Web Design Student
Millikin University

Katie Cryns

Learning Review

Throughout this semester in Web Publishing, I often thought about where I started as I began my journey through the designing world and laughed. Not that my web design skills are anything to utterly brag about, but I do find pride in how much they improved. With practice, I transitioned from complete novice to novice with potential in just a few months. I impressed myself with how much I learned about user, design, project development, and tutoring knowledge. The importance of these elements in web design, specifically when working with other clients, became increasingly apparent to me as I charged through each project.

User Knowledge

First and foremost, I am ecstatic about my linking skills. As silly as that sounds, throughout the semester I found myself creating links easier and faster. By the time I worked on my individual project, I had created so many links, I could do it with my eyes closed. As with all learned skills, at first the steps seem daunting and confusing and perhaps somewhat tedious. But the more I practiced, the simpler the tasks became. I even remembered to add a backslash after the last character in a link in order to make the page load faster for visitors. Switching from design to code was also an interesting learning experience. Prior to taking this course, I was unaware of any other way to build websites other than code. Dreamweaver is great because it incorporates learning tools for those who are visual learners/creators or more technical, formula-based learners/creators. The two elements work well together, too. If there was a problem with the page regarding images or spacing, looking at a split screen with both the code and design views could help me pinpoint where and what was wrong. CSS still gets me but I think with more practice I can work better with it. I am encouraged to continue building on these basic skills and learning new ones to help me create better sites.

Design Knowledge

This may be the most difficult portion of web design for me. Not because I lack a taste for what clients and visitors want, but because I can never make design decisions in a timely manner. For hours I can sit deciding which color worked best as a background, what size font was too big or little. I ask myself how much padding I need between the text and the border, where the links would look best and have the most efficiency for visitors, and how much space is needed between headings or sections of text to make the content readable and understandable. Working on the political website helped me understand the importance of gaining as much knowledge as possible from a client before and while you design a site. It becomes difficult, sometimes near impossible, to create a site based off little information and insight as to what he/she is looking for. I suppose the creative portion of building a site is both the most frustrating and gratifying part of the process. Before Web Publishing, I didn’t pay much attention to how sites affected me as a viewer but after analyzing many different sites and designing a few myself, I found myself choosing which applications, design features such as neat rollover links, and usage of space I liked best, trying to imitate them in my own designing. I remember hoping to improve upon design aspects in the beginning of the semester and I am glad I had the opportunity to do so.

Project Development

The actual process of developing any project is tedious and intense if it is done right. It must be so to incorporate the wants and needs of a client as well as giving personality. During the Mayfly case as well as the community client case, certain duties had to be delegated to each member of the group in order for tasks to be completed on time in order to complete the sites as wholes. Each member giving his/her all to a delegated part was essential for the projects to thrive. For the Mayfly magazine site, we were lucky enough to have our client on site most of the time we worked on the project, so we were able to ask him specific questions regarding what his expectations were and if what we were providing met them. The client introduced great ideas and propelled the project forward at a quick pace because of the specifications that he gave. As for the political website, the clients did not give much specific information about what they wanted the sites to look like, if they wanted any specific content provided, or any details on a discussion board so we dived in semi-blind and did the best we could. I think the results of this project could be improved and were somewhat disappointing due to group members not completing their tasks, not saving files correctly so others could view them by connecting to that server, and the client’s expectations and needs not being communicated to the groups.

Tutoring

One of the best forms of learning is through teaching. We did a lot of teaching in Web Publishing this semester. As students, we relied on each other’s user knowledge to answer questions we had regarding our sites. This not only allowed us to practice and learn but it also let us impress Dr. Brooks with our finished sites instead of asking him to show us the steps to do things. When it came to CSS, peer tutoring was at an all-time high. We constantly asked other students for help and aided others as well with the steps we were familiar with. A couple times, by working with another student to try to figure out why something was not working on their site, by working through the steps with them, I familiarized myself with the parts I found confusing. This course was based immensely around peer-to-peer learning and I think we are better designers because of it, mainly because it forced us to gain confidence in what we knew and learn through practice the things we did not know.

Hands On Training Tutorial Responses

Chapter 10

missing

Chapter 8

missing

Web Design
Links Page Critique

Jae’s bookmark page incorporates many of the aspects we’ve discussed and practiced so far in class. It is easy to navigate, has a variety of colors, and different links that allow for the flow of lots of information in an organized way. Not only did Jae put links on her page, as required, but she designed them as pictures instead of just hyperlinks. By clicking on the pictures that she chose to describe the link’s content, a visitor is instantly connected to that site.

She planted many anchors that allows for simple navigation as well. She placed some to scroll down the page faster as well as to jump back up to the top of the page. This makes surfing the content she added easy and convenient.

I wouldn’t suggest she change much except that perhaps some more spacing or definition between the pictures and information would make for a clearer understanding of each element.

http://students.millikin.edu/~jellison/BookmarksCase/bookmarkcase.html

resume critique

http://www.quintcareers.com/resume_sample_4.html

http://www.quintcareers.com/resume_sample_10.html

I like the first one better than the second because it seems cleaner and the color is more professional.

And I just thought you might like to see this:
http://www.tobycryns.com/

Chapter 7

missing

Chapter 6

missing

A Favorite Website:

Web Address: http://www.missy-elliott.com/

The site I decided to focus on is Missy Elliott’s official home page and web site. I chose this site for multiple reasons, but the most obvious being that I am in love with her and respect her work. I visit this site often and am never disappointed.

Orientation

She has some flash animation when the site first opens, which consists of red drapes or curtains being pulled open to display her picture on the top of the screen next to her name, clearly indicating who the site is about. The color scheme is consistent throughout the site; none of the colors blend together and no colors are hard to read. I’ve noticed on other sites that this seems to be a problem, placing, for example, light green text on a light yellow background, or an off-white text on a light yellow background. Missy’s site is not only consistent, but creative even within the same color scheme. She has different texts that draw the eye to certain areas of the screen, indicating a different portion of the site.

One of the most interesting things about this site is that every time a person visits the page, a different song off of her latest album is playing and can be stopped just by pressing the stop button. The music box is located in the top right corner; I thought this was an odd place to put it. A better place, I think, is in the actual body of the page, next to or under the link that takes visitors to her CD-ordering page.

Navigation

This site’s user manageability/navigation is simple, clear, and creative. The tabs at the top of the page linking to other parts of the site pop up a little and turn red when the cursor scans over them. There are a number of different links on the page and a couple places where a person might not think there is one, but the images change as the cursor scrolls over them, making them visible. Every time a link is clicked, the curtains close and open again with a new picture of Missy. The neat thing about her links are that most of the page doesn’t change. For example, if you click on Media, the right side of the site changes to reveal videos you can watch; however, the entire left side of the screen is left unchanged, which makes navigation to those links easy, still.

Content Quality

I find some of the content on the site to be lacking something, but I can’t put my finger on what it is. Her video/picture collection could be pumped up a bit; the videos play on different programs with also may not be compatible with certain people’s computers, especially if they don’t have the correct programs. The site always follows the same format and since the left side of the screen, which is the home page, stays put no matter what, no button is necessary to take a visitor back to the home page. Included in the site are her biography, news about her, tour dates, a gallery, media, extras (which includes wallpapers and buddy icons), and a message board, all of which can be accessed from tabs at the top of the page.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 was surprisingly interesting for me! Finally, I actually have the sense that I'm understanding something in this book! It was neat to see the many different ways Dreamweaver can do even the simplest steps such as creating links. Who knew placing a link into a site could feel so satisfying!

Placing the anchors was also a gratifying experience because I had always wondered how it was done. Well, now I know! I'm interested in continuing on with chapter 6 and as I stand right now, I think I am fairly fluent in the HOT book's language.

Chapter 3-4

I preferred working through the HOT book's steps hands-on instead of just reading through them because I could actually gauge my learning comprehension. However, I still encountered many issues and had to be helped by another student many times, so apparently I'm not a pro yet.

I'm interested in our web-project and am trying my best to get these early steps down so that when it comes to creating my own site, I won't have to keep going back to the basics in order to create something better. I don't have any real questions right now, per say, rather curiosity about what's to come.

Chapter 1-2

I didn't really understand the technical terms used in chapters 1 and 2, which in turn led me to more confusion understanding what I was supposed to do with them and what the book wanted me to do. Html versus xhtml still gets me and I'm confused whether that's what we'll be learning or if not, then why it was put in there.

I also don't understand why the examples are in Windows format when we are using Mac computers.