Landing Page for a Research Conference

This project celebrates the inaugural research conference hosted by the Department of Development Studies at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Given the tight deadline, I chose a simpler design and framework to balance the development timeline and limitations.

Backstory

I met up with the faculty in charge and we explored some of the conference websites. There are specialized software solutions dedicated to creating conference websites, but considering the timeline, we chose to use Google Sites. Google Sites offers a free WYSIWYG web builder interface that is perfect for this event. When discussing landing pages, we talked about how fast, efficient, and cheap it is to design them using Google Sites compared to coded solutions and other no-code web builders such as Wix and Squarespace.

Developement

During the initial process I was only handed a “Call for Paper” document. And based on my discussions and research into other sites I was able to quickly create the site and generate the content for it.

As this is a conference with multiple dates, I considered it important to have a countdown function on the site. The countdown mechanism tracks the different dates using a JavaScript object, and it counts down to each subsequent event until it reaches the final event.

Challenges

Google Sites, although a fantastic platform, suffers from a number of limitations that posed a challenge for me to bring the client’s vision to life. These limitations include:

• Absence of same page navigation via id tags
• Non-responsive font sizes
• Overall design constraints with font spacing, background colors, pre defined column spacing etc.

However, the client and I worked together to find solutions (and sometimes compromises) to build the site. This was a collaborative opportunity for me to learn about the insights and visions of academia.

Conclusion

I, along with the committee in charge of the conference, were pleased with the site. There were, of course, some minor issues regarding website media selection, images, and content. But considering the timeline and working with the oversight committee, I was proud of the work I did. My experience as a POC/MVP developer came in handy to work with the organizing committee to find solutions that satisfied them. I hope to collaborate with the department and the university at large to help design and host such events.