Web Design Student
Millikin University

Jim Thompson

Learning Review

In this class I definitely used and explored all of the types of knowledge. I know that I had a bit of an advantage in this class because I had prior knowledge of what we would be doing. Although it may have been thought that I didn’t learn anything in this class, I did. I definitely learned about project development and orientation. User knowledge and design knowledge were furthered, but not as much as the next class may do for me. I also decided that designing websites with external css is far superior to designing sites with internal css, as these sites are harder and more arduous to update.

Working in teams was an important part of this class because I hadn’t done it before, and although I may have been a bit of a workhorse in terms of designing, I’d like to think that I learned a lot about working with what other people think as well.

As far as tutoring knowledge goes, I helped those who asked me to in the class, especially Sarah Scharnett. I received help from my friend Scott Copeland, who is very very good with Photoshop, so I was tutored by outside sources, but it was my mind that completed my tasks. I enjoyed this class a lot and look forward to the next, more advanced one!

Hands On Training Tutorial Responses

Client Case Plans

When discussing the difference between The Lion, Beaver, Otter, and Golden Retriever, our group will strive to please all of the above, even if that is an impossible feat. All of the different groups look for different things, and sometimes it is impossible to appeal to all of them. The presidential election of 2008 is a pretty important event, so our site will strive to achieve the most factual, visually appealing, and informative site that is possible.

It is safe to assume that the lion and beaver will be the most prominent groups coming to get information about the election, but the other two may stumble upon the site and find it to be what they are looking for as well. They will come for a different perspective about the election, for dates for different states, and for updates about the current candidates. No matter the reason, hopefully our site will outline the necessary criteria and be a success.

Chapter 10

I believe that the World Wide Web is a revolutionary way of doing things uniformly. I would not ever hope to think that constraints or limits are put on it, seeing as how anything nowadays can be put on the web. I know that some may think that the internet may denounce what art stands for, but on the contrary, I think the web enhances virtual art, and gives physical art (paintings, photos, ect.) a nostalgic feeling. I love physical art, and I love virtual art and I know that they can coincide. I also feel that as one flourishes, it strengthens the value of the other. I liked the discussion about AI and human interaction. It was pretty interesting to think that some things will never be able to emulate human characteristics (that we know of). One of my favorite chapters by far.

Chapter 8

This chapter was the hardest thing for me to stomach so far. I have a problem with learning how to do something one way when I have it down another, and tables are an example of this. I realize that what I am doing in CSS is a table, but I suffer from the idea that preset things that Dreamweaver uses are “cheating”. I need to snap out of this. This chapter was informative for me, even if it was tough to fight through.

I was unaware that you could sort a table a certain way, whether it be alphabetically or ascending order. These kinds of formatting tips are great for quick website development.

Web Design
Links Page Critique

This is my critique for SKJOHNSON

I think her resources page is really awesome. I love the color sceme, but at the same time, I think it may be a little much at times. I think her navigation is awesome, as well as her content. Her site has meaning, and that means that her resources mean that much more. The links dont have rollovers, and I know we havent covered that in class...but it makes it really easy to distinguish what is a link and what isnt. The navigation could be expanded on (with back to top, back to home page, anchor to middle) such things as that. This page is very developed and very cool. Way to go Sarah and keep up the great work!

resume critique

Here are a few Web Resumes that I found that were pretty good.

This one had a great graphical design quality that made it stand out.

http://www.theamazingrolo.net/cv.html

This one was more simple, but still pretty clean and nice to look at.

http://www.kalsey.com/resume/

Chapter 7

This chapter was really  straight-forward and informative. It outlined how using css styles for typography makes it not an arduous task to edit text. This was an ingenious idea.

The idea of padding was an awesome concept for developers. It makes sites look uniform and not constrained. I really think this chapter was a nice break from chapter 6.

Chapter 6

The whole concept of CSS is one of the hardest things that site developers must overcome. I wonder what made the first developers conceive the idea of using universal style sheets to format a website.

I wonder if it is possible to develop new universal tags for css to design things for your benefit. It seems that most tags have been defined, but if you could develop new tags that fulfill personal needs that would be awesome.

A Favorite Website:

Web Address: http://www.2advanced.com/
Site About: This site to me, is really awesome.

"Site Analysis"
A website that I have chosen that utilizes orientation, navigation, and content is The Super Smash Brothers Dojo website or http://www.smashbros.com/. This site is very easy to navigate. The first page is just your choice of language or region. The next page that you are sent to is the main page where all of the updates take place. This site is dedicated to the game Super Smash Brothers Dojo, that will release late this year. It reveals new information every morning at 2AM.

On the left side of the site is a list of the different things that are discussed, such as characters, how to play, game modes, stages, items, music, and notices. Although one could argue that this site isn’t friendly to those not familiar with the game, it does a good job of summing up its purpose in the first paragraph of the page.

When you go to characters it even separates the characters into two categories. One of which is newcomers, or all the new characters that will appear in the game. The other is the veteran fighters, which are all of the characters returning from older games. This site is informative, easily navigated, and describes what it is. I think this is one of the best sites I have seen in terms of a basic layout, but still a very easy on the eyes.

Chapter 5

I really enjoyed chapter 5. I found it a bit remedial, but helpful. I found that anchors are necessary in creating webistes because of convienence and accessability. I think that linking and downloading files was a good addition to this chapter because it is used in virtually every site.

I cannot wait until we start CSS in the next chapter. To me, that is what is very important to site building. I think it will be a little much, but is necessary to fix and maintain sites. I look forward to what we will get to learn from here on.

Chapter 4

I am finding it a bit confusing to understand when DOCTYPE is important. The explanation on page 57 seemed a little dodgy. I wonder when the rendering of a page will matter enough to visually alter the page, or even make it load slower. Either way, if XHTML 1.0 is good for them, then its good for me too.

The assets panel is kind of confusing. It was talking about copying assets between various sites. Is this the most efficient way to reuse images when building multiple sites?

Meta tags were a little watered down. If we need to know them for our own sites, then I want to make sure that I use them properly. From what I understand, they help internet search engines index your site. I have also found to keep them short and simple, due to a restraint on how long they can be.

Chapter 3

1. When reviewing chapter 3, I found it a bit hard to understand where they were going with the lesson in comparison to the whole site-building process. I understood the creation of the new folders, the redirection of folder in order to access it in a local folder. I find it frustrating to learn the "correct" method of using Dreamweaver, but also think it is necessary for proper web design.

2. I found it hard to understand when they made us drag the tea logo onto the website twice within the same chapter. I wasnt entirely sure why they had us do it. It was the same process both times. I am excited for when we can incorporate other programs with dreamweaver.

Chapters 1 & 2

1. When reviewing this text, most everything made sense to me, with the exception of them prying on the knowledge of html vs. xhtml. I think this would confuse most students who arent familar with coding at all.

2. I also wonder why they decided to include windows based examples within the same chapters. I think they should split these up to avoid confusion. I realize it is a multi-platform program, and they did an alright job distinguishing between the two, but its just something to consider. I realize that these are statements rather than questions, I just dont have any questions as of now. As the semester continues, I am sure I will have plenty to ask.