Mobile version of Dnes.bg

I am very proud that I and my team were able to complete this huge project just 2 weeks before I left Investor.bg Group (IBG). It was a real challenge to project manage the idea, the design and the development of entire new mobile web site for the largest news portal in Bulgaria – Dnes.bg
Today, the mobile website is up and running, so please feel free to visit it at: m.dnes.bg

Project scope

- To develop a modern mobile web portal for Dnes.bg
- User friendly and easy to navigate home page
- Article page with various placeholders
- Comments functionality
- Listing pages
- Gallery page with thumbnails
- Horoscopes section
- Currency rates section
- TV and Cinema programmes sections

The main goal of the project was to design, develop and deliver a great mobile web site for the largest news portal in Bulgaria – Dnes.bg

Project team

Lubo – Chairman of the board of directors of IBG
Iana – OPS director (at IBG)
Alex – External UX/Design consultant - https://posteffects.bg/
Emarketing – External Web marketing agency - https://emarketing.bg/
Hristo – External Web developer
Dnes.bg Media team (at IBG)
Simeon – Project manager (at IBG)

The team consisted of IBG members, External UX/Design consultant, External Web developer, External Web design agency. I, Iana and Alex were responsible to elaborate the idea, I was responsible to write project specifications, project roadmap and to communicate with Emarketing and Hristo so they could deliver the final product. Emarketing were responsible to do the mock-up, the design and the front-end coding, and Hristo was responsible to do the development of the web site. Lubo acted as the manager who provided final approvals at the stages and Dnes.bg Media team supported the project once it was published live.

Project resources

Lubo, Iana, Dnes.bg media team and Simeon – employees of IBG
Alex – External consultant – hourly based cost
Emarketing – External/Web marketing agency – design & frontend. Fixed contract
Hristo – external web developer - hourly based cost

Costs:  ~100 000 EUR
Time: ~ 82 working days (4 months)

The costs calculations were done based on the fixed contract with Emarketing, the hourly based payment rate of Alex and Hristo and also the time that the IBG team members spent on the project. The exact number is confidential information, so 100k is just an example number.

The project checklist

Here is the checklist I used to manage the project. I also used project specifications document and my project/task list to write down notes about the project. Also a flowchart containing all the pages and functionalities (and the logic behind them) was created by me. The tasks were broken down using simple waterfall technique. The project roadmap was:
1. I, Iana and Alex discussed the project, the pages and the mock-ups with Emarketing.
2. Emarketing delivered mock-ups for the major pages.
3. We discussed the mock-ups at IBG and provided revisions.
4. Emarketing implemented the revisions and then authorization was granted to proceed with the designs of the pages.
5. Again, the designed pages were revised and approved after that.
6. The frontend coding was done by Emarketing.
7. The project and the project specifications were sent to Hristo for development.
8. The beta site was revised.
9. The site went live – and we (IBG team + Hristo) continued to monitor and maintain it.

After the new mobile site was launched live – we received tremendous amount of positive feedback. Our managers were happy but most importantly the users using the mobile web site were very happy about it. And all the team members were very proud that we managed to deliver such an outstanding product.