Last post for Web Design Class
I actually think I learned a few valuable things to take with me on personal and professional projects in the future. I'm much more comfortable using photo shop and plan to keep working with the software to sharpen and improve my skills. This is such a reversal from the frustrating week when the graphics lab was due. Designing the websites using two different software was also enlightening, at first I thought why learn the more difficult version (frontpage of course). I chose to create the second website with webnode. Webnode was pretty easy to use ie: pages where already set up, there were widgets and options like polls and surveys that were templates that were so easy to use - plus it helped me visualize the page and make it more interesting and creative then the storyboard I originally started working with. When using Frontpage you were not able to create polls and surveys. Although I must say Frontpage was easier to use when it came to tables. It took me a few trys to figure out how to set up a table for the order page of my website. And when I did finally get the table inserted I couldn't change the color - so I kind of settled for what the colors/format of the table that was available. I prefer the webnode website, it has a few more interesting elements and it was easier to create. The frontpage site seems stiff having used a template that I did not really like, but I couldn't find one I did like and I was not sure I could create something in the time we had to work on the site in Frontpage in class. I enjoyed the class and wish we had more than just 7 weeks of Web Design.

Thoughts on Assignments for week 5

My website is based on a project we need to complete in our Marketing course. We were divided into groups and told that we have to sell scrapple. Our group divided the research and tasks and I offered to use the website I create in this class to enhance our group presentation (since I am responsible for marketing and communications).
I started with creating a logo, but the group decided on another logo someone else created.
I used all the farm photos from the free websites posted on blackboard and used a clip art t-shirt to paste the threelittlepig logo on it.
I have most of the pictures and copy organized and started creating the first website on webnode the url is http://www.threelittlepigs.webnode.com/. I found that the webnodes form was pretty limited in font size and color or it just could not figure out how to change it on my own. It also took me alot longer to create than I thought it would and I'm concerned I won't be able to create the website in frontpage in the 4 hours we are given in the next class.
As I started to create the website in webnodes I started added things to take up space to make the site look better - I didn't consider using surveys and polls but the available templates make it almost impossible not to use them.

Thoughts on Assignments from Week 4

This week seemed to be nothing but frustrating. I finished the graphics lab but I thought it took way to long to complete. The tutorial gave vague instructions - like now we will use the level tool to change xy and z but didn't tell you where on the drop down menu to look for the tool. The hunting and pecking was also driving me crazy with the difference between photoshop 5.5 and photoshop elements 6. I had to wait for my husband to come home to show me where the crop tool was...(he forgot his cell phone) or I would have had my answer much sooner.
Then I didn't really comprehend the assigned readings. Was chapter 3 trying to say to download Mozillia Composer? When I tried to do the download it said something to the effect that it was no longer available, download SeaMonkey. I tried to do the SeaMonkey download but kept getting warnings that it could hurt my computer so I did not complete download. So...I'm confused again. Are we learning and using frontpage software- software that is not available anywhere but in the Albright Lab? Why? Shouldn't we be learning software we can use outside of class to build on what we have learned in class. I was hoping to build on my introduction to web design to enhance my church website. Hoping I don't have to build my whole web site sitting in Lancaster.

Additional thoughts on readings from week3

I got so excited about moving on to create my own website that I neglected to answer the questions from week 3. The 2 websites I visited to critique were www.lpcumc.org/ and www.gracobaby.com/Pages/Home.aspx#/home/. From the very beginning you can see that the corporate Graco website is well organized, uses easy to read and colorful links to useful information and also uses heart warming graphics of child to sell their products. The overall general design is excellent. My church website needs a little help. A member of our church volunteered to create and maintain the site. The creator has in depth knowledge but has little time to devote on the website because he works full time, travels with work and is raising a family. The site is organized with links on the top which looks good but the links on the left side need some work. Also, the whole right side is blank, need to add some graphics, text or something. Everything is straight-forward information. For example on the contact page he could have used pictures of the staff and listed the contact information below.

Thoughts on Reading assignments from week3

Our web design class is going by so fast, we are already halfway through and just beginning to get to the best part - learning how to design our web pages so that we will not be the "bad and "ugly" part of the "good the bad and the ugly" web pages we just read about.
I'm sitting here wondering if I have any really good ideas to use to create my web pages. At first I thought maybe I could redesign our long neglected church website, maybe add information about the youth mission trip my son just returned from on Friday night. But then how interesting and exciting is religion to the secular public these days. I also thought about creating a website for my son and his new skateboard friends. The topic seems a little more exciting but I really don't know too much about skating so I'm not sure what content would be important to the reader or how I would organize it. So anyone could see I would not be an authority on the subject. But maybe if I keep it simple it might work. I also thought about creating the website for the marketing course I am currently taking. The web site would be all about scrapple and the 2 new scrapple products our group intends to develop and launch as part of our marketing plan. I could organize it by topics such as 1) Company name and history 2) Traditonal products that we offer and the 2 new products we intend to launch to increase market share. 3)distribution sites/locations 4)internet ordering options 5) miscelleanous items such as recipes and scrapple event dates like the scrapple festival in Dover Delaware in Oct. I think I'll go with a scrapple site - but to tell the truth scrapple in it self is ugly - hopefully my design won't be.

Thoughts on Reading from week 2

Chapter 12 on Typography was really interesting. Having worked with print in the past but had no formal training, just OTJ training I felt I already knew some of the rules regarding readability and legibility especially font sizes and with are fonts are the easiest to read. I didn't know anything about cascading style sheets and cascading style sheet code. I'm looking forward to learning how to set them up and apply them to my web page.
As I read about the resolution of images and browers/werb-safe colors my first reaction: Why you would want to create your own color in graphic software? Why not go with what you know will work? It seems like a lot of work for a small variation in color. I'm thinking a designer could create an interesting web page without customizing colors by creating a good visual with the format of the page and well placed easy to read graphics and text.

Attaching digital pictures without making changes before posting to a blog or website could cause the picture to lose quality and aesthetic value. Options available to reduce the size of digital pictures include cropping the picture therefore cutting out any unrelated backround(sky, people and objects), one could also consider changing the dimension (height and width) of the picture, save the file as a jpeg which would compress the picture to fit into a smaller file or use software such as photo editor programs that automatically resizes the file to fit. Reducing the use of color will also reduce the size of files.

Reading week 1

After reading chapter 5, Print vs Web, I felt kinda old and dated (maybe I should look at it like more experienced. Yeah, that's better). The author tells it's readers that they are "probably too young to ememeber when designers ran across town to show a client a layout for an ad or a brochure." Unfoutunately, I do remember, it was my first real job in marketing. I was a marketing coordinator for Time Warner Cable. Time Warner Cable in Reading is now know as Comcast.
I was fimilar with most of the reading and the vocabulary words, but now I know the formal names for what I have been doing for years. I ftp label files, create pdfs and worked with ad agencies to layout direct mail and brochures for most of my career, I just never knew the actual names of what I was doing. FTP - file transfer protocal - who knew!
I'm looking forward to actually designing the web pages rather than communicating my ideas to some designer, although every designer I have worked with has been very creative and helpful.
I'm also looking forward to learning more about photoshop, I have some Quark Express experience and work with publisher but photoshop is so much more interesting