Week 5: Website Development, Key Learnings, & Future Steps

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This is my fifth week interning with Xondas, and it's been an exciting journey! This week, I began building the company's website on Squarespace. My partner and I are focusing on the layout, ensuring it meets the Xondas team's expectations before diving into colors and typography. During our Thursday meeting, the team was thrilled with the layout and eager to see the next steps unfold.

Our next challenge is selecting the right color palette and typography. We aim for a consistent and accessible design that aligns with Xondas' branding. Initially, I felt overwhelmed by the color choices, but I addressed this by prioritizing the layout and creating a style guide based on the company's brand colors. I researched industry trends and how best to complement Xondas' primary orange color. This helped me plan the design elements, including buttons, typography, and images, ensuring a cohesive look.

Throughout this process, I've learned several key lessons:

  1. Always take initiative: At Xondas, I've discovered the importance of being proactive. Whether it's tackling new tasks or suggesting improvements, taking the initiative has allowed me to contribute meaningfully and grow my skills.

  2. Embrace new challenges: Just because something is unfamiliar doesn’t mean it’s unattainable. This internship has shown me that with a willingness to learn, I can overcome any challenge. For example, creating a style guide to ensure brand consistency was new for me, but by immersing myself in research and design principles, I successfully developed a guide that was helpful.

  3. Research is essential: Research is the backbone of effective problem-solving and decision-making. From selecting the right color palette and typography to understanding industry trends, thorough research has been crucial in ensuring that our design choices are informed and strategic.

  4. Balance expectations: Learning to balance the company’s expectations with user needs has been a valuable experience. At Xondas, it’s important to create designs that not only align with the company’s brand but also resonate with our users. This balance is key to creating a successful and user-friendly website.

The next steps involve incorporating content and photos. We're awaiting written content from the company, as they can best describe their business. Next week, my partner and I will visit the University of Michigan Electrical Engineering school and Xondas' office to photograph their technology for the website. Although I have few photography experience, I'm eager to learn more and get started!

Additionally, I've been thinking about ways to enhance the company further. I'm exploring SEO strategies and suggested to the Xondas team that we could help create social media content to boost credibility and awareness, and they were interested! I've started designing the LinkedIn banner and researching effective content strategies.

Overall, it's been a busy but rewarding week, and I'm excited to continue working on these amazing projects!

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