Accedia

Accedia is a software engineering company based in Sofia, Bulgaria. The company is specializing in IT consulting, software development outsourcing, and complex end-to-end solutions.

My journey with them began in Nov 2015 when I joined the company. As part of my work there I was responsible for the company website and brand identity.

About the project

One of the main objectives, when I started working on this project, was that the website will be powered by Sitefinity. I was in a team with one other developer and together we developed a set of widgets that can be used on the website.

The project took place in about 4 weeks in 2015 and included:
      -    Developing Brand Identity
      -    Preparing visuals
      -    Icon Sets
      -    Creating the company website - uploading and managing all the content
      -    Design QA sessions - Inspecting and directly editing the HTML&CSS of the website & widgets to adjust inconsistencies

Process

The process started by evaluating all existing pages and functionalities on the platform. Later on, I and the PMs had a series of meetings to gather requirements and understand the future vision of the company, how do we want to be presented and what message do we need to facilitate.

After understanding the visual requirements, mission, and vision of the company, I started consulting with the developers to understand our technical limitations.

With time all of the requirements were gathered. The visual work included designing about 20 pages featuring different aspects of the company services, a big set of icons and visuals as part of the company identity, and managing and working with Sitefinity to create the website.

Key Takeaways

Working on this project was challenging for a set of reasons:

- From the beginning to the end - This was one of my first end-to-end projects outside university. It was exciting to be responsible and independent, but at the same time, I had to be responsible and independent.

- Project Timeline - Another surprising thing for me as a freshly graduated student was that one project never takes as long as a full semester (which was the experience up until then). The deadlines I was presented with were much tighter and made me realize how different work in the industry compared to university was.

- Tools & Challenges - the tool we used was Sitefinity. It's a content management tool that gives a lot of opportunities, but as a young designer, I was extremely challenged in the beginning. There was a long learning curve, but in the end with patience and the right attitude, everything was fine.

- The developers are our friends - Fresh from university and right into the software industry I had a very vague idea of how team collaboration works. I was really pleasantly surprised by all the help, understanding, and patience from the team I worked with.

- Have a plan - Following steps and committing to deadlines was also something new to me. It was challenging to estimate and try to follow those commitments, but in the end, it proved as a great practice and sufficiently improved my organizational and time management skills.