Before arriving at Unboxed, I had an apprehensive view of the corporate world and my place in it. But, from the moment I arrived, any worries I had were dispelled. The team were all incredibly welcoming and once I was set up, I felt like an established part of the Unboxed ecosystem.
Programming
When I first arrived, I knew that programming would be the area of work I would be most interested in. I was introduced to Ben, a developer, and he helped me set up my workstation and pointed me towards my first project. I was asked to try out a prototype mapping system that allowed members of the public to view planning applications in their area and see if I could find any issues with it or any features that might need to be added. After familiarising myself with javascript, I discovered some incorrect input data wasn’t displaying an appropriate message and got to work trying to fix it. I learnt how to write my own regex (syntax checking) expressions and edited the code to allow for incorrect inputs of any type. Here is the fixed code and an example of what it does:
First design meeting
On the second day I was introduced to Fede, a designer, during a design meeting. We all discussed possible “User stories” about the product and drew up a list of what features could be added next. One idea was to create a text-based list underneath the map to assist with some of the more wordy information that otherwise would have clogged up the map. This idea piqued my interest and I set about to try and make it a reality.
Implementing the list
I first had to learn how to pull information from the BOPS (Back-office Planning System) API. I talked to Hugh, an intern who was in charge of the planning application map, and he taught me how to get the start dates and expiry dates for each of the planning applications. Once I had learnt how to gather the information I then had to learn how to display it. I researched how to edit HTML using javascript and began creating a function to feed the data into a table.
Adding sorting functionality
Another further idea put forward at the design meeting was the ability to sort the table data by certain attributes (such as the closest application to its expiry date). I worked on adding a functionality to seamlessly change the table based on the “Sort by” select box seen in the image above. Unfortunately I ran out of time to fully implement this feature but at least I have created a starting point.
Thank You!
I would like to thank the whole Unboxed team for making this experience productive, but also enjoyable. In particular, I would like to thank Ben and Vicky for making this all possible and Hugh for keeping my project running smoothly by offering advice and adding helpful tips along the way.
Thank you very much for this wonderful week!
Keen to get experience?
At Unboxed, we are always happy to welcome new talent looking for work experience. If you are interested service design or digital product development, send us an enquiry today.
