Alicia's Web Design Blog

my final project!

2008-12-10T21:55:00.002-05:00

My final project is posted at http://portfolio.aliciapimental.com.

Lynda.com videos

2008-11-18T22:48:00.001-05:00

After watching the first series of videos, I realized I'm not a big fan of floating. I can see its purpose in some designs, but I do not plan to have a site that will need to use floating. Also, I was not familiar with some of the codes he was writing, so it was hard to follow because the codes were not instinctive for me as they were for him. I actually found myself reading the text about the history of tea more than I was listening to him...oops.

The second series of videos were great. The starter pages are awesome...I definitely see myself using those in future web design projects. I especially like how there's comments in the code so you learn why certain values were set the way they were. Also, I definitely plan to use external style sheets for my portfolio...I've always used them on the sites I create because they're simple to make changes to, rather than having to change the CSS on each individual page. But I'm glad to have Dreamweaver this time around to help me build my style sheet!

Killer Web Content article

2008-11-18T21:23:00.002-05:00

The article by Gerry McGovern on Killer Web Content (I can't figure out how to get the link to that page through Angel!) is pretty familiar to me, since I write for the web for a living. I try to read as much of this kind of material as possible. So the idea of keeping your online writing short, sweet and to-the-point resonates with me. I actually have another book on web writing called "Don't Make Me Think!", which also pretty much sums up what people want from the web.

In translating this concept to my final project, I'm keeping the links to the pages with content front and center, not burying what the people who come to my site would be looking for.

CSS List

2008-11-18T21:19:00.002-05:00

Here's my CSS list. This is a really easy way to make buttons...I think I might try it on my online portfolio.

Adobe CSS article

2008-11-12T17:24:00.002-05:00

The article on CSS from Adobe was another good overview, with great details, about using CSS in web layouts. I'm going to use it in class tonight to start creating my homepage in Dreamweaver.

Week 11 In-class Assignment

2008-11-05T20:54:00.000-05:00

Here it is!

Chapter 16

2008-11-02T19:28:00.004-05:00

Here's my chapter 16 exercise. I can definitely see how templates can be useful when creating a website, particularly one with lots of pages. I'll have to play around with this option a bit more to get comfortable enough with it to include it into my final project.

I had a little technical problem in the first exercise. When I clicked the templates button under the assets panel, nothing showed up. I hit refresh and still nothing. I restarted Dreamweaver, but that didn't help. So I just went to the files panel and found the template under the templates folder. But when I saved the changes to the template, the pages that were supposed to update did not. I'm not sure what happened...if it's an error on my end or with the book.

CSS Zen Garden and Garden Party

2008-10-29T21:19:00.002-04:00

I love, love, love CSS Zen Garden. I get so inspired by looking at all of the beautiful designs. I found several that I liked so much I added them to my morgue file for my final presentation; cube garden and bonsai being two of them. Behind the scenes at Garden Party was a great explanation of how to create a winning CSS design. The links I found in the resources section of Zen Garden was very helpful, too. I am excited to move into the Dreamweaver part of creating our final project so I can use these and other CSS tips we've read about.

Chapter 7

2008-10-27T22:35:00.003-04:00

Here are my chapter 7 files. These practice exercises continue to confuse me...I do not learn well when I'm told exactly what to click, what color to type in the box, etc. I want to experiment with these tools.

I liked learning the Flash text technique...it would be really useful in case I really wanted to use a font, but it was not available on everyone's computer. But I don't like how it changes to a "hand" when you hover over it, as if it's a clickable link. I would think that would cause usability problems.

Week 5 articles

2008-10-27T16:17:00.003-04:00

I just realized I never reviewed these two articles--how did that happen??

I think the take-home lesson from Five Principles to Design By is that "Good design is something that works well," versus art, which is something people like to look at. When design is good, people don't even think about it -- they're too busy getting all the information they came to your site for. I think that's a really good, simple thought we all need to keep in mind when doing our final projects. I really want my design to function effectively and help get users to what they want in a quick, efficient manner.

Of the 8 Web Design Tactics to Help You When You're Stuck, my favorite were numbers 1 and 2. The first, "design from the inside out," is really helpful because I often get so stuck on what my header will look like that I waste time on the project. If I start with the content, maybe that will help inspire my header. This is actually what I do with writing -- save the headline for last -- so it's good to see it pointed out and applied in another medium. The second tactic, drawing your layout on paper before designing it in a program, is something I always do, but am glad to see repeated over and over in our readings!

FOGE website review

2008-10-22T13:36:00.005-04:00

I'm a bit late on this because of my recently hectic work schedule, but I want to go through the FOGE assignment in full here.

First, here are my thoughts after reviewing the FOGE website:

There is no need for a splash page; it just delays the visitors' obtaining the information they are coming to the site to get.
The homepage does not give visitors a clear understanding of what FOGE is; if I were visiting this site I likely would have clicked out of it before even trying to use the side navigation because the homepage doesn't offer any useful information.
Good thing I didn't, because the "About Us" page has a ton of great information about FOGE and why it's important. Awesome! Except that a lot of people may have trouble reading the information because it's written in very small, white text on a black background, which goes against many usability principles.
I really dislike the underline-overline link hover. I am not sure if that's just me or it's a usability no-no. At least the links are very clearly defined with underlines and a different color.
The key contacts page is really awful. An e-mail form with a drop-down to select the person you'd like to contact would be a lot better here. And, side note, inline frames are awful too, and really difficult to use.
The "news" portion is really buried. I would move this information up to the homepage (perhaps in a blog-like format) so it is one of the first things people see when they visit the site. It would also lend credibility to the site (and keep the site owners accountable for updating it regularly!) by showing when the site was last updated.
I have similar comments for the rest of the site...in general, there's a lot of good information buried under bad navigation and difficult to read text/design.

I don't think this website is appealing to many age groups. Perhaps it is most appealing to kids/teens, but I'm not sure parents/adults would know how to use it. Also, I don't see corporations taking the time to go through this site to find out how they can donate money, which, frankly, is the most important goal for nearly every non-profit.

I would make the following recommendations to improve this site:

Remove the splash page
Write a brief introduction about FOGE for the homepage, include one photo of kids (already on homepage), and create a small "news" section that shows the most recent updates/events on the homepage and links to other parts of the website. In thatnews section I'd also embed the "Galaxy Explorers" video since it's new, but I'd also make it the main item in the About FOGE section since it's an introduction to what they do and why they're important.
Simplify the navigation to "About FOGE," "Events and Programs," "Donate," "Volunteer," "Contact," and "For kids only."
Remove inline frames and use a Dreamweaver template that incorporates columns.

Here's my storyboard. A note: I wanted to show that I would be adding links to the footer, so I "cut off" the design area as if that was the bottom of the page. In reality, it would scroll until the content ended, then show the footer navigation.

Week 8 articles

2008-10-22T11:59:00.003-04:00

I found the Designing with Grids article to be so inspirational...I wish I wasn't at work (shhh) so I could sit down and sketch some more layout ideas for my final project! In general, I found I responded to many of the blog designs listed on this page. I kept one in particular, Erskine, for my morgue file because I love the top header graphic. There was a similar element in one of the examples in the Beautiful Web Design book that I also kept in my morgue file.

I'm thinking about how I can alter the layout of the blog section of my online portfolio, while keeping the look and feel relatively consistent with the rest of the site. Blogs definitely require elements (such as another column that lists archive, tags, etc.) that the portfolio pages will not.

I need to go back and review some of our past reading on typography, because I got a little lost while reading the CSS Typography article, mainly in the sections regarding type size and measurements. I'm very familiar with the parts on developing scannable text due to my job as a web writer.

Chapter 6

2008-10-21T20:28:00.002-04:00

Man, that was a loooong chapter! Here is the About Tea page. I have a pretty good understanding of CSS; I use external style sheets in all my designs. But this chapter tried my knowledge (and patience) with the subject. I definitely need to go back and take a closer look at some of the sections within this chapter before I try to use Dreamweaver to incorporate CSS into my final project.

Week 7 articles

2008-10-15T11:40:00.005-04:00

The Typofile Magazine article "The Best Faces for the Screen" is very old, no?

Of course, the limitations of low-res screens won't be with us forever. First, on-the-fly anti-aliasing (gray-scaling the type so it looks smoother) will be available on many systems, notably Windows 95. Done correctly, anti-aliasing allows more typefaces to look good at smaller sizes. Next, companies such as Xerox are already showing experimental flat screens with 300 dots per inch--the same as a laser printer. When that happens, choosing type for the screen will be little different than choosing it for paper.

Hmm...generally, the concepts in this article are good, but it would be more helpful to read something that addresses browsers and operating systems beyond Windows 95...since, as he says in the article, "When that happens, choosing type for the screen will be little different than choosing it for paper." So is that true now?

I liked "Think Outside the Font Box" because it put into writing things I've always thought about with fonts: how some fonts are very "artsy" and should only be used at large sizes in graphics, rather than as body text. I've always loved perusing font sites like Font Garden and downloading lots of funky, weird fonts...but I've always realized there was a distinction between those fonts and ones like Verdana and Arial, which are most definitely for body text and look pretty boring in large graphics. My personal favorite body font is Georgia...I use it all the time (like in this blog!).

"A Dao of Web Design" was very interesting. I agree with the concept that the web needs to diverge from its print design origins and "chart its own course," while still keeping the knowledge of print design of course. Print and the web are two very different mediums and require their own set of guidelines to be usable and successful. The article also had good tips about using percentages in CSS to control font size, and reminded me about the red/green color blindness issue we read about a few weeks back in a Jakob Neilsen article.

I love, love, love Dive into Accesibility. I am at a conference for work right now and only have time to skim the different sections, but I will definitely revisit this site when I get back. How cool!

Texture and Typography

2008-10-15T11:34:00.006-04:00

I wasn’t sure I’d ever used texture in web design, and I think it may be one of the missing pieces in my designs. Whenever I’ve created a design, I’ve always felt there was something missing to make the design compelling and interesting, different than other personal sites out there. That might be texture.

After reading just the first page of this chapter, I had an idea about how to incorporate texture into my final project design. As I said, I want to create a design that evokes the environmental aspect of my profession/interests. I thought I would do that by using colors like green and brown, but perhaps I can use other colors (like vermilion!) and then incorporate a texture (leaf veins, I was thinking) to evoke nature.

The rest of the chapter had helpful bits of information about rounding rectangle edges and how to place background images. The lines section was also good because it helped me understand that I do use texture in my current online portfolio layout, in the form of these swirly lines at the top of the design. I think I may use them in my new portfolio layout as well, because a) I like them, and b) they do add the texture a good design needs.

The typography chapter gave good definitions of terms used in typography. I've never studied typography, but have always been really interested in different fonts. This chapter was great in bridging my knowledge gap between what I've observed and the actual principles behind choosing and using fonts in design.

Colors

2008-10-15T11:34:00.005-04:00

I really love colors. I think I said that in my blog entry about color theory a few weeks ago. Anyway, the chapter on color in the Beautiful Web Design PDF was another great explanation of color theory and ways to use color in web design.

I think the triadic and tetradic color schemes are really cool, and I may use those for my final project. On my current portfolio layout, I kind of picked the colors haphazardly based on what I thought looked good together and conveyed a professional feeling. I think they work, but I’d like to use the techniques I read about in this chapter on color to build my new portfolio layout on a strong color foundation.

For my final project, I’d like to use colors that are professional, but evoke the nature/outdoorsy/environmental aspect of my work. I love green and brown, but I’m not sure how to use those colors and not make the site too…as we say, “crunchy.” Also, I love the color vermilion, but am not sure if that’s very environmental or professional. I have to think about this a little more.

Also, I like how the author of this book keeps going back to the same case study at the end of each chapter to show how to use the tips from that chapter in a real-life design scenario. Very helpful!

Animation from in-class assignment

2008-10-06T23:01:00.005-04:00

Here's my animation from last week's in-class assignment.

Thinking ahead to my final project, I have no idea how to incorporate animation into a professional profile. I'm going to have to give it some thought.

Week 6 articles

2008-10-05T22:24:00.005-04:00

Milissa Tarquini's article "Blasting the Myth of the Fold" was interesting to me because I too have always heard that you're not supposed to make a page longer than the viewing screen because "people don't scroll." But, I've always thought to myself, I scroll...especially if I see that there's more text to read on a page, and I have not gotten the information I came to that page for. The whole idea of making sure there are visual clues so the user knows to scroll down is good and all, but can't they just tell that a page continues by the right hand scrollbars, amount of time it takes a page to load, etc.? I wonder if this is maybe a generational thing; being a young person, I've been using the web for a good part of my life and am very comfortable with it. But other people may need those visual clues to tell that a page continues. I think an important factor here is to make sure your content is engaging, informative and well-written so that people want to continue reading your page...to me, that's just as important as visual clues. A few people made this same comment at the end of the article.

I really liked Danny Sullivan's article on Search Engine Placement Tips. It has lots of really useful information about SEO, which is something I've heard lots about but haven't read too many tips on. For instance, I always thought it was a good thing to make your keywords one word each; so, in the example in the article, my keywords would be "stamp, stamps, collecting, collection." Wrong! The idea of using "stamp collecting, stamp collection" as your keywords makes so much more sense the way he explains it. The HTML links as navigation is another good tip, and one I plan to use in the redesign of my online portfolio.

The 12 Rules for Choosing the Right Domain Name would certainly be helpful for someone looking to buy a domain for their business or service. My domain name is aliciapimental.com because it's for my photos, portfolio and whatever other information I want linked to my name. It makes me feel a little more secure that I own my name as my domain name; I know no one else can buy it and put content on the web that could potentially hurt me professionally.

I agree with Andrew Twigg's lamenting that there are too few typefaces able to be viewed on the web. I personally enjoy Georgia, but it'd be nice to have a few more options, especially since, as he says, it's been about 12 years without any major advances in this area. It definitely limits your design capabilities, though I wonder if maybe it's a blessing in disguise. I certainly don't want to have to read pages in certain crazy fonts I know people would start using if I was able to see the fonts on their computers. Though many of those would be better than a page in Times New Roman...ugh.

Layout and composition

2008-10-01T10:00:00.004-04:00

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

2008-09-30T22:30:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-30T22:20:00.002-04:00

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.

Jakob Nielsen = God

2008-09-24T18:38:00.004-04:00

I very much rely on the writing of Jakob Nielsen in my job as a web writer. He has a lot of great tips about how people read text on the web (they scan pages) and how to write so they get needed information (bulleted lists instead of large blocks of text). These articles about design usability are also excellent. We use breadcrumbs on our website at work and I find them very helpful because they show exactly where you are in the architecture of a website and you can jump up to higher levels very easily.

The article about links was good because it brought up things I'd never even thought of when designing for the web -- such as using underlines if your link colors are red or green so color-blind people can see them. Genius!

And, of course, top ten lists are always great. I admit guilt on several of these -- namely, opening pages in new windows (I thought that was good!), not changing the color for visited links and fixed font sizes. I will be mindful of integrating these usability standards into my designs from now on. And a pet peeve: I hate when links open PDFs and there is no warning. At work we have a little PDF logo that automatically appears next to links to PDFs so you know what you're getting yourself into. But I still try to minimize the practice of linking to PDFs because they are not at all user-friendly. Yuck.

Designing a website

2008-09-24T17:51:00.004-04:00

It seems from this presentation that we will soon be starting our final project. Yay! I'm truly looking forward to this. I've been piecemealing (is that a word?) my knowledge of web design for so many years now, that to create a site from start to finish in the proper way (comps and all) is very exciting for me.

So this presentation touches upon stuff I've recently talked about here, such as designing for your intended audience. Very important and something I'm always aware of because of my line of work. I also always design a site on paper first so I can visualize what I'm planning to design.

The slide on website structure and establishing a flow chart reminded me of a presentation I recently attended at work about using sticky notes to organize your thoughts and navigation on a website. Really cool if you want to check it out.

Developing a storyboard is not something I have a ton of experience with so I am looking forward to learning how to integrate that process into web design. I also liked learning about page content hierarchy: things like subtitles being in a different color, the average readable font size and consistent placement of images. These are all things I've thought about, but not always included in my designs.

This presentation and everything else I've read/viewed this week have instilled in me some great principles of usability that I will definitely always use in my future designs. I'm really glad to have learned about them. Now I'm excited to apply them to our class projects and any future personal projects I do!

Content is king

2008-09-24T00:13:00.002-04:00

I said it before and I'll say it again.

The article on Peachpit, "Why Bad Site Design Succeeds," is the kind of stuff that applies to my work (as in, my full-time job) every day. I work in PR, mostly writing for the web, on environmental issues in the Chesapeake Bay. I've been through a web redesign where I had to rewrite ALL of the content on this site, so I spent a lot of time reviewing web writing articles and tips to make the content effective for our web users.

In particular, this part about MySpace resonated with me: "MySpace offers content, which we all know is the most important factor on the Web. Without quality content, no site can get very far. And MySpace’s content is extremely relevant and valuable to its users because it’s all created by its users and by friends of its users. If every piece of content you see on a web site is relevant to you, you’re going to keep going back."

Content is king. You can have a great design, but if people can't find what they are looking for they are not going to come back to your website. That, to me, is the #1 principle of web design. Of course, this is a design class, so related to content is usability, which we touched on with the "Web Sites that Suck" videos. Not only must you have the content people want, but web users must be able to find that content on your site.

I really appreciated the part of "Usability: The Key to Good Website Design" on audiences, because it's so essential to what I do. Before I start anything (and this mostly pertains to writing because that is what I do), I have to know my audience. I usually think of the person that might end up reading what I am writing, and write to that person. I think that train of thought is applicable to design as well: when you're designing, think of the person who might be visiting your site -- inexperienced, elderly, etc. -- and how they would use your design to get the information they need.

Rollovers

2008-09-24T00:09:00.003-04:00

Check out my rollovers. Not very groundbreaking. I was glad to learn how to do this in Dreamweaver because it's incredibly simple but adds a nice touch to sites that are kind of plain. I will definitely add this feature when I redo my online portfolio layout (sometime soon, hopefully!).

Have a happy period

2008-09-23T18:48:00.008-04:00

I thought I would use one of the absolute worst marketing slogans that deals with that special time of the month to introduce one of the worst examples of navigation for a website on the same topic.

I actually gasped out loud when Vincent Flanders pointed out the sideways navigation on the Tampax website -- though I am glad he did, because if I had gone to that site on my own I would never, ever have seen it.

I think all of his videos -- from the hilarious Crumpler Bags to the PDF links on Dorset Police -- were really good examples of the need to balance an interesting or innovative website design with the fundamentals of navigation and usability -- because, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what your design looks like if people cannot find the information they need. Particularly with the Dorset Police site, which I would imagine services people who are coming for an important purpose: finding information that pertains to their security at home, at school, etc. As they say, content is king.

Also interesting were sites like the Diners Club, whose "mystery meat navigation" of pictures of doors that led to pages on airport lounges and customer service made no sense.

While design is subjective, you've still got to keep your audience in mind when designing. Many of the top 10 worst websites of 2007 were further examples of this. I found the Zune website to be really bad because it's for a mainstream product, one that is trying hard to compete with the iPod, a model of usability and simplicity.

Stock photography, image maps and image optimization

2008-09-17T20:56:00.005-04:00

Learn about the screwed-up family I created for this assignment on stock photography, image maps and image optimization. I enjoy creating stories and characters.

I was glad to explore using Getty Images, though I don't think I'd ever buy photos from the site for my personal purposes. I like taking photos on my own -- so maybe someday my photos will be on Getty Images for others to use!!

The lessons on image maps and image optimization were really helpful. When I updated my online portfolio last month I did not explore image optimization, and as a result the text in my images is a little "muddy." I now know that I should have used the GIF file format rather than JPEG for the images with text. I definitely plan on redoing that layout in the near future to clean up those "muddy" images. I'm also likely to use the image mapping feature in Dreamweaver, which is MUCH quicker than slicing up an image map in Photoshop/Fireworks. Good lesson!!

Chapters 5 and 8

2008-09-17T16:14:00.002-04:00

She shoots colors all around...

2008-09-17T12:32:00.005-04:00

I enjoy reading about color theory. I remember my 7th grade English teacher, who was a former Clinique salesperson (not sure how that made her qualified to teach English, but hey, it was Catholic school), once gave us a lesson on color theory, explaining how different colors had different meanings and could invoke different emotions when you see them. The example I remember is McDonald's, which uses red and yellow in its logo; the yellow gives off a "temporary" vibe so people won't stay in the restaurant long, but the red makes them want to come back.

Color is a vital part of any type of design. When I recently designed a layout for my online portfolio, I used the colors white, cream, teal and navy blue to give visitors a feeling that I was professional and mature, yet youthful and creative. The type, layout and other design features all added to the feeling I was trying to convey. In fact, I’d say that I almost always first choose a color palette as the inspiration for whatever design I’m doing; when I choose brighter colors I usually end up with more geometric, block-like shapes, and when I want to work with darker or more earthy tones my design is more traditional or organic.

Just for fun, I looked up the psychological traits of my two “favorite” colors -- white and green. White is purity, innocence and cleanliness, and green is nature, fertility and growth. I also like brown, but that was not on there. No one really likes brown, but I think it’s warm and earthy and it makes me feel good.

Kona's Website

2008-09-10T20:27:00.003-04:00

Visit Kona's Website, my in-class assignment during week 3.

I did not really learn anything in this exercise, other than remembering the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl J to edit a page's CSS. I am very comfortable with setting up FTP information in the site manager, using the property inspector to add both relative and absolute links, adding images and tables using the insert bar, etc. This is very elementary for me because I already know coding. I am anxious to move forward with some of the more advanced techniques of Dreamweaver, as well as learning how to use Fireworks and getting more practice with Photoshop to make web graphics.

Basics for Designers E-seminar

2008-09-09T22:12:00.003-04:00

I found the first half or so of this seminar very, very basic and redundant. Which is the point of us viewing it...hammering it into our brains. But I think I have picked up the basics of Dreamweaver very easily because of my knowledge of coding. While viewing this seminar I kind of let my mind wander because I was pondering whether it's better to learn coding first and Dreamweaver second, or Dreamweaver first and coding second. I would venture, based on my experience, that it's probably easier to learn code first. Hear me out. Learning code is not too difficult: you pick up the basic ones (P, A, BR, IMG, TABLE, STRONG, EM, and so forth) and you can make a page. A lot of the parts of codes are used in multiple codes (like border for IMG and TABLE or align for P and TD). That makes learning Dreamweaver a lot easier because you're already familiar with the codes. You can then use Dreamweaver, rather than coding, to create some of the more complicated items on a page (like a large table perhaps). I wonder if anyone who has learned the opposite way has any comments? Does learning Dreamweaver help you learn coding, or do you always use the features of Dreamweaver without altering the code?

All of the layouts that are available when creating a new document are great. What a time saver! I recently redid my online portfolio and had to define the columns by slicing the layout image in Photoshop and using tables in the layout. Which is kind of old-school. (I'm like Michael Fox in that terrible Back to the Future sequel...using my HTML knowledge from 2000 to create a website in 2008. I enjoy pop culture references.) And the tracing image feature? Ge-ni-us! I can't even believe how much time I wasted the other week trying to get the darn table widths right when this feature exists--I'll definitely be putting this knowledge into use very soon!

After viewing this seminar, I'm really excited to learn more of the layout and design features of Dreamweaver. I can't wait to do some real design exercises!

Look, it's Page 2!

2008-09-09T21:39:00.002-04:00

You should really visit my fabulous sample page 2 to learn all about what I'm doing this weekend. I did not run into any problems creating this page, though I may have been confused sometime last week because my page1.html was a blank page. Or maybe it was supposed to be blank. Anyway, this was a very easy assignment for me. I'm looking forward to getting into some more complex stuff...

Learning the basics of Dreamweaver

2008-09-08T22:38:00.004-04:00

In chapters 2-4 of the book, I read about the Dreamweaver interface, site management and the basic abilities of Dreamweaver in building a web page. Chapter 2 goes over the Dreamweaver interface, describing what each of the menus, toolbars and panels in the program is used for. The different insert bar categories were really helpful to learn about because they group useful, related features into tabs. I already know I will be customizing the favorites group! The property inspector will also be a time-saver, displaying all the pertinent information on each object on the page in one easy-to-scan menu.

Chapter 4 details some of the basic parts of making a web page: adding images and text, linking pictures, aligning text, etc. Going through this chapter, I kept thinking, "I know how to do that already," because I know the codes behind creating links, placing images, etc. But do I know to do it using the Assets Panel? No. And that's a reason why I took this class--to actually learn how to use the features of Dreamweaver instead of simply opening the program and going straight to code view. The program has amazing capabilities and would probably make my life a whole lot easier when trying to do certain things on a web page. So I need to force myself to stay in design view and use the property inspector, assets panel and other features. I think having the updated Dreamweaver CS3 (as opposed to the aforementioned awful GoLive CS) on my computer at home will really help with that.

I know I skipped chapter 3. That chapter discusses site management. Since I have a website, I learned awhile back about path structure, what a root folder is, and how to define my site. But Dreamweaver organizes the files and folders of my site really well in the files panel (especially compared with GoLive--but do I need to bring that up again??), which is really helpful when uploading site files because you can see everything lined up neatly. Creating a site map is an even better way to visualize the files on your site, especially if you have a lot of files and folders. It's a great way to stay neat and organized--and sane!

Starting off with XHTML and Dreamweaver

2008-09-03T13:25:00.004-04:00

When I was in high school I taught myself how to code HTML after finding a website created by another teenage girl and wanting to have one of my own. I mostly learned HTML from a website called Lissa Explains it All, which is a very colorful HTML help resource geared towards kids. (I still reference it to this day!)

Since I learned HTML some eight years ago, XHTML has taken its place. I've picked up some XHTML codes over time (such as using <br /> instead of <br>), but I know there are lots of gaps in my knowledge of code and standards, so I decided to take this class. I'm looking forward to updating my coding skills, though I know that is not the focus of the entire class.

Already, the first chapterof the book gave me a good introduction to the difference between HTML and XHTML, as well as definitions for XML and DHTML, which I've always seen while doing website coding but never really knew what they stood for. CSS is one of my favorite parts of coding. When I was younger, I'd make websites with scrollbars that were bright yellow and blue with different-colored borders (and then put them on the left side of the page instead of the right side!). On the more practical side of things, it's great to be able to make one change in the CSS code of a stylesheet and have that change reflected throughout your entire website, rather than having to update every single page.

I use Dreamweaver (CS) at work to update one of our websites, but since I know the coding required to make the updates, I usually skip all the neat features on the insert bars and go straight to code view. (Well, I use split view sometimes, too.) That's another reason I decided to take this class: I knew I would never take the time to explore all the features of Dreamweaver on my own, and I know if I did I would find all kinds of cool codes I don't know yet.

FTP for beginners -- and non-beginners, too!

2008-09-03T12:50:00.003-04:00

The wiki article FTP for Beginners is a great primer on the technical and functional aspects of using FTP. It goes through the most important things an FTP user needs to know in an easy-to-understand -- and sometimes entertaining -- format. (One section, called "Check Out the Logs on That Server!", made me laugh. Maybe I'm just tired, but I thought it was funny.)

I've been using FTP since I started learning web design in high school. Back then, I was a Windows person and I used an FTP client called WS FTP. I'm pretty sure I downloaded it from one of those scary pirated software websites that I wouldn't dare even visit today, but was all the rage back in 2000. I found it pretty easy to use, but never understood what the logs actually meant or what the difference was between ASCII and binary. You don't need to know what these things mean to be able to FTP, but I enjoy and appreciate knowing the significance of these technical terms as I study the art and science of web design.

(The next paragraph is really just a rant about my current FTP client and has nothing to do with the "FTP for Beginners" article.)

Currently, I use the FTP offered through my home version of the antiquated Adobe GoLive CS. I hate it. The thing froze up on me no less than a dozen times while I was trying to update my online portfolio this weekend. I can't wait to get my hands on a shiny new version of Dreamweaver CS3 (though I hope my old iBook G4 can keep up).

Web design at AACC

2008-09-03T01:01:00.004-04:00

I am taking a course in web design at AACC and am using this blog for that class. So anything labeled "web design class" is (obviously) related to my course. Looking forward to it.