12/6/2013

• Write a detailed journal entry (on your blog) reflecting on your product website answering the following questions:
1. What are you most proud of on your product website? Explain what it is and why you are proud of that specific item. This could be a design, layout, image, navigation, etc.
2. Looking back on the website process and after seeing other students websites, what would you have done differently? Would you have spent more time on it? Mapped out the original idea better? Explain.
3. Thinking about just the "interaction" element of your website; meaning how the user interacts with the design and layout - where they click and how they navigate through the site. What did you do to make this easier on the user? What could you have done better to make the interaction of your site better? Explain.
4. Think back to all the websites you looked at yesterday in class, was there a website that stood out to your or was a favorite of yours (besides your own)? What made it good? Why was it your favorite. Explain.
5. If you were to give advice to future web design students about this project, what would you tell them? Why would you tell them that?

     I'm most proud how my footer. I spent a whole class period looking through different websites and learning about footers. It was funny Sam and I pretty much finished our websites like a week early because we actually got stuff done, unlike the slackers sitting behind me. I had social media links that actually worked in my footer. I also liked my glowing rollover images. 

     I would probably changed the color scheme. My website was mostly blue so I would add some black bars with like white text or something. I also would of put a mission statement or something in there. I also would of added more rollover images to the index because they look cool. 

     The interaction of my website was well done in my opinion. I linked most photos if they needed to be linked and I linked the footer to the important pages. I also had linked rollover images.

     I liked the photo website. It had a nice color scheme, the pictures were also really cool.

     Link your header to your index because a buch of people didn't do that and have rollover images because they look cool.

12/2/2013

Journal - Reflect on your product website so far. What have you learned? What do you like about your website? What have you found frustrating? What do you wish you knew before you started? Go in to detail about the learning process as you have built this site.

     I learned through the product website the Dreamweaver does not have a spell check therefore I have to rely on Sam to help me. The most important thing that I learned was how to use a template to make my pages so I don't have to link each and every page. I like how my website is very centered and neat. The most frustrating thing has to be getting my editable region to work correctly. I also didn't how I had to save every photo  into my folder. 

10/31/2013

Journal - Tell me about the color scheme of your product website? What is it? Why did you choose these colors? How do these color relate to your target market and audience? How do the colors relate to the product? What plans do you have to make these colors work for your site?

     My color scheme is mono dark blue. I choose it because blue is cool. The game's home screen is blue and it looks good. My color relates to the target audience because blue is geared towards older people. The cover of the game and the in game menu is blue themed. I will have these colors work for me.
  

10/28/2013

Journal – what did you choose for your product website? What is your idea behind the site? Describe your site in a paragraph.

    I chose the video game Battlefield 4. I'm pretty excited for the game so, I thought that would be good motivation to do my best on the site.  I have several pages for the site, most of them are pretty basic like FAQ, purchasing information, and reviews. Some other pages I'm really going to have to think about, like history and the contact the developer page. I'm to try and stick with dark blues and smoke because it looks cool. 

10/21/2013

Journal - What have you learned about copyrights when it comes to web design and images this semester? Why is it important to give credit where credit is due (even if it is a lot of work)?

     I learned that some images have a copyright, which means that you can not copy or use that image. I found out that there are websites that have images that you can copy and use for whatever you want, like flickr. I also know that you have to pay a big fine if you get caught copying an image. I see the importance of giving credit, because I wouldn't want anybody else taking credit for my stuff.

10/8/2013

Journal - Tell me about your Homecoming weekend (whether you went to the activities or not!). Tell me about what you did over the weekend.

     I had a cross country meet that morning at Ray Pec, so I had to wake up at five am to get on the bus. I had an awful start at the begging of the race, so I probably had to pass over one hundred people to get to the spot I wanted. Then later that day I got to go to homecoming. I had a great time with my date and the group I was with. Then on Sunday I just laid around and slept.

10/7/2013

Journal - Go Google "website wireframe". What do you find? Look at images and web content. What is a wireframe? How can a wireframe be helpful and give you ideas when creating and designing a website?

     A wireframe is a outline for a website. They look like the skeleton, with no information, just brief descriptions of what is in the box. You can look at other wireframes to get ideas for a different layout. They help you stay organized, and give you a plan. If you are like me, you do not think outside the box. So seeing other people's designs are helpful.
     

9/23/2013

Journal - What three cities did you choose for your travel website? Why did you choose these cities? Explain.

     First I choose Paris. I took French for a couple years and learned a lot about. The museums also look really cool. They have a great culture. I also heard they have excellent food over there. I really hope that I can go over there once in life.
     The second city I would like to go to is Chernobyl, Russia. You may of heard of it. It was a town that had a nuclear reactor melt down. The whole area had to be evacuated immediately. People didn't even get a chance to bring personal items, so it is essentially a ghost town.   
     The third city I want to go to is Tokyo, Japan because that's where Nintendo was created.

9/19/2013

Journal - What kind of knowledge do you have in photo editing programs? Do you know how to use Photoshop? Fireworks? Or how about online programs such as Pixlr or Sumo Paint? How do you edit photos or create images? Explain.

     I have knowledge in photo editing programs. The only time I ever used Photoshop was in seventh grade computer class. I have seen people photoshop them themselves into pictures with famous people on Ifunny. It would be cool to edit myself into photos but I have no idea how to. I have no idea what Pixlr, Fireworks, or Sumo Paint is, but I assume that it has something to do picture editing. I have cropped pictures before in word to make them fit into the paper.

9/16/2013

Journal - Tell me about your weekend. Where did you go? What did you do?
     
     This past weekend was pretty normal. On Saturday I had my second cross country race. I haven't gotten my time yet, but I'm pretty sure I did alright. Then I went home and took a four hour nap, later that I went to  a bonfire at Colin Strickland's house. We scorched about half his lawn. 
     On Sunday I went to church. Then I had to go to work for four hours then I came home did home and slept.

9/13/2013

Journal - What are some things that you have wished you could do in Dreamweaver that you haven't been able to do? What do you want to learn how to do when making a website? Explain.

     I wish I could edit and crop photos in Dreamweaver, because it is a major pain when I have to go through multiple steps to get the photos to fit. I wish could put one of those slideshow things in the middle of the page that says news or shows new pictures. I also would like to figure out how to put social network feeds in. It would also be cool if I knew how to put the weather feed in.
  

9/9/2013

Journal - What makes a website “user friendly”? Elaborate on your answer.

     A website is user friendly if it's easy on the eyes, the colors don't contrast, lots of links, it's updated regularly, comedic pictures and /or gifs, and most importantly it has reliable sources. Our teachers this year are really getting on us on using reliable sources, like databases, not Wikipedia. Links are important on  a website so that all the information is not on one page, that would be very tedious scrolling through finding information. A website should also not strain your eyes.

9/3/2013

Journal - List all the different file types you can think of. What types of files and images do you think are best for a website? What do you know about copyrights? How do you avoid using copyrighted images?

    I'm not really sure what types of files there are but I am pretty sure .jpeg and .pdf are some. You can not edit a .pdf. I have no idea when it comes to websites. .Jpegs are usually photos I have never paid attention to file types.

    If something is copyrighted you cannot copy it and say it is yours. You can go to jail if you copy something that is not yours. You can avoid copyrights by going to websites that have there own photos with water marks.

Journal - What have you learned about making a website so far? What has been easy about it and what has been frustrating? Explain.

     Making a website is fun. I learned that it takes a lot of busy to work to link up everything, but when it is linked up it feels awesome to know I made that. I never new how much work went into making a website. Once I caught on things were pretty easy. I also learned how to put pictures into it.
     The most frustrating part about Dreamweaver is that I do not know to do anything. I am not used to it, like am to Word. You have to input information to move things around you can not just click and drag. Another thing that was frustrating is that I do not know the quickest way to do things like hyper linking.

Monday, August 26

Journal - Tell me if you agree with this statement and then explain why or why not. "Images on the internet are 'free game' - if someone posted I should be able to use it."

     I disagree with the statement above. I think people have a right to the photos they post. People should at least cite where they got the photo. If I was selling a poster online and someone copy and pasted on to their own cite I would be very upset. People should also acknowledge that photos can be copied from your page. 
     Copy and pasting someones photo hoes along the same lines as plagiarism and cheating. If you do not cite your  sources, people may think that you took that photo, but in reality someone else may have worked really hard on that photo. 

Thursday, August 22

Journal - What do you know about plagiarism? What do you know about plagiarism on the internet? Howdo web design, the internet and plagiarism all effect each other? Explain.

     We have been drilled on plagiarism since junior high. Teachers would give us a whole mind numbing speech on doing your own work and cite your sources. Plagiarism is not doing your own work, such as copying and pasting something from the internet, or just writing down a friends answers. Teachers are so strict on plagiarism because you are not learning if you copy someone else's work. 
     Plagiarism is wide spread on the internet. The internet is the perfect place for people who do not do their own work. With anonymous identities people think they are safe from being caught, all they have to do is copy and paste another person's paper. On websites like Grade Saver they have key essays that you can just download. The internet just makes plagiarism easier do.  

Tuesday, August 20

Journal - After watching the short clip of Ashton Kutcher's acceptance speech what did you take away from his advice? What does this quote mean to you -"Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use."

What I took away from Ashton Kutcher’s speech is that Ashton Kutcher’s first name is Chris. And that you make your life what you want it to be, it doesn’t matter where you start or where you come from, it matters how hard you work to achieve your goals. If you work hard you can achieve anything. People like Steve Jobs worked hard to be successful.

The quote means that everyone starts on the same playing field, and your work ethic will decide how you do in life. You can affect everyone’s life if you have a good plan and the will power to achieve it. If Steve Jobs can create Apple in a basement you can do anything. Ashton gave a personal example by talking about when he was working jobs trying to move up in the world.