Week One
Prompt: What do you hope to achieve in this class by the end of the term? Are there special projects or technologies you’d like to see covered by the end of the term? Is there a site (or two) that gives you butterflies in your stomach? What is it?
Response: I would love to learn the basics of website creating. I know it's a lot of learning but would hopefully lead me to designing a very professional online portfolio one day.
Inspiring site of the week: I really enjoyed the interface of this clothing site. It works on a really nice grid. If you look at the clothing items, when hovering over a product an "add to cart" buttom appears. Once hovering over this button, a list of sizes appears to select. Frank and Oak Website
Week Two
Prompt: What are you planning to do for project 1? What content do you plan to show? How will you make each page unique while maintaining a cohesive design across the project? How will your color palette, imagery, and typography choice complement your subject matter?
Response: For project one, I would like to create a site based on Norse mythology. For content, I am aiming to include a list of popular gods, the realms in which they live, the dwarves from lore, and celebrated holidays. To create cohesion, I plan on using the same header for each page with buttons to navigate through pages (the header will have a different title based on the page). I also would like to use the same typefaces, illustrative, and color palette across pages. The information provided on each page will vary greatly including unique layouts of descending information as the user scrolls down each page. I would like to tie in the color palette into Scandinavian color theory. I would also like to use a hand crafted typeface for my headers, to relate to nordic runes and symbols; I will create images with this font on top for each header.
Inspiring site of the week: Promo Site
Week Three
Prompt: I want you to clearly imagine one user who'll love to use your Project 1 website. This user could be you, it could be someone similar to you, it could be someone completely opposite from you, it could even be a non-human animal or an alien or an amoeba. You get to choose. Really imagine what they are like in their mind. What do they spend their time on? what are their hobbies, clothes, music, favorite foods, books, tv. what's their personality like.
Response: I believe a user who would love my Project 1 website would be someone who has an affinity for mythology, religion, or vikings in general. This person may currently be watching the tv show, Vikings, such as myself. This person may be ethnically from the Scandinavian region, wanting to learn more of their ancestors beliefs. I would take a guess that the user may spend their time in the outdoors or playing medieval video games.
Inspiring site of the week: Wickret Site
Week Four
Prompt: Write about your project. What went well, what went not-so-well, what was your favourite part? What do you wish you knew before you started.
Response:
- When I feel stressed over being a beginner, I make sure to delegate time to learning. Feeling constrained for time doesn't help a learning process.
- At every job I have ever started, I always remind myself that being the new employee also means being trash at the job for a little while.
- I try to make friends with others that are also new and in the same position as I, it can make learning more fun.
- I found that knowledge becomes more exciting when you become invested. I like to become consumed by what I am learning, for it to really stick.
- Life is a learning curve, as is newness to any topic. Journalling emotions is a good way to track positive progress when stressed out.
Inspiring site of the week: Hexagon Site
Week Five
Prompt: No Journal Prompt!
Week Six
Prompt: What did you choose the business/cause that you chose? Why do you think your redesign will be better? What area/content will you focus on in your redesign? Look at two other similar websites. What stands out about those sites? what bothers you abut them? How will you improve things in your own design.
Response: At this moment in time, I have chosen to rebrand The Beatles website (looking back at the prompt, I have realised this doesnt fit the brief). Regardless, I initially chose their website because it is the most bland and least aligned with their music and historical impact. The white pages grided with heavy paragraphs and boring images do not do The Beatles justice. I believe my comps have a lot of promise for interaction and animations.
Inspiring site of the week: Little Alchemy Site
Week Seven
Prompt: No Journal Prompt!
Week Eight
Prompt: Read this article on mobile-first design and share your thoughts on mobile-first vs desktop first.
Response: I definitely see the benefits of focussing on mobile first design and progressive advancement as far as design goes. I found it helpful in the article where it discussed how coding for a mobile device will give way to a solid structure with Responsive Web Design which could then form a simple website where interactions could be added to give it some flare!
Week Nine
Prompt: What are the most important features of a good portfolio site? How can you showcase the work without upstaging it? Did you find any sites that used color in a convincing way? What kinds of interactions did you see? What about branding? In what ways is the work you do and who you are a commodity?
Response:
Week Ten
Prompt: Before the final, please write at least a few paragraphs on your design process and reasoning for the design decisions you made on your project.
Response: