Portfolio Website

After reading posts from Ta’eed and Fiedler about web design and comparing my website to their principals and tips, I have formed a few opinions.

Probably the most important aspect of any website is its usability.  If the website has an odd or unclear navigation with misleading tabs, the user will get frustrated and leave the site. A horrible thing to have happen when you want people to explore your site. Looking at my own website I feel the simple navigation, clear titles, and eye catching colors will help people easily navigate. The top, centered navigation remains in the same place teaching users where they can look for information.

The other important tip from these two authors was to use white space. Not necessarily white, though in my case it is, but just having negative space to give the eyes a break and allow further emphasis on important material. Each of my pages have nothing but the most important information; a simple navigation, logo, image or two, and footer. Using color and size I create a simple hierarchy that is easily interpreted through the white space.

Inspiring Websites

Here are a list of some websites I find interesting for various reasons.

Bourbon & Boots

Cracked

Socio Design

Talent Garden

Field Work

Brooklyn Gin

Etch

The Anti-Agency

Racket

Stink Digital

Week 15: Reflection

A little late, but I must say this was a very interesting class to be in. I am really looking forward to Web Design II this coming fall. I feel like with all the basics i can go far, however I don’t know what each specific of the basics does. That sounds complicated doesn’t it? It seem pretty complicated to me, but that is what Web Design II is for! Hopefully we will also learn more about java script so we can really create some modern, cool looking sites. I don’t think I could free lance just yet simply because I don’t know how to ask the right questions to get me the right answers. i could easily make a straightforward site for a mom and pop store however I know what catches attention, and I can’t quite give that to a client yet. No need to waste their time or money. 

All in all I look forward to Web Design II next semester and hope I can design websites for clients in the future. 

Week 10: Reflection- My first Website

Ah… yes… Well, in class everything is very easy but going home and building a simple website from the ground up was to say the least, tedious. I ended up with a decently successful site, but not without several redesigns and “fly by the seat of your pants” planning…in retrospect I could have solved these issues with actual planning of every web page and not just the home page and the ordering page. Lesson learned.

The biggest issue I had had was with the CSS. For whatever reason it completely slipped my mind to only use one external css style sheet with a little internal tweaking and I instead created all new style sheets for every page of my website. It was convoluted, messy, and obnoxious to keep track of and I can certainly say I will never make that mistake again. I will also use ribbons as a design element much more sparingly… they are weird to deal with and I would rather not have an entire website made up of floating pictures next time.

It was an awesome learning opportunity and when I create my portfolio I think I will kill it with typography and not with odd decorative motifs and what not on my webpage, and I will only have one CSS style sheet.

Week 8: Portfolio Site

Go big or go home, they always say. So I went and searched for the coolest portfolio sites I could and I came across a post of around three dozen shining examples of creativity. Of the many shown this one caught my eye, designed by Julien Renvoye. Bold colors, delicate textures, fun and engaging use of typography paired with hexagonal images make this website a robust package that is sure to reel in clients.

I find that the way he steers aways from the classic square and instead opts for a hexagon for use in his thumbnails to be much more interesting and doesn’t detract from the content of the page. Also, the contrast between the stark white letters and the charcoal, delicately textured background is much more pleasing than any flat combinations of black or charcoal and white. Finally, the hire me button is both witty and confident, yet not in your face boastful. This is a really fun website and it is easy to use.

http://www.julienrenvoye.com/#page1

 

Week 7: Networking

Bouncing around different blogs  Tamara’s post about first time web designers caught my eye. It linked to a site showing coding for simple things that beginners, like me, could use and easily understand. The website is well designed, pleasing to the eye, and has a nice dash of humor to it. I think this will be useful to me in the future because it has common sense, yet easily over-looked, advice. lt also has some information on WordPress specifically, and that is pretty nifty.

Week 5

There is so much you can do with HTML it is difficult to choose where to begin, even harder when you don’t even know what to ask. So I took myself to google and asked what thousands of other people thought was interesting or cool about HTML. I googled what sort of neat things did they find, and more importantly how they did it. I came across a simple little site that gave the basics and then this awesome marquee bit. You can write (or just copy their) code and have you text moving all over the place. It seemed like a neat gimmick to me. Unfortunately it can only be used for a few different web browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox.

 http://www.carvia.net/texteffects.html

Week 4: Aggregator

Post about an aggregator. An aggregator is a website that shows you content that is linked to other sites. At first this was really confusing, but after a little more thought I realized I use an aggregator all the time! Pinterest. Go figure this dandy little site that regularly costs me hours of focus is a fantastic example of an aggregator. This site is an almost endless list of “pins” or images accompanied by descriptions about what the images are about. Some merely show a pleasing view like clothing or photography while others link to recipes and how-to’s. Some of the images lead to dead ends but overall any image you click on leads to a different site or blog for you to buff up on whatever knowledge you were seeking. If you like what you see you can “pin” the website to a “board” and easily revisit it anytime you wish. It is a nifty site that you can find anything on. I usually use it to look up examples of typography, food recipes, photography ideas and of course wedding ideas. This site is an aggregator if I have ever seen one.

http://www.pinterest.com

Week 2: History of the Internet

While I was vaguely aware that the internet was set up primarily for military use I did not realized that there were four different groups working on it, well versions of it. It does however make sense, the military needs a quick way to share information, scientists need and efficient way to share research and of course there is a commercial element. Also, everyone was aware that computers used to be massive pieces of equipment and that they did get literal bugs when they were programmed. What I did not know was how it started exactly, how it works, and why it is the way it is.

This video gave a brief but informational summary of the internet and I found it quite engaging. While I am unfamiliar with most of the terms used in the video the animations gave simple definitions. They effectively showed growth, the literal flow of information, and visuals to how various waves and connections were made. I am a visual person almost to a fault, so when they threw terms and acronyms at me verbally, they just went in one ear and out the other. It also doesn’t help that I don’t have a background in computers, so the terms were almost meaningless. The visuals on the other hand kept me on top of things and cleared up many questions about what on earth they were talking about. The black and white, simple, universal designs would help any viewer follow along, I give an A+ in that area. The speakers voice has a lovely “How it’s made” tone, adding a lovely element into the mix. Overall I find this video pleasing to watch as well and informational.