DM3104: Negotiated Development Final Project

This first session of the semester saw us get introduced to what was expected of us over the 12 weeks. This time round, the setup is different to previous semesters, we have free reign over the projects we produce, they don't have to be client projects or they aren't given to us by the university - we have full control. The idea behind this is to allow us to undertake the projects that we want to do so that we can use the technologies and processes that we want to learn before we leave uni and enter the industry.

The session today involved our lecturer getting us to think about what we want to achieve this semester. We started by reflecting on the semester just gone, looking at what went well, what's missing in our portfolios and what didn't we achieve.

What went well:

  • Reflection / documentation of work produced week by week

  • Learnt a lot of new dev / project management skills, technologies and tools - frontend and backend

What's missing in my portfolio:

  • A finished, live project, that visitors to my website can properly use

What I didn't achieve:

  • The use of Next and server side rendering with react

Looking this way made me realise that my portfolio isn't as strong as I previously thought - it may look nice with the latest technologies however the work I showcase on there could be improved in terms of looking at it from a client's perspective. I need to include projects that clients will be able to relate to and have finished project's that they will be able to visit and look at themselves. I currently have plenty of work that I dive into to considerable detail but they aren't able to use and visit the project. This is what my portfolio needs.

What I want to achieve this semester:

After evaluating our previous semester he asked us to create 4-5 bullet points of the goals we wanted to achieve this time round. These points will then help us form the projects we undertake.

  • Some fully featured, finished, full stack projects on my portfolio - feel my portfolio is lacking in this regard with finished projects that visitors to my portfolio can view

  • Use of Next.js - I have experience with Gatsby but that is more of a SSG, has recently been a shift towards Next and having the options to do SSG and SSR down to an individual page basis

  • Develop more applications following the JAM stack approach, since my dissertation is on the topic I feel I should develop my own full stack, dynamic applications in the ecosystem

  • Gain more industry experience

  • Projects that I am able to market and potentially sell? / create content for on social media / community

Potential Projects:

Potential projects to fulfil what I want to achieve this semester.

My goal for this semester is to get some proper, completed projects on to my portfolio, I thought instead of creating 'fake' finished websites like some sort of e-commerce website or basic social network in order to just get things out there but didn't have much purpose, I could instead develop some interesting / potential business ideas.

Van Life 🚐

A continuation of my semester 1 business plan which I've grown to become quite passionate about and a full featured, large project which I feel could look good on my portfolio. Van Life is an online rental for motorhomes, those who aren’t using their camper vans can rent them out to those who want to travel for a price per night.

This is a project that would allow me to use Next.js, which is something I want to learn. The project would also allow me to utilise server side rendering and also static site generation.

Too Much Munch 🌮

An idea I've had for a different take on recipe apps. Healthy eating is hard when you don't know what to have or buy, and planning meals for the week can be a dreaded task - often forgetting about certain meals and having the same thing over and over. Friends and family also may have famous recipes you want to have access to. Too Much Munch, unlike other recipe apps which are only personal and show your own recipes, allow users to have group/family spaces where they can build collections of their favourite recipes together, under their own names. People added to these groups are able to view, edit, add and delete recipes under their names for everyone in the group to see. Families, friends etc will be able to make these groups to have access to everyones personal recipes.

The Bot Platform 🤖

Despite the project I decide to do I will be continuing my work placement with The Bot Platform over this semester.

DM3107: Major Research Project

Last semester saw us undertake the Literature Review part of our dissertation. This was a 3000 word summary of what data and research is currently out there surrounding the topic - so a review of secondary research. For me specifically my focus was on the JAM stack, with my question being 'Is the JAM Stack the future replacement for building a backend?'.

With this done we had to proceed with carrying out the rest of the dissertation this semester.

  1. Introduction

  2. Literature Review

  3. Methods

  4. Primary Research Results/Analysis

  5. Discussion

  6. Conclusions

The next steps are planning how I'm going to approach methodology to gather primary research. The focus of this week was to start drafting out the type of questions we want to ask (quantitive / qualitative research methods), the type of people we want to talk to, whether it is an interview or questionnaire and why we are asking these questions etc.

Methodology

Quantitative Vs Qualitative Research

When doing research there are lots of different methods. most of which fall into these two categories.

Quantitative

Often uses statistics, numerical data, surveys, scientific experiments and structured observations. Quantitative studies don't require personalised interpretations so investigations can be replicated by anyone.

Objective, concrete, measured

Qualitative

Qualitative research is more subjective and requires the researcher to interpret data in order to form themes and ideas. Often includes interviews with open ended questions, case studies of situations and loose observation. Talk to participants and interpret results.

Subjective, interpretive, descriptive

Direct

A type of qualitative research in which the purposes of the project are disclosed to the participant or are obvious given the nature of the interview.

Indirect

In contrast, research that takes an indirect approach totally disguises the purpose of the project.

Method

The findings from my literature review were incomplete in answering whether the JAM stack will replace the need to ever build a backend. Therefore, primary research will need to be undertaken with regards to discovering and analysing the opinions of agencies and organisations, of different sizes, on their current architectures (JAM stack or Legacy stacks). If they do use the JAM stack, understanding the benefits personal to their business operations and clients is crucial. In addition, if they do not use the JAM stack understanding why and what impact it would have on them and their clients is important. Due to the nature of my subject area and the gaps I have found, I feel a qualitative approach will be best suited. Research found in the literature review saw, roughly, the amount modern architectures are used on the web. My primary research needs to understand thoughts, feelings and opinions of developers, CTOs and managers. With this in mind I feel as though an indirect, in-depth interview would be most appropriate.

Why indirect

  • The researcher wants participants to behave as naturally as possible without any impediment of research purposes.

  • Data richness. If participants know what a study is about, to what extent does this ‘close’ their minds or destroy their creativity?

Why Qualitative

  • Qualitative techniques aim to draw out deeply held views, issues that may be difficult to conceive or express.

  • To study cause and effect relationships directly

Why In-depth interview

  • The method of the in-depth interview is appropriate if you need to gain an insight into individual evaluations of specific material.

  • This method is the right one to choose if the primary objective with the survey, for example is to evaluate a new packaging, an advertisement or a storyboard.

  • Namely the method can produce very precise and specific answers as well as an exhaustive and varied knowledge about individual determined experiences, opinions and motives, which the group interview and the quantitative methods cannot encompass.

  • One of the advantages of the in-depth interview is that there is time for the respondent, in peace, to further develop and give reasons for his or hers individual point of views -without being influenced by the opinions of other respondents.

DM3110: Professional Portfolio Practice

Today we were also introduced to Professional Portfolio Practice, which is a module which focuses on our portfolios and producing a physical book of our work. We learnt how it's important for our portfolios to have a consistent brand across the website and the printed book etc.