Some thoughts about project planning
So the first question which you may ask yourself when you start a design project is: “What am I going to do?” and “When is the deadline for my work?”. If you won't plan your project properly you might not be able to make your project on time or might forget some part of the project process. So let's figure out how to avoid it. I'll tell you the way I do it in my project and you can follow my way if you want.
Main planning steps:
To succeed in your planning you have to pass several steps of planning:
Understand the amount of work you have (Write down all the tasks you have to do in your project. Specify each task to make a clearer picture.)
Divide tasks according to two criteria: the importance of your project (If the result of the project strictly depends on the task submission or this task is optional) and the time of submission (If this task has to be done in the beginning of the project, or in the end of it).
Set the approximate time which you will spend on the submission of each task. (Always leave a little bit more time then you think it would actually take - you never know which unexpected issues may appear during the work; be ready for that).
Understand how much free time you will have to work on this project until the deadline. ( Remember to consider only working of your day. Also, if possible, leave at least one or two days free of work. Its good to rest because you can see the work you’ve done with freshly after that).
Now is the easiest part, you have a number of time blocks set in the specific order and the time you have until the end of the project. Just summarise these two criteria to get your timetable ready.
Remember: to follow your plan is always good but its impossible to plan everything. The system of task-time blocks (as I call it) will allow you to get a movable schedule which you will be able to adapt according to some changes that might appear.
The problems wich you might have:
Making a plan is good because you always understand on which stage of the project you are right now and always feel when you have to hurry up or have some free time to make extra tasks instead. But the problem that might appear is that this feeling of seeing all the tasks written down on the sheet of paper make you feel that you have done a lot and after that its hard to make yourself make more. For some people seeing the result of their work, at least a little one make them work more effectively, but for some people, this way may harm their productivity. So decide for yourself if its better for you. The other disadvantages which I found in the project planning are my personal. When you like to plan and when you plan a lot you are spending a lot of time to plan stuff more than to do it. So planning the project is definitely good for you but never forget that the main part of the project is actually the process of doing it. So if you are as passioned into planning as I am you always have to be focused and know when is better just to start doing without plan, because you may plan that you will test something for a week, but you can not plan what exactly you will do during this testing because design process, prototyping testing, discovering new ways of seeing things cannot be planned, it is a flow of thoughts and emotions which is leading you to discover something unexpected. So when it comes to the creative part you can plan only approximately the time which you have to spend on it but you can never plan where it would lead you.
How does this relate to my project?
During last week I was doing my project according to my plan. I’ve divided everything into tasks and was following my plan. And then I had a tutorial with my teacher and he told me that I am restricting my process too much. And he is right. I just have to start thinking about the shape and the way the main body of the container will work without following tasks, to jump into this process of sketching and rapid prototyping to get some result. I know that for those people who are used to plan everything is unusual to just go there and do without following a specific plan but it is what designers should do at some stage of the project when they doubt because the best solution is the one that went through this creative swirl of thoughts and testing.
I guess the best way to plan your project is to find the perfect balance between planning and flow of creativity.