction i removed games section from navigation bar, and left it with only Home, Places to visit and learning and of course useful websites which is not included in navigation bar. But website can always be improved and updated, so whenever i have more free time, i will add games section.