I have had the opportunity to talk through my prototype with Mat in a one-on-one session. I found this was very helpful, especially to pull me back to what my priority should be. I was getting distracted by worrying about the look of my site, possibly out of fear of having to go back and fix everything and through that creating more work for myself. However, I was losing focus of what the most important part was and that was the content of the site. Matt advised me to finish off by collecting my content information, and later in the design thinking process, there will be space to work on what the site looks like.
He shared with me some examples of sites and advised me to try and look at as many as possible sites to get an idea of what I like.
This site of Mrs David's had a really nice layout on the home page. You can clearly see what you will find on the site, the colours are not screaming at me, and I didn't have to scroll down to figure out what is on the page. Everything was easily visible in one glance.
When I am done with my content, it will be really important that I do a paper layout of what I want my site to look like. Concentrating on what will be headings and what will be subheadings, then going back to my site and adapting my layout.
And as Matt said numerous times and remembering from my DFI course, embrace white.
Next, I shared my progress with my principal and DP. This was a very helpful session as well, we quickly discovered that I was adding things to my site that were not relevant to my initial idea. As I was searching on the web for information I would stumble upon things that I thought could also be helpful, and ended up adding things to my site that has the potential to blow up and confuse new teachers. So they helped me to come back to my initial idea of sharing important information well, in order for new teachers to "survive" the first 6 months of their time at a new school. They also highlighted to me that I need to look at copyrights as I made some copies out of books with the correct information, I am not 100% how I will check that and will seek their guidance on this. Michelle also shared the NZSTA site with me. I really like the neat clean look of this site. The photos are not overwhelming in colour and you can also see at one glance what is available on the site.
Lastly, I shared my progress with the Kootuitui leadership team. The feedback was positive and sounded like it was something they could see the value of. Immediately there was a suggestion to add the Observation Survey, but I highlighted that this site has the potential to get really big, but that I want to focus on my initial main points in order to present a completed site by October. After October, I can add more and "grow" the site gradually. The leadership team will help me with feedback as soon as I have my prototype completed.
The honest feedback from colleagues and leaders is what makes my site better. It's so easy to get distracted and move away from what I really wanted to achieve. Having the conversation and sharing my progress helps me to really think about what is the most important information. What do they see as valuable and what is dead weight.
My goal is now to tackle the harder part of my prototype, and that is the planning unit. I want it to be really clear for new teachers without overwhelming them.
