How do you document your work?

chrisoliver 2016-09-03 15:49:55 UTC #1

This week my instructor as GA stressed to my class the importance of documenting our work, not just taking photographs and screenshots of our progress, which we had already been doing, but taking notes on everything we had done and why we had done it, in order to make it easier to explain and defend our design decisions in presentations, case studies, interviews, etc. However, he didn't really explain how we were supposed to go about this.

I'm curious how you document your work. What do you keep track of? How do you keep it organized? We also just started our first team project yesterday, so I'm also curious how you manage the documentation for a team.

gracie_gadston1 2016-09-03 21:08:32 UTC #2

Hi Chris!
It's great you're being so resourceful in finding information

Case Studies are for sure very important for showing your process. It's very much going back to the iceberg scenario, in that our projects are just the tip, but what potential employers are looking for is how you got to that result, what your trial and error process was and why.

This is a great site to see examples of how others will write their case studies. I use this as a reference a lot. casestudy.club
Also, if you are interested, here are my case studies if you wish to read? I am a junior myself, I have finished bootcamp and I am in a similar position to you. Feel free to give me feedback! When you have yours done, I'd love to reciprocate by reading yours over too!

I hope this has helped!
Good Luck

jaisonjustus 2016-09-04 08:15:05 UTC #3

@chrisoliver I manage to keep a working document (an omnigraffle file) for almost all projects. This document is my idea dumping place. I use OmniGraffle because drawing is easier for me than writing. I never published any of my case studies till the date because of writing block.

chrisoliver 2016-09-06 00:04:56 UTC #4

Thanks for link to the case studies site!

I'll read your case studies when I get a chance. I actually have another thread where I'm sharing my case studies for feedback. I just wrote a draft of my second one, which I found a little more difficult than the last because I didn't really keep god notes of my process (something I'm trying to do going forward).

chrisoliver 2016-09-06 00:08:18 UTC #5

Interesting. I've only used OmniGraffle a little bit for user flows so far. I never thought to use it that way.

I feel you on the writing block. I always procrastinate until the last minute with writing anything.