Week 15B

During class I added in a few photos to my page. I started out with all the same photo just to make sure the layout worked and then I was going to go ahead and change them.

To get the images to fit where I wanted them and become the right sized circle, I had to re-size each one in photoshop first.

As you can see they are all added in. Each circle looks a little different even though each picture is just about the same size. They are all just slightly different but if I were to resize them to all the same size, a few would looked distorted.

I was also able to center the arrows in the "How" section of my page. I wanted them in there to section off the different steps of the process but didn't want it to seem too literal.

I then started working on a header. I honestly did not know what to do for this part. I tried different fonts and word placement but could not find anything I really liked or thought worked so I put it off for a little bit more.

However, I did put it into the code just to see what it looked like and just in case I could not think of anything else.

Here is what the page looks like as a whole at this point (minus the four photos on the bottom, those were changed).

Week 15A

Today in class we had an in progress critique. At first a few of us volunteered to show what we had done in front of the class, I decided to show what I had so far.

Most of the class said to go with a more organic feel to the layout of my design since the patterns Robin creates have a very natural feel to them. At first I wanted to go with a very straight forward, technical feel to my design since the patterns are based on a mathematical equation, something straight forward and technical. But I understood what the class meant about switching gears.

After splitting into groups and critiquing everyones' work we had the rest of the class to work on our designs. I changed everything in both my html and css to a comment and started from scratch, more or less. I kept the same background and started redoing my layout.

For the one section I have on my web page that describes the process on how the patterns are created I decided to create little arrows to put in with the text.

Here's how they looked at first, I plan on going in and centering them:

Basically starting all over and having very little information is going to be a challenge for me but I am going to work hard. Designing my webpage is the toughest part for me but putting all into code is so fun and is my favorite part of the entire process.

Week 14: Outside the Classroom

Over the weekend while working on my webpage I decided to make one on the tabs on my nav bar work, taking you to a page with contact information. I have the page set up so the link works I just need to format that one and add in the information. I also decided to rearrange things and place the photos of the products along the side of the page. First I got the general layout:

Next I broke up each photo. They most likely will not stay that size and I though about alternating them along side the paragraphs.

 I also worked on centering everything and I changed the body text by giving it a different color, the dark blue on my style tile. I am currently working a header.

I was stuck for awhile as far as the header.

I wanted something simple but interesting so I thought I'd add an image with a gradient affect which I created in Photoshop.

I checked out what it looks like on my page and I still feel I have to tweak it a bit but I feel like I am on the right track

I also added in some photos of the different products along the side of the website.

Week 14B

Today in class Professor Pannafino was unable to make it but we still needed to take the time to work on our webpage. Before class I had a general layout planned of how I was going to include my content so I started adding in text to start:

I tried out different fonts and line heights:

And I finally picked one out that I liked and added in an image to go with the first paragraph. The only thing that had been bothering me was the first title was off centered with the rest, so that needed to be fixed.

Week 14A

Today in class Professor Pannafino briefly went over html coding with us, just as a refresher. We also talked about the reading a little and signed up to meet with him either today or Wednesday. I signed up fro Wednesday.

We then had the rest of the class to work on our website. At the beginning of class this is what my site looked like:

I started out working on the basic structure of the site and as I finish that I will start adding the details.

The full horizontal design was giving me a bit of trouble so I restarted and created a "page" over top a background kind of layout again but all of my content will be laid out in a horizontal fashion to give the appearance of a full horizontal design.

Right now I am keeping each section a primary color so I remember where each section begins, as I go on I will add the final background in.

I sized the header how I want it and then started working on a fake navigation bar. the buttons on here will most likely not go anywhere, I am just adding them in for aesthetic.

After working on it a bit, I have everything laid out(or at least an idea of a layout) as far as the content is concerned. I still need to work on the header, not 100% sure what I am going to do with it yet.

Week 13 Outside the Classroom

Over the weekend I started working on the layout of my webpage. I started building a horizontal layout for my webpage and added background colors. I cant seem to remember how to get rid of the extra space at the very top but other than that everything is working well. Here is what I have so far:

One thing I also need to work on is placing an image as a background. The blue at the top and bottom is actually an image. I dont mind the way it looks now but I want to be able to see the whole image.

The back background is scribble light from subtle patterns. I had this as the background of my style tile.

I wanted to continue working on my style tile a bit more but my computer does not have the fonts or images I had on my style tile so I did not work on that too much more although I did add an illustration.

IID Conference

The Interdisciplinary Interaction Design Conference was Saturday, November 19th. It hosted four speakers, Victor Yocco, Brian Crumley, Liese Zahabi, and John Halfpenny. Each of them had a unique topic to talk about but it could all be applied to design.

Victor Yocco, who talked about Psychology in Design, was extremely interesting. He stated that psychology explains why or why not a design works and how it provides a framework to design around. He also talked about Heuristics which are mental shortcuts every human uses and how that idea is applied to design. Apply psychology to design is extremely important and is used to reduce a user's cognitive load which keeps them returning.

Next was Brian Crumley, he talked about Style Guides, what they are and what they are used for. Style guides are used to document the design of a website. Within a style guide there is the color scheme, different button types used, links, etc. and how the webpage is put together. It keeps everyone on track that is working on the website and is used to keep everyone up to date.

Liese Zahabi was third. Her speech was a lot different than everyone else's  and was little hard for me to follow. She talked about the web in general and how great it is and everything that can be done with it.

John Halfpenny was last and by far my favorite. He talked about branding yourself (and actually works for a company called Brand Yourself) and everything he mentioned directly correlates with me and what I need to do to get my name out there as a photographer and web designer. First he talked about Writing for the Web and then went on to talk about Personal Branding, implementation, search engine optimization, how to use social media to your advantage, personal web bio, and on-page/off-page SEO. What John Halfpenny talked about can apply to anyone's life and career.

All of the speakers did a great job presenting and I am glad I got the chance to not only hear them but talk to them after as well.