CP3402 Assignment 1

Task:

Design, create and publish websites for your own startup idea using two different well-known CMSs. “A startup is a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed” says Neil Blumenthal, cofounder and co-CEO of Warby Parker.

Wikipedia says a startup is an entrepreneurial venture or a new business designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. It is not just a new business... So, your idea must have some innovative or novel aspect to it. Examples of business ideas that are NOT startups include: online store, website design company, site for any brick-and-mortar store, tutoring company, restaurant, gym… Those are all “tried and true” businesses where the solution is obvious and are therefore not suitable for your assignment topic. Here are some lists of startups if you need some ideas:

• 70 best startups to watch in 2023

• AngleList's 52 startups to watch out for 2020

Your startup idea can be new or something you have used before, and it can be fictitious or real, but it must not already have a website, whether you or anyone else made it.

Choice of CMS:

You must use "proper" self-hosted CMSs (e.g., WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, SilverStripe, etc.), NOT site builders or WYSIWYG systems like Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, etc.

You may not use wordpress.com, which is managed by wordpress.com and is not something you could easily move to a different host if you chose. Do not use joomla.com for similar reasons.

If your chosen CMS does not have an export/backup feature, then it is not suitable for this assignment. You may not use plugins or extensions that replace the core functionality, like nicepage, Elementor, etc. The bottom line is that you need to do it yourself with core CMS functionality, including hosting.

Content:

Most of the content is up to you, but it must be suitable and complete. Online tools for generating new content, like ChatGPT, are allowed, but you are responsible for the content quality and suitability. Even if it's a fictitious idea, you cannot plagiarise. Here are some content requirements:

• Content could include details of your product or service (like features, benefits, pricing, comparisons), contact information, privacy/legal statements, etc. Your site should have a clear goal with calls-to-action.

• Your site should be complete with no "under construction" or "coming soon" content/pages.

• You must include a short video that you make for your startup. This does not need to be fancy or take a long time to make – you could just record it on a phone or digital camera that you get your dog to hold… but why not try and make a good video?

• You need some kind of team page that describes the team behind the startup. This team must include you as one of the members and you must have your own realistic bio for your goal career. That is, think about how you might describe your future self (in 5 or 10 years) and write as if you’ve achieved that. This is an intentional exercise for you to focus on your own career goals, so think carefully about this and write it yourself with your career in mind. Part of your bio should be the JCU degree you are completing now.

• Use at least one additional plugin/extension that is not provided in the base install of each CMS (these do not need to be the same for both sites) to provide some useful extra and visible functionality to enhance your sites (e.g., map, form, image gallery, etc. but not something ‘invisible’ like security, backup, statistics, etc. or some kind of WYSIWYG site builder).

Design:

You will make the same site in two different CMSs. The two sites should have the same content and structure but do not need to be identical. They should look as similar as is practical. You should be able to describe the site and how to use it to anyone and they could use either site with no trouble. E.g., if you said, "click on the blue About Us link at the top-right", that should work for both sites.

You can use any available designs/themes, as appropriate for your goal and target audience. You are not expected to create custom designs/themes but you're welcome to customise existing ones.

Hosting:

Your two sites must be published on a public Web server (or servers), anywhere you like. It is up to you to figure out appropriate hosting. The subject resources page describes several hosting options, all of which have free tiers or student credits available. You may not self-publish on your own personal server. You do not need a domain name.

You are allowed and expected to work directly on your live sites. In the major project you will collaborate with your team and use local hosting for development work in addition to your production sites. But in this assignment, you should simply work on your hosted sites with no local hosting.

Documentation:

In the Reflection and Insights section of a1.html, describe your experience using the two different CMSs and hosting. Describe what you have learned through this assignment regarding the different systems, and what the experience has taught you about:

• CMSs

• Hosting

This should be thoughtful and to-the-point; not a complete review of the two different systems, but your insights and lessons learned. Don’t just describe differences and preferences between CMSs - a simple comparison (X was easier than Y) is not very insightful.

Submission:

Create "exports" of your sites using each CMS's export/backup feature. Some CMSs, like WordPress, have this as a standard feature while some require an extension, like “Akeeba” for Joomla.

Complete the template submission file, a1.html, with the requested information including links to your sites and plugins: look for the ?? in the HTML.

Submit 3 separate files to LearnJCU:

• a1.html

• two export files of your sites.

If LearnJCU won’t allow your file type, such as xml, then zip up that one file, not all of them.

Integrity:

The work you submit for this assignment must be your own. You are allowed to discuss the assignment with other students and get assistance from your peers, but you may not do any part of anyone else’s work for them, and you may not get anyone else to do any part of your work. Work that is too similar to other websites (either another student’s work or any public site) will be dealt with promptly according to University procedures for handling plagiarism. For this assignment, it is acceptable to use free resources including themes/templates from appropriate sources, but you may not use anything in a way that infringes copyright or other laws (be careful with images).

You must cite any original sources in your documentation (a1.html file) including content generators or GenAI you have used.