Final Project

I have learned so much in this class I am not sure where to begin. I loved working with Photoshop and learning how to take a simple picture, turn it into a gray scale picture and then add color to certain objects. I think that is a great feature and tool to know how to use. I also enjoyed learning and understanding HTML. This will help me in my current job as some of the applications that I work with are HTML based.

When building my own website, I started in FrontPage. I chose to use one of the templates in FrontPage as it was similar colors and layout to what I had pictured. I did struggle a little trying to make it fit to my storyboards, but overall it was not unmanageable. I added tables and columns to make the layout suit my needs. Once I was completed in FrontPage, I started my web 2.0 project. I chose Webnode for a couple of reasons. First, there are no ads. Second, I didn’t want to drag and drop as you do in Weebly. In Webnode, I chose a layout design based on the color and initial layout. At first, I was completely frustrated with it because I didn’t understand how to change the initial layout. After playing around with it, I figured out ways to add pictures and text so that they were in the same text box. I like the additional features that the web 2.0 allows you to add, such as a poll. I tried to add a slide show of photos to my home page in Webnode and it would not allow me to do so which was very frustrating. I felt like I had to settle, but overall I thought using web 2.0 was better than using FrontPage. The results of FrontPage are not as professional as a web 2.0 application and the web 2.0 application was much easier to use.

My two websites are very similar as I was able to primarily maintain the original layout, but of course there are some differences. The color in FrontPage is on the entire webpage, whereas in web 2.0 there is a white boarder on either side. I liked the white boarder because it gives it a clean look.

Both of the websites differ somewhat from my storyboard. The FrontPage website is closer to my storyboard than the web 2.0 project. Since FrontPage was more flexible with the layout, since I could add or delete, it turned out very similar to my storyboard. The only thing that I was not able to do in FrontPage was to add a white boarder on both sides. The web 2.0 turned out similar to my storyboards as well, but there were a couple of things that I needed to change, especially on the jump page, due to the layout not being as flexible. Finally, my completed website address is http://www.firstskydive.webnode.com/.

Website Project

I have had some experience with html, but never truly knew exactly what I was doing. I tried to self teach myself by going on-line to look up html language. After taking this class, I know have a much better understanding of html and hope to be able to utilize this in my current job. Fortunately for this class, I don't have to write an entire website in html. With the use of Frontpage, I will begin to layout my first website. It is scary for me to write "my first website" as I am not a designer by any stretch of the imagination. Therefore, I will need to keep in mind the "CRAP" principles and be sure to follow them in order to have a nicely designed website.

About two years ago I was visiting my parents and there was an article in their paper about an woman who went skydiving for her 80th birthday. As my mom was telling me about this article, I informed them that I wanted to do that for my 30th birthday. Both of my parents seemed liked they were slightly shocked by this, but also intrigued. As the time neared for my skydiving adventure, I was afraid to say something to my mom as I wasn't sure how she would react now that it was time for me to go skydiving. I finally decided that I should tell her when I was going to be doing this. She started to ask me several questions about it. I then asked her if she wanted to go and she said she would. I was shocked by this as I would not have imagined that she would want to do this.

The day had come for our skydiving adventure. We were both so excited about this and I was extremely anxious as I had been looking forward to this for some time. The experience was great and I would definitely do it over again. Since skydiving isn't something I do everyday and it is something that interests me, I chose to do my website on this. I think the name of my website will be Skydiving, but I am not completely sold on that yet. Throughout the website, I will primarily be explaining the process of what happens when you go tandem skydiving and explain the learning, the flight and the jump. I will then post pictures of each event along with a photo montage of the entire process. For those that visit this site, they will have a better understanding of what actually happens when you go skydiving. I will have a link to where I went skydiving and some other links to other locations that offer this adventure. I already have it sketched out on paper as to how I would like my website to look. The next trick is to get my website to look like that. I have also started to edit my pictures so that they are compatible for a website. I will probably use Webnode for my Web 2.0 project after I complete my project in Frontpage. I will then have something to remind me of my 30th birthday adventure.

Web Design - Week 4

After class the other night, I realized how easy it can be to create your own website; however, is that necessarily a good idea? Since technology makes it simple for someone to create a website that does not necessarily mean that the creator understands how to make a good website. Did they think through the entire process from start to finish or did they just randomly place pictures, logos and words on a page? There are several things to think about before someone creates a website. For instance, What is the objective of your website, who do you want to attract to your website, what would you like your domain name to be, who will you choose as a server for your website and why is that important? All of those are questions that should be answered before someone creates their website.

Since some creators of websites may not logically think through their design, they could end up with a bad website that people do not want to visit. If the website is for business purposes, the creator may want to think about hiring someone to build their website or they may want to consider learning more about website design. Even though the website might look attractive to them, what does it say to the reader. After all, the reader is the important piece in this equation. For instance, if you have things flashing and scrolling and different colors that might look cool to you, is it too much for the reader to look at. Will the reader actually stop and look at your website to figure out what you are talking about? Probably not, as the reader of a website is scanning it at first to see if it is something that interests them. If the reader has to look for the purpose, they will move on.

If you decide to higher someone to build your website, this could be costly. Also, each time you want to update your website, you will probably need to go back to your designer and pay them to fix something. A website designer may also make the website complicated and not user friendly. That is something that you should be careful of when choosing a designer. Therefore, a designer may not always be feasible. If you have the time to learn about the tools you need to create a good website, it may be worth it in the long run. This way each time you want to update a picture or a link or add a page to your website, you can do it yourself without having to pay someone (assuming that your provider will not charge you to change it).

Something else to keep in mind when building a website is it is easy to navigate. If the website is too fancy or too difficult to navigate, then the reader may move onto another website. Usability is important in website design. There is also accessibility. Can everyone access your website? You may be thinking, yes if they have access to a website. This may not always be the case. What if someone has a disability? Can that person access your website and find it easy to use? This is yet another important concept when developing a website.

Websites

I used the "Not-So-Good Design" checklist in our textbook to evaluate the following two websites. Overall, both websites are good, but they both the same bad which was that neither one of them were made to be viewed on an 800x600 screen resolution.



http://www.hersheypa.com/

The content on this page is well organized. The main focal point changes pictures, but this is part of their advertisement. It shows the viewer what Hershey has to offer. Navigation around the website is easy. When you put your mouse over a link, other links appear which takes you to seeral other pages within the website. Some of the pages take a little bit to load which could potentially deter some viewers from wanting to stay on their webiste. The color used for the links are colors that are used throughout the website. There are also picture links that allows for easy navigation as well. The text is easy to read and there are plenty of pictures on the website, but they are not overdone. Overall the website is well designed and thought out.



http://www.dreamsresorts.com/

I thought the overall content of the website is useful. The website is clean and easy to navigate. The links are not blue, but a color that is used throughout the website. The graphcis are well intended and not overdone. There is some animation on the webiste, but that is to allow the viewer to see different pictures of the resort. There is one or two main focal points. The biggest focal point is pictures of the resort which is well needed for this type of website. The colors and the image is carried throughout each page that you go to so that you know you are still lookinga at Dreams Resorts. Again, I think this is a well designed website.

Week 3 Readings

Anyone can create a website. Stop and think about that for a minute. How often do we turn to the Internet for information? If the information that we are searching for is for either personal reasons or for educational reasons, how do we know the information is accurate. Especially if anyone can create a website. The World Wide Web is a great tool, but not all of the information on it is accurate; therefore, it is important to check out a few things about a website before you take it seriously. One item is to check to see what the purpose of the website is. Is it a government website (.gov), a commercial website (.com), educational (.edu) or there are even others that it could be. Once you have determined the purpose, something else to look for is the currency or when was the last time the website was updated. If the website was last updated a year ago, then there is a good chance that the information is outdated. There are several other things that you can look for to see if the website is accurate as well. Such as the clarity, the appropriateness and the objectivity.

Before I started to read the assignments, I knew to check the credibility of a website or an article, but I did not know to what extent. I also didn't realize everything that could make a good website. For instance, you should create a website with the thought that everyone has a 800x600 resolution. That will eliminate the need for scrolling to view the information on a website. Someone is not going to want to constantly scroll back and forth or up and down to look at the important information on your website. Rather, the viewer wants to see everything right in front of them.

The viewer wants to be able to navigate around a website with ease. If they have difficulties or click on a link that doesn't take them anywhere, the viewer will leave and go to another website. If the website is too busy or too difficult to read, again they will leave. An attractive, easy to navigate and easy to read are parts that make a good website, good.

Week #2 Blog

I would like to start out by saying, "Confusing." I felt like the more I read, the more confused I became because there was so much information and depending on the article, would depend on the information given about what is the best. Overall, I understand the concept of resolution, the size of the pictures and how one picture can look completely different on different monitors. I did enjoy the fact that I now have a better understanding of CMYK and RGB. I wondered why I had four color toner cartridges. Now I know that printing uses CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) in order to make up other colors. CMYK or reflective color is different than the colors that we see on a monitor or on TV. The colors that are used for a monitor is RGB (Red, Green, Blue). Again, this makes sense. Think about when you first purchase and TV and you are running through the menu options. You usually have a choice of adjusting your screen to show more red or more green. Each RGB color has an value that is given to it, otherwise known as RGB values.

Enough about colors, lets talk about screen resolution. The larger resolution screen setting that you have, the smaller the information will appear on the screen. For instance, if you have the resolution on your monitor set to 1280x800 the icons, the print, and anything being viewed will appear smaller than if the resolution was set to 1024x768. Therefore, you want to consider the size of a picture that you post on a website and send to a friend. If someone has to scroll over or scroll down to view a picture, they may loose interest.

When emailing pictures, you do not need to send a large image size picture if they are not going to be printing it. A smaller image photo will do just fine for someone viewing a picture on their screen. What can you do to make sure that your picture is small enough? In class we did a lot with Photo shop which is a great tool for editing pictures and editing the image size of the picture. Therefore, that is one way. Edit the image size of the picture. This will make your picture smaller, but that might be alright depending on what you are sending them.

Another thought might be to crop the picture. If there is some extra background in the picture, crop out what you want and save it as another file. That way you still have your original picture, but you also have a smaller image to send. You can also save the picture as a jpg file and lower the number of bits. For instance, it might look OK at 16 bits versus 24 bits. Changing the size of the bits will lower the size of the file. If you save the file as a gif file, the file size of the file will be even smaller. However, when you use a gif file, the colors may not appear to be the same as there are only 256 colors versus a 24 bit jpeg file that could contain 16.7 million colors. Another difference between a jpeg and gif is that a gif file is transparent and it can be animated. So there are a few trade offs, but a few perks as well. Finally another way to send a smaller file is take two separate pictures and possibly put them together onto on file. You can do this by cropping the pictures. Take what you like from both pictures and add them together to create one file.

Overall, there is a lot of information to keep in mind when either emailing a picture or when preparing a picture for a web site. Remember to keep resolution, file size and file type in mind.

Reading Assignment - Week 1

From what we discussed in class and from what I have read, I could probably sum everything up in a few words. Not everyone can create a good design. Many have the ability to create their own business cards and websites, but how many of them are good?

In order to have a good design, you have to keep your "CRAP" together. In other words, look for consistency, repetition, alignment and proximity. By combining all of these functions, the ad should look clean and be concise. Not everyone has time to actually read an advertisement to find out what you might be selling. Therefore, it is important to have the ad focus on main topics by highlighting the main topics and keeping subjects together. For instance, you would probably not want the phone number at the top of the ad and the address at the bottom. You would want to keep both of those items together. Understanding graphic design will help convey your message quickly to your market. I found it surprising that taking one bad ad and just reorganizing it can make such a difference and turn it into a good ad. An example would be taking an ad that is aligned all in the center and aligning it to the left. This can make the ad look much more clean and sharp which in turn will appeal to more people.

After discussing bad designs in class the other night, I was looking through some magazines and it is funny how you can say to yourself, that is a bad ad or that is a good ad. We are all impacted by graphic design as advertisements are all around us. When you are driving down the highway, there are billboards. When you go on the Internet, there are advertisements all over the place. The question is, how many of the billboards, websites or print advertisements are you going to pay attention to? Probably those that are quick and easy to read or the good ads. Does that good ad get you to buy that particular product or service? If it did, then it did its job. We are all affected by advertisements as that is a way for companies to reach out to their target market. Businesses need to determine which type of advertisement is right for them. It may not make sense for some companies to advertise on the web. It may also not make sense for companies to advertise in the paper.

For me, everyday at work I am surrounded be graphic design on the web. Our company has an employee portal which allows employees to request vacation time electronically, enroll in trainings that are offered as well as inform them about new employees, their benefits and other information about the company. It is important for this system to be set up correctly so that employees may navigate through it with ease and find the information that they need to quickly. In other words, having knowledge about graphic design is helpful to setting up this website.

I personally think that designing for the web would take much more time and thought than designing on paper. When designing on the web, you have more room to show your reader what you would like to show them. When designing for print, you are limited with room, color and sometimes wording. However, it may be easier to come up with a one page ad versus an entire website. When designing for a website, you have to consider several items; such as, how big is some one's monitor, is the color going to look the same, are the graphics going to display the same, will people want to scroll down or just click to the next page and so on. As you can see, there are many things to keep in mind when designing for the web. If you have links on your website at the very top of your page that take you to another website, do you want them to leave your website to soon?

Trust me, I am not saying that designing for print is easy either. When designing for print, you have to keep in mind that it will probably need to be updated at some point. Can you image if something was misspelled and you just printed 1,000 fliers for an event? How much will it cost to either correct or update the information? On the web, it would be a minimal cost. Something else to keep in mind when creating an advertisement is that it will not necessarily look the same on paper as it does on your screen. Another bad thing about print is that it will eventually end up in the land-fill. A website will still be there even if someone does not want to return to it. It is quite easy to update a website to make it more attractive, but there is a lot to think about when creating it.