My group's webdesign draft is finished and has been posted to the forum. I have not looked at the other group's project yet but even though I have nothing to compare our project to I think we did a really good job. Working in a group turned out to be a very good thing in the end. Though we had trouble communicating with each other, when it came down to completing that actual work I think we all did a good job in dividing the responsibilities.
At first I thought the website we chose was going to be very difficult to redesign because it looked huge and complicated but really once you started to organize things page by page it was not so bad. I made a quick site map of what it looked like originally and then posted my suggestions on how we could make each tab better. This was actually very helpful for me because it allowed me to organize what needed to be done better, and helped me see that even though the site was still a little too big for this project, redesigning it would be possible.
What we ended up doing was to create a sidebar on the left with all of the tabs or categories and it looked a lot better than having them listed across the top like it was before. We also combined some that had similar information and created pages to separate ones that had too much information. This separating made it easier to find information. Another thing that we did was to omit many links that were repeated. On many pages it would have the name of a place written out that would be a link as well as a picture or logo of the same place elsewhere on the page that would also be a link. This just took up more space and made things more confusing so if the place had a picture we kept that and erased the written link.
I am sure there are things we could have done better and that we will receive suggestions from the other group that will help make our design better. However, as far as drafts go ours turned out way better than I thought it would be.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Analyzing websites
In looking at the different way websites are designed I realized how important the factor purpose is. A purpose is the whole reason why a website exists in the first place and also influences the site's content, and the design of the website. Three different websites that I took a good look at were Facebook.com, Sidereel.com, and Riseagainst.com
1.) Facebook.com is a site that many people of all age groups are familiar with. It is a social networking site and therefore the purpose is to interact with other people all over the world. It is a site where individuals can reconnect with old friends, and communicate with friends and families living both near and far. One can share videos, pictures, articles, music, links-the list goes on and on. With the purpose on interacting, sharing, and communicating clear the website is designed to have updates from the people you are "friends" with and pages the you have "liked" centered in the middle of page so that you can immediately see what everyone has been up to as soon as you log in. On the top left is where you can see notifications and new massages and friend requests. The top left has buttons to log out, privacy settings, and you can also view your profile. More importantly, that is where the home button is found. Each post is separated and the fonts and headings are consistent throughout the website. Also, everything is aligned the same way. It is an overall neat and organized website that is easy on the eyes.
2.) Sidereel.com is also a sharing site where you can read about and watch TV shows, movies, and web shows online. There is a search bar that helps you find what you are looking for and the bar at the top has different categories such as cartoon, action, drama, comedy and more. When you pick a show you would like to watch the page provides information about the show and the status (cancelled, hiatus, completed, current). It shows the most recent episode and a video at the top of the page with current news about the show or about the actors/actresses. As you scroll down there is list of the episode names divided into seasons. Sidereel also provides links to other sites where you can watch some of the episodes. If you watch the video directly on their site it does not take long to load, and you do not have to create an account to watch it. It is free and easy to use. The alignment and format is consistent, It is kept up to date, when you click on a show or movie there are links and suggestions for others that are relevant. It also allows users to connect with other sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
3.) Riseagainst.com is the official site of my favorite band Rise Against. Their main purpose is to promote their music. However they also share news about their tours, current projects, and issues that they think are important with fans. The website is designed in a way that gives visitors an idea of what kind of music they play and has some of their songs that they can listen to. Besides the tabs that lead to their music, tour, and photos they also have pages with contact information and band merchandise. Again, this site is organized with relevant information together making it easy for fans to locate and the format and layout is consistent. The songs and videos do not take long to load and the site is kept updated and clearly shows their recent work. The site also makes it easy for fans to buy tickets to their concerts and join the mailing list. Their purpose is clearly stated and the color scheme does not burden readers' eyes.
1.) Facebook.com is a site that many people of all age groups are familiar with. It is a social networking site and therefore the purpose is to interact with other people all over the world. It is a site where individuals can reconnect with old friends, and communicate with friends and families living both near and far. One can share videos, pictures, articles, music, links-the list goes on and on. With the purpose on interacting, sharing, and communicating clear the website is designed to have updates from the people you are "friends" with and pages the you have "liked" centered in the middle of page so that you can immediately see what everyone has been up to as soon as you log in. On the top left is where you can see notifications and new massages and friend requests. The top left has buttons to log out, privacy settings, and you can also view your profile. More importantly, that is where the home button is found. Each post is separated and the fonts and headings are consistent throughout the website. Also, everything is aligned the same way. It is an overall neat and organized website that is easy on the eyes.
2.) Sidereel.com is also a sharing site where you can read about and watch TV shows, movies, and web shows online. There is a search bar that helps you find what you are looking for and the bar at the top has different categories such as cartoon, action, drama, comedy and more. When you pick a show you would like to watch the page provides information about the show and the status (cancelled, hiatus, completed, current). It shows the most recent episode and a video at the top of the page with current news about the show or about the actors/actresses. As you scroll down there is list of the episode names divided into seasons. Sidereel also provides links to other sites where you can watch some of the episodes. If you watch the video directly on their site it does not take long to load, and you do not have to create an account to watch it. It is free and easy to use. The alignment and format is consistent, It is kept up to date, when you click on a show or movie there are links and suggestions for others that are relevant. It also allows users to connect with other sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
3.) Riseagainst.com is the official site of my favorite band Rise Against. Their main purpose is to promote their music. However they also share news about their tours, current projects, and issues that they think are important with fans. The website is designed in a way that gives visitors an idea of what kind of music they play and has some of their songs that they can listen to. Besides the tabs that lead to their music, tour, and photos they also have pages with contact information and band merchandise. Again, this site is organized with relevant information together making it easy for fans to locate and the format and layout is consistent. The songs and videos do not take long to load and the site is kept updated and clearly shows their recent work. The site also makes it easy for fans to buy tickets to their concerts and join the mailing list. Their purpose is clearly stated and the color scheme does not burden readers' eyes.
Project 3 Independent Post 2
It has been hard getting back into the swing of things after spring break. It was not until the beginning of this week that I took a really good look at the website my group is planning to redesign which is http://www.narragansettri.com. Upon looking at it closer I realized that it is not as small as I thought it was at first. There are ten tabs across the home page each covering a specific topic. After looking them all my immediate thoughts about the redesign of this site was to:
1. Add a home button to each page to get rid of the home tab.
2. Merge the summer rentals and URI student rentals tab into one.
3. Organize the links that seem to be all over each page and omit ones that are repeated
This project has proven to be more difficult than the others and is even more challenging due to the fact that we have to work in groups. Working with other people is helpful because more ideas can be shared and we can point out each other's mistakes and split the responsibilities. However, getting work done take a bit longer to complete. Though I had these ideas I could not dive straight in and carry these out because I did not know if my teammates have other things in mind or have better redesigning ideas.
The fact that we do not have to actually create a website is very helpful. There is a lot if information and links and even pictures present the only thing that really needs work is the format and layout. Now that the break is over and I have gone over the objectives and goals of this assignment I understand what I am supposed to do. The fact that we have an extra week to complete this assignment is also very helpful as we have more time to make sure we have completed everything that is required in this project.
1. Add a home button to each page to get rid of the home tab.
2. Merge the summer rentals and URI student rentals tab into one.
3. Organize the links that seem to be all over each page and omit ones that are repeated
This project has proven to be more difficult than the others and is even more challenging due to the fact that we have to work in groups. Working with other people is helpful because more ideas can be shared and we can point out each other's mistakes and split the responsibilities. However, getting work done take a bit longer to complete. Though I had these ideas I could not dive straight in and carry these out because I did not know if my teammates have other things in mind or have better redesigning ideas.
The fact that we do not have to actually create a website is very helpful. There is a lot if information and links and even pictures present the only thing that really needs work is the format and layout. Now that the break is over and I have gone over the objectives and goals of this assignment I understand what I am supposed to do. The fact that we have an extra week to complete this assignment is also very helpful as we have more time to make sure we have completed everything that is required in this project.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Project 3 Independent Post 1
Web design is always something that I have never really understood or taken part in. Perhaps the reason why it seems so difficult is the fact that I have no experience on the topic really. Either way, this assignment is going to be much more difficult than the previous two, and the fact that next week is spring break certainly won't make it any easier.
Most of my time however, I do not even think about the design of a website. It is only when I am faced with an assignment or forced to do some kind of research on web design that I remember how much work it takes. Other than that I tend to surf the web and if I encounter a site that I do not like I just go to another one without stopping to think what would make that site better. I take websites for granted and now I am going to be forced to face the many issues that web designers must think about it when they are designing a site.
Even now, I am checking and thinking of websites that I use now and ones that I have used in the past and wondering whether or not they exhibit the qualities of a good website as explained in the chapter reading about web design. Hopefully after this project I will be able to appreciate websites more and the people who put the work into designing them.
Most of my time however, I do not even think about the design of a website. It is only when I am faced with an assignment or forced to do some kind of research on web design that I remember how much work it takes. Other than that I tend to surf the web and if I encounter a site that I do not like I just go to another one without stopping to think what would make that site better. I take websites for granted and now I am going to be forced to face the many issues that web designers must think about it when they are designing a site.
Even now, I am checking and thinking of websites that I use now and ones that I have used in the past and wondering whether or not they exhibit the qualities of a good website as explained in the chapter reading about web design. Hopefully after this project I will be able to appreciate websites more and the people who put the work into designing them.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Project 2 Independent Post 5
Overall, compared to project 1, project 2 was a lot less involved. Though they both has basic guidelines and gave us much freedom in terms of what our topic was, the enthusiast blog took much more time and effort to do in my opinion. One of the reasons why I think it involved more effort was because for the enthusiast blog you had to pick a topic, design the layout, and try to write posts that were creative and incorporated your opinions or beliefs. For the Wikitravel page once you chose the topic the rest was pretty much there. For mine the layout was already formed and since only factual information was required it was easy to research what I needed and put it into my edits.
Now that I have seen how simple it is to edit things on Wikitravel I understand what teachers mean when they say anyone can input ideas and concepts in Wikipedia that might not always be correct. Though I know there are people who check posts, there are so many people all over the world that can edit the information that I doubt the people monitoring Wikipedia are able to keep up with the corrections. They may find mistakes and correct them but who know how long it might take for mistakes to be found. This shows how important people are to these sites. Individuals can either go in and input tons of false information reducing the credibility of a site, or they can be helpful and post good, accurate information for people to use, or help the site by correcting something that is wrong thus improving the site.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Project 2 Independent Post 4
I finally got a chance to read my review and I what was suggested did not surprise me. When I accessed the Wikitravel page about Clearwater, FL there was a lot of information already written so I only included information under a few headings. However, as I was writing all of the information in the word document I began realizing that I had not written a lot at all. So, when I read my peer review suggesting to include more, I was already trying to think of more places that I could include under the headings.
For the purposes of this assignment I do not know if there are a required number of posts needed or if we just need to use our best judgement. Since I already included information for airports, trains, things to do, and places to eat I think I will try to add some information under the "See" and "Buy" heading. I still have not figured out how to edit the introduction so I will just have to refrain from editing that because I think another heading introducing the city would go against the manual of style. I think I also might add links to some of the airports because, going over what links are acceptable in the manual of style I think those are acceptable.
For the purposes of this assignment I do not know if there are a required number of posts needed or if we just need to use our best judgement. Since I already included information for airports, trains, things to do, and places to eat I think I will try to add some information under the "See" and "Buy" heading. I still have not figured out how to edit the introduction so I will just have to refrain from editing that because I think another heading introducing the city would go against the manual of style. I think I also might add links to some of the airports because, going over what links are acceptable in the manual of style I think those are acceptable.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Project 2 Independent Post 3
Editing a Wikitravel page was a little more involved than I thought it would be. Many things were a bit tricky in doing this project such as remembering important details about the places or activities in the area, making sure that the edits were in the correct format the manual of style asks for, and using the site in general.
Clearwater, FL is not my hometown but it is a city that I am quite familiar with and have visited many times. So, when I chose it as my topic I thought it would be easy to list places. However, I quickly realized that all I knew was the broad idea. I had to go and look up most of the addresses, and phone numbers. I was also a bit fuzzy on the hours they were open and the prices so I had to research some of that also. Another thing that was hard to do was to include information that would pertain to all age groups. Whenever I visited these places it would mostly be with my friends and family so I never really paid attention to what amenities if any, that they provided for small children or senior citizens.
It was also harder to follow the manual of style than I thought it would be. When I started inserting links I realized that many violated the style. Not sure if including the links for airlines went against the link guidelines, I decided to leave them out entirely and just list the names of the airlines. I also had trouble linking pages so I decided to just insert hyperlinks of the websites of the places I mentioned. Furthermore, when editing in the box there is no spell check so I decided to write everything in a word document and then copy and paste it to make sure that my spelling was at least correct.
Lastly, the site in general was a little tricky at times. I had to take my time and really pay attention to where I was clicking. One of my problems was that I kept clicking on the wrong "add listing" link and would end up inserting something under the wrong heading. Also, I was unable to edit the very top of the page. The first heading seemed like a little introduction to the city and I wanted to add information like how large it was and what the the most recent population size was, but whenever I clicked the link it would just take me to a box which edited the section below it. I was not sure if there is just some special way to edit it that I do not know about or if the original person who created the article made it so it could not be changed.
For the most part however, the problems were minimal when I took my time. It is a very organized site and there are many pages that provide help and suggestions so, most of the problems I encountered I was able to overcome easily. It is not until one actually tries to edit information in these articles that they realize how structured and complex that some aspects of the website can be. Definitely not a piece of cake like I thought it would be.
Clearwater, FL is not my hometown but it is a city that I am quite familiar with and have visited many times. So, when I chose it as my topic I thought it would be easy to list places. However, I quickly realized that all I knew was the broad idea. I had to go and look up most of the addresses, and phone numbers. I was also a bit fuzzy on the hours they were open and the prices so I had to research some of that also. Another thing that was hard to do was to include information that would pertain to all age groups. Whenever I visited these places it would mostly be with my friends and family so I never really paid attention to what amenities if any, that they provided for small children or senior citizens.
It was also harder to follow the manual of style than I thought it would be. When I started inserting links I realized that many violated the style. Not sure if including the links for airlines went against the link guidelines, I decided to leave them out entirely and just list the names of the airlines. I also had trouble linking pages so I decided to just insert hyperlinks of the websites of the places I mentioned. Furthermore, when editing in the box there is no spell check so I decided to write everything in a word document and then copy and paste it to make sure that my spelling was at least correct.
Lastly, the site in general was a little tricky at times. I had to take my time and really pay attention to where I was clicking. One of my problems was that I kept clicking on the wrong "add listing" link and would end up inserting something under the wrong heading. Also, I was unable to edit the very top of the page. The first heading seemed like a little introduction to the city and I wanted to add information like how large it was and what the the most recent population size was, but whenever I clicked the link it would just take me to a box which edited the section below it. I was not sure if there is just some special way to edit it that I do not know about or if the original person who created the article made it so it could not be changed.
For the most part however, the problems were minimal when I took my time. It is a very organized site and there are many pages that provide help and suggestions so, most of the problems I encountered I was able to overcome easily. It is not until one actually tries to edit information in these articles that they realize how structured and complex that some aspects of the website can be. Definitely not a piece of cake like I thought it would be.
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