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"Work Placement"
Website Design
Following an in class meeting with Liam it was agreed that I would
document my work experience while working at LifeStyle Computers for a
10-day period, commencing Monday 9th May to Friday 20thMay 2011.
LifeStyle Computers is a small company forming part of the TOGA Group Partnership, specialising in Computer Network Installations for the Business and Public Sectors. LSC is a preferred installer for 2 large national retailers of home technology.
The type of work we do is varied and can be anything from a simple
home PC or MAC installation up to and including a large computer network
or Media installation. We do not do as many Home Media installations as
we’d like to do, by this I mean Home Cinema systems incorporating a
projector, large LCD screen and sound system all controlled by a central
device a configurable control panel able to control a variety of
devices including the Lighting, Audio, Video and sometimes a Media
System PC.LSC has full Public Liability Insurance a Health & Safety
Policy and is registered with the Data Protection Agency.
In addition the company also receive new jobs orders by email on a
daily basis. We can also choose to accept or decline these depending on
workload. We also receive a number of calls each day from new and
existing customers seeking a new PC or Laptop, support and/or upgrades
that we manage to fit in around all the other work. We produce
quotations for Small to Medium Network Installations on a regular basis.
As you can imagine sometimes the workload can be overwhelming and
therefore we pass work onto our business partners or engage contractors
when required.
In the afternoon I unpacked and setup an iMac, this was 1 of only 2
that I’d worked on this year. Macs are still not that common outside of
the Media Industry. The customer was especially pleased when I also set
up his email, backups and instructed him on how to use some of the
pre-loaded MAC applications. (The customer completes a feedback form at
the end of the visit)
I decided that while I’m on a work placement with LifeStyle Computers
that I would look at some long standing web projects and take the
opportunity to research and prototype a new Website Design for the
company. For me this new Website Design must make use of my new
familiarity with WordPress, having used it over the last year to Blog
and document my work during my first year at University. So it was an
easy choice to look at using this platform for the basis for a new
company Website Design.
One off the great things about Website Design uasing WordPress is
that it is easy to test your Website Design online by opening a free
account and picking one of the 100s of Themes (Website Design’s) to help
you get started. When it comes to Website Design I tend to want to get
something up and running very quickly and then go back and
re-design/modify the Website Design rather than start with a blank sheet
and map out a Website Design from scratch. I know the latter choice
should be the preferred way to Website Design but it’s not my way of
doing things.
Over the year I’ve been looking at the range of Website Design’s,
Blog/Theme designs and most fit into a basic structure of a choice of
number of columns and sidebars, some themes include Footers and the
option of modifying the header image. This means that I can basically
choose a theme to start and modify this at any point in the future
without dramatically changing the look of the Website Design, of course
if you start with a Website Design that has sidebars and then switch to
one without, this data will not be displayed so it’s probably better to
work from the other way round, that is pick a basic theme one column and
one sidebar. Then if you want to change designs later to say two
columns and two sidebars no data will be lost.
WordPress Pages and there are two types can be set
as Static Page or default dynamic. What this means if you set a Page to
be static this Pages and it’s data are fixed which makes it ideal to
become the Home page of a Blog site or for any Data that you always want
to be displayed regardless of Post Date order.One of the great things
about Blogs I’ve become aware of is Custom Menus, using this option it
is possible to design a navigation menu using a mix of Pages and
Categories so for example I could have a Menu that includes a static
page for my Home Page and Categories as Menu options which would look
like dedicated pages on the Menu bar. But Category Menu links would work
differently from Page menu links because the data they hold will be
dynamic. By this I mean the content would change depending on Blog
postings using this category. For example say I had a Menu Heading using
the category ‘New Products’ when a site visitor clicks on the Menu
Heading ‘New Products’ all the Blogs with that category would appear on
this Menu option latest displayed in date of posting order with the most
recent shown first.
Now what’s even more exciting about Website Design using WordPress
is that the site owner can just Blog to their site in the normal way,
but by setting the category they automatically tell the site under which
Menu heading they want the content to be displayed. This effectively
gives the writer an effective content management system without the
writer of the Blog article having to understand anything about Website
Design. Even better if they use a Blogging tool such as Microsoft’s
Writer they can just add content to the Website Design as simply as they
would say write a Word document.
Another great thing about Website Design this way is the ease of adding more Menu headings, just add a new category and include this in your custom menu and it’s done. You can even choose sub categories and parent these to the main categories giving you Menu sub-headings.
On another note as part of my work experience fortnight I looked at re-designing the company website which I had originally designed many years ago to fit a particular need. The company Website Design works well as a localised site bringing in enquiries, particularly from local people seeking computer support and upgrades. It also catches the eye of local businesses looking for network installations services. But I’ve begun to realise that some of the traffic it receives is now not so relevant to our current business. For example we used to specialise in a particular brand of Media Center Computers, which we no longer supply or support but for which we still receive enquiries. I also wanted to re-design the site so that anyone in the company could update the content without having the need to understand web design or web applications hence the decision to base the new Website Design on WordPress.
To summarise the last two weeks, I think this has re-affirmed my desire for a new career path away from computer hardware. I have re-discovered my interest in Website Design by researching and working on the Website Design project and to this end have downloaded a number of Website Design tools and demos in order to research new Website Design techniques and methods. I’ve also purchased dynamic web space suitable for hosting the new WordPress based website.
I still enjoy the customer contact aspect of my job, in particular instructing/ educating the customer regarding the computers operation, which brings to mind something that I had already considered as a possible future career path i.e. something leading into IT Training or Education. To this end I will try and source some work experience in Training and/or Education at some point in the future and confirm if this is really something that I’d like to do.
1.0 Introduction
Work Experience at LifeStyle Computers
The Agreement:
Fig.1. A 4 Workstation computer network
LifeStyle Computers is a small company forming part of the TOGA Group Partnership, specialising in Computer Network Installations for the Business and Public Sectors. LSC is a preferred installer for 2 large national retailers of home technology.
Fig1.1 Home Theatre Installation
2.0 Organising and Planning the Working Week
I generally Log into my job listings account at the beginning of the week and see the available jobs for the week, which I can accept of reject as I choose, usually depending on the type of work, location and price. I also have to factor in our own work commitments and any long standing service arrangements we have.Typically I am only able to accept only one or two jobs a day from these job listings due to other commitments.This is an example list of the sort of jobs we can expect to receive at any one time. There is another list, which relates to the Audio Visual installations including Home Cinema set-ups and large screen TV installs.
Fig 2.0 Online weekly work order listings
3.0 Typical working day
For example my typical working day would consist of two or more site visit’s usually to customers homes. When a customer buys a new computer from a major High Street retailer they will have also purchased installation and setup services, which we provide on behalf of the retailer. Todays first job was to setup an HP laptop, connect to the Internet and then transfer settings and data from the customers old PC using Microsoft’s Transfer Wizard.
Fig 3.0 Windows Transfer Wizard
4.0 Working on Accounts – The VAT Return
One of my regular back office jobs is to chase any outstanding invoices, complete the accounts and submit a VAT return to HMRC. I have designed a range of office processes and documentation, which makes this job relatively easy to do. One of these is my Quarterly VAT sheet which I use to record all my Outputs (that’s money coming in) and my Inputs (that’s my expenditure), which sounds the wrong way round but this ties in with HMRC’s VAT Return. The VAT sheet is automated, by this I mean as I manually enter the separate figures the totals and VAT amounts are automatically updated. This process continues until the last figures have been entered and then the totals in the 3 Boxes at the bottom of the sheet Output, Inputs and Payable can then be entered onto the HMRC VAT Return. Of course these days I now do this online.
Fig 4.0 Quarterly VAT calculator - Excel Workbook
5.0 Website Design
5.1 Design Choices
Fig 5.0 Website Design - WordPress Logo
Fig 5.1 Lifestyle Computers current website screen shot
Fig 6.0 WordPress Dashboard - Screen shot
5.2 Pages, Categories and Custom Menus
One of the things I’ve come to understand about Website Design and Blogs is that essentially all the posts are stored in one file/location in post date order so the most recent post is the one shown first. The way that a Blog displays posts other than date sequence is by the use of categories, by selecting these the posts set with this category are pulled from the Blogs database and displayed in category/posting date order.
Fig 7.0 WordPress Theme example version 1
Fig 8.0 WordPress Theme example 2
Another great thing about Website Design this way is the ease of adding more Menu headings, just add a new category and include this in your custom menu and it’s done. You can even choose sub categories and parent these to the main categories giving you Menu sub-headings.
5.3 WordPress Theme Choices
I’ve tried some of the Website Design Themes freely available on WordPress rather than design one from scratch, which I plan to do when I have both the time and the tools to do so. But for now the off the shelf Website Design Themes will do while I concentrate on designing Menu options and deciding on what content I want to show. I’ve added some examples of some of the Website Design themes I have looked at, the most promising of which is the single column and two sidebar Website Design with the orange coloured header (see Fig 9.0).
Fig 9.0 WordPress Theme Example 3
6.0 Conclusion
I enjoy much of the hands on computer work, particularly systems building and network installations that I do. However there are some things that when running a business you have to do, for example accounts which I wish I could avoid doing. Working in computers is no longer so much of a challenge and this was one of my original reasons for going back into education, to pursue new challenges and to take my career in a new direction. I do enjoy dealing with the general public, in fact I’d say most of my time on site is generally spent interacting/instructing the customer rather than working with the technology. For example most of the customers I interact with are new and/or unsure about computers and need instruction on how to use applications, how to connect to the Internet and send and receive emails, the basics really.On another note as part of my work experience fortnight I looked at re-designing the company website which I had originally designed many years ago to fit a particular need. The company Website Design works well as a localised site bringing in enquiries, particularly from local people seeking computer support and upgrades. It also catches the eye of local businesses looking for network installations services. But I’ve begun to realise that some of the traffic it receives is now not so relevant to our current business. For example we used to specialise in a particular brand of Media Center Computers, which we no longer supply or support but for which we still receive enquiries. I also wanted to re-design the site so that anyone in the company could update the content without having the need to understand web design or web applications hence the decision to base the new Website Design on WordPress.
To summarise the last two weeks, I think this has re-affirmed my desire for a new career path away from computer hardware. I have re-discovered my interest in Website Design by researching and working on the Website Design project and to this end have downloaded a number of Website Design tools and demos in order to research new Website Design techniques and methods. I’ve also purchased dynamic web space suitable for hosting the new WordPress based website.
I still enjoy the customer contact aspect of my job, in particular instructing/ educating the customer regarding the computers operation, which brings to mind something that I had already considered as a possible future career path i.e. something leading into IT Training or Education. To this end I will try and source some work experience in Training and/or Education at some point in the future and confirm if this is really something that I’d like to do.
Friday 13th May 2011 – updated Friday 10th June 2011
One off the great things about WordPress is that it is easy to test your designs online by opening a free account and picking one of the 100s of Themes to help you get started. When it comes to design I tend to want to get something up and running very quickly and then go back and re-design/modify rather than start with a blank sheet and map out a design. I know the latter choice should be the preferred way to design but it’s not my way of doing things.
Over the year I’ve been looking at the range of Blog/Theme designs and most fit into a basic structure of a choice of number of columns and sidebars, some themes include Footers and the option of modifying the header image. This means that I can basically choose a theme to start and modify this at any point in the future without dramatically changing the look of the website, of course if you start with a design that has sidebars and then switch to one without, this data will not be displayed so it’s probably better to work from the other way round, that is pick a basic theme one column and one sidebar. Then if you want to change designs later to say two columns and two sidebars no data will be lost.
Pages and there are two types can be set as Static Page or default dynamic. What this means if you set a Page to be static this Pages and it’s data are fixed which makes it ideal to become the Home page of a Blog site or for any Data that you always want to be displayed regardless of Post Date order.
One of the great things about Blogs I’ve become aware of is Custom Menus, using this option it is possible to design a navigation menu using a mix of Pages and Categories so for example I could have a Menu that includes a static page for my Home Page and Categories as Menu options which would look like dedicated pages on the Menu bar. But Category Menu links would work differently from Page menu links because the data they hold will be dynamic. By this I mean the content would change depending on Blog postings using this category. For example say I had a Menu Heading using the category ‘New Products’ when a site visitor clicks on the Menu Heading ‘New Products’ all the Blogs with that category would appear on this Menu option latest displayed in date of posting order with the most recent shown first.
Now what’s even more exciting about designing a website this way is that the site owner can just Blog to their site in the normal way, but by setting the category they automatically tell the site under which Menu heading they want the content to be displayed. This effectively gives the user an effective content management system without the user having to understand anything about website design. Even better if they use a Blogging tools such as Microsoft’s Writer they can just add content as simply as they would say write a Word document.
Another great thing about designing this way is the ease of adding more Menu headings, just add a new category and include this in your custom menu and it’s done. You can even choose sub categories and parent these to the main categories giving you Menu sub-headings.
Final Design for LifeStyle Computers Website
LifeStyle Computers Website Design - Modified WordPress Theme
Design Choices
I’ve decided that while I’m technically on a work placement with LifeStyle Computers that I would look at some long standing web projects and take the opportunity to research and prototype a new design for the company website. For me the key to this new design is my new familiarity with WordPress, having used it over the last year to Blog and document my work during my first year at University. So it was an easy choice to look at using this platform for the basis for a new company website.One off the great things about WordPress is that it is easy to test your designs online by opening a free account and picking one of the 100s of Themes to help you get started. When it comes to design I tend to want to get something up and running very quickly and then go back and re-design/modify rather than start with a blank sheet and map out a design. I know the latter choice should be the preferred way to design but it’s not my way of doing things.
Over the year I’ve been looking at the range of Blog/Theme designs and most fit into a basic structure of a choice of number of columns and sidebars, some themes include Footers and the option of modifying the header image. This means that I can basically choose a theme to start and modify this at any point in the future without dramatically changing the look of the website, of course if you start with a design that has sidebars and then switch to one without, this data will not be displayed so it’s probably better to work from the other way round, that is pick a basic theme one column and one sidebar. Then if you want to change designs later to say two columns and two sidebars no data will be lost.
Pages, Categories and Custom Menus
One of the things I’ve come to understand about Blogs is that essentially all the posts are stored in one file/location in post date order so the most recent post is the one shown first. The way that a Blog displays posts other than date sequence is by the use of categories, by selecting these the posts set with this category are pulled from the Blogs database and displayed in category/posting date order.Pages and there are two types can be set as Static Page or default dynamic. What this means if you set a Page to be static this Pages and it’s data are fixed which makes it ideal to become the Home page of a Blog site or for any Data that you always want to be displayed regardless of Post Date order.
One of the great things about Blogs I’ve become aware of is Custom Menus, using this option it is possible to design a navigation menu using a mix of Pages and Categories so for example I could have a Menu that includes a static page for my Home Page and Categories as Menu options which would look like dedicated pages on the Menu bar. But Category Menu links would work differently from Page menu links because the data they hold will be dynamic. By this I mean the content would change depending on Blog postings using this category. For example say I had a Menu Heading using the category ‘New Products’ when a site visitor clicks on the Menu Heading ‘New Products’ all the Blogs with that category would appear on this Menu option latest displayed in date of posting order with the most recent shown first.
Now what’s even more exciting about designing a website this way is that the site owner can just Blog to their site in the normal way, but by setting the category they automatically tell the site under which Menu heading they want the content to be displayed. This effectively gives the user an effective content management system without the user having to understand anything about website design. Even better if they use a Blogging tools such as Microsoft’s Writer they can just add content as simply as they would say write a Word document.
Another great thing about designing this way is the ease of adding more Menu headings, just add a new category and include this in your custom menu and it’s done. You can even choose sub categories and parent these to the main categories giving you Menu sub-headings.
Theme Choices
I’ve tried some of the Themes freely available on WordPress rather than design one from scratch, which I plan to do when I have both the time and the tools to do so. But for now the off the shelf Themes will do while I concentrate on designing Menu options and deciding on what content I want to show. I’ve added some examples of some of the themes I have looked at below, the most promising of which is the single column and two sidebar design with the orange coloured header.
-
- LifeStyle Computers Website Design – Modified Wordpress Theme
Prototype Website Location
To see the progress of my website design so far click here
Monday & Tuesday 9th/10th May 2011
I work as a self employed computer engineer and so I have designed a range of office processes and documentation which makes the back office functions relatively easier to do. One of these is my Quarterly VAT sheet which I use to record all my Outputs (that’s money coming in) and my Inputs (that’s my expenditure), which sounds the wrong way round but this ties in with HMRC’s VAT Return.
Each of my transactions are given a classification for example Income is classified as (1) and say Computer Supplies are classified as (7). This makes the organisation of invoices much easier, so for example I put all my computer purchases together in the (7) file. I use one of those concertina style folders that have 12 file pockets and I fill these up as I go along with all invoices that come in, ready for inclusion into the Quarterly VAT return. I also do this as my Accountant wants to be able to follow my expenditure over a 12 month period and they find this easier if I use a classification number so that they know how much I expend and on what.
One of the reasons for doing this is that some expenses are taxed differently from others, for example capital equipment cannot be claimed in their entirety in the first year they have to be depreciated over a period between 2 and 3 years much more if it’s a building etc.
My VAT sheet is automated using macros and various calculations, by
this I mean as I manually enter the individual figures the totals and
VAT totals are automatically updated. This process continues until the
last figures have been entered and then the totals in the 3 Boxes at the
bottom of the sheet Outputs, Inputs and Payable can then be entered
onto the HMRC VAT Return.
One of the key cells on the VAT sheet is the value for VAT rate, I’ve actually named this as VAT and so all the calculations are based on this for example Cell X = Cell Y times VAT and of course these days I now enter all this information online.
The VAT Return
One of my jobs every 3 months is to chase any outstanding invoices, complete the accounts and submit a VAT return to HMRC.I work as a self employed computer engineer and so I have designed a range of office processes and documentation which makes the back office functions relatively easier to do. One of these is my Quarterly VAT sheet which I use to record all my Outputs (that’s money coming in) and my Inputs (that’s my expenditure), which sounds the wrong way round but this ties in with HMRC’s VAT Return.
Each of my transactions are given a classification for example Income is classified as (1) and say Computer Supplies are classified as (7). This makes the organisation of invoices much easier, so for example I put all my computer purchases together in the (7) file. I use one of those concertina style folders that have 12 file pockets and I fill these up as I go along with all invoices that come in, ready for inclusion into the Quarterly VAT return. I also do this as my Accountant wants to be able to follow my expenditure over a 12 month period and they find this easier if I use a classification number so that they know how much I expend and on what.
One of the reasons for doing this is that some expenses are taxed differently from others, for example capital equipment cannot be claimed in their entirety in the first year they have to be depreciated over a period between 2 and 3 years much more if it’s a building etc.
Screenshot of Quarterly VAT Return sheet
Quarterly VAT calculator - Excel Workbook
One of the key cells on the VAT sheet is the value for VAT rate, I’ve actually named this as VAT and so all the calculations are based on this for example Cell X = Cell Y times VAT and of course these days I now enter all this information online.
Friday 6th May 2011
Usually on a Friday I log into my jobs account and see the available jobs for the following week, which I can accept of reject as I choose usually depending on the type of work, location and price. I also have to factor in our own work commitment’s and any long standing service arrangements we have.
Typically I am only able to accept one or two jobs a day due to University commitment’s, but over the summer months I’ll be able to take on more of these jobs.
This is an example list of the sort of jobs we can expect to receive at any one time. There is another list which relates to the Audio Visual installations including Home Cinema set-ups and large screen TV installs.
In addition to this job list we also receive emails on a daily basis
for new jobs and proposed long term installations which come in as the
week progresses. We can also choose to accept or decline these depending
on workload.
On top of all this we also receive a number of calls each day from new customers seeking a new PC or Laptop, support and/or upgrades which we fit in around all the other work. We also have to produce quotations for Small to Medium Network Installations on a regular basis.
As you can imagine sometimes the workload can be overwhelming and therefore we have to pass work onto our business partners or engage contractors when required or indeed pass jobs by.
There are lots of negatives with being self-employed but one of the big positives in working for yourself is you get to choose which jobs to do or not. Of course this only applies once you have achieved the minimum income level for that week.
Usually on a Friday I log into my jobs account and see the available jobs for the following week, which I can accept of reject as I choose usually depending on the type of work, location and price. I also have to factor in our own work commitment’s and any long standing service arrangements we have.
Typically I am only able to accept one or two jobs a day due to University commitment’s, but over the summer months I’ll be able to take on more of these jobs.
This is an example list of the sort of jobs we can expect to receive at any one time. There is another list which relates to the Audio Visual installations including Home Cinema set-ups and large screen TV installs.
LifeStyle Computers - Online Work Orders and Weekly Job Listings
On top of all this we also receive a number of calls each day from new customers seeking a new PC or Laptop, support and/or upgrades which we fit in around all the other work. We also have to produce quotations for Small to Medium Network Installations on a regular basis.
As you can imagine sometimes the workload can be overwhelming and therefore we have to pass work onto our business partners or engage contractors when required or indeed pass jobs by.
There are lots of negatives with being self-employed but one of the big positives in working for yourself is you get to choose which jobs to do or not. Of course this only applies once you have achieved the minimum income level for that week.
Tuesday 26th April 2011
LifeStyle Computers is a small company forming part of the TOGA Group Partnership, specialising in Network Computer Installations for the commercial and public sectors. It is also a preferred installer for John Lewis and Tesco via the Orderwork organisation.
The type of work we do is varied and can be anything from a simple home PC or MAC installation up to and including a large computer network or Media installation. We do not do as many Media installations as we’d like to do by this I mean Home Cinema systems incorporating a projector, large LCD screen and sound system all controlled
by a central device such as Crestron and Lutron controls. These type of
devices can incorporate control of a variety of devices including
Lighting and Media Systems (MCE).
LifeStyle Computers
The Agreement: Following an in class meeting today with Liam it was agreed that I would document my work experience whilst working with my current company LifeStyle Computers over a 2 week period.
LifeStyle Computers is a small company forming part of the TOGA Group Partnership, specialising in Network Computer Installations for the commercial and public sectors. It is also a preferred installer for John Lewis and Tesco via the Orderwork organisation.
The type of work we do is varied and can be anything from a simple home PC or MAC installation up to and including a large computer network or Media installation. We do not do as many Media installations as we’d like to do by this I mean Home Cinema systems incorporating a projector, large LCD screen and sound system all controlled
by a central device such as Crestron and Lutron controls. These type of
devices can incorporate control of a variety of devices including
Lighting and Media Systems (MCE).
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