One of the key elements in this project was the integration of Google Spreadsheets as the Back End calculations engine for the results displayed to the users on the site. In the final product the client is able to change the spreadsheet and it will affect directly to the shown results in the website without any deployment.
Since I was working as a solo Designer and Developer I had to face the technical challenge of the integration and also take into account the product was intended to be accessed from a variety of areas in Nigeria. This creates some constraints in terms of internet speed, user’s device resolution and complexity.
The project was divided into three basic phases: product structure, design and development.
For the Product Structure I met with the client and we discussed the key functionalities needed, we revised the spreadsheets and defined a basic screen map.
After defining the different steps inside the structure, we jumped into Design. I proposed a certain aesthetic and worked with a clean, minimal style which would help in loading times and ease of use. The final design involved a great variety of form elements.
Once the Design was approved it was time to develop the site. The final result was built using JavaScript over the Script editor in Google Spreadsheets and Firebase for the deployment. I used Bootstrap 3.6 and plain CSS.
This project was entirely in my hands from beginning to end. The spreadsheet integration was a little bit outside of my scope but it was a great challenge to learn a great tool inside Google Spreadsheets.
