fablab-siegen.de With New Splendor

In the last few weeks we have not only been fighting the Covid 19 pandemic with face visors from the Lab, but in parallel we have also tinkered a new website for you and the Lab. You are bathing your hands in it right now! Have fun clicking/touching and feel free to give feedback via the known channels or to .

For the impatient: At the very end of this post you will find an overview of what is new and what is still to come. For the others, here’s a short story about what we were thinking and what’s involved in such a website relaunch.

The following is a description of our “development process”. Not much was programmed, but it was put together. And that also wants to be done!

The Development Process

First of all, we had a workshop a few weeks ago to find out in which direction the new website should point. Everything we wanted to have on the new website and who we want to reach with it and how. To do this, we asked ourselves the following questions:

• What information do we want on the website?
• Who do we want to reach?
• What could the website look like?
• How do we want to file the information?

The result is a website based on the blog software WordPress. This seemed to make the most sense to us in terms of functionality and extensibility with plugins. Using WordPress wasn’t new territory for some of the team either, and we had about an idea of what we could accomplish with WordPress. Our requirements were met:

• Software that is regularly updated so that everything is as secure as possible.
• Automated display of events in the Lab
• Image galleries to present the lab also virtually
• Automated viewing of research results (A list of publications that have been produced as part of the Lab).
• Easy contact
• Easy editing of the content by the Lab team
• Writing of contributions, for example project reports by the community
• The social component: Visitors should be able to comment on posts and easily get in touch with us
• Multilingualism
• Data protection compliance

Team Coordination During These Times

First of all, we started to form a team to build up the website piece by piece. We transferred existing content to the new website, created a menu structure and designed the homepage.

Kanban

We organized ourselves in a Kanban board (there are many online solutions, take the one that suits you best). We met online audio-visually every day when things got hot, due to corona, and exchanged information about the current tasks. From time to time, a split screen was also used. It has been shown that it is a good idea to make the Kanban board visible to everyone by means of a split screen, so that everyone also knows which task card or ticket is currently being discussed. The cards documented the current developments within a task and stored images or documents. Thus, a documentation of the development was created at the same time.

The 80/20-20/80-Syndrom

As was to be expected, the 80/20 rule also struck us, which one or the other is surely familiar with. 80 percent of the work is done in 20 percent of the time. The last 20 percent then take 80 percent of the time. When you think you’ve got it, that’s when it really starts.

The contents were transferred relatively quickly. But then it was on to finding plugins for calendar integration, image galleries, and privacy compliance, as well as checking content for currency and expanding it. And everything has to be put together somehow, so that the page structure makes sense to visitors and information can be found easily. Where do you write the opening hours everywhere so that everyone can find them?

“But they’re already on the menu under opening hours, aren’t they?!”

Yes, but…. sometimes that’s not enough. So we have made an effort to sort the information as it seemed to make sense to us. We have already done a few user tests, but we are also a bit dependent on your help. Write us, talk to us, tell us if you can’t find something or if something bothers you. That helps enormously! ->

The current version offers little that is new, at least apparently. So you could also say: old wine in new wineskins.

With Sauce and Spicy (That’s New!)

But wait, we also have news!

1. We now have an overview of the events in the Lab (getting fancier)
2. Students can get an overview of which courses we offer
3. We have a separate area for press representatives (still being expanded)
4. There is a better overview of current and past research projects in the Lab (to scientific publications go here)
5. The area of occupational safety was revised
6. There is an overview of the machines and technologies that we can offer as a lab
7. A subscribable calendar

And What Does The Future Hold?

We have a few more features in mind that will follow in the next few weeks:

1. An English version of the site – because we have more and more international guests and cooperation partners who depend on it
2. Possibility for the community to write contributions themselves
3. Nicer presentation of the dates/events
4. A press kit for media representatives
5. An overview of completed theses by students

And many little things are also still on our agenda. Stay tuned and have fun!