Layout and composition

This first chapter in the Beautiful Web Design book was a good summary of everything we've learned so far in the class: principles of usability, knowing your audience, starting your design on paper, and my favorite phrase (content is king). I found it helpful to see grids and the rule of thirds, which I know from photography, applied to web design. Actually, I was familiar with a lot of the items discussed in this chapter because of the photography classes I've taken: symmetry, weight, isolation, etc. It was cool to see concepts I'm familiar with from another medium applied to web design; I'll definitely keep them in mind!

The morgue file tip is great. I really like drawing inspiration from other things I see on the web, in magazines, etc., so to see this concept put down as an actual "tip" is cool. It was also helpful to see the different types of navigation laid out with examples. It reaffirmed my dislike of right-hand navigation. The footer navigation layout was interesting, though I think it would only work on websites where you would actually read all the information on the page from top to bottom. Not a lot of people read a page's full content all the way to the bottom, so some might miss that navigation. One type of website that this type of navigation might work on is newspaper websites. I visit a lot of those for my job and I have to dig through a lot of them to find contact information and newspaper sections. If it were in the footer navigation it would be on every page!

Idea for final project

For my final project I would like to design a personal portfolio for myself. I actually already have one at portfolio.aliciapimental.com, but the layout needs to be redone. The layout that's currently on there was created somewhat hastily when I was applying for a job recently, and I did not yet know about image optimization in Photoshop/Fireworks and simple image mapping that can be done in Dreamweaver. So I'd like to emply those techniques in a new layout.

I would also like to expand the content of the portfolio to include a more in-depth photography section and a professional blog where I can write about photography and trends in my field (PR, marketing and the environment). Everything in PR/marketing right now is about social media, and I think having a personal professional blog as part of my portfolio would really make me stand out from the crowd when applying for jobs and networking. It would be a place for me to post and comment on articles about my profession (which I read nearly every day), and post and discuss new photos I take as I develop my photography hobby (which I hope to turn into part of my profession someday!).

As far as other components of the online portfolio, I would update the writing, design and courses section, add an "about me" section with my professional interests and objectives, and develop the photography section with a slideshow and watermarks on my images.

What do you think? I really want to do all of this but I fear I'll never have time on my own; this would be a great opportunity for me to devote a good amount of time to this project and come up with something that looks great and will last me a couple of years.

Fireworks navigation bar

Here's my Fireworks navigation bar.

This assignment was not my favorite because I don't like assignments with such specific instructions: make a button this way. put it in this layer. choose this color and font. go to this window and choose this option. And so forth. I like to be given a little bit of freedom when doing these assignments, because I find I do not learn what I am doing at all when I'm given such specific instructions. Instead I just follow the instructions and don't absorb what I'm doing. I guess it's applicable to many other areas of life...you have to be given a little freedom and responsibility if you are to learn and grow...just performing the precise commands you've been given does not result in much retention. But anyway...glad to be using Fireworks for the first time ever.