May 2010
t ha st si er nc ” la te ee ma fr ti h es it w u’d ng yo ki me or ti w of om nt fr ou ed am rn he ea et el ic av tw Ih n g ti in pu th to ne ed eo ne u “Th yo
Little did Alex know, the design was the simple part of the project – the part that he could control. Next came the coding. As he admits, “I knew there was still a lot to do, but I didn’t realize exactly how much.” The build was taking shape with the help of a developer working close to 18 hours a day, who was confident about finishing the site in time to meet the declared deadline. Yet, as the launch day neared, the developer reported that he would not be finished in time. “It’s a strange feeling when you feel like you’ve climbed a mountain only to fall back down,” says Alex of the despair he felt at the time. “The one thing I have learned from working with freelancers is that you need to schedule in twice the amount of time you’d estimate. It’s not just about handing over the designs, it’s about project managing and working closely with the developer to make sure they know exactly what is expected.” Though he was discouraged enough to think about putting the whole project on hold, encouragement from friends and family convinced Alex to crawl out of bed and into the capable coding hands of a London agency. Six weeks after the planned launch date, the site was
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