Final Blog for Web Design.

This has been such a fun and interesting learning experience for me. I learned how to create a website live and using software applications. It is important to use the CRAP principles and pay attention to the content used in your webpages. You want all visitors to be able to use your website and get the message you are trying to send. Photoshop was great! I always wanted to do different things with my photos and now I know how to add different effects and load them into a website. Everything I learned will help me design a website for my sideline business in the future and I will also be able to give some insight to my Pastor about our current church website. I learned a lot of different computer terms that I didn't know and I enjoyed learning HTML. All of it was wonderful and I am glad I took the course. There are so many skills I learned in such a short time that I can share with other people.

I did my websites using FrontPage and Webnode. I liked FrontPage because I could control just about all apsects of my website. There was more freedom to make design it the way I wanted it to be. Webnode was great also. The only thing is that there was not too much control over where I wanted to put different things in my website. For instance, the header was the same on all pages. With FrontPage I could change the headers to whatever I wanted. Also with Webnode if I wanted to put writing under a picture, I would have had to use PhotoShop first, save it, and then upload it. Using FrontPage allowed me to add whatever text I wanted to under the picture. Hyperlinks and photos measured about the same as far as putting them in the webpages.

My thoughts on both software applications is that it depends on what you want to convey to your visitors. If you want more control, you may want to use the traditional software applications because you can add tables and put your information and photos where you want. If you don't want as much control, use Web 2.0 applications. My website projects differ in the layout of my text and photos. No matter how I tried to make them look alike, it didn't work. Overall, I liked the experience I had using both types of applications. It gave me options that I will be able to use in the future when I design another website.

Weekly Blog Activity

It has been an experience working on this Web 2.0 web assignment. I chose to use Webnode to do my project. My website address is: http://lwiiz.webnode.com. My understanding is that the project is due on thursday and FrontPage is due at the latest on Tuesday next week, as well as our final blog with a comparison/contrast and what we learned in this class. I really can't do that part until I am finished with FrontPage website.

About My Website Weekly blog activity

My website will be about vacationing without traveling too far or paying a lot of money. I like the idea presented to me about calling it "Staycation" because there are many places you can visit close to home at little cost and still have the feeling that you have been somewhere. With the economy in its current state, people don't have the resources to travel or take vacations wherever they want. I want to show them that you can have fun with your family in places that are "in your backyard" and not go broke.



I chose this topic because for the first time last year I actually did something while on my vacation/shut-down on my job. For the first time I was able to do things that I never did before and it didn't cost me a lot of money, nor did I have to go far to do these things. It was a vacation at "home" and I enjoyed the time with my friends and family and didn't go broke. I want to share my experiences with the visitors of my site.



The images will come from pictures I took while staycationing at the various places. I want the color scheme to have a welcoming effect where visitors will "feel "like they went to the islands or someplace far and had fun with their family and/or friends. I intend to use FrontPage at the school to do my website.



My objective is to have my visitors appreciate the different things there are to do when they are on vacation, without having to spend a lot of money. Just because our country is currently in a poor economic state, it doesn't mean that you can't enjoy good times with your loved ones while we are recovering. I plan to use links to the places I visited as well as pictures from my staycation and hope that it will prompt visitors to take advantage of what we have here at home.

Weekly Blog Activity Week 5

I learned a lot about storyboarding. Storyboarding is the foundation of your website. It is important to visualize your website and then write down your plan. You can storyboard using software programs, post-it notes, and even on scraps of papers. It is all about organizing your information. The layout should be logical and should be reviewed often until you get your message the way you want everyone who visits your website to receive or view it.

There are key questions that a designer should ask himself/herself. They are: 1) What do I want my visitors to know here? 2) What do I want my visitors to feel right now? 3) Where do I want my visitors to go next? 4) What di I want my visitors to do at this point? All angles and perspectives should be looked. Be sure that your website covers your objectives and that you have contingency plans.

There are two ways to storyboard. The "top down" approach consists of putting the home page box on top and the rest of the boxes below will represent the rest of the site. The "build up" approach consists of the designer starting at the bottom of the pyramid if he or she has several ideas for user outcomes. Boxes are placed above the bottom acting as pages or layers to support specific choices the user may make. There is an art and science to making web pages and it is important to know your HTML tags as well as images to getting the design you want that will attract visitors to your site.

Weekly Blog Activity Week 4

I learned a lot from the readings this week. It is important to organize your files and plan ahead. You should know who your target audience is and gather all of your material needed for the project. It is good to have an outline to give you a quick visual reference of your project.

There are three categories that people fall into when deciding to make a website. They will create it to build a profitable business, to create a successful commercial website, or just create one for a hobby. It is expensive to hire someone to build your website, but there are website builder sites thay have templates to help you build your website.

Content written for the web should be short and simple, yet quickly understood by all peoople who visit the website. It is important to get the message across as quickly as possible, so put the most useful and relevant information first. This demonstrates using the inverted pyramid format. It is also good to use headings and headlines; be factual by not starting with questions; and establish trust and use an active voice.

I don't think it is always a good thing that anybody can create a website. There are many things to take into consideration when building one. Some advantages to creating your own website are that it saves money; you can build it brick by brick the way you want to; and there are website builder sites available to help you design your website. Some drawbacks are that it is time consuming and there may be a lack of experience and skills to make an efficient and effective website that communicates your message to your target audience.

Accessibility describes how easy it is for everybody to use your website, regardless of whether he or she has an impairment or a disability. Everybody should be able to access the infomation that is on websites. Having accessibility is important because of legal requirements; it makes a better site if everybody could use it, and it is just good business because there are a number of consumers who have some type of disability or impairment. Accessibility helps decrease barriers and allows for direct access for all.

Usability refers to how easy a website is to use by anyone who visits the site. This is important because it is more efficient for visitors to use; it can be easily navigated; and if it is a pleasant design and factual information, the visitor will remember the website and visit it more often. If you have a happy website visitor, he or she will refer your site to others.

My first image upload on my blog

This is me and the love of my life at the Baltimore Aquarium on July 4, 2008. This is so cool.

Weekly Blog Activity Week 3 Questions 2 and 3

I think these were two good websites. After reading the resources in this assignment, I know what to look for in the design features and content of the websites I view. This information will help me in the future to design a website that will allow me to communicate effectively to my audience.

When I do my website project, I will use the evaluation criteria as a guide to developing a website. I will also use the CRAP principles and apply all that I have learned so far in this class to convey my message/purpose to the audience. As long as I organize the content for my project and use what I have learned, I should be able to produce a good website with good website features.

Website Evaluation

The second website I chose to evaluate is http://www.outsideinrestaurant.com/ (The Outside In Restaurant and Bar)

Authority & Responsibility: There is contact information listed and reference to the designer of the website as well as who manages it at the bottom of the page.

Purpose and Objectivity: The purpose of the website is clearhome page. It is a business that sells food and drinks and they use .com to convey that it is a commercial site.I didn't notice any bias on the part of the busines and the information presented is useful to the targeted audience.

Appropriateness & Relevance: The content of the website is appropriate for the target market, which is adults who like to eat and or drink and they make it convenient for them by listing menus, hours, etc.

Currency, Clarity, Accessibility: The information appears to be current on the page listing their monthly specials, catering services, menus and current prices. Navigation through the website is easy to follow. I didn't notice a text-0nly alternative for the visually impaired and the site doesn't appear to be a hoax. I have accessed the website often on my job.

Website Evaluation of The Clothes Tree

The criteria used to evaluate http://www.clothestree.net/ (The Clothes Tree) is as follows:

Authority & Responsibility: There is contact information listed, the author of the website design is at the bottom of the page. They are also upfront with their purpose and give reference to the designer of the web site.

Purpose and Objectivity: The purpose of the website is stated on the home page. It is a business that sells used children's clothes and uses .net to convey that it is a is serviced by an Internet Service Provider. I didn't notice any bias on the part of the new owners of the store, so the information presented is useful to the targeted audience.

Appropriateness & Relevance: The content of the website is appropriate for the target market, which is parents with children and the opportunity to buy used children's clothing as a low price. It also lists what clothing they buy from the public and the new processes under the new management.

Currency, Clarity, Accessibility: The information appears to be current on the page listing their last special sale on Labor Day and prior to that they informed their audience that the store is under new management. The use a blog to relay the information. Navigation is easy to follow. I didn't notice that they have a text-only alternative for the visually impaired.

Weekly Blog Activity 9.30.09

I found that it is important to use certain critera when evaluating websites. The criteria used to evaluate websites consists of having a purpose; authority; objectivity; appropriateness; currency; responsibility; clarity; and accessibility. Also, Web addresses can indicate to you what the purpose of the website is and who the producers are. For example, if you see a web address that ends in .gov; you will be accessing websites that have to do with the government. It is also important that the information on the website is up to date and authentic. The author's point of view shouldn't impact the usefulness of the information and there should be contact information listed, as well as the sponsoring organization.

After reading the resources on web design features, I learned that there are features that can make or break a Web design. Features that make a website look or good depend on the backgrounds, text, links, graphics, tables, junk, blinking animations, navigation, and the general design of the website. To be specific, a good Web design is one that lacks the bad Web design elements. Features that make a good Web design are the text, navigation, graphics, links, and the general design. It is important to have good features in order to communicate more effectively with the targeted audience.

GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. GIMP is an application for image editing and graphics creation. There are many sites that can teach you how to use this application and its tools.

When writing for the Web, it is very important to organize your information before you write a line of code to develop the site. The Web supports media that is nonlinear, which gives the author more freedom to do different things on the website. Users should be able to navigate the website with ease and not hit dead ends. Print media conveys information in a linear format, which doesn't allow for much freedom.

Weekly Blog Activity 9.28.09

I did the first part of my web page. It is awesome. I did save the web page, however; my html code/instructions did not save on my flash drive. Anyway, it was interesting and will be fun working on part 2 of the html assignment.

Weekly Blog Activity 9/24/09

This weeks readings were full of a lot of information. I learned that you must pay close attention to the colors you use on your website and how important the resolution of your image is. You basically have to trust your color judgements when designing a web page. Also, there is a difference in the resolution when an image is printed on paper and when it is on the web page. There are two basic file formats which are pixel-based and math based. The graphics on the web are bitmaps and the file formats are GIF and JPEG I also learned some things about scanning. Many scanners use the single pass method, where the lens splits the image into three smaller versions. Each version passes through a color filter onto sections of the CCD (charge-coupled array) and combines the data into a single full-color image.

I don' think it is a good idea to not make changes on images before sending them electronically. Some changes that could be made to make the images web ready are:

Monitor resolution: The ppi should be between 72 and 96. This way the image is not distorted when it reaches it's destination.

Cropping: You can choose to cut off any part of the photograph that you don't want to send.

Resizing: After you choose your image, you can make it as small or large as you want. However, you have to make sure the ppi is not too high.

Add text: If you want to add tags to the photos, you can.

Contrast, color, and adjust: You can change the colors in the photo and adjust the resolution. It also give you a chance to fix things that are wrong with the image, such as red eye.

Weekly Blog Activity 9.17.09

I did not realize all of the different things and/or steps that go into creating a web design. Although I have heard a lot of the terms, I was clueless as to what they meant. It takes a lot of commitment, time and hard work to produce good designs because the design must keep the attention of the audience.

What I learned about graphic design and how it plays a role in our daily lives and activities is that it is so visual. The designs must capture the interest of the reader whether it is in print or on the Web. This could make the difference in businesses failing or succeeding.

My understanding of designing for the Web vs. for print is that on the Web you have to keep the interest of the audience on the website so they will want to navigate to other pages of your website. In print, the goal is to keep the attention of the audience until the message you are trying to give is received. There must be a clear and effective layout for both print and the web design. In print, the space is measured in inches and it is measured in pixels on the web. Color is also important for print and design, so it must attract the attention of the audience. I also understand that to be effective in both print and web design, the four principles must be used: Contrast, Repitition, Alignment, and Proximity.

Home Stretch

It is so nice being in a different classroom after two years of being in the same, cold, basement classroom. I am finally taking a course that is fun and I am not freezing. Capstone is Monday and I am in the home stretch of my career!