Weeknotes, 25 Sep
Updates Design CMS Accessibility
This week feels like we’ve made a lot of progress on the project.
CMS
After a long process of review and consideration with W3C we have chosen Craft CMS to use for this project. They have shown a commitment to making ongoing improvements to the accessibility of the CMS, and ultimately we feel they are the best fit for the project. Read more about the process of why we chose Craft and our response to a recent post on WordPress Tavern explaining the background behind the CMS platform choice a little more.
Design
We had our first design review with W3C. Ian, our Creative Director, shared our ideas for the global site elements such as navigation, colour and typography. He moved onto more detailed patterns such as cards, images and buttons. And also presented some initial templates to show how these patterns will come together to form pages.
The initial view was well received by W3C and we await any further feedback they would like to share. Next week we will present to the wider W3C team, and then we will share with the community on this site for any public feedback.
Build planning
As a project manager, I have to get a note in about what planning we’ve been doing this week too. We had a socially distanced workshop in the office this week (the first time we’ve seen each other in the same room for months! but now in-person meetings are halted again due to government advice). We collated all the patterns and templates that have been identified for this project so far. We ordered them into a priority, so we can start to identify what will in-scope for this build and what may need to be in a second phase. This has been folded into the start of a specification for the build - which we plan to share in a week or two when it’s complete.
Final thoughts
What was good: having such a creative planning session in the office. Some things are just easier to do on post-its. Even if it requires a large amount of hand sanitiser.
What we found challenging: prioritising our work. We want to do everything because we’re really enjoying the project - but we need to focus our energy on the areas of highest impact.
What are we looking forward to: next round of design feedback, completing the spec. (Yes, I know that’s a very PM thing to say).