Final Blog

I really enjoyed doing these assignments; it really put a challenge on me with working with this type of software.

For the Web 2.0 assignment I created my webpage using web node. I didn’t have reasoning behind choosing it. I chose it because it was suggested as a good and helpful site. I found that building your website online, through such software as this was a lot easier then building one using the FrontPage traditional software applications. It guided you through the steps and also had helpful little pop-up hints on what you should and needed to do. The only disadvantage regarding the web 2.0 application was that you were not able to choose different style fonts of your liking. You were only given the option of the Header style. Don’t get my wrong, I think that you are able to read the website a lot easier and guides the eye through the pages, however I wanted to give it a little more character then I gave the website. I really like the way that my web 2.0 application project came out. I am especially excited because now that this is a live website and anyone is able to view it. I am going to share this website with friends and family that attended the same wedding in Oregon; especially the bride and groom.

FrontPage for myself was a challenge, I spent several hours using this software. There were many applications that you needed to be familiar with and working with it only the little amount of time in class, I was not prepared for this project. I think that my FrontPage website does look good and has character, however I feel as though if I was able to spend more time on it that I could really get to look much better. There are so many tricks with using this program, and I found it challenging with the book given to help and guide me on what I wanted to do.
My initial storyboards look pretty similar to my actual websites, I have the same idea but as you start working in the software and seeing what text and images look like within the page you change your mind. The storyboards were a great tool to get your mind thinking on how you wanted your website to view and did make my progress go much faster, having my images and text already prepared before sitting down and creating both of my websites.

This class was very informational and met a lot of good people out of it. When I entered this class I thought that it would be interesting and didn’t actually think we would be building our own LIVE website, I was a little nervous when I heard that we had to create our own website on something about us, but I am very happy with my overall website, especially since now I can show all the people from different states my website and they then have access to my pictures if they wanted a copy for their keepsake. I currently in the DCP Accounting division and will be graduating in December, I don’t see myself in the future using a web design feature within my field, however at least I have the knowledge and am familiar with how to create a website and other features that I was unaware of with resizing pictures, how to view images, etc. I really enjoyed this class and it was the fastest 7 weeks for a DSP in my opinion.

It was a pleasure meeting everyone, and I want to wish everyone the best of luck in their adventures through Albright and their careers paths.

GO PHILLIES!

Web 2.0 Project

For the Web 2.0 Project I created my website on Webnode.com. I really enjoyed working with this software, it was a little challenging at first but once you got the hang out the buttons and how your material would lay out it was easy to then work through.

I can't believe how easy it is to create a website like the one that I had created. After taking this class and learning you are able to create a website, that is a great reference for me in the future.

My website address is: www.oregontrip.webnode.com

View it and Enjoy!
I hope that you consider taking a trip to Oregon one day after viewing my website!

Website Project

The website that I will be creating for this project is "The Great State of Oregon". I was stuck on what I could do my website on; but I recently went on vacation to Oregon this summer and wanted to share my experience with everyone. On why you should visit Oregon. I had the opportunity to visit Oregon because my boyfriend was in his best friends wedding who lives out in Oregon. We took a weeks vacation to see two different parts of the state, which were amazing. The pictures that will be on my website will not do the justice of what it is like in person.
The atmosphere is just so different and clean. There is not one piece of litter around anywhere; because articles that might cause forest fires.

I was able to visit the coast and the eastern part of Oregon, which I like to call the forest! All of my images that will be within my website were all taken on our trip, I have so many more that I wish I could display, but must stay within the C.R.A.P guidelines of a website.

While working on my storyboard this evening, I found it to be extremely difficult to start but once I got drawing and putting my ideas onto the paper it started to really work out for me. I then knew the outline of how I wanted everything placed the same within the screen. It is hard to tell how it is going to look once it is all placed within the webpage, but it is a good way to get your ideas flowing for the final project. I have never used HTML before taking this class and now have a new passion for it and look at it differenly. I am really enjoying learning all these new creative ways of creating websites.

Usability and Accessibility

Usability is the quality of being able to provide good service. It's efficiency with which a user can perform the required tasks with a product, for example a website. Usability can measure objectively via performance errors and productivity, and subjectively vis user perference and interface characterists. Web design features that affect usability include navigation design and content layout. Usability is important because you want your website to be usable. The four characterists are:

• Quick and easy to learn
• Efficient to use
• Allows rapid recoevery from errors
• Easy to remember

Users can benefit from usability from the following:

• They will be satisifed, not frustrated, with the website
• They will enjoy interacting wiht the website
• They will have confidence and trust in the website

Accessibility is that every web user should have access to the information and experiences avaiable online. The nature of the web and the tools used to create and access the information it offers means that some users, for instance, those with visual, auditory, or other physical impairment, have difficulty accessing web content. The web is an increasingly important resource in many aspects of life: education, employment, goverment, and health care. It is an essential that the web be accessible in order to provide equal acces and opportunity to people with disability. An accessible web can also help people with disability more actively particiapte in society.

Making a website accessible can be simple or complex, dpending on many factors such as:

• Type of content
• Size and complexity of the site
• Development tools and environment

Week 4 Readings

Computers and software have enabled individuals to become one-man or one-woman business es out of their homes. This has created part-time jobs and social net-working over the internet through your own personal website. Anyone in today's age can create a website of anything they are interested in people viewing. This however is not always a good thing. When people do research on the web they believe that all of the information they are reading is correct and valid. You need to trust the site that you are reading and getting information from. Anyone can create a web site on their thoughts of a topic which is not the correct information. This really applies to when you are doing any type of research, you need to make sure that it is a valid site.
Web design is a complex disciple, and there is always a need for beauty and designing for function. You can make a web site for both pleasureable and functions, appealing and usable. This is the goal as a web designer.

You can be your own website design creator if you put yourself to it; by reading up on how to create an effective website. Professional web site design services can be outrageously expense, however there are cheap designers but the quality of their work might not be what you are looking for as your website. It depends on if you have the correct layout of how you want your work to look and having someone else put their time into it. Building a website of your own can be extremely time consuming but then you know it is how you want people to view it. You are the one knowing what type of audience you want to view it. There are many sites out there that help you step-by-step on making an efficient website. Website builders are out there that only help with the technical side (creating and publsihing pages, hosting, domain names, etc.) These can be online and offline\, free and paid site builders.

However with this the cost of hosting web sites varies. Web storage is usually provided by the megabyte. Most commercial online services provide memebers free space, and there are even places that will give you free storage space if they can post their ads on their pages. Prices can be quite competitive so it really pays to shop around.

Week 3 Evaluating a Web Site

There are multiple criteria for evaluating web resources that must take into account when creating and also viewing a web site. They are the following:

(1) Purpose- what is the purpose of this site or page? What does the URL say about the producer of the web site and its purpose? (2) Objectivity - does the content reflect a bias? (3) Currency- Is the information on the page u-to date? Can you tell when the page was last updated? Are there dead links within the current website? (4) Responbility- are the authors up-front about their purpose and content? Is there anyway to contact the authors, is there information located on the website page? (5) Accessibility- Are you able to get into the website easily, does the site load quickly and able to move around the site easily? (6)Authority- What are the authors credentials? These credentials be made up on the website, false information?

All inforamtion contained on a website needs to be evaluated by readers for authority, appropriateness, and other personal criteria for value. If you locate inforamtion that is just "too good to be true", than it probably is. Never use inforamtion taken off of the World Wide Web that you can not verify. The internet is a great hoax place for people.

The two websites that I chose to evaluate were:

• Rochester Electronics - http://www.rocelec.com/
• Source ESB - http://www.sourceesb.com/

Rochester Electroncs is an aweful sight if they are looking to get business from people within the web. However in my situation I have a direct contact for this company so the only navigating I do through the website is to see if they have a product, stock, pricing, etc. If I was an individual looking to purchase somethign from this company I would have a secon opinion in my purchase decision. For one the navigation bar goes horizontal and vertical, which per the book is a NO NO! When navigating through the website they do show great color repetition to keep the eye at a soft tone, but the font size and style is just too much for a reader of the website. They did not concentrate on the individuals that would be viewing the website! At the top they give you the option to sign into their website, but not the offer to new clients that would be interesting in possible becoming a frequent returner of their website. It is not very user friendly for people who do not use the world wide web for company purpose vs. individual purpose. An example is my father, he works for a contract manufacturere and if he was on this website looking for a part he would be lost on what to do and how to navigate through the websire because he only uses the internet during work hours and doesnt get much "practice". Our engineers at my work are always complaing about certain sites, since we have moves away from magazine and catalogs to everything being on the internet it is much more difficult for them, time freindly, YES!

Source ESB - In my opinion is a really great site for new and returning customers. They use the same color reptition, on colors that GRAB your eyes and keep your eyes guiding through the entire site. Thye are giving you many options on how to search for a part or manufacture. They give you option of manually typing the number in, looking it up alphabetically, or a quick (reference) look up. This gives the viewer many options as to which THEY feel comforatable navigating around the site on how they prefer; friendly to all ages. In order to be able to view the site you must create a "free" account and then this time you have your own histry, views, etc. To me

The reason that I picked these two websites is becuase these are two of the websites that I use on a daily basis at my job, and am viewing many times throughout the day. I will be much more critical now when viewing websites, especially most of my daily work is being on Outlook and the Internet! it is nice to now just look at many different sites and see what they can do it iprove the site, or if it is a "perfect" webpage. I have taken a few notes already to get my prepared when creating my own webpage.

Week 3 Blog - Reflecting On the Readings

The inforamtion that is covered this week is a quite bit to take all in at once when reading, but when going through and working on the website and choosing which ones are good/bad it is very helpful information. One of the big starting points is the navigation design and style in which you choose, this is where you want to begin your creative thinking process. You do NOT want to have a hortizontal scroll bar for any reader of your website. Scrolling is quite ignoring when reading a website and then having a hortizontal one is even harder for the reader to even navigate where they are on the page when it is being moved around just to read the information within the web site. You dont often see this, but now when I do I know that it isnt me and they are in the wrong doing!

There is always more then "one way" to create and visualize something within a screen. You need to take the time to explore your options and what will look right for the reader and not yourself! When reading the assigned material and then looking at websites to reference the material too I noticed myself gotting notes down to reference from when I am creating my own work. You can learn alot from other designers. You can find websties that display works from the same field that you might be interested in, and then reinvent it into your own personal way.
However the "bad design" is much easier to pick out then the "good designs" but we all have our own personal opinions from what might be good and bad to our own eye/preference. To qualify as a good working website it shoudl be comparable to the quality of your work, your products, and/or your philosophy. Doing this incorrectly can alter the way people view your website. Their initial impression of your or your business, and many people need help in making that first imprtession a good.bold one.

By reading this material and searchign the web all day long at work I have really noticed myself looking at their webpages in much more detail then I would have normally before this class. I look at multiple manufacture distributors websites multiple times during the day and even do searchign within the internet to find a specific distributors website. I look to see if it is easy to navigate through when only going in and looking for the certain part numbers I am looking to purchase. I have noticed some really good guiding ones and then others that i am just roaming around the website "trying" to find what I am actually looking for. I even submitted a comment to one of the distributors because their website was NOT informative on what they offer/sell and once I was able to find what I was looking for they were out of stock so I was back to the beginning, after spending serval mintues.

I am really enjoying learning about websites and how to creat them, the HMTL Lab was very excitign to do and see that I am able to create something like what we had to create!