Page Content

BillBruford.com

:: The Brief

  • Construction of a informational web site with a focus on imagery and music.
  • To source most content from the old billbruford.com
  • To create an easy-to-use bespoke content management system that would handle managing textual and media content, news posts and user comments

:: The Specifications

  • To be built for a standard LAMP environment, supporting MySQL and PHP 4.
  • JavaScript enhancements to gracefully degrade to HTML/CSS fall backs.
  • Requires Internet Explorer 6 compatibility.

:: The Build

This project had tight timings and involved working directly with the Client. First to ascertain the exact nature of what was required, then discussing amends, and later to train the Client in the site's usage after completion.

Working in a team of two, my main focus was the back-end and content management whilst my counterpart dealt with the front-end. However, as work got underway we both ended up helping each other out with our respective tasks.

This site was an interesting build and taught me more about dealing with external Clients/Suppliers (from an agency perspective) than anything else. I also learned a little a bit about drumming and about Bill Bruford himself :)

If I was to undertake this task again I would make the same decisions we made at the time - i.e. to build the admin panel bespokely, rather than using an off-the-shelf or open source equivalent. By taking the bespoke route we were able to provide exactly what we were asked for (which was quite specific) - and we could easily import old structures from the old site. Also, when specifications changed "en route", we were able to work in a much more agile way. Allowing us to implement changes directly and easily without any framework, open-source or "hacking a module to fit" headaches.