Web Design Students
Millikin University

Russell Conway

Learning Review

User Knowledge

Understanding the software was an easier transition than I had intended. Looking back at when I first attempted the Adobe programs it took a while till quality work came out of those early trials. Those lessons probably aided in the ease of Dreamweaver mainly do to the heavy graphics I like to apply to my work. Nonetheless I was satisfied with the level of quality that came out of my limited knowledge. CSS is still a mystery to me. I can handle elementary tasks but not with great confidence. The style sheet in general is a idea I’m not fully grasping yet it won’t stop me from trying to master this aspect of Dreamweaver. I’ll eventually get the hang of it. Just need time.

Designer Knowledge

The key lesson here is don’t assume. Don’t assume the viewer will comprehend your vison if it is not obvious. Case-in-point: Mapping an illustration with hidden links. Not everyone is playful enough to have a sense of exploration at a website. Websites in general are interactive information booths in the amusement park we call the internet. If the visitor can’t find his or her way around they will leave you attraction for something else. The rollover effect that Aaron successfully mastered can aid in the guidance of the narrow minded yet there still is a fine line between an affective site. I prefer to avoid the tradition web site look when possible yet there is a reason why all sites employ a universal design. It works. There is a give and take you have to concede to when designing a site. The path of the eye line reading left to right, the concept of a navigation bar, underlining/highlighting equals more information, basics elements that can’t be avoided. These limitations are just obstacles one must face when trying to accomplish a well designer site. I was surprise how easy a site can go from amateurish to professional will simple elements like complementary colors or negative space. Another thing you can’t assume in web design is the universal feature of a site. It may be accessible to everyone but with any design project you must identify your market and mold the site you there taste. More people will view it than just that select group you are targeting but it’s that group, that you must keep in mind who will be interacting with the site the most.

Project Management

I found the easy way to deliberate work load is to divide the project up into the strengths of each team member. My team was the same for both group projects and we approached the job the same way. Aaron handled the editorial aspect of the projects. More of the researching of content, whether that be coding or technical aspects, like sweeping the sites for consistency (fonts or spelling or padding) Hanna dealt with collecting and inputting data. Organizing the questions for the MCHM or physically typing the majority of text into the Mayfly site, Hanna handled the mean of the site and was better suited to write out the reflection/summary pieces at the end of projects as well. As a graphic designer I dealt with the design element as far as images and layouts went. But that is not to say I didn’t have help. With a group of three, democracy ruled the bunch. If someone has a idea and they pitch it to the group it either stays or goes. There is no in between. You either have another person on your side (majority) or you have two people against you (minority). Projects when so much smoother with an odd number. But it was also that we understood our roles and all had the same goal we wanted to accomplish.

Tutoring

Being in the lab for 3 of my 5 classes has me spending time with different student throughout the day. For the most part my help on the Dreamweaver side came in the early portion of the class like helping students link up their sites. But as the class progressed so did the students and when their skills improved most of my help was from the designer side of the table. Do these color work? Is this text too close together? Etc. That part I enjoyed more cause there is nothing worse than having someone ask for your help and you can’t do anything for them.

final project

something with children's books

Hands On Training Tutorial Responses

Chapter 13

What I learned in this chapter is simple, I can create forms but not use them. I'll check out the site they recommended. As far at creating the form, its a very generic process I was surprised they didn't throw in some creative way to make a form. But i suppost a form isn't meant to be creative at all about business.

Magazine Case Review

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http://students.millikin.edu/~ABynum/EN301/MAYFLY_comp/MayflyCase_russell/mayflyhome.html

For the team of Russel, me, and Aaron our Mayfly case wanted to reflect the booklet so it was easy to make the visual connection from the literal booklet Mayfly to the website. We designed our fonts in Futura as text and Worms for the sidebar text on the left for each page. It was organized in the simplest way we could imagine someone searching for the information. We catorgized our main page with a link to the frog on each page leading you back to the main page.

The links on the side were spaced out to be visually appealing but also we wanted to look spaced out like a haiku would be. We did not choose colors besides the links of red and blue because we thought too much else would be distracting to the concept behind haiku. We tried to emphasize the haiku and did that much on the intro page with lots of examples of the work and a lot of negative white space. We had a brooks books link at the bottom of every page so that if a person typed in Mayfly they could also easily go straight for each website. It took some time to develop but the page that took the most time was the gallery.

We ideally envisioned the gallery as something that would scroll by as the viewer was looking at the artwork, sadly that didn't quite work as well as we hoped the first time. It works it is just that the viewer now has to scroll through the artwork themselves. The gallery was made primarily by Russel and he envisioned as the haiga as icons. The viewer could see them and scroll by as if in a gallery but if they clicked on them they could see the whole picture with the haiku as well. It still was flanked on either side by plenty of white space so that it kept with our concept of haiku and simplicity. The structural arrangement of each page was simple like the concept. Every page is blocked in by two black sidebars. This visually is able to keep the eye to the center of the page, the main information and has the same look as the Mayfly booklet. It is a simple concept but it helps the website flow really well.

CSS

Just finished the CSS chapter and that thing kicked my ass. I going to try the exercises in my version but Im not grasping the idea i guess of full utilizing the CSS. Ive tried to apply the lessons on my homepage with no results. Maybe watching the video on the cd they offer will help

Chapter 10

I don't like how he opened the chapter negatively. He kept telling us most people don't use this or don't like it. That made me not what to read any further. but frames possible have some creative purpose if handled right. The only issue I saw on this chapter was he never fully explain the scroll bar. I assume once you have a certain amount of it requires a scroll to be used. But what if you just want the scroll anyway. Do you need a certain level of information with in the frame to become eligible to use a scroll?

Chapter 8

The one thing i have a problem with in this chapter is they don't give a good idea when best to use the different types of layouts. I found copying the tracing images messy and a bit too muchwork for results the other exercises seem to manage to do the same thing. Overlapping images seem to be an issue which that can be fixed with a click of a button. It's somewhat disappointing not being able to work in layer in that way. The biggest problem I find when attempting these exercises with out the given images is what size to save the images in. Is it better to go by pixels or inches?

Chapter 7

I found it interesting about the Lorem Ipsum text in my book. I assume others had this as well but the little bit of background information was nice. Plus he even threw in a outside link for Lorem Ipsum text. I know how hard it is to design something when you don't know how much space is going be required. The idea of the table seems easy enough but it seems limiting in some areas as far as overlap and what not. I suppose it would just take an clever use of placing your rows in colums so that it appears in the viewers eyes to not be in a grind form. You can't really go wrong with table. Almost every site is structured with a geometric mind set.

resume critique

GOOD
http://www.tobymaynard.com/web/famularo.htm

The main thing I focused on when looking for a resume was it had to be a graphic designer web resume. After that I flipped through multiples of sites and unless they grabbeb my attention right off the bat I moved on. What due me here was the unconventional way in which the site was layed out. Most sites seem to send there resume straight down the page. Pretty boring in my mind. Toby Maynard's site has a nice simple balance to it. Left side has the index and the right show what you are view. No scrolling, easy flip back and for action and the content is of quality work.

BAD
http://www.riley-g.addr.com/Riley/resume.html

This was hard deciding which site was the worst but when you have poorly cropped images of a van on your front page you know its going to be bad. I had a site that was so simple it was just white with text centered down the sides and another ugly main page but quality work inside. So I attempt to find a graphic designer who not only had a bad site but the work he posted on the site was equally as bad. This guy takes the cake. Who cares what you look like? And I get trying to get a sense of who the designer is with their own style but there is no need for your personal interset slapped all over the place. There has to be a definition of work and play if you have one site. Id be embarrassed to take credit for that work. Who gonna hire a designer that can't even handle his own site?

bookmarks case analysis

The orientation is nice right off the bat. The post card and links are all compressed into the main window are you leave her main site. We get a sense of this travel theme with all the different exaggerated fonts. The links and main post card image really tie into getter well. The multiple colors make perfect sense with such a colorful image. Without the Decatur post card the multi-color links could be distracting. Some links may over power others based on the colors she chose to place next to other links. But that image resolves any problem like that. The safety color, black, is a great choice to complement the rainbow links and images. The black background makes them stand out more when it doesn't have to fight with the slew of others colors on the site. The yellow text at the bottom is a nice choice as well, it continues with the decatur post card image but also stand clearly on its own against the black background. I know she not at the level to do anything more with the images next to the link titles but they seem to stick out quite a bit. Intergrating a monocromatic color scheme of yellow might be interesting.

The navagation is simple and right to the point. On my PC the ART link didn't dissappear and the Hallowween didn't drop down. All the links make sense to where you'll be heading if you click here and once you are there they all have an anchor back to the top. With everything in the center of the website she almost creates two large black boarders encasing here information. That way the viewer isn't going all over the place trying to find the info the what. A good informative site that gets the job done. Id like to see a map incorporated with the site and have links on the pushpins or dots sending you to that site. That way people in central Illinois can see what is near them.

As far as the quality and content the sites are ligit and have all the info you would need to get from them about events and/or the host. The annotations are good but I think if some are to have it then all need it. And side links like the article on the Decatur Museums need to de seporated some how from the body of the Main links. Even a smaller text could do that. The division lines inbetween the links divide the site up nicely and create an clean look. Overall the colors used and centered info is a nice and simple way to get the info to people who are simple themselves.

Chapter 6

In chapter six we are taught the fundamentals of fonts and text. You have to idetify similar fonts on our page so that different users can ultimately see the same thing. Even though in Mac's the text appears much smaller than in windows the dpi remains the same. Our author suggest to use a -1 or -2 over the default 3 to make the more popular windows verison more appealing to the masses but making the mac version lower in quality. Sad but you have to comfort to what the majority believes it right. Maybe all those Mac V. PC commercials they air of TV will fix things . . . or make them worse.

Bolter Chapter 1

So in Chapter 1 of Writing Space I found the idea of virtual environments interesting. The concept seems to be a very distant reality but a primitive one could be just around the corner. Though intergating tastes and smells into class room lessons seems a bit too year 3000 for my taste. With how interactive toys are for kids now its not a giant leap to think even at a young age a computer can be the main learning tool. My question would be is it feasible to eliminate text books altogether in classrooms? Not only cost for the school to have labs but place the burden of cost onto the parents to keep their child up to speed on his or her homework. There would be so many other outside factors involved by converting solely to the technology. No longer does the dog eat the home work but the Trojan Virus wiped out my hard drive.

This Site I really enjoy its simplicity ...

http://www.iam8bit.net/

Its a theme oriented site for an art exhibit which is currently steered toward the merchandise. I enjoy the quick flipping from page to page with the use of the "controler buttons". This is where my question comes in, are they using a link on each button an every page just has the same blue and gold matting of the arcade box or is the link only changing that area inside the arcade box? This technique would be very effective on a book site by creating the feel of turning a page.

18 Sept. 2006

Analysis of Site

When looking at the flash site iam8bit.net we are immediately presented with a short intro that can not be skipped. After we get past that small annoyance we can break down the site into three categories orientation, navigation and content quality. Since this is a flash site everything is contain within the main site and requires links to other sites for the bulk of its information.

The orientation is simple enough here, the site is for retro video game art so the page appears in the form of a classic arcade box. The information is set dead center inside the arcade box just as if you were playing a game. Nothing complicated, very simple and right to the point. Since the main show has past, there isn’t a whole lot of information right now. The main purpose is to sell merchandise. Because of that they keep things simple. If you want to look at the art they have an “Art” button. If you want to look at the book they have a “Book” button. Due to the fact that this site is promoting a themed show the site in turn is also themed. The classic video games keep things simple, so too does this site.

The navigation is nice because of the flash ability. On the arcade box the joy stick and control buttons allow the viewer to flip threw information quickly and with ease. Once the site has been loaded the flow between pages are smooth and make for an immediate transition. Some pages inside the arcade box require the viewer to scroll down to access the full information of the page. Other than that the store link will direct you to a different html site to purchase items from their store. Hear the only thing which remains from the Flash site is the logo and the blocky text. Again, everything is simple enough to click on the object which you want to view. Nothing fancy here their just trying to make a dollar. The one thing lacking would be a “true” home page just the intro revisited. Its not that long but updates and news could be separated. Everything is broken into categories and has its own page but nothing to regroup the viewer after visiting everything.

Last the content quality is lacking but cut them some slack, there has only been one show so far. Nonetheless for just being a one time art gallery exhibit to have a book commemorating the event is impressive. That’s where the hook is, in the book. The basics as far as dates, artist and contact info is presented but nothing other than surface level information. If you want more they have products to sell you if are interested. There is a nice manifesto to what IAM8BIT is and what it is attempting to accomplish. Though the site itself has not been updated for a while, once the new year rolls around hopefully more info on the second show will arise. Looking at past post it seemed to be updated at least every two weeks. For now its just a site attempting to earn some extra cash before the next show. If it ever happens.

Chapter 5

First thing I learned on this chapter is that I have one of the crappy computers. Once I would get done with step one I would open the next .html and the page would constantly scroll downwards for a number of mintues and type <p>&nbsp;<`p> across my entire code page. I deleted it but some other text I needed as well so I had to log out and start over after each step in the chapter. Needless to say it took a little more time than I wanted to take during these exercises.

As for the meat of the chapter linking seems simple enough. If you can't figure out one of the handful off ways you can create different links then they haven't made Dreamweaver for you. The tool used for the "point to file" took some getting use to but is very convenient. The only thing I couldn't figure out was how to bring out my Common group in the insert bar. I found the email link in a different way which they didn't mention until the end of the chapter. They seem to like doing the whole repetition thing and once you're done they'll tell you an easier way to do what you just spent 5 mintues on.

Chapter 4

What I learned in this chapter was how site are found on the internet. I always wondered how sites got identified through search engines. With Meta tags (which by the way were easy to find with my book) allow keywrods to be inserted into the HTML. This allows to web designer to enter common words that can be affiliated with their site. Even the foresight to spell words wrong and odd combinations of words.

With everything already packaged up for us in the exercise it makes web building too simple.