Timeline – The When’s, What’s and How’s

So now when I have firmly decided to create a photography portfolio site I’ll make use of your suggestions, Jason, by incorporating my own photos as well as telling the story behind all of the photos.

I’ll also make use of one of two templates I found on the Internet:

My photography web site will be unique in the way that I’ll make it creative and show the photos in accordance to a creative story line. I’ll make the web site as though the audiences are on a discovery journey through a fairy tale story. Each photo encountered in the story will tell of an event and background and so on.

Timeline:

(University academic calendar)

Week 5 – Brainstorming of various themes and story lines

Create a flow chart of how my site might look like

Gather all materials that I might need for my web site

Decide on what technology I’ll need to make my web site work

Week 6 – Familiarise myself with Dreamweaver 8

How to create a web site

Create the folders of my web site

Play around with my new found template and see what I can or can’t do with it

E.g. Choose the template design (already done that).

Choose my Color Theme,

Choose my page layout

Add my web site content.

Insert my Image

Link to other Web Pages

- Decide on what size my web page will be, that is, if the page should fit big screen or medium screen etc

Week 7 - Study and try to understand FLA-files, how to use them, when to use them and

if I’ll use them

- Try out video and audio files, how to upload them onto my web site, how big

of a file I can use without affecting download speed too much

- Decide where, when and what video and audio files I’ll use, with what page

and with what photo

 

Week 8 - Learn how to do digital art: what program might I use, how I can use them and

what art I want to make to fit into my intended web site

Week 9 - Final decision on how my web site should look like and how it will operate

such as colors, navigation bars, what will be written on the web site

<!–[if !supportLists]–>- <!–[endif]–>Make a “draft”of my web site and see if it work

Week 10-11 – Building the web site

Week 12-13 – Make adjustment if necessary

<!–[if !supportLists]–>- <!–[endif]–>Run it through with a friend and see how well or not the site operate

<!–[if !supportLists]–>- <!–[endif]–>Take note of friends impression and suggestions – Improve the web site if possible

Week 14 – Complete the web site construction assignment

Week 15 – Web site construction Assignment Submission

Proposal For A Photography Portfolio Website

Well, I have now completely abandoned my original idea of creating a clothing/fashion site because I found the most beautiful flash template of a photography site. The template is not free, so unfortunately I can not use it and experiment with it, but it completely inspired me to build my own photography web site. I am surprised it didn’t cross my mind before since I love photography and have completed a photography course as part of my degree. As I plan to take up more photography courses I have come to the conclusion that building such a website will gain me the most for my future endeavors and research and will also make me more eager and interested in completing this project.

The vision I have of this website contains Flash. I would really want to use Flash when building it; it’s just that I am completely inexperienced with the building of web sites concept so I am a bit intimidated by the whole thing. Computers and I have a history of not liking each other very much. Anyhow, I have decided to try my best and use Flash because some of the examples of Flash templates that I have seen are just beautiful. And I really do want to create something beautiful too.

Examples how I want this site to look:

- On the upper half of the web site I want my name to appear written on one of my own photography and then adding flash to it so that it gives the feel of movement/aliveness. On the picture itself there will be some kind of an inspirational quote. Most likely a quote connected to photography….there are many such.

- The menu bar will appear in the middle and go across the web page. Examples of what the menu tabs will be: HOME, ABOUT, GALLERY (when you enter this the photos will move across the middle of the page and when you click one of them it will appear on top of the page where my home picture is usually seen), PHOTOGRAPHY LINKS, EXHIBITION, CONTACT, SHOP etc

- Each time you click a tab the sound of a camera going off will be heard

- On the lower half a WELCOME title will appear in big capital letters and underneath it a description of what this web site offers and who I am in smaller letters. There will be right hand side links next to the WELCOME text that directs you to further photography links of interest.

Not only will the website provide photos of my own work, but it will update on new exhibitions and also show photos of old ones. The site will also give links where to turn to if you want to learn more about photography, what books to buy, links to sites which sell cameras, what forums to visit and talk to other photographers or ask them questions. It will also attempt to show a gallery of famous, unforgettable photos so in that way it will be functioning as an educational tool as well.

Audience:

I believe that if I pull this one off…because it looks and seems completely complex (but I want to create this site so bad I’m willing to sweat over it), it will appeal to many people who enjoy and are interested in photography. And also to the absolute beginners who wants to learn about photography.

The feel of the website:

I will most definitely keep the website clean from unnecessary clutter. It will be kept elegant and hopefully esthetical with minimum words and pictures visible when entering it – the pictures will show up once you click the tabs. I am also considering of adding soft, calm piano music that will play as soon as you enter the site (yeah, yeah, I didn’t want any music but I love the piano so maybe maybe…I haven’t decided fully on that issue yet).

Timeline for completion:

I chose this topic – photography – because I love it and it would really stimulate my interest to go on and try even when it seems impossible. With any other topic it would probably take me forever when the going gets tough to continue forcing myself to go on and complete a website but now hopefully, with some luck and a lot of effort I will have this done by the end of week 14. HELP!

What am I learning in technology terms that are new to me? How about absolutely everything…from the word “template” to the word “dream weaver”. With such a conclusion somebody better wish me good luck. God only knows I will need some.

1. Using Website Templates: So many designs, so little time, how I can I choose? 2. The Web design: The do’s and don’t’s and cartridges hurdles

Writing for the Web: Week 3

OK, so I have totally, completely, most definitely gotten over my original idea of creating something like Ebay or an online shopping site after Jason scared me half to death when mentioning the hurdles of creating online shopping cartridges for such a website. I barely knew what the word ‘templates’ meant so I guess I aimed to high to quickly.

However, I do get it a bit more now. The fastest (and cheapest) way to realise my ’simplified’ new vision of another website project would probably be to get a pre-made website template, right? Being the web design amateur that I am, I set myself out to find a beautiful (beauty is in the eye of the beholder, remember?) , high quality, pre-made website template so that I don’t have to hire a professional web designer and pay him to make me one in order to pass this course. This is indeed great news, since I came across the prices of hiring someone from a web design firm and they were not a pretty sight I can tell you. I hope Jason understands I am only kidding. Of course, I will do this on my own. Hrrmmfff.

So off I went, on my own as promised, around the maze called World Wide Web, hunting for free, pre-made templates that will best work for the web design/project that I have in mind.

Most website templates I came across already gave the basic framework, so I suppose it is up to me to take one of those templates and make it work for my entire website. During the tutorial in Week 2 I learned that the use of templates work best if you have a bit of Dream Weaver knowledge so you can customize your template from the default set up to your personal vision.

But before I can choose a template I need an idea of what that personal vision would be. OK, I suppose I haven’t gotten over my original idea yet. A clothes shopping website. I even found templates that might work – with already pre-designed shopping cartridges. Please, please, me want to create fashion site. Below follows some examples of templates that might be usable when creating my dream web site:

Fashion Hut , Clothes Fashion Template or Fashion House

Other sites that could turn out to be very useful to me are Templatesbox , Freetemplatesonline , Free  Web Design Templates Sites or andreasviklund which offer page after page of free templates for all project web designs.

One of the more comprehensive template companies out there, Best Web Templates and Design, offers 1,000s of website templates for just about any category of website, you can search their inventory and pick the template that fits your website idea best. Many of them were simply stunning designs, stylish yet simple. Unfortunately, they were not free downloads.

Furthermore, the web site Interspire offers some very nice templates for free but once again nothing that would suit my idea.

Ideas of how Dessi will pull this one off on her own:

I have no previous knowledge or experience of what would work and what would not on a website but after I did some research I found these invaluable tips: Do’s and Don’ts of Building a Website that I will use as my bible from now on when creating my master piece. Why? Because it is as though they were especially created for me. I do not like flashy websites, I like simple designs. I skip flash intros like only always, I click away the pop-ups even before they even appear, I find cluttered websites with huge colourful letters tasteless and a sore to the interest, eyes and senses, it is also a complete turn off when music starts pounding in the background and sometimes almost gives you a heart attack when it goes off without a warning. In short, my web site will be simple, fast to enter, straight to the point, no clutter, no music, no flash intros. Sometimes I feel like the web designers make flash intros for their own sake of enjoyment or for getting better grades at university than for the users entering their sites. I mean, who is interested in the intro??

Well, now my optimistic side tells me: ‘Great, that’s all you have to do then. Learn a bit of Dream Weaver, insert the template of your choice into the program, change a bit here and there on the original template, choose your page layout, add a bit of web site content, add some text here and there, insert a little bit of images, create a link
from the current page to another page on your website or to
another website and that’s it, you’re done. Voila, that simple and fast. Who mentioned blood, sweat and tears?’

On the other hand, my less optimistic side completely contradicts: ‘Help! Run away fast! This is going to turn into ‘Mission Impossible 5′ and forget about Tom Cruise being there to help you out.’

Building a Website: Expectations, Ambitions and Dreams…say what?

Writing For The Web: Week 2

If you read this and your name is Jason Nelson you probably expect to find 400 words of enlightening explanation, rhetorical inspiration, and theoretical perception, to why I have chosen this course and what I am hoping to get out of it. Well, to avoid unnecessary disappointments I might as well be quick to say that that will probably not happen in this summary or even anytime soon, but hopefully it will happen by the end of this semester when I expect to have blossomed from a regular Facebook user into a semi professional web designer with inspiration and ambition for a future in the web design industry .

The truth is that I have no prior experience with web designs, or the strange terms, graphics, linkings etc. connected to the whole phenomenon. And honestly I am a bit intimidated by this course since other students who have done it have warned me not to enroll in it as they found it way too complex, hard and incomprehensible to grasp and deliver what is expected in only three short months. One of them has barely survived it and this person is a smart person.

I did some research to find the main purposes for building a website and found that it was for marketing your company (to put it simply – to make money), share ideas or information with others, document your family happenings or to just store files on.

However, to better categorize the purposes and uses of websites, the hosting community has divided web sites into three categories: personal use websites, business websites, and non-profit websites.

After looking at this information I decided that should I ever willingly subject myself to blood, sweat, tears, sleepless nights and mental breakdowns (that’s what I’ve been told happens when you create a website) I would most definitely want to make something out of it for personal gain. So, since I am no good Samaritan who would selfishly submit myself to suffering for a non-profit website, I would probably create a business website.

Look at that, I’m already on my way of deciding what I want to create. The problem is that I am studying MA Journalism and was informed to create a website linked to that and the research I am doing there, but I am more interested of building a business website, like Ebay or something. I want to try something different that is not connected to Journalism at all. I already do three other subjects that are connected and variation never hurt anyone.

So in conclusion, after this “deep” self-reflection, I realise I am not a good Samaritan and have chosen this course for possible personal future gain only. Scary…my illusions about myself are lost forever. However, the heavy burden whether I will be successful in my undertakings or not all falls on the shoulders of Mr W – no one knows why W when first name Jason – Nelson.

Incredible, creating a website course actually made me get to know myself better the very first week. Imagine when the course finishes, I will perhaps have solved all of my personal issues. Maybe the people who warned me about this course were wrong?