This week we asked Senior Digital Project Manager, Aaron Brooks to write about project managing website builds. Aaron is responsible for planning and managing web builds here at Bigwave media, so just the chap to explain the overall process of a web project in layman’s terms. Instead, this prompted him to recall a recent conversation that he shared with his Grandma over a cup of tea.
(Or, reading between the lines… presented him with a perfect opportunity to recycle a conversation from what must have been an electrifying visit for his Grandma.)
Aaron writes:
I recently tried to explain to my Grandma what my job (of project managing web builds) actually involves. Even in its simplest terms, explaining my working process from start to finish was starting to lose her. Since she asked what I do nowadays, more out of politeness, I didn’t give up. I made it my goal to educate my 90yr old Grandmother on, start to finish, my job of managing website builds (with a bit of SEO best practice added in), before she nodded off or her tea went cold. Here’s how it went…
“Think of it like having a new garden built, Grandma”
If you made your mind up that you finally needed a new garden, since you can’t get around the existing one anymore, what do you need from it? What do you want to do in it, would there be anything special you wanted to put it? Do you want to show it off to your neighbours? Does it need to be easy to look after? Do you have any accessibility requirements to enjoy the garden? Will you want a shed to put all your old pictures and books?
Now that we know what you want from your garden, we can get a picture drawn up to show you what it will look like. This way you can check if it’s what you imagined and if you’d like to change anything around. If you have a change of heart now, it’s quicker to fix. We want to make sure everything is as you like it before we pull the wheelbarrow out of the shed and pull the wellies on.
When you’re happy with the design we will then find some clever people to start digging, planting, sowing, building and landscaping your garden to match the picture. These people will also wire in any cables, hoses, lights or fountains that you wanted. Because your friends aren’t as athletic as they once were, maybe you’d like the team to add in a ramp and handrails to help everyone get around the garden more easily if they want it.
When the team have finished building, they’ll then walk around the garden and check all the fencing is sturdy enough and that the gate has lock on it. Just because the team has left, doesn’t mean it’s finished forever.
When everybody has completed working on the garden, it will need time to grow. You will need to nurture it, tend to the plants to help it mature. If you leave it, it could start to fall behind what your neighbours are doing (especially Sheila at No27 who is always in her garden!). If you want some visitors, it would also be a good idea to leave a note down at dancing on Thursdays. That way you can tell others that you have a new garden and people should pop round for a cuppa.
If you want to be the talk of the Cul-de-sac Grandma, you’ll need to make sure you are keeping your garden tidy with a good variety of plants – maybe the odd gnome, if that’s your thing. Keep your Tulips in one area and the Clematis in another. This way the gardening judges from the council will reward you for making it nice and clear for them to judge. If you want some help keeping the garden looking nice I can pop round to keep it tidy, add new features or make sure everything is still secure after the winter storms.
Just remember, the garden won’t last forever. You’ll need to spend time keeping it looking good and fix it when things get old. Keep planting new varieties and keep telling everyone about what’s new. That way people will come back again and even bring their friends too.
More tea then?
Bigwave Media has years of experience in creating beautiful gardens websites. If you’d like to speak to our team about how we can cultivate your existing website or build you a brand new one, visit www.bigwavemedia.co.uk or call us on 01392 492380. P.s. – there’s tea on tap.