I propose to redesign the UI/UX of the Melange platform. For 5 years now, i guess the GSOC portal has been looking the same. There is lot of scope of improving the user experience and look and feel of the portal. I am looking forward to take that as my project for my summer with GSOC 14. Hope to bring a new experience for the GSOC’ers in the coming years.
1) Basics
1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.
I am Russel. Right from my undergrad i have a craze for programming and i have explored different programming languages and kinds. i have been applying for last two pref years GSOC and i failed to make it in. This time i am determined to make it.
1.2) State your preferred email address.
me@russel.in
1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC, what is it?
rusnic
1.4) Why do you want to participate in Google Summer of Code?
I want to get the feel of working with open source community and i eventually want to continue doing the same. So i see GSOC as a starting point of my contribution to open source community.
1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?
I am doing my masters in Remote Sensing. i did my undergrad in Computer Science major.
1.6) What country are you from, at what time are you most likely to be able to join IRC?
I am from India. I will be in IRC 24*7 if thats is what it takes me to be a part of GSOC.
1.7) Do you have other commitments for the summer period? Do you plan to take any vacations? If yes, when.
I have my mtech project which revolves around android application development. it is 90% completed and in a months time i will be done with it
2) Experience
2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?
I have worked with Java, Python, Django, PyRoute, OSM, HTML, CSS, JS, Jquery …
2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)
I haven’t worked as a team before. But i have decent knowledge on Git so i hope i will be able to coordinate well with a team and work
2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?
I have applied twice but i failed to make it. I was almost shortlisted for working on the Payswarm project but they selected another person to me towards the very end as google had limited their entries 🙁
2.4) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.
I then and there publish my code in public repos. But other than that i have not contributed for any open source projects as such. I am very much looking forward to it.
3) Communication skills
3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project’s working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.
i can read and write in english at ease.
3.2) In what spoken languages are you fluent?
English and my mother tongue tamil.
3.3) Do you give constructive advice?
Of course Yes!. Advises are for betterment.
3.4) Do you receive advice well?
Definitely, That way one can share experience and knowledge of others which will definitely be vital for fine tuning my programming skills.
3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?
I hope so. Haven’t trivially thought about it.
3.6) How autonomous are you when developing? Would you rather discuss intensively changes and not start coding until you know what you want to do or would you rather code a proof of concept to “see how it turn out”, taking the risk of having it thrown away if it doesn’t match what the project want?
i would go with “see how it goes” That way i understand the problem faster(if any) and build a solid code.
4) Project
4.1) Did you select a project from our ideas list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?
Yes! i want to redesign the whole GSOC melange platform. I felt and realised that the look and feel has been same for a few years now. Also i have noted that the platform is not a responsive UI.
4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.
4.3) Why did you choose this project?
Some how i strongly believe with your mentorship i will have a great experience conceptualising a brilliant UI for the Melange platform and integrate it into code in the 2 months period.
4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don’t forget to mention special things like “I booked holidays between A and B” and “I got an exam at ABC and won’t be doing much then”.
Reading documentation to underlying design concepts
Complete concept redesign — Fireframes
Photoshop page designs — Graphic design
Fixed width(1104px) frontend design — HTML CSS
Integrating code into Melange platform — AppEngine integration
Testing and Functional bug fixing —
Responsive Frontend implementation — JS and CSS integration
Screen and mobile testing & bug fixes —
Load testing —
Other essential things (if anything) —
4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can
HTML CSS JS and integrating it into app engine is all the technical aspects of my project.
4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?
I hope to gain an experience of working with world Class UI designers to understand design better and implement design in an effective way.
4.7) What would make you stay in the Melange community after the conclusion of GSoC?
I would love to contribute in php JS requirements for Melanga and also will do the necessary design revamps.
5) Practical considerations
5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?
Git (used for all commits) — YES
HTML/CSS/Javascript (used in the frontend) — YES
Python (language used in the backend) — YES
AppEngine (platform used for the backend) — I have tried once
Django (framework used in the backend) — I have tried hosting basic web services
5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?
Notepad++ – it is handy to use while working with multiple file, it is light, it can be useful for hot swapping.
Photoshop – For any graphic design works.
Filezilla – Convenient to work on server.
Chrome inspect element tool – very useful to adjust CSS
Git – To keep track of code
5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?
Java, Php, HTML CSS, JS, Jquery, Python/Django
5.4) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail. If you are willing to do so, please do list a phone number (including international code) so that we are able to contact you. We will *not* make any use of your number unless some case of “there is no way to contact you” does arise!
Yeah! My Skype id is : russelnickson Mobile no : 0091 98947 20101
5.5) Did you submit any code to Melange? If so please link it here, if not what are your plans for doing so? A patch will not only help us judge your skill but it is a very good preparation for your project.
I am looking forward to submit code to Melange asap. Once, i do it i will post it in my proposal.
Looking forward for an awesome summer of coding experience!
