Web Design Student
Millikin University

Krista Jones

Learning Review

User Knowledge:
My user knowledge has expanded far beyond what I ever thought it would ever be. Before this class, I knew absolutely nothing about creating a web page. Know I am happy to say that I can actually build a sufficient web page. Although there are still many things that I still need to learn and would like to understand more, I feel like I know enough to get by and to learn more.

Design Knowledge:
I wish I knew more when it comes to design knowledge. There are so many people in the class that were able to create fantastic pages and I just wish I could understand how the heck they did that. For example, Jim. His group pages were always great. They truly look professional and I wish that I could have had the opportunity to work in a group setting with him. I feel like I could have learned so much more if I could have had that opportunity.

Project Development:
With the client cases, our projects always turned out a lot different from when they started. I think it was interesting to see how they changed over the course of the project. We always started with the basics, and if we were able, we would continue to do more so that every project didn't look the same. I was lucky enough to work with organized people and we were always on the same page as to what the project needed to look like.

Tutoring Knowledge:
I received a lot of help from my fellow class members. They were always happy to help me whenever I needed help. The people that stick out in my mind are Sarah Johnson, Rachel, Laura, Justin Miller, and over Dr. Brooks. I am very grateful for all the help I received from these people.

Hands On Training Tutorial Responses

Chapter 13

Forms are a great way to get users to interact with the page. I would like to think that I can do this on my own, but it has proved to be too difficult for myself. Laura and I tried to do this with our Election page, and we also attempted it with Rachel on the Mayfly case, but it didn't work out quite well. So we stuck to the easy route instead.

Client Case Plans

Information versus Entertainment Value:
The three web pages that we found to have the most information are as follows:
http://www.ncsl.org
This page gives an overview of the primary calender from January 3rd-June 28th.
http://www.opensecrets.org
This website is all about the United states government and if you click on the Link for 2008 election, it gives the reader a complete overview of the candidates and there stance at this point of the game. Had a lot more information regarding the election.
http://news.yahoo.com/fc/US/2008_Presidential_Election
This page is used for more information, kind of like a newspaper only straightforward and all about the election.
http://www.declareyourself.com/home/home.html
This was our favorite of all the pages because it has both entertainment and information offered. The minute you open the page, if your sound is on, music starts to play. People can register to vote and take surveys etc. Although, this page is directed to a younger audience. We would like to model our page after this, especially since our page will mainly be directed towards Millikin students.

User Personality Concerns:
The users that I expect will be using the Italian Voice Study web page are users that are interested in studying both music and the Italian language in Italy. So mostly musicians, in particular college students. We want to make our page informative and easy for users. I think it would be nice to incorporate the Italian culture within the page, so that when people visit it they feel as if they are already in Italy. I really don't foresee users that are not musicians visiting the sight, but we will still make it so anyone can who is interested in Italy can use it.

Chapter 11

The Rollovers chapter, seemed a little too difficult for myself. I don't understand why people don't use the rollovers that are offered in page properties? I guess it is just a way to make a page look more flashy. I more simple and while its fun to have interactive qualities, I think I'll stick to simple rather than flashy. Flash buttons make me so mad. I can never get them to work. When I make them on my own and following the directions in the book, all I get is a box with an F in the middle. The link works, but the settings and the writing I selected in the flash button dialog box never comes out the way I want it to. GAH!

Chapter 10

This chapter was interesting because I never knew that it was necessary to create a printer friendly page when constructing a web page. I always thought a person could just press print and what was on the page would be printed automatically. This would come in handy with online resumes, although some can always attach a pdf file that would open in word or something.

Chapter 8

Well with all the work that we have been doing with tables in the past couple of weeks, I felt really proud of myself on this chapter! I felt like for once I actually knew what I was doing. The biggest thing that is still taking me awhile to figure out is changing the background color within the table. I really like that you can change the color of each row and column so they look different. And now I actually know how to add a border to my table if I want it there. The rounded corner tables are really cool too! I never knew you could do that before. I guess you learn something new everyday.

Web Design
Links Page Critique

The Bookmark page that I will be critiquing belongs to Laura Rogers. I was very impressed with the work that Laura put into her page. When I opened her web page, I instantly knew what her page was about. It was clear that the purpose was to help others who are looking for the best beaches in the United States. I liked the pictures she used to show where the best beaches were. She included three major states in her findings, Florida, California, and Hawaii, and she gave a sufficient amount of links for each state. The page was bright, colorful, and easy to read.

The only thing I was surprised to see was that she didn't take advantage of the anchor links. This would have made it easier for the users so they didn't have to scroll up and down the pages.

resume critique

The first resume that I found belonged to my father construction company that is called MTI Construction Services LLC. The web address for this company is http://www.mticsi.com. Now they didn't exactly give a resume for each member of the company, but they did give an company overview of key personnel. This gave information about where the owners when to college, where they started out in the construction business, and they successes with MTI. I like this web resume because it was clear, simple and easy to navigate.

The second resume that I found was from sample resumes. The web address is http://www.quintcareers.com/resume_sample_3.html. I didn't like this web resume because the font was really small that the color that they used for the text was blue which made it hard to read against the white. I just didn't stand out. It was also to plain and basic. I was extremely bored looking at it.

Chapter 7

At first I was a little intimidated by this chapter, but once I got started it seemed like we have already began to incorporate typography in class. I am still a little unsure about CSS, so this gave me a little more of a review of that and typography as well. I think it is so helpful to make a web page with strict requirements that the user can format. And with these requirements that the user designs, it makes the whole process a whole lot easier. Flash text on the other hand is going to take me a while to get the hang of. But it doesn't seem that hard. That is another thing that is helpful to the people visiting the website because you don't have to worry about whether they have the font you are using!

Chapter 6

Well I have to admit....I really didn't understand what exactly CSS was...even after completing Chapter 6! I really thought that Cascading Style Sheets were the links on the side of the website that opened when you either did a rollover on the link or when you click on the link and then a bunch of sub-links would appear. But now I think that I am beginning to understand what they are exactly...at least I think so. Although, I am still confused what the actual difference is between Embedded CSS and External CSS. I think that I will begin to understand it more as time goes on. For now I am just trying to understand what exactly I am doing.

I am really excited with all the progress I have made so far in the class. I was able to get through the second bookmarks exercise when we did it with CSS somewhat on my own. But for my actual webpage, I redid it completely using CSS all on my own.

A Favorite Website:

Web Address: http://www.facebook.com
Site About: The website that I think is designed well is Facebook. What a surprise, huh? I think that the creator is brilliant and must be making so much money because everyone uses it. It is easy to navigate through especially for someone who isn't good with computers. It also has something for everyone. Although, lately it is beginning to look like My Space more and more and I really don't like My Space. That is the one negative aspect of it.

"Site Analysis"
My favorite website: http://www.harrypotter.com

Orientation: The website is pretty straightforward. You automatically know what website you are visiting the moment it uploads. There is also music from the film to give the Harry Potter atmosphere.

Navigation: It is extremely easy to navigate on this website. You don't need to be a pro. Even a 7 year old could figure this out.

Interactivity: I love this site because you can read up on news about the film and book, play games, download things for your computer, etc. I especially like the game that you can go through the sorting hat and figure out what house you could be a member in.

Chapters 4 & 5

Well, I have to admit, I didn't think it was possible but I was able to get through chapters 4 and 5 all by myself on Tuesday. Maybe not all by myself, I did have a little help here and there, but still! Everything is becoming more clear to me, which really excites me!

The thing that is going to take a while for me to understand is inserting images with the "point to file" icon. That will definitely take me awhile to learn.

Today I went to the lab to work on my website through Millikin and I spruced it up a bit, but when I went to view it after I was finished, it hadn't changed at all. Does it take awhile to register the changes? I don't know if I was doing something wrong, so maybe you can show me tomorrow in class.

Chapter 4

missing

Chapter 3

At first it was a little confusing trying to figure out what the book wanted us to do. It also doesn't help that the examples in the book are used in Windows format not Mac. Oh well...But after going through a few of the steps, asking questions, and receiving help from my classmates, I was able to navigate my way a little better. I am hoping that after a couple more classes I will get more of a grasp on what we are doing.

The Files Panel is what confused me the most. The examples in the book always show the standard Files Panel not the Expanded Files Panel that you showed us in class. I know you said you prefer the Expanded Panel, but I think I prefer the standard File Panel. I guess everyone has their own preferences.

Chapter 1 & 2

I am going to have to be honest about this reading . . . I didn't really understand a lot of what was being talked about. This might have to do with the fact that I am a visual person and a hands on person. I don't completely understand something until I actually do it myself. So I am hoping that once I perform what was discussed in the two chapters I will understand it more thoroughly. Although I am concerned with the code aspect of the readings.

Are we expected to know and understand the functions of every code that was talked about? Because after awhile, they all start to look the same.

Another questions that I have is, how in the world did someone just make all of this up? I have to give them credit because I know that I don't have enough patience to make up specific rules for web design. It literally baffles me! I don't think that these are thought provoking questions at all, but these are the things that I thought about while I read through these two chapters.