Designing a webpage to facilitate communication between dormitories and building workers at LLU
Because preparation for the widely attended Christmas Ball at Jelgava Palace slowly begins, and because the activity I initiated last year was as successful as the annual baking of gingerbread cookies, I used the autumn break to visit the head of the Student Union of the Latvia University of Agriculture to talk through some of the ideas for this year's ball. However, after the meeting I was approached by the main manager of LLU dormitories who remembered having heard, a few years ago, about my passion for web-designing. She inquired whether I could create a website, a software or any other alternative, inaccessible to outsiders, that would facilitate communication between the dormitory administrators and building workers, since the present system - a stationary book and an intermediate person who is not always reachable by phone - slows the process down. Since the programming classes in 10th grade completely ruined my fondness of computer science, I wanted to decline at first, yet her request seemed to involve at least some creativity and designing so I complied.
Considering that I had no plans after the meeting with Anita, within an hour I had noted every feature that the website had to contain, and hence could get to work. As usually, the toughest part was finding a suitable domain that would have all the necessary functions. When that was done - though not without some struggle - I spent some time trying to decide on a nice, yet neutral design, and then worked to include all the blank fields as well as restricted-choice questions for the administrators to fill out. Also, I ensured that the messages left by the administrators would automatically get published on the site, but that only the manager would be able to edit, for example, by indicating the dormitories where the construction workers are providing their services at any given time.
Finally, having tested that the website worked correctly, I got in touch with the manager and instructed her on how to use the system, so that I would not have to check up on it from time to time. She was quite surprised that I had already finished the work, though, as I actually enjoyed designing the webpage, I wanted to see the result as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, despite being rather pleased with the result, I cannot post a link to the webpage for it to remain accessible only to the invited users. Still, I am glad I did not refuse my help and took the opportunity to refresh my website designing skills.
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