Tim Thompson's blog: December 2006 archive

Saturday, 9 December 2006

I can happily announce that on Wednesday 6 December at about 8:55pm (Mexico time) the Milamex website finally went live. To jump straight in, the link below connects to the English section of the website:

www.milamex.com/english/

If you've been following my blog you'll have noticed there's been a slight dip in updates recently. Well actually, none for the past 5 months. You know, I found myself spending more time writing about what I was doing than actually doing it. So I thought, come on Tim, stop waffling, just get on and design the website. Let's just say my 10 stage plan is now complete - albeit fractionally over time that I originally planned.

Delays, delays and more delays

There are numerous reasons for the delay in launch (given my original target date of mid-August). If we put aside for one moment the 3 month holiday in Barbados I took (or was that a 3 month dream of holidaying in Barbados?), a number of things conspired to push the launch date back.

The biggest frustration I perhaps felt is that I received less support from Milamex than I was originally anticipating. I'd originally hoped the staff could take a pro-active role in writing content and shaping the site, but with a continual stream of publication launches, events and engagements, it seemed there was always something more urgent to be done. I don't want to be too critical - I think this may be a common problem for many non-profit, understaffed organisations with high ambitions. However, this lead to great frustration on my part as I spent time chasing others for content, making correction after correction, and just sitting down and writing many pages myself.

There was also a fair degree of 'requirements creep' that also showed its head during development. As we began to develop the site, I identified that in order to provide accurate, complete and useful information, we needed to put in more work to deliver it. I have high standards about not launching a website that is not information complete. I have one shot at launching a site, and I don't want people visiting it, finding the site lacking, and not coming back. I therefore spent more time worked hard on upping the quality of content, so that the website can be what it truly should be: a useful information resource.

There have been many times over the past few months that I genuinely doubted that the website would ever see the light of day. With all the above setbacks, together with the usual factors that can push a launch date back (coding problems etc), the end result was the sight of a stream of deadlines whooshing past. Sometimes I'd work a day on doing a nice illustration, and wondered if anyone would ever see it! But in all, I know from past experience, that these things come to fruition in the end. Also, as a Christian, I always held in mind that one day this website would serve a God who I believe wants to restore lives - something so needy in Mexico - so I never lost hope.

Well, at long last, the day finally arrived last week, and the live website - the concept of which had taken on mythical status by this point - actually saw the light of day.

The design

I'd like to say a big thank you to all those who sent me feedback (either by email or leaving a comment) regarding the design proposals I posted in July. It was very helpful to see your views, and helped confirm or reject ideas I had in my mind.

Apart from some cosmetic changes, the overall structure of the site is as I proposed. Each main activity of Milamex has its own 'micro-site' that sits consistently within the design of the wider site. The result I believe gives a unique feel for each ministry but a consistency to navigate easily throughout the wider site.

Figuring most of you reading this can't read Spanish, let me point you to a few links taking you to some of my favourate visual pages of the website:

What's next

Well, for those of you following, launching of the website is the completion of 'Phase 1' of a 2-phase project. The next part will be to develop a system where the site can be maintained as much as possible by non-techies. I've got a lot of the coding in place, so ideally I'd like to make the site data-base driven. My only concern is what happens if I need more time to achieve that goal than I have remaining!!! I need to make some decisions about exactly how this can be done.

It was my original plan to return to England in March/April 2007, but I am now aiming to stay until the Autumn to complete a full 2-year term. This is subject of course to me finding sufficient money. If you feel led to help me financially, please let me know, as that would be of great help to me and the completion this project.

Additionally, in January I am heading off to Costa Rica for 3 months to assist training staff at a seminary, working with other members of Latin Link, my sending organisation. I shall be returning then to Mexico in April for the remainder of my time to complete the project with Milamex.

Hopefully, now my head is back above the water, you'll hear a bit more from me again! Stay tuned.