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It says 59 posts, but I posted 60, I know I did.

Last Post!

For my last blog post of the semester, I would like to list all of the valuable skills that I have taken from this class.

In no particular order:
1. Lots of fancy techie terms that I never knew before
2. Basic web design skills
3. How to use Dreamweaver relatively well
4. What CSS is, and how it works (to an extent)
5. How to make powepoint presentations really quickly
6. What a web author actually does
7. That I can build a website for myself that I can be proud of! :D

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This class has been extremely valuable for me. I never would have expected that I could actually do well in a class like this, and that I could enjoy it so much. I was really worried about taking this class in the beginning of the semester, and I'm really glad that I decided to stick with it. I hope that I can take the advanced web authoring class in the near future, and other classes about web authoring and website creation as well. I think that this class has taught me a lot of valuable skills, and I doubt that I could have learned them any other way.

Why did you hire me?

This article is geared (probably) ... not towards me. At least not yet.

I can appreciate the information that the author has provided, however, a lot of it, I feel, doesn't really apply to my present situation. However, the information about negotiating/dealing with clients, and setting rates for yourself (that you will stick to) I found quite valuable.

The scenario that the author presents about job security vs. actually doing your job, is a good one, and probably quite common. I think that overall the author provided an abundance of good advice, however, unfortunately, I worry that none of it applies to me at this current time.

Content Delay Syndrome

The cure for content delay syndrome article is probably geared more towards those of us in the professional writing field who are planning on going into the editing field. However, the article can also come in handy for others who, like the author, have clients who are unwilling to hire someone to write content for their website.

The idea that the author suggests of bringing an editor in after the client has their content written is probably a better, more reasonable idea for most people who want to write their own web content. The issue of knowing what you are writing about, rather than having to tell someone about the topic so that they can write about it could really save time for a lot of people, however, it could sacrifice quality.

However, it is important to remember not to wait too long to write up your web content. Information can quickly become obsolete when working on the internet. As we saw today in class, a few students still had yet to upload their content to their websites. We're working as our own editors for these projects, however, it is still highly important to make sure that our content is correct and current.

As the author continually emphasizes, editors are important!

Wednesday Presentation Outline

1. My target users are professionals, typically those looking to hire; most likely journalism professionals. The elaborate Journalism section of the website helps to illustrate the fact that the dominant users will be in the journalism field. I have provided multiple examples of some of my written work, as well as provided a brief history of the journalism classes I have taken here at Michigan State.

2. The main purpose is to provide an easily accessible website for professionals to review when considering hiring me. As I said before, the site is mainly tailored towards journalism professionals, however, I have provided sections for each aspect of my major, including Middle Eastern Studies and Professional Writing.

3. My site uses most of the CRAP principles well. Although there is not much contrast throughout the site, as all of the pages have a very similar layout, all of the other elements are demonstrated well. The site is very consistent; for example, the navigation is located in the same place on each page. This makes important information easier to locate. As for the site's alignment, I like to think that things are well aligned. The navigation bar is aligned to the right, as is the link which returns the user to the main page. Each page's main title is aligned to the left, but I think it works well. As far as proximity is concerned, I think that important information is located just far enough away from each thing that users can easily tell what pieces of information are related, and which are supposed to be separate.

4. Design in relation to target users and main purpose:

5. Addressing usability and accessibility concerns:

Final Thoughts

The assignment that has been the most beneficial for me during this course is probably the final project. There are so many different elements that go in to creating an online portfolio for myself and so many ways that I can mess up, that I have already learned a lot even without having completely finished the final project. For instance, yesterday night when I was uploading copies of my published articles to the website: I ran into some trouble getting the copies to upload properly, and I still acually have two that don't work, but I worked through the issue (on my own, at that! :D) and I was able to get most of them to work. A semester ago I never would have been able to do somthing like this, let alone on my own. I have learned a lot this semester, many valuable skills. I hope that I can go on to take more advanced web authoring classes, because its really fulfilling being able to show someone my website and say "I built that." It's not a skill that everyone posesses. Hopefully the skills that I am taking from this class will be valuable for my future, especially considering the fact that the internet is always growing, and so many aspects of journalism are beginning to function in an online format. Paper is becoming obsolete, so it is my hope that this class will help me to better function in an ever changing online world.

JPG, GIF, OMG!

I am so fed up with attempting to put images on my website! I got one image to show up so far by converting it from a BMP to a JPG to a GIF, which finally worked, but the others aren't working... and I have eight more images to upload!

The good news is, the images that I am trying to upload are of my articles that I wrote for my high school newspaper. My mom and brother came over to visit me this afternoon and were kind enough to bring along copies of my old high school newspaper. I just wish this wasn't so difficult!

I've decided to include separate links to each of my articles, each linking to a new web page. The only problem is that the image (when it does show up) shows up as a gigantic, overpowering image... nothing subtle about it. I think I know how to make the image smaller, but I'll worry about that bridge when I cross it.

Final Project Update

The usability tests didn't really help me much with suggestions for my final project, simply because I didn't really have very much for people to evaluate. I hadn't had much time to add any important information to my website, and the questions that I asked on the usability document really required the user to go further than my site allowed. This kind of sucks, that I couldn't really take much from the project, but I did still manage to get some work done in class today.

I have about four sub-pages for my website so far. I'm not sure if I'll use, let alone need, all of them, but they're good to have for now. It is unfortunate that I don't really have any published articles on hand that I can upload to the journalism part of the website, because I think that having those documents would really improve the website. (Even if the articles themselves are not of the highest quality.) Perhaps I can find a way to get my hands on some of my articles before the final project is due.
Besides that, I really don't have a lot of information to work with. I have a resume, but it is in desperate need of an update, which I will have to try to get to as soon as possible.

On a different note, the Identity Document is really beginning to freak me out!
I didn't realize that it was due so soon, and I'm really, really hoping that I can create the necessary images for it without having to use Photoshop. While I think that it would be extremely beneficial for me to get some hands-on experience with the program, I really just don't have time to figure everything out right now. It seems like all of my classes are just piling on the work right now, and I'm just trying to keep my head above water.

Anorexic Web Writing

I really enjoyed the author's examples of copy vs. content, as well as his example of alt text for images. Even if I don't anticipate using alt text for images on my final project, the example worked well with his article. It helped to show that even the smallest things, when taken, and put to full value, can have a large impact on the final product.

The scenario that the author began the article with, of a person asking him to create a website without any content, was also a very valuable example. Some people may completely overlook the importance of having a website which works well with the content that you are attempting to provide to people, and this is how you create a bad website. (When considering this fact, I almost worry that I didn't have enough content when creating my final project website...)

Overall, I thought that this article was very interesting and extremely valuable.

Writing a Style Guide

The article 'Writing an Interface Style Guide' provided a lot of valuable information. I even liked the first definition of what type of information a style guide should contain:

Like the interface itself, a great design style guide should be straightforward, intuitive, and informative. It should provide detailed information, yet be clear and concise.

Even some basic pieces of advice, such as including standard image sizes, seemed profound. I also appreciated that the author went into great detail providing examples of what to include in youe style guide, for instance, when talking about images again:

Show how they may be styled and aligned, and how captions should appear (if used).

The author provided very specific examples, just in case the reader decided to use some of these specific ideas.

Images were not the only things the author talked about though, they provided quite a few examples which could come in handy for me when I am creating my style guide for my final project.

Usability Test Outline

Here goes nothing!

Portfolio Usability Test Questions

Scenario for Users
1. Think-Aloud Protocol; ask users to attempt to find something, for example, my resume, and ask them to communicate their thought process verbally while they attempt to find it. This will allow me to figure out what is going through the user’s mind, and why they may have chosen the correct, or incorrect method of getting to a particular place.
2. Allow users to simply peruse the website, when they run into a problem, ask them what they would do to fix it.
3. A particular scenario that I could use would be to ask the user to pretend that they are a potential employer, searching through my portfolio attempting to find specific information. In this particular case, I would probably ask them to attempt to find links to my news articles/clips, to see how long it takes them, and how satisfied they are with my site’s navigation.
4. Any other scenario that I could envision would inevitably be very similar to the previous scenario. Considering my website’s potential users, I could, however, ask the user to simply repeat the above scenario using a different goal.

Tasks for Users
1. Find contact information.
2. Find my resume.
3. Find important/specific information located in my resume.
4. Find biographical/background information about me.


Final Thoughts from Users
1. What was their first impression upon seeing the site?
2. Does the color scheme work? What feeling did they get from it?
3. Is the website compatible with their browser?
4. Any suggestions for improvement?

Usability Testing

I thought that the article on usability testing by Joshua Kaufman was helpful in some ways, but that most of his advice exceeded the amount of careful planning that I will need to do for this project.

For the most part, I thought that his suggestions under the header 'What are you going to test?' were the most helpful. "The wording of the scenario...should have a specific end goal," "the scenario should be typical of the activities that an average user will do on a site," and "the scenario should explain the task the same way that users would." All of these suggestions are relvant to the usability testing that I will be doing for my final project website.

Also, the idea of choosing testers who are similar to your website's anticipated audience is a key thing to keep in mind.

Other than that, I felt that a lot of the article provided a bit more information than necessary for my purposes.

Reading Wrap Up

1. Potential employers, likely those in the journalism field
2. They would likely want to learn whether or not I am suitable for their publication
3. To learn this, they would want to read clips of my published work/articles, and possibly look at a work or academic resume
4. Potential Tasks for users:
- Ask the user to look at the website and give their initial impression; what do they think the purpose is?
- Without clicking on anything, ask the user what they think the options do.
- Without clicking on anything, if you were exploring this website as a potential employer, what would you click on first?
- Ask the user what they think the purpose of the site is.
- Who do they think this site is intended for?
5. Costs and benefits of design:
- The relatively minimalist design of my website; good because it could make the process of finding the information that the user is looking for simpler; bad because it may not provide enough information to the user, if they are interested in learning more, they may be forced to use the 'Contact Me' option.
- My use of text links; good, because a picture would probably be inappropriate for the type of website I am designing; bad because they may not stand out as much from other text as a different type of link might... however, since this link is provided in a menu bar, it probably doesn't pose a significant threat.
- The large font I tend to use on the first page; good, clearer and easier to read; bad, provides less information per page, however, this may not be truly negative, because my goal is not to bombard the user with too much, possibly unncessary information.
- I used full text, not abbreviations; good, no issue with understanding confusing abbreviations; bad, takes up more space.

I don't feel that all of the costs mentioned are truly negative. My use of space for my portfolio, I think, is approptiate considering the audience I will be catering to.

Final Project Thoughts Continued

Module 5 is an identity document!

This seems like a bit of an intimidating project. I'm not too nervous about creating the identity document in itself, however I am a little bit concerned that I might not have enough experience with Photoshop. Since I likely won't be able to make it to class on Wednesday, I will plan on trying to find some time to go into the computer lab and work with Photoshop and see if I can learn how to better use the program. I actually wanted to use Photoshop a little more with my Module 4 project, hoping to create a logo for myself, however, I didn't think that I would have enough time to learn how to use and create this. I'm glad to hear that we will be learning how to better use the program so that I can hopefully enhance my final project.

Overall, I think that the identity document is a good idea, and I think that it will help me to focus on the design of my final project. I'm a little concerned about how long it is supposed to be, and how long it will take me to finish this write-up, overall, it doesn't frighten me much more than any of our other projects have in the past.

Thoughts on my Final Project

After completing module 4, my main worries about my final project revolve around a few central issues. I am mostly worried about how much time it will take to complete this rather extensive portfolio, as well as the fact that I could probably overlook some important elements if I happen to be careless for some reason. With all of the subpages that I am planning on incorporating into my final project, an error could easily occur that I could accidentally overlook. However, I think that in the long run, this is not that terrible of a worry to have.

Another issue that worries me is the fact that even after the whole semester of learning about web design in this class, I sometimes find that I still have a lot to learn. I try not to compare my projects to other student's projects because it always seems to me that mine end up being relatively inferior. It may be a good idea to try to learn from other websites, or projects created by other students, however, I have found that if I stick to a relatively simple format for most of my projcts, and try to finish them in a decent amount of time, that I am usually relatively successful.

One last worry about my final site, which is probably my most legitimate worry, is that I will not have a very impressive resume, and/or that I will not be able to find and incorporate any of my formerly published newspaper articles. Frankly, I have no idea where they are... and while this somewhat defeats the entire purpose of the website, I am hopeful that I can find a way around this particular dilemma.

Typography and Web Advertising

The article 'Typography and Web Advertising: Making Every Opportunity Count,' by Alexander W. White offered a lot of helpful advice for advertisers attempting to create successful ads for the internet.

His first statement about considering the difference in ways to advertise for the web as opposed to television or print, I thought, was extremely important. Not only are there several different knids of ads that you can use when creating an internet advertisement, but there are also several different techniques that you can use when desigining these advertisements: Image, Type, and Space.

I thought that all of the examples that the author included in this article were also quite helpful. Particularly the idea of using text in a new, eye-catching fashion seemed like a good idea. Just because text isn't completely new, doesn't mean that it can't be used in a new, eye-catchin fashion to advertise to users successfully.

Typography

The article 'Web Design is 95% Typography' begins to give a decent explanation of just what typography is, and how and why we, as web designers, need to know this, and use it well.

The first quote that the author gives by Emil Ruder does an exceptional job of explaining the necessity of the job, and how it has changed over a period of time. Another quote that he offers seems to explain the duty of typographers in a more straightforward fashion, however... "Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing."

Overall, what I took from this article was that with the amount of information on the internet in this day and age, and given how simple it is for someone with little knowledge on a subject to put information online, it is a typographer/web designer's duty to sift through the bad information, and put the correct information in an appropriate, usable format for users.

Designing Logos

Before reading this article on the process of Redesigning a Logo, I guess I really had no idea how much time and effort has to go into this process. Obviously, this designer was starting from scratch, but it just goes to show you how much thought and time and effort must go into this process.

The point that the author made about identifying the audience, I thought, was very important. This probably isn't a point that I would initially think of, however, when really considering this fact, particularly for the Digital Web Magazine logo, certain factors such as readability, would undoubtedly be important.

It would be tough trying to design a website with no audience in mind, and it would appear to be just as difficult to try to design a logo for a certain brand or website without an audience in mind.

For future reference when doing anything... Keep your audience in mind!

Color Theory for the Color-Blind

I liked the idea behind this article. If color blind web designers can create successful websites, then other web designers (without colorblindness) should be able to create websites using the same, or similar, techniques.

Its true that even web designers who are not color blind sometimes have trouble telling which colors go well together. The authors mention of the color wheel could come in handy when designing websites, however, I do agree with his statement:
"Personally, I wouldn’t use a triad unless I was designing for a children’s Web site."

I think that the color triad should probably be used in moderation, and only to help identify which colors might work well together. Too much use of the color triad could get too colorful, and definitely ruin any professional look of a website.

What I really liked was looking up color psychology online. Unfortunately, I learned that the color palatte that I chose to use for my final project may make children cry... :(

Business of Blue.

I liked the point that the author made about using a hierarchy of colors.

"The first is the primary colour, used in major washing of objects and blocks to give the first "punch." The second is the subordinate colour, which is used to substantiate the claim the primary colour holds on the viewers attention. The third the accent colour, which should be used sparingly within reason so that the viewer's eye can jump from place to place to ascertain what is truly important about a particular project."

I think that this is definitely something that I can, and should keep in mind when designing my final project. The only possible issue is the fact that on my module 4, I seem to have a lack of colors. So far the first website that I've been working on has a lot of white, with a little bit of red... the red could have some variation,
however, I'm not exactly sure what to do with it just yet.

This article definitely caters to the website designer. Obviously, the main focus of the article is on the color blue, however, the idea of finding colors which work well together can be used across many different platforms.

Why Color Matters!

This article did a better job of explaining the importance of using color. The author provided many helpful examples and statistics which only helped to further emphasize the point of the article. They provided me with many facts that I can use when designing web pages.

Although they didn't really go into great detail (if at all) about which colors produce which particular emotions in people, the point of the article didn't really seem to flow with this issue. Mainly, this article was about why colors are important to people, and how much they can effect certain products when used correctly (or even incorrectly).

The examples of color and marketing and color and brand identity were probably the most valuable to my web design skills. Some of the things that the article mentioned could probably be used in a positive fashion when designing websites, however, I worry that it could take a lot of time to simply think of a way to associate a website with a particluar color or brand which provokes positive emotions from users.

Color: An Investigation

The article written by McClurg-Genevese is an extremely thorough, in-depth piece about color and color theory. From reading this piece, I have learned far more about color and its possible origins than I have ever desired to know.

While some things were relatively interesting, (for example, the bit about ancient Egyptians,) overall, I still am unsure as to how reading this article will help me with web design. Sure, color is more than just how well my outfit goes together in the morning, but I expected this article to either be a about color for web layouts, or something about catering to the color blind...

I'm not really sure what to think.
It was interesting, but I don't know what I can do with this information.

deaf vs. Deaf

The article by Lisa Herrod about Deafness and the User Experience was enlightening in many ways. She provided many examples and reasons as to why simple subtitles are not enough to consider a website accessible for a Deaf user. There were a lot of things that I learned that I didn't know before, for example, I had never really thought about the possible difficulty presented to the Deaf by phonetics and slang used in our everyday language. The examples she used explained the issue very well.

Also, her definitions of captioning and subtitling, and of transcription and translation were quite helpful as well. She also presented many valuable real world situations, for instance, the curbs used for wheelchair users are also very valuable to other people as well.

Overall, I enjoyed this article.

Class Journal Entry

1. Since the target audience for my Module 4 (and final project) is extremely limited, it should, in theory, make it easier for me to design my site to meet their needs. The audience will consist mainly of potential employers; possibly those in the journalism field, or from elsewhere. Given this, I suppose a good way to draw these users in and give them what they want would be to make the appropriate information easy to find, as well as to give the site good, clear navigation.
2. & 3. To chart out my audience for this site would be a significantly easier task than what Ragle-Davis gave as an example. Given that the audience will consist mainly of potential employers, the only real difference among audience members will be the different purposes for which they are looking at my online portfolio. The only real differences might be the type of job for which I am applying, so it may be beneficial for me to tailor the website to suit different employers. A good idea might be to have one unified homepage for all users, with navigation allowing them to choose a different area of the website to suit their needs.
4. -Verba talked about prototyping, mainly highlighting the pros and cons of this method. I think that prototyping could be a good idea for me, considering the fact that I am attempting to tailor my website to fit a particular audience. It could be tough for me to test that audience's needs, however, the overall idea of prototyping would likely be more beneficial than not. Prototyping could work well for Modue 4, but definitely would be helpful for my final project.
-Boulton talked mostly about idea sessions (brainstorming), this doesn't really apply to my projects because I am working alone, however, I can see how it might be beneficial to me to bounce ideas off of others, and to ask others to take a look at my final site to determine whether or not it is easy to use, and if it fits the ultimate purpose.
5. I suppose that with my final project, as well as my Module 4, I will mostly be addressing the issue of accessibility. Given the purpose of my site, I would have to say that this is probably one of the most important elements of the website. If the navigation does not work properly, or is not clear, or if there happens to be an error present on the website, it could easily defeat the whole purpose of having an online resume by discouraging potential employers from attempting to take a look at me, and my website.
6. I think that my idea of the role of web authors has changed only slightly since taking this class. I have realized just how much work goes into creating a website. Not only is the time necessary for creating the webiste itself, but all of the time that must go in to forming ideas for a good website, coming up with new original ideas, and simply creating a usable site without too many errors can take an extremely long time, and a lot of hard work. As we learned from Zeldman, there are also numerous standards that web authors must adhere to when creating a website. For instance, they need to make the website usable for disabled users, etc. I would have to say that web authors are not the exact same as coders. I feel as if the title of "web author" indicates a different type of work that is necessary. Web authors design web pages, and coders create them.

Developing Ideas.

This article about developing ideas was relatively straightforward, although it did provide some very insightful ways to look at idea development.

The author's description of idea sessions was very thorough and helpful. Brainstorming can be disastrous, however, I thought that the author provided some helpful solutions for making an "Idea Session" more productive.

Some of the jobs that he described seem very helpful, and they are not jobs that I would normally think of having people do during an ideas session such as this. For example, a facilitator, essentially, to help pull ideas from the group members. This seems like a good idea, particularly if group members are hesitant to express the ideas that they may have.

I could also appreciate his list of rules. "All ideas are equal," seems to be a particularly important rule to have.

More Prototyping!

This article on prototyping went into much further detail than the previous article that we had to read a few weeks ago about Paper Prototyping, but I was able to use some of my knowledge gained from that experience to better understand this article.
(But I'm still not sure what a wireframe is!)

While some of the benefits of prototyping are rather obvious; allowing us to see problems more clearly, makes it easier to receive feedback from users, there are other less straightforward benefits. For instance, it fosters collaboration, helps designers and developers consider what is possible to create, and it helps clients and users to gain similar understanding.

What I really appreciated about this article was the negative aspects of prototyping that the author provided. These are things that I wouldn't normally think of. The idea of fidelity, which I found a bit confusing at first, seems rather important. Particularly if paper prototyping is being used, the final product could end up looking quite different than the prototype, leading to possible misconceptions.

Design Decisions vs. Audience Considerations

I loved the author's definition of audience!

"What distinguishes your audience from visitors and users? Visitors include everyone who happens upon your site. Users are intentional visitors who are looking for something specific.

Your Audience are the visitors you are trying to reach, to whom you are trying to deliver your message, and with whom you are most likely trying to establish an ongoing relationship. They are made up of groups of individuals with certain characteristics, needs, and desires in common."

For some reason I never felt like I had received such an appropriate definition of what an audience really is, until I read this paragraph. I never realized the true importance of knowing this.

The author provides so many valuable ideas for creating your website to tailor to user's needs. I particularly liked the ideas for 'Customizing the Experience.' The idea of a mailing list (while annoying for the user to sign up for...) is actually a good idea. Learning your customer's preferences and tailoring to them as much as possible is basic customer service.

"Sexy CSS"

The article on Smart and Sexy CSS was, interesting...

Some parts of the author's point I understood, while others were a little tougher for me to grasp. I understand the need that he points out for clean CSS code as opposed to 'sexy' CSS code, but it is still difficult for me to understand how CSS code could be sexy. (I obviously don't mean sexy in the traditional sense, but nonetheless..)

I agree with the author's point about always being specific, particularly when it comes to choosing and labeling colors. Given what I know about CSS (which is minimal) I do believe that I understood this rather important point. From what we have done with CSS on Dreamweaver in class, I have reailzed that there are many different colors (and shades of colors), each with its own different, and confusing name. So this point made sense to me.

I also understood the importance of avoiding 'sexy' CSS when working with co-workers or clients. The coding would most definitely be to have clean and understandable.

While I believe that I understood the overall point of this article, I don't really feel as if it applies to me. I'm really not all that concerned with making my CSS sexy. CSS that actually works is my first goal.

Mod 4

Now that I'm beginning to get a real idea of what we are supposed to do for Module 4, it is starting to seem a bit easier. The fact that I can use this project to help me begin really focusing on my final project helps to relieve some of the stress and worry.

I'm thinking of making the first page my introductory page, which tells the user about myself and the purpose of this site. The second page will probably just link the user to my resume. I don't want to get too elaborate for this project, so I'm hoping that this will be adequate.

However, the fact that we have to create this project using CSS is a little unnerving. Since I thought I had decided on using the Blue Robot website for my layout, it is creating a bit of a problem for me because this site was not written in CSS. I'm sure that I will find a solution to this problem, even if I have to choose a different layout. It might actually make this project a bit easier if I were to attempt to find a layout which was slightly more related to the actual goal of this project... perhaps I could find a layout used by someone who already created an online portfolio and steal and alter theirs?

... nonetheless, I'll have to think of something.

User-Centered Design

I think that the concept of user-centered design seems pretty basic, and it is obvious that the ideas that the author talks about in this article are vitally important to anyone considering web design.

I think that the second point that the author made, about knowing your users pinpoints some very important ideas and asks some valuable questions. Even the main question, which asks how much experience users have, is an important one... definitely one that I would not think of.

The point that the author makes about constantly testing for usability is also important. Getting user feedback is important, because its the only way you can really know if your website is meeting its purpose.

I liked these articles, they were basic, straightforward, and easy to read.

Further FInal Project Ideas

First I'll start out with an idea that I thought of for my final project, just adding it here quickly so I don't forget about it. I was thinking that in addition to creating an online portfolio for myself which is purely work related, I could also add a few details about my personal life. Since I'm running a 5k this weekend, I was thinking about adding some of my 5k times, and other stuff just as kind of a personal reference for myself, and to also show that I do participate in outiside activties apart from school. Of course, I would not make this the most important part of my website... and would be sure to make it very clear that the user would be trailing off into less important areas.... (After writing all of this out, I am now not positive that I still want to use this idea, but, I suppose writing it down for later reference was still a good idea.)

One problem that I wrote about in my final project in the proposal, the issue of locating all of my old newspaper articles from high school, is slowly becoming a larger issue. Over break I forgot to look for the print versions of these articles, so it is becoming more and more likely that I will have to find another solution. I'm not even really sure that I want to put up links to all of my old articles, because, frankly, some of them were really badly written! Hopefully I can find the print versions relatively soon, and just pick some of the better quality articles to put online.

Other than that, I am both excited and extrememly nervous to get started working on the final project.

CSS Tutorial

I really liked the CSS Tutorial video, it showed you a lot of the same things as the readings, but it was easier for me to follow because I could actually see what was going on. A lot of the time I find that its easy for my mind to wander because I don't recognize all of the terms that the authors talk about in the articles, but when I was watching a video which showed step-by-step basic CSS, it was much easier for me to follow along, and really feel like I was beginning to understand what was going on.

I'm still not sure if I'm convinced yet that learning CSS would be easier in the long run than just using HTML... but I guess if that's what everyone says, it might be true...

Bad Website - Part Two

After finishing my website and writing up the analysis, I fell asleep. So, I wasn't able to blog about it after I finished as I had planned, so here it goes.

I really feel like I did this project, and built this website to the best of my abilities, but I can't help but wish that I could have done more. Thinking about it today, I think that if I hadn't been so busy with everything else this week, and had more time to actually plan out exactly what I wanted to do with this project, I could have found ways to make it more annoying. The thought actually never occurred to me to look through some other website's coding, and steal ideas... but I guess now it's a little late to worry about that.

Despite wishing that I could have done more, I still like to think that I did a good job. Finishing this project has really increased my confidence level for the final project. Obviously, I think that it will be a lot harder building a good website than it was building a bad one, but, either way, I'm feeling a lot more confident overall.
After working with dreamweaver more, and compiling a list of ideas for the final project, I really feel like I could make something that I will be proud of.

Bad Website - Part One

This morning I came in for a little extra help with linking my two web pages together for the Bad Website project that is due tonight. It took a while to actually figure out what I needed to do, but, after some time, and with considerable help, the problem was finally solved. This was really the only big issue that I wanted to get done before I started my major work tonight... mostly because I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to fix it on my own, and didn't want to put myself in that situation.

I hate that I haven't really had any time to work on the project earlier in the week, but all of my classes seem to be piling in everything before Spring Break, so what can I say?

So far the project is going pretty well; the website is really, really ugly... but I just wish that I could figure out how to make it a little more annoying. So far I've been able to making the load time for the page a bit slower by simply adding a lot of content, and I've made both pages pretty tough to read with color schemes, but I feel like I'm only able to do basic things.
I feel like I've really been getting the hang of working with dreamweaver a lot better lately, but I still wish that I knew how to do more... hope things turn out well.

UPS

I was reading through the UPS article, and, frankly, it suprises me that so much analysis can go into the changing of this company's logo! To me it seems almost mundane; definitely nothing worthy of a press release... but I suppose its important in its own way.

After quite a long period of time, UPS has finally decided that they need to alter their logo, if only ever so slightly, to keep up with the changing times. I feel like they chose to remove the package from the top of the logo to make the shipping process appear faster... while I don't completely understand the logic behind this, I can see where they're coming from. Perhaps if they have a sleeker-looking design, it will help potential customers to believe that the delivery is sleeker and faster as well?

Nevertheless, I find it interesting that such a successful company has decided to re-design. It shows that they are paying attention, that they must care something about customer's opinions (besides the quality of their service), and this definitely helps to show that they are making an attempt at staying up with the times.

In the Lab

Okay, I'm in the computer lab right now working on my multiple web pages. It's fun! (I have to admit, I was skeptical...) But, on the down side, I have just realized how much time this will actually take me to not only work on my Module 3 for Friday, but also to organize all of my other web pages, decide what I want to do with those, and make changes to the website that I already started working on in class.

I really like working with dreamweaver, but it's a little annoying when I run into problems that I just can't seem to figure out. For example, I was working on my 'Interests and Hobbies' page, and I aligned all of my pictures to the left and right of the screen. I really like how this looks, and I wanted to insert some text to talk about the pictures, but I couldn't figure out how to put the text where I wanted it. It seems like a simple problem to solve, I'm sure that someone could easily explain it to me... but it would just take so much less time if I could figure it out myself!

...but, besides this small problem, I'm really enjoying working with dreamweaver without the time constraints of working in class. (Plus, I feel a lot less stupid when I don't have other students' websites to compare mine to.)

:D Good day!

Again with Dreamweaver...

Looking back through all of these dreamweaver articles that are supposed to be helpful, I still sometimes find myself feeling more confused after reading them. A lot of the terms I don't understand, but I suppose that the only real way to learn them would be to work with the program more often... as much as possible, I suppose.

I think that if I can put aside some time this weekend to really sit down and look through all of these articles, as well as simply playing around with the program, and just trying to work on fixing my website design, that I can probably get a better handle on everything.

I really feel intimidated by all of this. Pretty much this whole class is intimidating... but if I can begin to understand how to use the program, even just a little bit better, I think that things will begin to go a lot better for me.

There. I'm inspired. I think I might just head down to the computer lab right now.... maybe.
:D

Home Page Goals

I liked the artcle "Home Page Goals" because of the examples that it provided.
I thought that the Flickr example was a really good idea; giving new users a different page to view to make site navigation a bit easier is a great idea... it just seems like it might take alot of work. Obviously this wouldn't apply to any site I'll be making in the near future... but I can still appreciate the concept.

I also like the three second rule that the author talked about. "If a first time visitor to your site’s home page does not understand what it is within three seconds, you’ve failed goal number one."

This is definitely a good point. I think that I can definitely put this tip to good use for any site that I choose to design. The only problem might be whether or not I can realize that my site is, or is not doing it's job. This is where some outside advice might come in handy...

I can't believe that I didn't know that we could use computer labs to use dreamweaver! For some reason I never realized this before last Wednesday's class, but now that I have been enlightened, I anticipate making much more progress with the program. I haven't had much of a chance just yet to really get to work with it, but hopefully this weekend I will be able to get in some solid time, because I know that I will need more time that we get in class to work on this Bad Website project.

Hopefully all goes well.

Yesterday when I went over to the computer lab in Hubbard I was able to find the dreamweaver program with relative ease, however I had a bit of trouble finding my afs space on that particular computer. (Probably because I'm not used to using dreamweaver with PCs.) What was strange though was that I was able to bring up the websites that I had begun working on in class, but I couldn't figure out how to open them up and alter them using dreamweaver... but, I anticipate things going better next time.

Reading Design

This article was interesting.

The last time that I was really taught about font, etc., was when I attended a newspaper camp during high school. Briefly, I remember my teacher instructing us about basic fonts on the last day of class. I didn't understand at the time, and am still just barely grasping the concept, of how and why font can be such an important design element.

I've had a little experience with programs like InDesign, but the work that I did was so starkly different from the type of things that we are doing now, that it hardly seems valuable.

I appreciated the tips that the author put at the end of his article, for instance, "letters are not pictures of things, but things," and "words are not things, but pictures of things." It's a strange concept to think about, but I think it makes sense overall... I'm just trying to understand how I can incorporate this into websites that I will be designing for this class.

Paper Prototyping

I really like the idea of paper prototyping, probably because its more familiar to me than simply using web design tools. I understand as well as anyone just how intimidating impressive design ideas can be, and I think that paper would definitely do a good job of levelling the playing field.

I liked the ideas that the author gave for making paper prototyping seem more like actually using the internet: Setting up 'tabs' and 'buttons,' and clicking on 'drop down menus.' I think that if someone were actually thorough enough to go through the motions with this type of prototype, that they could probably get some really valuable ideas brainstormed.

I think that if I could follow the author's advice and actually try creating a paper prototype as well, that it could be very valuable to me as well. I will definitely consider doing this when creating my final project.

Bad Website

I'm excited about the bad website project that we were assigned today in class. Judging from my website-building skills thus far, I should be able to ace this project! j/k

I really enjoyed looking through the list of bad websites today in class as well. The wolf site was truly inspiring.

I'm considering a few different topics at this point, mostly corny things like a site dedicated to unicorns... or, and this is a far more likely topic, a site completely dedicated to the band The Cure. It may not be completely original, but there are a lot of ways that I could envision making this a completely horrendous website. I'm actually excited to get started!

more mail.msu.edu...

In comparing the two websites for the project that was due last night, I really like to think that I learned a lot. I didn't find the project to be quite as frightening as I had originally anticipated, and I think that helps to show that I actually learned something while doing it.

I went back to use some of the resources that we originally used for our tech terms definition list earlier in the semester, and I found that this really helped. As I was nearing the end of my project I really started feeling like things were beginning to come a lot easier to me.

Some of the definitions for terms that I looked up were things that I had never even seen before, things like 'dt', 'p' and 'dd.'

. But after doing this project, I think that I can say that if I come across any more terms that I don't understand, (and I undoubtedly will) that I can feel confident enough to just look them up, without freaking out.

Principles and Elements of Design

I liked the examples that the author used in the article "Principles and Elements of Design." The Zen Garden website seems to have a really great concept, teaching about CSS with different backgrounds that designers/users can choose from.

In addition to just being a darn cool website, the examples really enhanced the article. Without such great visuals, I doubt that I would have understood half of what the article was talking about. As previously stated, I liked all of the examples he used, but I also found it to be very valuable that the author talked about how the page would fit with different browsers.

These four articles about web design seem to be very valuable, and I hope that I can take something from them... or at least remember to refer to them at a later date.

While going through this week's readings I was pleasantly surprised to find that the readings by Sharon Lee were easy to read. I actually enjoyed the layout of her site, as well as what she happened to be writing about. I am particularly fond of her article, 'Human-to-Human Design.'

I like the idea of creating websites that aren't so completely generalized that they don't really work for anyone. When tailoring a website to a specific audience, one does risk excluding other prospective readers, however, if the topic of the website is completely irrelevant to someone who, to use Lee's example, isn't a real estate agent, then that person should be able to find that out before wasting ample amounts of time searching through the site for an answer that isn't there.

--

On a separate note, I also found it rather amusing that in her 'Understanding Web Design' article, that she mentioned Blogger's minima layout, giving prime examples of how the simplest design can be used, altered, and loved by so many different people.

Today in class we worked with dreamweaver. I liked that we were given pretty much the whole class period to play around with the program, and kind of figure out how to use it. I'm sure that there are a lot of things that I still have yet to learn, but it was slightly reassuring to realize that it's really not too complicated of a program to use. I'm actually, maybe, almost, just a little bit excited to start working with it more often.

On a different note, I've been thinking about my final project proposal a little bit. I have an idea to create a sort of online portfolio-resume thingy for myself... but I'm not really sure if that would be what we were supposed to do...

I was thinking that it could be really valuable for me if I were to create an online portfolio of some of my written/published work. (Being a journalism major and all...) I know that when I applied for the State News last semester I had to hand in a whole pile of different clips that I'd written... and I thought that it could be significantly more convenient if I could simply provide an easy-to-use website link for prospective employers to simply click through at their leisure. Of course, it would be incredibly important that this site would be easy to use if a future employer were to look through it. The last thing I would want to do would frustrate someone who is considering hiring me.

I think I'm going to ponder this idea a bit more, maybe think of some other ways that I could create a website that could serve as a final project and (hopefully) double as something that I can show off later.

Web Standards

"Web standards are not arcane laws decreed by ivory-tower organizations. As we have described, the standards are for the most part decided by representatives of the same people who use them - browser makers, Web developers, content providers, and other organizations."

I found this to be an interesting quote, because I wasn't quite sure what the author meant by it. I couldn't decide if he meant this to be a good thing or a bad thing. Considering the first sentence that I placed above, I suppose it's most likely that he sees this as a good thing, and it very well could be... but it seems to almost contradict everything that he's been saying throughout the article. How can web standards help the disabled if people who are disabled aren't having some input in the creation of these standards?

Besides that one paragraph, I essentially agreed with everything else the author had to say, and found it relatively interesting. He even addressed some of the same issues in the Zeldman chapter, like forward-compatibility, and denying portions of a target audience aka accessibility.

Today's class cleared a few things up for me. I didn't feel quite as stupid as I did yesterday after looking through the HTML Dog Tutorial. Some things still confused me, but for the most part, it helped to listen to everyone talk about the Zeldman chapter, and, surprisingly, it also helped when Joy went through the new assignment.

The new assignment seems daunting, but definitely doable. I am a little worried about the fact that we chose to analyze the MSU email site though. It seems like it might not have been the best choice for this new project. We're supposed to look at the 'main' page of the website we analyzed... well, I'm not really sure which page that should be.... But, I guess I'll figure it out.

I'm just worried that I might not find enough information to write a two to three page paper about it!

HTML for Beginners...

I feel really stupid right now, because I didn't really understand what to do for the HTML Beginners Tutorial. I tried saving the 'this is my first web page' thing on notepad.. but honestly, I have no idea how to save something on to my C Drive. I saved it as .html, but was still unsuccessful.

I tried reading through the rest of the tutorial, and it seemed rather straightforward and basic, but, seeing as I was unable to complete the first step, it was tough to follow along for the rest of the tutorial.

This just feels like another reason why I shouldn't be taking this class... but I'll see how class is on monday, and if I can get any of this cleared up. :(

Bad Email, Bad Website

The shots that Zeldman provided are pretty ugly indeed. However, it does seem as if it could be quite a challenge to create an email service that could be compatible with both cell phones and the average computer.

"Clearly the layout must work correctly in some applications; doubtless, too, there must be some users who enjoy getting craploads of musician photos in their e-mail in-box."

Zeldman makes it clear that the website's design is misguided at best. The creators have tried to fit too many photographs into too small of a space. Bad design as well as a web page that doesn't work. The cure here might be going with a simpler design. Perhaps if the creators didn't have such a need to fill ad space, however, this might be more concievable.

From the information that the author has presented us with, it appears as if the creators of this website have probably not done their best work here. The simple fact that they would create an email service with so many ads, pictures, and seemingly unncessary things, seems almost stupid.

Forward Compatibility - Zeldman

I think that this quote does a pretty good job of expressing the main point/focus of the first chapter of this book: "In our efforts to deliver identical experiences across incompatible browsing environments...we've lost sight of its true potential as a rich and multilayered medium accessible to all." He expresses that there is a true problem behind all of these subtle inconveniences that we as users tend to experience when using the web.

I think that the author presents quite a few impressive reasons for inacting web standards. I was particularly intrigued by what he called the "disease of built-in obsolesence." I thought that it was interesting that some programs could fix issues for web authors that, in essesnce, seemed minimal, but could easily show up on someone's computer looking completely stupid, and therefore reducing the credibility of a company's website.

I also thought that some of his ideas for a "cure" were good, but concievably, might be tough to implement. For instance, his first suggestion of "attain[ing] more control over layout". I think that it's a good idea, and could quite possibly be successful, particularly considering the fact that it would still allow for users to modify design, however, I feel as if it would be tough to convince people to agree to this. The thought of having to use a pre-planned site design seems rather constricting, despite the possible amount of freedom that one might be granted in order to make the site their own.

Presentation Day

We gave our presentation today.

I don't think it went badly, but it definitely felt way too short. On the plus side, I think some of the other presentations ran long, so we helped to get everyone back on schedule... but I'm not sure if that will help to enhance our grade at all.

I like to think that we covered all of the required topics, but, honestly, I don't really remember. I know that we wrote out the answers in the outline that we prepared ahead of time, but, judging from the short time that we were up there presenting, I worry that we may have skipped some important information.... but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

One Positive: We got some pretty good feedback on those little sheets that everyone had to fill out.

I'm a little nervous about tomorrow, but I don't think that there's really any need to be. Yesterday night I emailed Iza my outline for our presentation (speech-wise) and today I received her email which contained an even better version of what I sent to her, so I think we should be well prepared for the speech portion. My only concern is that we might go over the allotted eight minutes, but if we stay on pace, and don't drag on too long on any one point, I think we should be fine.

I particularly like the screen shots that Iza was able to take of the MSU mail website to put on our powerpoint. I think that they really enhance the powerpoint, and don't overdo it.

I'm also a fan of our last slide, which talks about the importance of good design. Hopefully we can make a good point with this slide, because it makes a lot of important points. Particularly the fact that poor design and organization can really turn off potential users.

Today in class we got a lot of time to work on our powerpoint presentation, which was very helpful. The actual process of making the powerpoint wasn't too hard, but now we have to decide what we want to say for each slide... that's a little more difficult.

Part of me is a little worried that, after reading all of that information on powerpoint presentations, that ours might not be good enough. I had a terrible experience with a group power point project last semester... but this project seems much more promising so far. I'm confident that as long as we figure out what to say for each slide, don't get too tripped up when presenting, and stay within the 6-8 minutes, that we should be perfectly fine.

Website Analysis

Website: mail.msu.edu

High-Level (analytical)

Target Audience: MSU students and faculty

Most Common Tasks: Sending and receiving/reading email.

Tasks to Specific Users: Professors often send out mass emails to students specifying their assignments that are due. Students often communicate with professors or other students about homework, etc.

User Navigation: Navigation is organized on the left side of the screen and across the top. Although the organization is rather basic, I (personally) find it somewhat difficult to use.

Design-Layout Level (descriptive)

Navigation Structure: Frankly, I think the navigation structre sucks. It appears as if they've tried to organize it relatively simply, so that it can be easy to use, but by doing this, they may have inadvertently made it ugly, plain, and somewhat more difficult to use. Performing simple tasks like organizing emails into separate folders, is made much more difficult by having more than one way to do this. For example, I was able to create a folder for my Arabic class's emails, but was unable to move the emails into said folder.

Branding/Logo: They have what I suppose you could call a logo on the log-in page near the top left. It's pretty plain; black & white.

Color Schemes: There is some basic green and white on the log-in page, but not as much as you might expect. After you log-in, the color scheme turns to light blue and peach-ish, which doesn't really seem to make much sense, considering the university that this webiste was created for.

Layout Presentation: I don't particularly like the layout of the site. It's basic, I suppose, but it could be better. I find it boring, and I don't think it looks very professional.

Summary: Thumbs down! :(

Crap...

I was looking through angel and found C.R.A.P. again. Looking back through it once more, I remembered a few things that I found interesting, and rather valuable. I have a feeling that it will be tough for me to get into the habit of using the C.R.A.P. guidelines, but I think that if I am able to remember to use them, that it will be a very valuable tool.

I particularly liked the example for the photography workshop on the third slide. I thought that both flyers looked really nice, however, and had trouble distinguishing between which is supposed to be the "better" example.

On the other hand, the slide on alignment, which used someone's business card as an example, seems to be a little more obvious to me. Honestly, I could see myself creating a business card much like the first example, however, after seeing the better example, it quickly became obvious why it was so much better. Just simplifying the design makes it so much easier to read.

I think that it's likely that I'll probably be creating a lot of very simple, basic designs throughout the semester. If I'm able to do that, and just head towards the correct path, I think I'll have accomplished what I mean to in this class.

I remember that when I was doing this week's reading, a lot of it had to do with powerpoint presentations. I learned a bit about powerpoint presentations in my JRN 108 class that I took last semester. The prof. basically told us to keep it simple, and to leave most of what you have to say off of the powerpoint. As it turns out, this was how I had been making powerpoints a lot in the past. (And I thought I was being lazy! What a relief to find that my laziness happened to pay off for once. j/k)

I actually found the last reading assignment rather interesting. I think it was the one with the most instruction about powerpoint presentation style. It really said some basic, somewhat obvious things, but a lot of what the author mentioned tended to be things that people usually forget. Like: Try not to day "umm," or "and..." or try to make good eye contact.

Hope I don't forget these when we present either...

We didn't have class today.

I know that I need to start seriously thinking about the project that is due next week, but I find myself in a bind for time... Even now its tough to sit down and really focus on any one thing. But, I'll give it a shot.

Criticisms of MSU email:
- Slow logging in (sometimes)
- Plain, boring log-in page
- I have no idea how to organize my old email into separate and distinct folders, so it all just kind of sits there taking up space.
-I can no longer download attachments that people send me
- The 'Filters' option doesn't seem to be working...


Positives of MSU email:
- The page was recently re-organized to look slightly less horrible
- They have a search option, which, I suppose will come in handy now that I can no longer organize things into separate folders...

That's all I have for now, I might come back to it later. Maybe I'll ask around for some input from other students.

mail.msu.edu

Today in class we officially decided to make the MSU email website our project. I think it will be interesting, considering the fact that nearly everyone I've talked to seems to hate the site with the burning passion of a thousand suns... or, something close to that.
I particularly wanted to choose a website with a lot of problems. Frankly, I thought it would be easier for a first project. I have a feeling that if, for some reason, we happen to have trouble finding things that need to change/be fixed with this website, that we could easily just ask someone their opiniong about what needs to be changed. It shouldn't be difficult to get an outside opinion, particularly considering that my roommate was shouting about the MSU email just yesterday, when it wouldn't let her log-on.

I think that this project will be relatively easy once we get past the brainstorming stage. I've been working with powerpoint ever since middle school, and I have a feeling that those skills will come in handy.

Finally, a First Post!

I know that I'm a bit late, but procrastinating is a pastime of mine...

Last week we were told to find a partner for this upcoming project. So I met Iza, who happened to be sitting right next to me. She seems to be a natural at the whole 'analyzing websites' thing. Today in class when we were filling out the blank analysis form, she was able to come up with some ideas that would never have crossed my mind, so I think I picked a good partner!

This first project seems like it will be relatively easy, however, I am a bit worried about how the rest of the semester is going to go. I've never taken a class remotely similar to this one, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to pick things up quickly.
Honestly, I'm not even sure that I should be taking this class... I've been trying to figure out how it applies to my major. However, I see it as a sort of challenge, and I also think that these would be very valuable skills to have in today's ever-changing world. So, I think I'm willing to give it a try.