Web Design Students
Millikin University

Michael Brown

Learning Review

Dreamweaver has been so easy to use. I have never built my on web site before this class. I had no idea what to expect coming in here. I had a lot of trouble at first. I ran into the issue of not having enough space on my H-drive, which is where my WWW folder is stored. Once I got more space it all flowed and is flowing greatly. Knowing Photoshop our a similar program is very helpful. You can just use the text in D.W. because they only have basic type. So knowing Photoshop and web saving it and adding it in helps give you variety on text. The same applies to images. My favorite thing to explore was the flash and rollovers. Its cool when you get things moving, be it a star spinning or a picture changing when you scroll over it. Tables are a God sent it has help arrange things so much better now. It get type and photos were I want them to be. Merging them and splitting them helps move things over and set up your page. I also like the anchors. The so easy function thing that take you to a certain place on the page.

Developing a website is a time consuming task. Working alone, for me, is a lot easier. You don't have not everyone's ideas and passions clashing with one another. I did enjoy my group experience and it did work for me but somebody's idea won't get used. Not saying I experienced this but someone could take on too much work, and then another person could slack off. I was very lucky to have two groups for Mayfly and the Client case. For Mayfly we all were still really new at using the program so we all didn't master anything quite yet. We had an talked about our design and layout the day we discover our partners and we were excited for the project. But when we went to execute the design we couldn't do it. We just couldn't figure it out. It all got to be really time consuming trying to figure it out. Then we decided to find a new idea. So we just brainstormed a lot and finally got a home page for ourselves. We established the side bar and content pages so now we can individually work on a page. The bad thing about that is working with the tables we didn't master it yet. So the pages looked slightly different.

The second group project was for the client case. I signed up for Dove cause I was more intrigued at building up a brand new website. This time we all knew more what we were doing so know it was more find your spot and role in the design team. We had like a CSS expert and two graphic designers, and little ole me. Even through I couldn't help as much as they did with the actual build up of the site I could add touches, adding pictures, and say a visual design and then they could do it. And I see now is you need all these type of people for a design team you need the graphic designers and the people with the eye to have a full functional team. When doing a website by myself I was really excited because know I could use all my idea and I did have a lot. With all the cases I had to think about who was my target audience. For Dove we had an older audience so we had to make the print larger while for my website its mostly for college students so it could be smaller print and a little bit more funkier. I could play with more fun things for this age group. I really wanted this to appeal to future prospective for these fraternity.

Design you really had to put the clients thoughts into it (what they wanted) but still have your design element attached to it. But still know what actually is realistic in their demands. You really have to design to the audience. You really have to draw them into you web site. Its ok if they come but it's important that they stay.

Hands On Training Tutorial Responses

Final project

My website design I want to do is on Alpha Psi Omega, the theatre fraternity her on campus. We already have a private site and I'm making this site to be more public. Showcase our members and our mission.

Chapter 13

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Magazine Case Review

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Members of design team are: Megan Kovacks, Michael Terrell Brown, Lindsay Binkley

http://students.millikin.edu/~MKovacs/mayfly/index.html

This is a mixture of all our thoughts:

We wanted to keep some of the staples from the Mayfly magazine for the readers to recognize and to keep a sort of general connection. Some of the aspects we kept were the mayfly frog, the paintings (for our page backgrounds), the worms font (which we made in photoshop then put on the webpage so it would show up on other computers), and the colors black and white. We also added red because it would make the site pop more and add a bold touch to it. Also the red, black, and white seemed suitable for the haiku theme.

Because we wanted the paintings to be such a large part of the site, we put them as the background on the pages with a red side bar to show where the links to the other pages and the homepage are. We faded out the painting a little bit so it wouldn't be too distracting from the text that we wanted to put on that side of the page. We did this in photoshop fairly easily. We also chose a different painting for each page background.

An original theme idea of ours was to make the site very parallel to the magazine by having the two black side columns with the white section in the middle, putting the links on the left column and the words 'mayfly' going vertically down on the right column, and also with the painting fadded out in the center white section. This we discovered was maybe not the easiest, quickest, or best idea considering the time frame we had to work with then (without the week extension) and also considering our computer abilities---which were fairly close to no special skills, exception being MTB with his other computer class where they are working with photoshop. So we had to work within our limited knowledge and abilities. In the end, I think that the website looks pretty good considering the said limitations. We also wanted to keep it fairly simple because that is a theme in the magazine (one haiku on each page, slow and simple and thoughtful). We thought it was important to have an archives page because it might entice first time visitors to the site and people new to the magazine to subscribe or submit. Which also leads us to a subscribe and submit page. We also have a contacts, mission/about page as well.

In our design we felt it was important to feature the art work with the haikus. This was always a part of Mayfly issues so we used the graphics to create the background of our web page. We felt it was important to include the company symbol for our homepage since that is a familiar symbol to Mayfly subscribers.

We also felt it was important to include the Worms font that the Mayfly covers used. When creating our web page we find it important to include author and subscription information, back issues of Mayfly, and the mission of Mayfly. We felt it was more effective to include the mission of Mayfly instead of including more information on the publishers. Our original design was closer to the design of the cover of Mayfly, but after experimenting with images we thought the design looked better when we put a red border around the picture. Through our experimentation and group discussion we created an effective, easy to use Mayfly page.

Chapter CSS

If I could some this up in one word it would definatley be WHAT! Everything ran smoothly i had no issue with the program. It was actually rather nice to actually have a program match up with our material. It all just plum confused me. It seemed like we were doing a lot So many word and layouts. It wasn't as enjoyable or easy on the brain and eyes that the dreamweaver book.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10 Ths was a fun chaper because we got to play with flash a little bit. We got to see animation rather that this non movement we had.This chapter seemed pretty easy but i think it would be harder to do it free handed or with out the tutorial. It gave me sveral ideas that can help with other cases concerning the side links and tables. Creating multiple rollovers was rather confusing. it was all do this, WAIT don't do whats normal. It was just a lot going on fo rme to see whaqt was actually happening i didn't get a good grasp on it untill i finshed it, I love the text button. It sems very fun tool.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 began simple enough. it ran very smoothly for me and i understood what was going on. Then i got to section 5, and i couldn't draw the 2nd layout on the page. I couldn't figure out what was wrong or what i need to do to fix it. Beside that every thing else ran very smoothly. I was able to draw the other cells prior to this and trace them all. It gives me a idea for my personal website.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 was really helpful. I, and I know my fellow classmates had issues with correct alignment and this chapter having tables made these clearer. I was more interested in creating my own tables than modifying them. It seemed like that will help benefit me more. Or at least right now. I like they way the book made us do it so many time because know im more comortable at finding all the tool setting. It did create a problem through because the book didn't lign up visual with the actual tool used in this version of dream weaver. So i had to really look for the icons. Like the page properties. The book presents it all on way page with we had to go to link to link to link. I like putting in the images because it gave me a great new idea for the layout on my web page.

peer resume critique

I choose to look at Carrie Seymour's web resume. First off I really enjoyed her intial design. It had the same concept and flow of her personal web page. I really enjoyed the layout. The colors of the back ground did not clash or fade in to one another. It all blended very well, making it an excellent color combination. It went together great. She didn't add any pictures or anything to the page which gave her a very professional appeal to her web resume. She really stayed on top of all the criteria we are writing about. Hey type format was good. We didn't have any crazy copy-and paste fiascos. It was all really neat and again flowed and easy to look at. Eveything fit and was not cluttered.

Navigation on her persoanl web resume was super easy. She gave us for each catorgory of her resme a bk to top feature which was very convinit. Becaue if ever lost or want to jump to a different pary of the section there it was. At the top that was so good was each catagory had an anchor to it. She created links for each of her catoagories for her resume. It was such a good bonus. I really enjoyed it, but my favorite part was it was also one at the bottom with the same link to the catogories. I really enjoyed her flow and easy access to her resume. If I was an Empployer, I'll hire her.

resume critique

bad--http://www.alaskaactor.com/actors/amiee_theactress.html

good--http://www.angelfire.com/film/jfork/resumes.html

Bad-i choose this as bad because it was so dull. It really had no life as a online resume. When you scrool down to trining it gets all confusing. It naviagted ok but could be a lot better.

Good-this one was easier to follow. He set everything up neat and had links to other helpful things that would boost his resume. it had more paza. It also had a printable link for his resume.

bookmark case review

My critque is on the lovely site of Lindsay Binkley. I found her bookmark case to be very helpful. Like her, I am an acting major. She has compiled a list of links on her site every actor should visit. My favorite thing she did was insert a picture as the back ground. It is a picture from the show chorus line. So it look like a thousandhopefuls at on dance.

Organization: Lindsay's website was well organized. She could have bleed the website with horrible and tons of info but she didn't. She kept it basic,which is not bad at all. I would have like to seen the links more center, instead of justified left. I do understand the purpose of it is becasue of the link color. It would have blended in with the background. Then on that note I would try another color or make that one pop. The very last link gets a little hidden. I do like the visited link color it goes weel with the background.

Navigation: She sets up navigation well. Since its not a alot not a lot ws needed. To add a bit more maybe Lindasy you can try adding a small descrition of each site, just the website is fine but maybe a little more into it.

Content: She had very relevant facts. She didn't bombard us. Very good websites were given. I really injoyed the picture it gave an amazing theme to the page and visual aid.

Chapter 6

This Chapter seemed to be the easiest chapter, since It was playing and learning fonts and colors. We already experimented with it with our creation of the website. Also other programs like word let us experiment with changing font color, size, and style. The weird thing for me, not hard, was changing font from the "edit front" menu. People before already changed or deleted them. So it was like I was a step ahead, when i felt a step behind, when it turned out I was right in the middle. The newest thing i Learned was the order list. It was preety cool. I never knew about that feature. and wonder if Word also has it.

bookmarks case strategy

I have no clue what made me think of this topic. My only clue could be hunger but I ate before class. I choose to do my bookmark case on brownies. Not the adorable girl scouts but the delicious treat of chocolate goodness. My first plan and layout of the web site was to make a brownie site about the brownies and there history of being. I performed a google search. I started off with a search for brownies. Then google gave a suggestion. It suggested brownie recipes. Then boom I got a better idea. A site where you can go and get a few good brown recipes. As my search continued I found sites like Mrs. Fields, and New York Brownie Co. that made brownies and shipped them right to your door. That then sparked yet another idea for my site. Not only will I have great links for my recipes but also links for delivery of professionally made brownies for those non bakers of the world, or if people simple want to give a gift.

Any and everyone is welcome to this site. My tag line is Do you like Brownies. Almost everyone lives brownies, there are so hard to pass up. So this sites is calling all bakers, eaters, and lovers of brownies. You can find lots of different brownies. You can learn to bake the simple saucepan brownie to the on-dairy, no sugar, and no fat brownies.

My site is fairly simple to follow. Its pretty straight forward. I think the navigation is easy to follow. I added anchors to one of my lines. “To bake, or Not to Bake?” If you click on bake it takes you down to the recipe portion of my web site. While if you hit not to bake it takes you to the delivery portion of the Brownie site. I put easy to follow link titles to the different web sites so viewers can have an idea of what each link means.

I wish I knew more techniques for page decoration. I wanted it to be more fun visually. They are brownies it’s suppose to be fun. I did choose to go with a brown back ground simply because, they are brownies. I decided to go with Yellow, white, and black text. They all seemed to really pop and flow with the page. I was happy with that descion. After my title I gave a brief description of what this site was about. Then I proceed on with giving the links. The links have either one cool brownie recipe or on with several kinds to make. I also include in it my favorite brownie. I found it online and added it in. It's Carmel brownies.

website
http://www.musicals.net

When I was in high school i use to go to this website all the time. I thought it would be fun to revisit it in a more professional way. I checked it out and it's all revambed and bettaer that before. This site is organized so much better now. It is really good. The home page is basically the introductary page. You can browse the othe part of the site here. It gives you also the new information. Thing going around in the theatre world and new creations on the site. They have everything neatly set up If you explore in the show link it gives you a nice layout of the show. The color scheme is also good. Nothing clashung every thing flows we together. I like the new way you can acess home, shows, forum, and help on the top of every screen. Novigation is so simple on this site. I got lost on the old design. Everything is neat and line dup. Links are well explained but not overpower with info. It all take ou to your place of desire. The forum page soemthng that can reck havack is very gretaly done. The musical infomation page is easir to navigate. The link will light upp if you drag the mouse over it. Content is amazing if you are and actor or a lover of musical theatre. They give you info to wear to buy cds, songlist, and even auditions. Even as a non registarted person you can view it all except post. It also has link to other theatre related page that are helpto theatre folks.

Writing Space Chapter 1

On pages 7-9 the authour mentions gutenberg and the thought he might be appaled if someone took his foilo-sized bible to bed. Last year i discover a site with several publications of novels and plays on-line http://www.gutenberg.org/ and i was wondering if it was ant relation. To the theory and it being online, or if these are totally two different indivduals.

Chapter 5

After chapter 4 i have a way better perspective on where things are. This tutorial my favorite feature was the Point to file. I just had to press the icon, drag it to the next, and boom it was done. It was so easy. Anchore, well i didn't know what was really going on with it and why we put it there. But on discovering what it does it excited me. Its where you can click a link and the page automaticlly take you to the top of the page or the section you want. It was prety awesome and so easy to do.

i love point to file, its so easy. My favorite new discovery.

Chapter 4

First I never with this program so I had some timidness coming into it, but the book breaks it down so well its very easy to follow but in chapter 4, the hardest part i just stubbled over was setting the color, actually finding the correct key, since it looks different in the book.