For the second year in a row, I participated in The Nerdery’s Overnight Website Challenge. Basically, this is where teams of web pros gather to build awesomely, new websites for deserving non-profits, who have websites that are downright terrible in 24 hours.
The difference for me this year was being 7 months pregnant. Compared to last year, it was a whole new challenge!
Last year, we were paired up with a youth performing group who’s website wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t great. They had a ton of content (a TON) and needed organization. It was a mental challenge for me because I was doing project management along with site mapping, user experience and content. Needless to say, I was completely worn out when 9am rolled around.
This year, our team restructured. Justin and our other co-captain (captain from last year) organized people better and I think we were a bit more successful. We had dedicated people for tasks the entire night as well as some who were able to do multiple tasks when the need arose. I was all content and thankfully, our non-profit this time didn’t has as much. So I spent my time writing, researching, editing and doing some QA by just going through the site questioning pages. Mentally, it wasn’t difficult. I found it fun creating content in a way I don’t normally do. But physically, it was really hard to sit for so long.
If I was further along, I would have said no to participating. But thankfully, with restructuring our team, the non-profit we were given and my role on the team (and taking Monday off!) it was still a fun experience.