Storyboarding was getting a bit difficult. Outlines of a mobile app were already made, with some illustrations of the most important screens. There was even a use case of the crucial part of the app.
But I still felt like I didn't know what was going on. The client kept changing minor requirements on us. One day the client says they're willing to pay monthly hosting fees. The next day the client buys a one time setup fee without even informing the coders.
So out of frustration and no access to reliable ad-free webhosting for scripting languages like python and PHP, I finally downloaded Bootstrap. The website's directions were simple and easy to follow.
All I did was download the file and unzip in my desired website folder. Bootstrap also gave starter templates.
Unfortunately one of the templates I copied did not have the jQuery and bootstrap links on the bottom so my navigation bar did not work, especially on mobile, nor the dropdown feature in any version of the site. Googling and looking at the differences between my copied templates I realized that I might need the links to Bootstrap (in the right folder) and jQuery. So, I added them in and the navigation bar worked everywhere.
I made a single step form and converted it to a multi-step form when it was completely finished visually. Then I added and linked other more simple splash pages and whatnot.
The website consisted of 10 pages and 5 hrs and 30 mins of my time plus an hour break in between. I took the break because I felt like a lot of the work was pointless but then I worked on it again after the break because I really needed to finish the most important page on the website.
Now it looks like a real website with proper formatting and linking. However it only uses HTML, CSS, and JS (from jQuery and Bootstrap). Therefore the form doesn't save any of the inputs to a database or use any scripting languages. But it serves as a much better visual storyboard to show the clients than the use case and storyboards we drew up. Those make perfect sense to us but are hard for clients to truly criticize.
Another factor in making this website was to not use a localhost but some format to show the clients that the pages/screens were something they could see and use themselves from any computer. I do not have webhosts where I can upload PHP or python so I used Dropbox to host the whole website. All in all, the website only requires a little less than 1 MB of space.
Also, I finally had a chance to use Bootstrap.
P.S. It is not linked here because of the Dropbox factor. Once I have another more public place to put it, I hope to link to the website in this post.
But I still felt like I didn't know what was going on. The client kept changing minor requirements on us. One day the client says they're willing to pay monthly hosting fees. The next day the client buys a one time setup fee without even informing the coders.
So out of frustration and no access to reliable ad-free webhosting for scripting languages like python and PHP, I finally downloaded Bootstrap. The website's directions were simple and easy to follow.
All I did was download the file and unzip in my desired website folder. Bootstrap also gave starter templates.
Unfortunately one of the templates I copied did not have the jQuery and bootstrap links on the bottom so my navigation bar did not work, especially on mobile, nor the dropdown feature in any version of the site. Googling and looking at the differences between my copied templates I realized that I might need the links to Bootstrap (in the right folder) and jQuery. So, I added them in and the navigation bar worked everywhere.
I made a single step form and converted it to a multi-step form when it was completely finished visually. Then I added and linked other more simple splash pages and whatnot.
The website consisted of 10 pages and 5 hrs and 30 mins of my time plus an hour break in between. I took the break because I felt like a lot of the work was pointless but then I worked on it again after the break because I really needed to finish the most important page on the website.
Now it looks like a real website with proper formatting and linking. However it only uses HTML, CSS, and JS (from jQuery and Bootstrap). Therefore the form doesn't save any of the inputs to a database or use any scripting languages. But it serves as a much better visual storyboard to show the clients than the use case and storyboards we drew up. Those make perfect sense to us but are hard for clients to truly criticize.
Another factor in making this website was to not use a localhost but some format to show the clients that the pages/screens were something they could see and use themselves from any computer. I do not have webhosts where I can upload PHP or python so I used Dropbox to host the whole website. All in all, the website only requires a little less than 1 MB of space.
Also, I finally had a chance to use Bootstrap.
P.S. It is not linked here because of the Dropbox factor. Once I have another more public place to put it, I hope to link to the website in this post.
