I went into this brief with a definitive idea of what I wanted to get out of it from the start. I knew that I wanted a portfolio website and I thought that this brief would be the perfect opportunity to achieve this. I was very interested in what I was going to come out of the brief with and the research was definitely secondary.
This soon changed when I realized that I would need to do quite a bit of technical research into how I was going to make the site, what portfolio sites contain and the reasons people have them. My initial focus was on the various methods I could use to make the website and then secondly the aesthetics of the site. Most of this website was done using the Internet by looking at other portfolio websites and blogs that I liked and then for the more technical information I was looking at online tutorials. I soon realized that simply focusing on the technical & aesthetic side, wouldn’t result in the best website. I then started using the library as more of a research resource by looking through their magazine back catalog and books. I found this a reliable and useful resource and one that I will definitely use more in the future. This got me thinking about the importance of planning when it comes to creating a website. It meant that I could plan out how my website was going to function before I even opened Dreamweaver. This turned out to be a crucial stage in my research and development and did make the whole process a lot easier.
Most of my research was self-driven using the Internet or library resources but I wouldn’t say that this was the most effect. Instead I found that the sessions I had on CSS and Flash really helped me to get a deeper understanding of the technical side. It also helped talking to other people on the course doing the same sort of projects because we were mostly encountering similar problems. I found that research done when trying to overcome a problem forces you to think harder and dig deeper to try and find a solution. It is also the sort of research that stays with you for longer and makes a more lasting impact.
In terms of my production methods I definitely made the right choice by going with Dreamweaver and CSS. I made this decision after trying to create an introduction animation in flash that I could use as a menu in flash or even go on to make a whole flash website. However I struggled to make it work how I envisaged and through my previous research I found that the simpler and more concise a portfolio website is the easier it will be for users to get an idea about you and your work (unless of course you’re a web designer etc). This led me back to Dreamweaver and CSS and helped me settle on a simpler design. This research was formed through trail and error and can only come at the doing/production stage of a project. Personally I think this is the most effective and memorable form of research.
Using the blog as an online sketchbook has now become my preferred method of documenting a project and I couldn’t see any other logical way of documenting a project like this, where it’s based around the Internet. As always I think that I could have done more research but I believe that you get to a point in your project where you get too focused on the final outcome and the research drifts into the background. Even though this was meant to be a research project I don’t think I’ve ever seen it like that because I knew that I wanted to produce a portfolio website and that’s always been my main drive. I think that my website is a fair representation of what I have learnt through this project and I know that I wouldn’t have been able to do this before the brief. I have learnt a whole new realm of web design, CSS and if I were to produce another website I would use it again. With that said I know that I have only touched the surface when it comes to web design but the whole project has helped me to understand that I don’t want to go any deeper.
My rationale behind the brief was that I wanted to create a portfolio website. It is this that has driven the research and I haven’t really deviated away from this throughout the whole project. All of the research has been directed towards the single goal of producing a portfolio website and not particularly because I want to have a better understanding of web design etc. This may seem a bit narrow minded but as the project developed I have seen it as a means to an end. There was a small element of exploration with this brief, as I wanted to see if I would like to take web design any further in the future. As I’ve stated before this isn’t the case, so I have come out of the project with a clearer view of where I sit as a practitioner.
As each brief goes past I think I am getting a better idea of what you need to do to effectively plan a project. However with this brief I thought I could get a lot more done in the timeframe than I actually did. With this sort of project you spend a lot of time sat in front of a computer and it is very self-contained. I think it is very easy to tired or bored of the project. This was mainly my fault as I would have liked to be at the position I am now (with the site online and functioning) a lot earlier so I could have focused more on generating some more content to actually go on the website. Another aspect for future projects would be that I don’t make consistent posts on my blog and I leave them to build up and then I have to try and remember things that I did. In the future I want it to be a more consistent and regular process and I think this will reflect in better, more coherent research. This is just something that I’m going to have to keep in mind and I don’t want to forget about putting content onto my site.
With all this said I am very pleased with what I have achieved in this brief and I feel I have created a website that fits all my needs and requirements. I am viewing the site as an ongoing work in progress as there are a few things I am considering changing but I am glad that I have a working framework online that I can build onto.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Testing my website
I almost forgot to test my site on a variety of different computers and crucially on a PC. Luckily one of my housemates owns a PC (I can't remember the last time I used one) so i used his computer to ave a look at my site. It all worked fine including the blog feed, which was the aspect i was most worried about. The only slight problem is that i think i may have made the everything on the site slightly too large. Well to be more specific too tall as the width seems to be fine. This isn't the biggest problem in the world as most of my pages don't have many images and text together the crucial thing is that the menu bar isn't too wide. I think this may be down to the fact that i have made the site on my MacBook Pro, which has quite a large screen when compared to smaller MacBooks.
La Roux's Website
The singer La Roux has got a cool new flash website check it out. This is the sort of thing I cant even begin to get my head around and I really do have a new found appreciation for how difficult it is to make a really cool and exciting website. It seems that a lot of the focus when it comes to bands and singers websites is to make the experience of visiting their website exciting and memorable and not just for the music. I guess this is the same for every website, you want to be remembered but in terms of a portfolio website and mine in particular is that i want to use it more as a resource that i can give to people when I'm enquiring about work or work placements. What it really comes down to in my case is the quality of work and displaying it in the best way possible.
http://www.laroux.co.uk/
Another cool one is Becks that James Rhodes showed me: http://www.beck.com/default.aspx
http://www.laroux.co.uk/
Another cool one is Becks that James Rhodes showed me: http://www.beck.com/default.aspx
other work
It was also commented on that I had only put up my photographs onto my site. So I think I am going to have to create at least one more page for other work that is photography and then even a video a page if I decide that hosting my videos on vimeo doesn't work for me. I think that i will just keep a consistent theme, so however my photos are displayed it will be the same for my other work. So i will just scan or take photos of any 3d work or use jpegs etc and either have them as thumbnails or in a flash gallery depending on what i decide. Example of a scan below:
Extra Feedback
I showed my housemates my website because most of them haven't seen or been involved in the process of me making it, in order to get a bit of feedback about how my site functions and looks.
On the whole people said that it does work and there isn't much i need to change about it. They said that the buttons worked well and overall said navigating the site was relatively easy. I think this is mainly down to the fact that there isn't much to my site and it is relatively simple. I proposed my ideas about changing the layout of the photos and it went down well as they thought it might look a bit more professional than the thumbnails I'm currently using. This was mainly down to the fact that they didn't like a new tab popping up every time they clicked on a new image. They thought the changes i made to my blog feed really worked well and made it look more like it is part of the website as opposed to an obvious feed. Finally they said that they were not too sure about having the landing page and then the homepage. They thought that both of these pages looked too similar. So I think I will have to include a small bit of text on the homepage, just briefly explaining who I am and what i do. With this said though i don't want to include too much info because this would take away from the point of having an about me page. Or I could simply get rid of the landing page but i don't really want to do that because I think the photo works really well with the logo and the content of the photo works really well as an opening image.
On the whole people said that it does work and there isn't much i need to change about it. They said that the buttons worked well and overall said navigating the site was relatively easy. I think this is mainly down to the fact that there isn't much to my site and it is relatively simple. I proposed my ideas about changing the layout of the photos and it went down well as they thought it might look a bit more professional than the thumbnails I'm currently using. This was mainly down to the fact that they didn't like a new tab popping up every time they clicked on a new image. They thought the changes i made to my blog feed really worked well and made it look more like it is part of the website as opposed to an obvious feed. Finally they said that they were not too sure about having the landing page and then the homepage. They thought that both of these pages looked too similar. So I think I will have to include a small bit of text on the homepage, just briefly explaining who I am and what i do. With this said though i don't want to include too much info because this would take away from the point of having an about me page. Or I could simply get rid of the landing page but i don't really want to do that because I think the photo works really well with the logo and the content of the photo works really well as an opening image.
Possible changes to portfolio page
I am not entirely happy with the way i have displayed my photos on my website and from the final crit/discussion I discovered that Andy had found a cool way using Adobe Lightroom. This program lets you import your photos and create a flash gallery, which seems to work very smoothly on Andy's site. I think I'm going to download a free trial version from the adobe site and give it a go and see if I prefer the results to the thumbnail version I've got now.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Changes to the blog page
After getting a bit of feedback about my site the blog page and the portfolio page were the two main issues that came up. Firstly I decided to change my blog page because this was something i was planning on doing anyway. I found out that you could apply css styles that other people have created and I found that I could do this on the rss feed site I used.
The site has over 50 different styles that you can preview applied to your blog and you then have the opportunity to change the code and see how the changes affect the blog.
I wanted to have something that was very simple and clean so guess what i picked the style called simple black on white and then adapted the colours to match what already exists on my website. I also really like the dashed border and think the blog page needs it to contain the blog.
This is what the blog looked unstyled:
And this is what it currently looks like, vastly improved and looks a lot clearer and clean:
I have found that it doesn't change the spacing between the title and posts, which is annoying but i have worked out that this only looks bad when the title is followed by a video. So in the future I am going to do all the writing for my posts first and then post any photos or videos after. There may be a way around this but it's not the biggest problem i've got with the website.
The site has over 50 different styles that you can preview applied to your blog and you then have the opportunity to change the code and see how the changes affect the blog.
I wanted to have something that was very simple and clean so guess what i picked the style called simple black on white and then adapted the colours to match what already exists on my website. I also really like the dashed border and think the blog page needs it to contain the blog.
This is what the blog looked unstyled:
And this is what it currently looks like, vastly improved and looks a lot clearer and clean:
I have found that it doesn't change the spacing between the title and posts, which is annoying but i have worked out that this only looks bad when the title is followed by a video. So in the future I am going to do all the writing for my posts first and then post any photos or videos after. There may be a way around this but it's not the biggest problem i've got with the website.
Changing the title of my website
I soon realised that after getting my website online it didn't have a title and was called 'Untitled Document'.
It was a simple case of giving each of the pages a title and I choose the original title of my name:
It was a simple case of giving each of the pages a title and I choose the original title of my name:
I'm Online
I'm finally online check me out at www.thomasdsmith.co.uk
I decided to go with 123-reg who I got my domain name with in the first place as I thought it would be easier, I wouldn't need to remember more than one username and password. I went with the starter package that gives me 100mb of webspace and 1500mb data transfer for £1.85 a month. I think I probably could have found a cheaper and better option however i think its easier to have the domain name and space with the same people as I am useless at remembering passwords and stuff at the best of times.
I found the whole process a lot easier than i thought. James Rhodes tipped me off about Fetch, which is a FTP program that enables you to get all your files online. I had a bit of trouble at first because when i uploaded my files it didn't instantly appear online. I think this was just an initial delay because I hadn't had the account long so it was just an added start up time (however i could be totally wrong). It wasn't until the next day when it finally appeared online and i realised that it had worked. The next problem i encountered was the fact that my landing page wasn't the first thing that appeared when you hit my website. Instead there was what looked like an error page where you had to click on a link called portfolio website and then the landing page appeared. This was down to the fact that when i uploaded my files with the FTP they were all in a folder called 'portfolio website'. It was a simple case of taking the files out of the folder then all was how i wanted it with my website and the process of getting it online was complete.
I decided to go with 123-reg who I got my domain name with in the first place as I thought it would be easier, I wouldn't need to remember more than one username and password. I went with the starter package that gives me 100mb of webspace and 1500mb data transfer for £1.85 a month. I think I probably could have found a cheaper and better option however i think its easier to have the domain name and space with the same people as I am useless at remembering passwords and stuff at the best of times.
I found the whole process a lot easier than i thought. James Rhodes tipped me off about Fetch, which is a FTP program that enables you to get all your files online. I had a bit of trouble at first because when i uploaded my files it didn't instantly appear online. I think this was just an initial delay because I hadn't had the account long so it was just an added start up time (however i could be totally wrong). It wasn't until the next day when it finally appeared online and i realised that it had worked. The next problem i encountered was the fact that my landing page wasn't the first thing that appeared when you hit my website. Instead there was what looked like an error page where you had to click on a link called portfolio website and then the landing page appeared. This was down to the fact that when i uploaded my files with the FTP they were all in a folder called 'portfolio website'. It was a simple case of taking the files out of the folder then all was how i wanted it with my website and the process of getting it online was complete.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
5 min presentation
Research questions and my aims and objectives?
Right my objective when starting this project was to achieve a better understanding about web design and website construction. The idea throughout the whole brief was to create a finished portfolio website. I think as the brief went on this has still been the case but i've decided that a website can be a constant work in progress as it can be changed and adapted relatively easily. I think i was also using the brief to dip my toe in the water again in terms of whether web design was something i wanted to pursue in the future. I can safely say that this is not the case and I wouldn't actively go looking for web design work in the future as it just doesn't float my boat. I have managed to learn various new things about web design such as css that I have found valuable but i didn't go as deep into as i could have. This was simply down to me not having much of an interest to learn more about it coding is a good example.
I think my initial research questions were all very technical as i was trying to access what the best programs or coding language etc would be best to use for my website. It wasn't until later that i started to look at why i was making the website and who would be looking/using it. I asked myself questions like what was the aim of my website? How was it going to function? (which ties in with my technical questions) and how i was going to get people to look at my website? I think this process helped my get a better idea about how to plan my site and make it work better.
Research methods?
I used various research methods to cover both the technical side and also for inspiration as to how the site was going to function and look. I looked at a lot of the websites i use on a daily basis and picked out points that i liked. I also started looking at other peoples portfolio websites to get an idea about what sort of components they included in their website and how they styled their sites. This was mainly done by spending time searching the internet and was quite random in the sense that i wasn't looking for specific elements.
I've spent quite a lot of time in the library this project using their magazine back catalog and various books. I think working from books is a good way of researching for me as it gives you time to absorb the information when your reading through it and you can then select what is appropriate for you. I also got a load of video tutorials off James Rhodes on css. I found these quite tedious but i think that's down to the fact that you cant go at your own speed you have to wait for the guy to go through everything. I don't think that it helps if the guy talking all the time is really annoying but that said i think this is another effective method of technical research.
I think the best method of research that i undertook this brief was attending the workshops on css & flash. I have used a lot of what i was taught in those sessions on my website and i think it was the most accessible way of learning. It helps that you can do it at the same time as the person walking you through it and you've got that extra help you don't get from a book or online tutorial.
Research outcomes?
By research outcomes I'm guessing you mean stuff we've been working on so in my case my portfolio website. I am happy with my current website, however it's not exactly what i had in my head at the beggening of the brief but i think I've realised that simplicity is best when it comes to portfolio websites unless you are a web designer. As i said earlier i don't see myself doing much more web design work in the future so a simple sight that focuses on my photographs and video is better for me. I am at the stage now where i need to get the site live and then get some feedback as to how it works online and then i can make any appropriate changes. The main area i can see changing is how i display my work on the portfolio page as i have already seen another way that i could approach it (thanks to Andy's blog/new website) but this is definitely a work in progress for me, so anything and everything on my current site is liable to change.
Right my objective when starting this project was to achieve a better understanding about web design and website construction. The idea throughout the whole brief was to create a finished portfolio website. I think as the brief went on this has still been the case but i've decided that a website can be a constant work in progress as it can be changed and adapted relatively easily. I think i was also using the brief to dip my toe in the water again in terms of whether web design was something i wanted to pursue in the future. I can safely say that this is not the case and I wouldn't actively go looking for web design work in the future as it just doesn't float my boat. I have managed to learn various new things about web design such as css that I have found valuable but i didn't go as deep into as i could have. This was simply down to me not having much of an interest to learn more about it coding is a good example.
I think my initial research questions were all very technical as i was trying to access what the best programs or coding language etc would be best to use for my website. It wasn't until later that i started to look at why i was making the website and who would be looking/using it. I asked myself questions like what was the aim of my website? How was it going to function? (which ties in with my technical questions) and how i was going to get people to look at my website? I think this process helped my get a better idea about how to plan my site and make it work better.
Research methods?
I used various research methods to cover both the technical side and also for inspiration as to how the site was going to function and look. I looked at a lot of the websites i use on a daily basis and picked out points that i liked. I also started looking at other peoples portfolio websites to get an idea about what sort of components they included in their website and how they styled their sites. This was mainly done by spending time searching the internet and was quite random in the sense that i wasn't looking for specific elements.
I've spent quite a lot of time in the library this project using their magazine back catalog and various books. I think working from books is a good way of researching for me as it gives you time to absorb the information when your reading through it and you can then select what is appropriate for you. I also got a load of video tutorials off James Rhodes on css. I found these quite tedious but i think that's down to the fact that you cant go at your own speed you have to wait for the guy to go through everything. I don't think that it helps if the guy talking all the time is really annoying but that said i think this is another effective method of technical research.
I think the best method of research that i undertook this brief was attending the workshops on css & flash. I have used a lot of what i was taught in those sessions on my website and i think it was the most accessible way of learning. It helps that you can do it at the same time as the person walking you through it and you've got that extra help you don't get from a book or online tutorial.
Research outcomes?
By research outcomes I'm guessing you mean stuff we've been working on so in my case my portfolio website. I am happy with my current website, however it's not exactly what i had in my head at the beggening of the brief but i think I've realised that simplicity is best when it comes to portfolio websites unless you are a web designer. As i said earlier i don't see myself doing much more web design work in the future so a simple sight that focuses on my photographs and video is better for me. I am at the stage now where i need to get the site live and then get some feedback as to how it works online and then i can make any appropriate changes. The main area i can see changing is how i display my work on the portfolio page as i have already seen another way that i could approach it (thanks to Andy's blog/new website) but this is definitely a work in progress for me, so anything and everything on my current site is liable to change.
Contact page
There isn't really much to say about this page as it is very basic. I decided to include my email, mobile, address and then two links to my vimeo and flickr. The email address is a email link so when the user clicks on it a new email will pop up with my address already there. I'm thinking i might put an image on the page as well but this isn't really needed and would just be me trying to dress up the page unnecessarily.
About me page
This is my page giving a brief background to me as a practitioner. It's very simple just an image with a few sentences after about me. I hate writing things like this where you have to describe what you do and your interests etc. I don't think I have done myself much justice with what I've written at the mo but this is easy to change when that moment of inspiration hits me.
New portfolio page
I've made some changes to the portfolio page of my website. I have made the images smaller so they are more like thumbnails mostly in blocks of 8 with some sort of short title underneath. I don't really like including the title because I think it would look better if it was purely a visual page but then again I think the photos need some sort of context. I am still tossing up whether to just use the flickr button option that would display photos that i've uploaded onto flickr. I like the visual effect you get with the thumbnails so I think I might just include a link to my flickr page so people can view that as well if they desire. Tis page is the most crucial page on the site because it is displaying my work so I am definatley seeing it as a work in progress that could be easily changed if I find a better way of displaying my work.
This is the main portfolio page with the thumbnails.
This is how the larger versions appear in a new tab.
This is the main portfolio page with the thumbnails.
This is how the larger versions appear in a new tab.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Menubar
I want to keep my pages to a minimum so I want to cut down on as much type as possible. So as a way of letting the user know what page they are on, the buttons on the menu stay purple once clicked. It acts as a title for the page and hopefully clarifies what page the user is on.
Homepage
Below is my homepage, which at the moment only includes another image but i am going to put a sentence or paragraph to give a quick outline about my site and me. It's also another option to show a piece of work and i think it really stands out against the white background.
Portfolio page
My portfolio page is still a work in progress as I am currently trying to decide how to layout and display my work, the photos in particular. This is how it looks at the moment:
When you click on the name of the photo it opens up a new page with a larger version of the image:
I like the idea but i think i am going to make the thumbnails a lot smaller and then tile them without names underneath. They could then be clicked on and then a bigger version will pop in a new window. There are more sophisticated versions of this where the new bigger image appears and hover over the others and blurs out the background. I think i am going to have to do some more research into this. Another option that arose in the crit is to use a flickr button, which may be an easier way but i'm not sure how this would look in the website.
When you click on the name of the photo it opens up a new page with a larger version of the image:
I like the idea but i think i am going to make the thumbnails a lot smaller and then tile them without names underneath. They could then be clicked on and then a bigger version will pop in a new window. There are more sophisticated versions of this where the new bigger image appears and hover over the others and blurs out the background. I think i am going to have to do some more research into this. Another option that arose in the crit is to use a flickr button, which may be an easier way but i'm not sure how this would look in the website.
Blog page changes
The second thing I changed after the crit is the blog page of my website. The first method I used was to embed my blog as another website in mine using an iframe. This was a very straight forward process and this is how it looked in the website:
The main problem with this is that it is simply the process of placing another website into your so it doesn't look like its part of the website. My plan was to try and change the appearance of my blog in blogger itself so it worked better with the style of my website. However in the crit Sam (student not tutor) showed my how to create an rss feed from my blog in blogger into my portfolio website, this being the website:
It doesn't look like much at the moment but it does look like it is incorporated into my website better. It is possible to add css styles to the feed so I can use that to clean it up. It is also a bit too wide so the text is stretched a bit too much making it uncomfortable to read. Sam said it can take a little while for the whole feed to update when you place a new post on your blog but this isn't something that I really need to worry about. I think this is a good way around having to use something like wordpress but there is still the issue that I am relying on other websites that I have no control over. The more i think about this issue the less important it feels because I have quickly discovered that I am not a massive fan of this whole website construction thing and I am using this as a means to an end. I have definitely got a new found respect for the people who can create mindblowing websites because I just can't get my head round it and I think I am quite happy leaving it to them.
The main problem with this is that it is simply the process of placing another website into your so it doesn't look like its part of the website. My plan was to try and change the appearance of my blog in blogger itself so it worked better with the style of my website. However in the crit Sam (student not tutor) showed my how to create an rss feed from my blog in blogger into my portfolio website, this being the website:
It doesn't look like much at the moment but it does look like it is incorporated into my website better. It is possible to add css styles to the feed so I can use that to clean it up. It is also a bit too wide so the text is stretched a bit too much making it uncomfortable to read. Sam said it can take a little while for the whole feed to update when you place a new post on your blog but this isn't something that I really need to worry about. I think this is a good way around having to use something like wordpress but there is still the issue that I am relying on other websites that I have no control over. The more i think about this issue the less important it feels because I have quickly discovered that I am not a massive fan of this whole website construction thing and I am using this as a means to an end. I have definitely got a new found respect for the people who can create mindblowing websites because I just can't get my head round it and I think I am quite happy leaving it to them.
Rollover problems
Annoyingly I have changed things on my website now after the last crit so i cant show an image demonstrating how the buttons were positioned previously. This is the best i can do:
The buttons were postioned like this, with a gap below it so that when the mouse rolled over them the button lumped down and changed colour to this:
The comments i got back at the crit were that this movement confused the person using the website as they weren't sure whether they had to follow the button down and click on the new purple button. This wasn't the case as you could just click where the original black button was but this just added extra unnecessary confusion.
So I changed all the buttons so that they are just like normal rollovers that change colour and dont move across the screen. I think that I was just trying to make the website more interesting by adding some movement, but this goes against the whole idea of keeping it as simple as possible.
The buttons were postioned like this, with a gap below it so that when the mouse rolled over them the button lumped down and changed colour to this:
The comments i got back at the crit were that this movement confused the person using the website as they weren't sure whether they had to follow the button down and click on the new purple button. This wasn't the case as you could just click where the original black button was but this just added extra unnecessary confusion.
So I changed all the buttons so that they are just like normal rollovers that change colour and dont move across the screen. I think that I was just trying to make the website more interesting by adding some movement, but this goes against the whole idea of keeping it as simple as possible.
My Logo
For my logo I used the same elements from the buttons to create a very simple logo. I hadn't really planned to create a logo because i didn't think i really had any need for one. It is just something that sort of emerged from creating the buttons and i think it sits really well next to the buttons in the menu bar and on the landing page of the website.
Time to chart some progress.
I haven't posted for a while so i think it's about time that i showed that i have been making some sort of progress with my site.
I'll start with the very small amount of design work that I had to do for the menu buttons. I realise that I have already posted up images that include them but I hadn't really mentioned anything about them.
I wanted some very simple rollover buttons to use for the menu bar that will feature on every page. I wanted to keep it simple by using rollovers and simply use the same image just in a different colour. I settled on Trebuchet MS for my font in capitals because it is a clean and readable san serif. I've really got a thing for purple think it's got to be my favorite colour and throwing in a splash of colour against a white background and the normal black buttons creates a bit of visual interest.
I'll start with the very small amount of design work that I had to do for the menu buttons. I realise that I have already posted up images that include them but I hadn't really mentioned anything about them.
I wanted some very simple rollover buttons to use for the menu bar that will feature on every page. I wanted to keep it simple by using rollovers and simply use the same image just in a different colour. I settled on Trebuchet MS for my font in capitals because it is a clean and readable san serif. I've really got a thing for purple think it's got to be my favorite colour and throwing in a splash of colour against a white background and the normal black buttons creates a bit of visual interest.
Friday, 20 February 2009
My Landing Page
Landing page.
Colour's change on logo when rolled over because it is going to act as a link to the homepage.
This is the start of my website and i have decided to include a landing page with one of my photographs and the logo featuring. I think i might put some contact info on as well so that people get an instant shot of my logo and a piece of work and then they can enter to get more information. I've decided to stick to limited colour's as i do not want to over complicate my site as the work should be the main attraction. Thats a point really need to start getting some ideas going for some more work that can go on this site when i finish.
Website Intro Movie
Finally managed to export it as a movie after messing around with the settings for a while, it was more a case of me being stupid than my computer struggling. Below is a gif showing how the circles change colour to purple when the mouse hovers over them because the movie doesn't show this.
I have been struggling to make it so the whole sequence starts when the user clicks the start button, at the moment it just starts itself. But that's the beauty of flash, everything seems to be a bit more complicated than you first think.
Experimenting with flash
This is a screenshot of a very simple intro sequence that i am thinking about trying to incorporate into the beginning of my website. My computer seems to be struggling to export it as a quicktime movie so i don't know whether i will be able to post it up on here, which is annoying.
Flash is a really cool program but it can be infuriating. Everything will be going fine one minute and then you will do something that you are sure will work and then it just doesn't with no logical explanation. I'm not 100% that i will be able to incorporate this into my website because i am struggling to get the buttons to work as links properly, so i think i will need to get some help with that.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Another website
Found another website that i think is very cool. It's very simple and in my opinion very effective. The sites called memo-random and is a collective with two members Michelle Phillips and James Lunn. You first hit a landing page, which is something that i am definitely going to include in my website. I did it on the previous website i made for the first comm tech brief and is an avenue to put something creative and interesting as the first thing the visitor will see.
Landing page:
The home page is really cool as well and they've created some interesting letter rollovers that look good. I think that the menu is really simple and effect and i like the use of the grid system for the submenus. The menu also never leaves the screen so it makes navigating the site really easy.
Home page, contact page and work pages:
Landing page:
The home page is really cool as well and they've created some interesting letter rollovers that look good. I think that the menu is really simple and effect and i like the use of the grid system for the submenus. The menu also never leaves the screen so it makes navigating the site really easy.
Home page, contact page and work pages:
Planning
I did a quick plan to try and establish how many pages i will be looking to create and then what i was going to put on them. I think i have settled on having a very stripped down and streamlined page that isn't over cluttered and more or less lets my work speak for itself. This plans focuses more on the functionality of the website and how the pages are going to be linked together rather than the actual design of the pages.
Site Planning
I was in the library yesterday looking at the back issues of .net magazine and there was interesting article on how to 'plan_the_perfect_site', and i found it very interesting. In the article they are obviously referring to projects that are on a much larger scale than mine but i think the important message that i got from the article was that websites that have a good plan behind them, work better than those that don't. This may seem obvious but i was literally going to jump straight into dreamweaver and start making pages off the top of my head. I thought that i would never touch a pen and paper for this brief. So i think that the next step is to get a good plan on paper with a good idea how the website is going to connect together and i may then need to do some work in illustrator or photoshop before even touching dreamweaver.
.net/December 2008 - plan_the_perfect_site
.net/December 2008 - plan_the_perfect_site
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Domain Name
I am now the proud owner of my very own domain name. Kept it simple and just used my name, so www.thomasdsmith.co.uk is where i will be located. I was thinking of going for something a bit crazier with gorilla art leading the race but i couldn't get that when i checked so i thought i'd stick with something i wouldn't get bored.
Need to start asking some questions?
I think it's about time that i start asking myself some key questions about my website and the reasons i'm creating it.
No.1 My Websites Aims?
The main aim of my website is to act as a vehicle to display some of my work to both my piers and to perspective clients. The main idea behind having my own site is to give the air of professionalism and to show that I am being proactive when it comes to getting my work out there into the real world.
I have also been weighing up incorporating a new blog into my website and this was the main thinking behind using Wordpress. I wanted a blog as this is a good way of showing the other area i am interested in and connecting with like minded practitioners. I want to be able to have more control over how my work is displayed rather than relying on sites like flickr and vimeo. With this said i may have to rely on those sites for a bit longer as my knowledge is still rather limited but my main goal is to have it all included in one site. This also means that if anyone wants to different types of work that i have done they can go to one website as opposed to different ones for my different types of practice.
No.2 Functionality?
How do i actually go about creating my website?
What methods/programs/coding do i use?
How do i plan out my site?
How do i design my site?
What am i including on the site?
What domain name do i use?
Who do i get my hosting with?
How much is this going to cost me?
Firstly i am going to plan out my site on paper and get a rough idea of how i want it to look then create gifs in illustrator and photoshop that i can use in Dreamweaver when creating the site with CSS. Then after the session where we look at Wordpress this Friday i will have a play around with that and see how it can work with what i plan to do using CSS.
No.3 How am i going to get people to look at my site once it's up and running?
This is the section I am not immediately worried about at the moment but i think that could be a fatal area, as whats the point of building a perfectly functioning website that no one is going to look at? I think i need to look into this question further.
No.1 My Websites Aims?
The main aim of my website is to act as a vehicle to display some of my work to both my piers and to perspective clients. The main idea behind having my own site is to give the air of professionalism and to show that I am being proactive when it comes to getting my work out there into the real world.
I have also been weighing up incorporating a new blog into my website and this was the main thinking behind using Wordpress. I wanted a blog as this is a good way of showing the other area i am interested in and connecting with like minded practitioners. I want to be able to have more control over how my work is displayed rather than relying on sites like flickr and vimeo. With this said i may have to rely on those sites for a bit longer as my knowledge is still rather limited but my main goal is to have it all included in one site. This also means that if anyone wants to different types of work that i have done they can go to one website as opposed to different ones for my different types of practice.
No.2 Functionality?
How do i actually go about creating my website?
What methods/programs/coding do i use?
How do i plan out my site?
How do i design my site?
What am i including on the site?
What domain name do i use?
Who do i get my hosting with?
How much is this going to cost me?
Firstly i am going to plan out my site on paper and get a rough idea of how i want it to look then create gifs in illustrator and photoshop that i can use in Dreamweaver when creating the site with CSS. Then after the session where we look at Wordpress this Friday i will have a play around with that and see how it can work with what i plan to do using CSS.
No.3 How am i going to get people to look at my site once it's up and running?
This is the section I am not immediately worried about at the moment but i think that could be a fatal area, as whats the point of building a perfectly functioning website that no one is going to look at? I think i need to look into this question further.
Crossroads?
I feel that i am very much at a crossroads in the project as i am undecided on which method i should use to produce my website. We had a session on Friday that looked into CSS and i realized that i easily know more about CSS than Wordpress and i find it a more accessible to use Dreamweaver because i have used it in the past. With this said we will be looking at Wordpress and Flash in another session this coming Friday so I'm sure this will throw up more questions. I think for the time being i am going to give as much as i can a go and see what i can incorporate or what i simply find better to use. I'm going to put Wordpress on the back burner for the time being and focus of getting something basic knocked up in Dreamweaver so that i know the basic functionality of my site and how the pages are going to work together.
Messing around with Blogger
Another avenue that i didn't really consider until i looked at Rob's blog was changing up and customizing blogger. Obviously i have a blogger blog already and i can't believe that i didn't understand how much you could customize blogger sites. I then started looking at blogs i frequently use and it started to dawn on me that loads of people do it and it's possible to create some dramatic changes.
http://fixedgearleeds.blogspot.com/
This isn't the most extreme example i could have found however it's a site that i look at everyday and I had never really taken note of the customized components. I really like the illustrated header and the animated gif, which i guess are the main two customized components.
http://freemantransport.blogspot.com/
This is another blog i look at and they have completley got rid of the standard blogger layout.
This didn't work very well in my opinion but it does show another form of customization.
They have now created their own website and moved away from using blogger. I really like this website and i think it goes to show a great progression from blogger to a more professional looking website. They have also incorporated a new blog into the website that works really well and looks a lot better when compared to blogger site.
New Site:
New blog:
http://freemantransport.com/index.php
http://fixedgearleeds.blogspot.com/
This isn't the most extreme example i could have found however it's a site that i look at everyday and I had never really taken note of the customized components. I really like the illustrated header and the animated gif, which i guess are the main two customized components.
http://freemantransport.blogspot.com/
This is another blog i look at and they have completley got rid of the standard blogger layout.
This didn't work very well in my opinion but it does show another form of customization.
They have now created their own website and moved away from using blogger. I really like this website and i think it goes to show a great progression from blogger to a more professional looking website. They have also incorporated a new blog into the website that works really well and looks a lot better when compared to blogger site.
New Site:
New blog:
http://freemantransport.com/index.php
Jonnie Craig
I think this is the polar opposite to the sort of site i classed Sophie's as. Jonnie Craig is a photographer from London and also featured in the creative30 competition but i was aware of his work prior to looking at the competition mainly through his editorial work for vice magazine. His portfolio site is very stripped down and simple is the perfect word to describe it. He has a introduction page like Sophie:
but this is where the similarities end. Unlike Sophie Kern's website where every page was customized Jonnie's is very bare with just a simple sidebar that has all the navigation for the site and never disappears. The images appear surround by a lot of white space so the viewer can take them in with little distraction.
I think the jury is still out as to which sort of style i like more or what i think will fit my style of work better. I need to go away and have a think about it.
http://www.jonniecraig.co.uk/
but this is where the similarities end. Unlike Sophie Kern's website where every page was customized Jonnie's is very bare with just a simple sidebar that has all the navigation for the site and never disappears. The images appear surround by a lot of white space so the viewer can take them in with little distraction.
I think the jury is still out as to which sort of style i like more or what i think will fit my style of work better. I need to go away and have a think about it.
http://www.jonniecraig.co.uk/
Sophie Kern
As a follow up to looking at the Brighton 08 showreel website i started to look through most of the students work and some of their websites. I then came across a name i was familiar with, Sophie Kern. She is an illustrator who's work is hand drawn and incorporates collage and various collections. I had seen her first through a competition called creative30 where she was a finalist and made it through to the final 'creative 30'. I thought it was an interesting selection of people from the creative spectrum that entered and i enjoyed watching the videos where they showed their work etc. But back to Sophie Kern and more specifically here portfolio website. Another aspect i like on some websites is their welcoming screens that are the frist thing you hit before going into the website itself. I think these are an interesting opportunity to play around and a chance to use some of your work in a different way. They are a chance to get creative and i think Sophies is cool.
The index page:
About Sophie page:
Work page:
Examples of work (more thumbnails):
Sophie's website is an example where a lot of hand drawn elements are used and this is very similar to what i did for the first website i made for the love/hate technology brief for comm tech 1. It's a technique that i may look into using but it does require more work in terms of creating the images and hand drawn text etc. I think the benefits are obvious because you come out with a more personalized website that is catered to you and that people wont have seen before. The only thing i need to consider is that it would go against my initial decision to go with a clean and simple design, but maybe there is a middle ground.
http://www.sophiekern.co.uk/
The index page:
About Sophie page:
Work page:
Examples of work (more thumbnails):
Sophie's website is an example where a lot of hand drawn elements are used and this is very similar to what i did for the first website i made for the love/hate technology brief for comm tech 1. It's a technique that i may look into using but it does require more work in terms of creating the images and hand drawn text etc. I think the benefits are obvious because you come out with a more personalized website that is catered to you and that people wont have seen before. The only thing i need to consider is that it would go against my initial decision to go with a clean and simple design, but maybe there is a middle ground.
http://www.sophiekern.co.uk/
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