After discussing my original project format with MSIDT faculty, I discovered my concerns to be justified: paper manuals will not meet the technology requirement of the degree. The scope of the project, which I'd thought to be daunting since I'd be writing the entire manual, was determined to be to large for the limited development time allotted to the project. Their recommendations gave me a new spin on an idea I'd had for the project at the start of the program over a year ago. Instead of paper manuals I will create a simulation of our order management system. It will still train the same topic but will cover only a tutorial on using the system. It will also train an efficient problem solving strategy for one or two common scenarios encountered on the job.
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The simulation will be carried by a web site. The site will also contain information and links and perhaps a feedback form or separate page for a quiz. I'm still working on the exact contents. The idea is that the site will run within our company intranet. I designed and built a prototype of the web site for another assignment this semester and so far I am pleased with it but it's kind of bland. I'm learning that I don't have much practice in creative design. It is functional and makes use of some color, but doesn't have any 'wow' factor.
Take a look at this website, for example: http://www.csszengarden.com/ It is an old site in Internet years but shows off some very attractive and creative designs. It shows off not only the power of CSS to reformat a page but also some amazing graphical techniques to link page elements. I have no delusions of getting my web site anywhere close to these designs, but something that doesn't look like it was designed in 1998 would be nice.
