Here is the link for my website for Unit 2!
http://wwwstu.tcu.edu/ksgeorge
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Textbook Thoughts
I have mixed feelings about this Dreamweaver textbook. On the one hand, it does give a good introduction for people new to Dreamweaver. I also like that it includes screenshots (which I can now do and I am so happy!!), because that lets you follow along with what the book's talking about. On the other hand, I feel like there's so much stuff the book doesn't address that would have been useful to have. It doesn't talk about how to attach a file to be downloaded. And although it does talk about creating and editing your own template, it doesn't talk about the templates that are already included with the software and how to edit/manipulate those. Of course, I haven't really looked at any other books for help or reference so I don't know if there are any better intro books out there or not. I think I definitely liked the Photoshop book better. But this book is still helpful, and I'll definitely keep it instead of selling it back to the bookstore at the end of the semester. I just think the author could have included more than he did - the book's only got 140 pages to the Photoshop's 250.
Internet Musings
Even after reading the two chapters in the Digital Media book about the Internet, I still feel like I have no comprehension of how it works. Although I don't think that's an uncommon way to feel. I mean, I understand the basics of setting up a site, and I don't have problems using the Internet, but the scope is just beyond me. (I guess it's a good thing I dropped that Computer Science major!) How would you even go about designing it? Or thinking about it? And the speed at which those people developed the Internet for common use is just incredible. Thinking about it is kind of like thinking about electricity for me. I know basically how it works. Other than that, how someone came up with this kind of idea, how they went about implementing it, how it grew and spread to the entire world...I just can't imagine it. I like to think I have a good grasp of the way computers work, but every time we read a new chapter in any of textbooks, I realize just how much there is out there that I don't know about. There are so many different programs to learn about for computers, and upgrades for existing programs, and new breakthroughs in technology. It's almost overwhelming. For now, I will settle with being able to handle common programs like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and being able to navigate other programs like Illustrator, Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.
Reflections on Web Design Tips
Since a lot of people turned in sites that dealt with web design errors, things to avoid, or tips, I thought I would go over them and compile a list of common entries and then comment on them.
*Usability and usefulness
*Clear navigation
*Readable/professional fonts
*Few images
*White space
*Good search engine
*Avoid text blocks
*Avoid distracting backgrounds and images
I think those were the biggest issues, although I would argue with some of them. Some are obviously good things to keep in mind - the clear navigation and a good search engine. Text blocks aren't a bad thing I don't think, but when there isn't any spacing it can be a pain to try and wade through. I don't mean just space between paragraphs either, although that always helps. Dreamweaver temples have this already built in so no one should have to deal with this, but spacing between the lines of text is a great way to spread the text out and not have it all scrunched together. This is actually a problem I encounter on fanfiction websites, where some poor soul doesn't understand how to space paragraphs and so has text text text all over the place with no breaks anywhere. I don't care how good the story is that hurts to read! Text doesn't have to be double spaced - that's probably overkill, but just a small space between lines can make all the difference if you do find yourself using large chunks of text. Spacing between paragrpahs helps too.
About the fonts...the article that was from complained about fonts like Comic Sans. Personally, I love Comic Sans. True, it may not look that professional, compared to Arial or Times or something like that. But I think that statement about fonts is too strict - it doesn't take into account the different types of websites. If your site is about maybe a kids' art project, I think Times would be a bad choice. It really depends on your audience for font, and for color choices as well.
The stuff about images, white space, and distracting backgrounds is more complicated. Few images aren't always a good sign. And while you do want some white space to separate different elements in your page, too much can be just as offputting as not enough. Distracting backgrounds...I think we went into this during our presentations of the generation websites. If the background is too interesting/distracting, then your main content will be overlooked. Unless the background has some vital detail about whatever your website is discussing, then background images should not be that attention grabbing. (In my humble opinion, that is.)
*Usability and usefulness
*Clear navigation
*Readable/professional fonts
*Few images
*White space
*Good search engine
*Avoid text blocks
*Avoid distracting backgrounds and images
I think those were the biggest issues, although I would argue with some of them. Some are obviously good things to keep in mind - the clear navigation and a good search engine. Text blocks aren't a bad thing I don't think, but when there isn't any spacing it can be a pain to try and wade through. I don't mean just space between paragraphs either, although that always helps. Dreamweaver temples have this already built in so no one should have to deal with this, but spacing between the lines of text is a great way to spread the text out and not have it all scrunched together. This is actually a problem I encounter on fanfiction websites, where some poor soul doesn't understand how to space paragraphs and so has text text text all over the place with no breaks anywhere. I don't care how good the story is that hurts to read! Text doesn't have to be double spaced - that's probably overkill, but just a small space between lines can make all the difference if you do find yourself using large chunks of text. Spacing between paragrpahs helps too.
About the fonts...the article that was from complained about fonts like Comic Sans. Personally, I love Comic Sans. True, it may not look that professional, compared to Arial or Times or something like that. But I think that statement about fonts is too strict - it doesn't take into account the different types of websites. If your site is about maybe a kids' art project, I think Times would be a bad choice. It really depends on your audience for font, and for color choices as well.
The stuff about images, white space, and distracting backgrounds is more complicated. Few images aren't always a good sign. And while you do want some white space to separate different elements in your page, too much can be just as offputting as not enough. Distracting backgrounds...I think we went into this during our presentations of the generation websites. If the background is too interesting/distracting, then your main content will be overlooked. Unless the background has some vital detail about whatever your website is discussing, then background images should not be that attention grabbing. (In my humble opinion, that is.)
Unit One Revision
Our talk in class about revising the Unit 1 project made me start thinking about what I can do to revise mine. It'll be a little difficult, simply because my point deductions were all over the place. Just minus one or two points here, another few in that section, and so on. There isn't one thing I can fix that will give me a significant point boost. Of course, I only need a few points to bump my grade up to an A, so I suppose that's ok.
One thing I could easily do is fix the design narrative. I only lost 3 points, but that would most likely be the easiest thing to fix. I can also increase the type size on the rest of the poster, since it was definitely too small. It's so hard to tell when you're looking at something on the computer screen if it'll be big enough when it gets printed out. And for some reason, whenever I tried to stretch the banner and Word Art text design over two pages, it would not work. The second page would just get cut off. So I can scrap the banner and just print some text. I don't know that I can easily remove any of the things on my poster, but I should be able to cover it up pretty well. Those are probably the two easiest changes to make.
Then of course, I can switch the middle pictures around. I hadn't planned on the patient holding the teddy bear to be the central image (or to be as big as it turned out) but after (and during) my presentation, I realized that it would make more sense. So if I reprint those things, and I do still have the edited versions, I can switch those, maybe make the teddy bear image a little bigger, even, since the post-operation woman is kind of a large image on its own. Oh and increase the text size in each of those images too.
The other place I got deductions was in layering, or rather the lack of. And since that's part of this current project too, I should probably think a little more about that as well.
One thing I could easily do is fix the design narrative. I only lost 3 points, but that would most likely be the easiest thing to fix. I can also increase the type size on the rest of the poster, since it was definitely too small. It's so hard to tell when you're looking at something on the computer screen if it'll be big enough when it gets printed out. And for some reason, whenever I tried to stretch the banner and Word Art text design over two pages, it would not work. The second page would just get cut off. So I can scrap the banner and just print some text. I don't know that I can easily remove any of the things on my poster, but I should be able to cover it up pretty well. Those are probably the two easiest changes to make.
Then of course, I can switch the middle pictures around. I hadn't planned on the patient holding the teddy bear to be the central image (or to be as big as it turned out) but after (and during) my presentation, I realized that it would make more sense. So if I reprint those things, and I do still have the edited versions, I can switch those, maybe make the teddy bear image a little bigger, even, since the post-operation woman is kind of a large image on its own. Oh and increase the text size in each of those images too.
The other place I got deductions was in layering, or rather the lack of. And since that's part of this current project too, I should probably think a little more about that as well.
External Links
So I've been thinking what kinds of external links I can include, and today in my Environmental Science lab we took a quiz that tells you how big your individual ecological footprint is and other little tidbits. It was kind of fun, actually, because after you answer a set of questions, a corresponding graphic plops down on your screen, and your little avatar walks around. Anyways, that's not exactly related, but since one of the reasons I wanted to push recycling was because of environmental reasons, so I think this quiz might be a fun thing just to have somewhere on the site. Go here to take the quiz.
So there's that link, and I think I may include some links to informational sites about recycling, and then this site with a list of 50 ways to go green. I don't want too many sites, but I think those two in particular would be good ones to use because they aren't an exact repetition of what my own web site will say. I may have to include some links to some of the stuff I found on the TCU website, because it's so hard to find that stuff again - especially the guidelines page since it's no longer linked anywhere that I could find. I think most of these links would go under the Action/What Can I Do page, since that's what they would relate to the most, although if I can find some information about what Fort Worth/Tarrant county do for recycling that might go under the guidelines page.
Notes:
*Color issue is fixed, or will be whenever I get access to a library computer with Dreamweaver.
*I can upload a PDF file for others to download.
*I'm thinking of using a picture of me that a friend drew, because it's not a totally realistic picture (I'm a lily fairy) but is still recognizably me, sort of like Karen's picture. I don't know for sure though. Really though, I don't have many good pictures of myself. Oh well, worry about that later.
So there's that link, and I think I may include some links to informational sites about recycling, and then this site with a list of 50 ways to go green. I don't want too many sites, but I think those two in particular would be good ones to use because they aren't an exact repetition of what my own web site will say. I may have to include some links to some of the stuff I found on the TCU website, because it's so hard to find that stuff again - especially the guidelines page since it's no longer linked anywhere that I could find. I think most of these links would go under the Action/What Can I Do page, since that's what they would relate to the most, although if I can find some information about what Fort Worth/Tarrant county do for recycling that might go under the guidelines page.
Notes:
*Color issue is fixed, or will be whenever I get access to a library computer with Dreamweaver.
*I can upload a PDF file for others to download.
*I'm thinking of using a picture of me that a friend drew, because it's not a totally realistic picture (I'm a lily fairy) but is still recognizably me, sort of like Karen's picture. I don't know for sure though. Really though, I don't have many good pictures of myself. Oh well, worry about that later.
Unit 2 Project
My reform for Unit 2 is about recycling. My thinking is that even though TCU is supposedly promoting a greener lifestyle, it's not really happening. I want to change that. My main goals for the website are to increase awareness of recycling, to make people aware of what they can recycle and what they can't, and to suggest increases to the types of products that can be recycled. The biggest thing there is newspaper. We cannot recycle newspaper at TCU right now. That's ridiculous. Also, in most class buildings, the only recycling available is for paper. That means that faculty cannot recycle glass or plastic drink cans at all. It's a little better in the dorms, because we have a recycling bin along with the rest of the trash cans, but people throw trash in there as well. And since I'm betting a lot of people don't know what they can or cannot recycle, they toss stuff in there that can't be recycled.
Some of the things I want to suggest are:
*Easy to access list of guidelines for recycling
*Increase the types of materials we can recycle
*More recycling bins (one outside for every trash can)
*More recycling bins inside the dorms (clearly labelled)
*Promote recycling in general
Of course, TCU's website is evil, so it's hard to find things: I had to Google the list of guidelines that I have right now, and it's only for paper recycling. It's supposedly from the Risk Management website, but when I went there, there's nothing there that deals with recycling so I have no idea where this list comes from. It's weird. Oh well, all praise Google!!
Some of the things I want to suggest are:
*Easy to access list of guidelines for recycling
*Increase the types of materials we can recycle
*More recycling bins (one outside for every trash can)
*More recycling bins inside the dorms (clearly labelled)
*Promote recycling in general
Of course, TCU's website is evil, so it's hard to find things: I had to Google the list of guidelines that I have right now, and it's only for paper recycling. It's supposedly from the Risk Management website, but when I went there, there's nothing there that deals with recycling so I have no idea where this list comes from. It's weird. Oh well, all praise Google!!
Notes to Self (and any stalkers-I-mean-blog-followers)
OK! Here's some things I need to do/remember/ask about.
1) If I get enough other stuff done, figure out how to get rid of the stupid pink font. Priority: low.
2) What kind of stuff should go on the about me page? Right now I've got my name and a few sentences about TCU stuff. I saw that Karen's putting a picture up, not a photo but a created image. I'm not sure I want to put a real photo of myself up on this page, but I could do a "fake" one easily enough. On Facebook, I don't have a picture of me, instead I have this dead smiley face I made. (By dead I mean x's for eyes and a tongue sticking out.) I wouldn't use that for this though. Priority: fairly high.
3) Ask around about how often you guys recycle. I know most, if not all, the dorms have or should have a recycling bin with the regular trash bins, but how often do you use it? I know I don't use it enough, just because I don't have room in my room for two separate trash cans, and it's a pain to walk all the way down the hall every time I have something to recycle. My roommate last year just collected her used water bottles in a bag on the door until it was full and worth a trip over to the Student Center (because Milton didn't have recycling bins that we knew of), but that was for water. Water doesn't smell, water doesn't get moldy. Also, I don't buy water bottles anymore since the meal plan changed. Anyways. Priority: fairly high.
4) Hmm...well, what kinds of things are people doing for their downloadable file? I have some ideas, but I don't know if any of them are good ideas. Also, make sure I know how to do that in Dreamweaver. I overheard instructions for that since it's apparently not in the textbook, but I need to make sure I can actually DO that. Priority: medium/high.
And I think that will be all for now! (I hope.)
1) If I get enough other stuff done, figure out how to get rid of the stupid pink font. Priority: low.
2) What kind of stuff should go on the about me page? Right now I've got my name and a few sentences about TCU stuff. I saw that Karen's putting a picture up, not a photo but a created image. I'm not sure I want to put a real photo of myself up on this page, but I could do a "fake" one easily enough. On Facebook, I don't have a picture of me, instead I have this dead smiley face I made. (By dead I mean x's for eyes and a tongue sticking out.) I wouldn't use that for this though. Priority: fairly high.
3) Ask around about how often you guys recycle. I know most, if not all, the dorms have or should have a recycling bin with the regular trash bins, but how often do you use it? I know I don't use it enough, just because I don't have room in my room for two separate trash cans, and it's a pain to walk all the way down the hall every time I have something to recycle. My roommate last year just collected her used water bottles in a bag on the door until it was full and worth a trip over to the Student Center (because Milton didn't have recycling bins that we knew of), but that was for water. Water doesn't smell, water doesn't get moldy. Also, I don't buy water bottles anymore since the meal plan changed. Anyways. Priority: fairly high.
4) Hmm...well, what kinds of things are people doing for their downloadable file? I have some ideas, but I don't know if any of them are good ideas. Also, make sure I know how to do that in Dreamweaver. I overheard instructions for that since it's apparently not in the textbook, but I need to make sure I can actually DO that. Priority: medium/high.
And I think that will be all for now! (I hope.)
(Belated) Ideas
So I had all these cool ideas for reforms that I was going to post here and debate with myself (or any comments) in order to decide which one I wanted to do. Then I mixed that paper up with some history doodles and never got around to finding it again until now. Thank you room cleaning! Some of these ideas are a little less serious than others, or aren't really good ideas for this type of project, but maybe they could be a part of a bigger idea.
First, I wanted to increase the classes offered for the Classical Studies minor. There's hardly any classes being offered, and two of them are Honors classes (which is ok for me) but I think non-Honors students would have a very hard time getting in to such a class because they would probably fill up quickly. There are a few History classes, a few English and Religion classes, and Greek. Of those, maybe 3 or so (not counting the 2 honors classes) have been offered since I've been at TCU. But....of course this reform doesn't really affect that many people, and mostly it would involve hiring more faculty or making current faculty teach more classes, or substituting Classical Studies classes for more popular ones, so in the end, I decided against this.
I thought about reforming the food service because let's face it: it kind of sucks. The "Corner Store" (what's wrong with Frog Bytes, huh?) is basically a candy and junk food store. What happened to the real food that we could get last year? And no, instant ramen does NOT count as real food. I'm thinking of the pasta boxes, like hamburger helper, or cake mixes (ok so that's still junk food), the baking supplies, the sliced deli meats, stuff you could actually live on. Not rows of chips and candy bars. This could actually have been a kind of fun reform to do, but I still ended up doing something else.
A less serious reform: tell someone at Market Square that the black floor mats they have for you to wipe your feet on don't do any good when THEY'RE OUTSIDE IN THE RAIN. Seriously. The mats are outside. Soaking wet (even after the rain's stopped) so students walk in with wet shoes and make a mess. Why aren't the mats inside?? Sure, maybe a wet mat gets more dirt off than a dry one (maybe), but dirt + water = mud. That just doesn't make any sense to me.
And then there's the reform that I actually decided on: recycling. Increasing both awareness of the importance of recycling and the amount of recycling done on campus. More details to come :)
First, I wanted to increase the classes offered for the Classical Studies minor. There's hardly any classes being offered, and two of them are Honors classes (which is ok for me) but I think non-Honors students would have a very hard time getting in to such a class because they would probably fill up quickly. There are a few History classes, a few English and Religion classes, and Greek. Of those, maybe 3 or so (not counting the 2 honors classes) have been offered since I've been at TCU. But....of course this reform doesn't really affect that many people, and mostly it would involve hiring more faculty or making current faculty teach more classes, or substituting Classical Studies classes for more popular ones, so in the end, I decided against this.
I thought about reforming the food service because let's face it: it kind of sucks. The "Corner Store" (what's wrong with Frog Bytes, huh?) is basically a candy and junk food store. What happened to the real food that we could get last year? And no, instant ramen does NOT count as real food. I'm thinking of the pasta boxes, like hamburger helper, or cake mixes (ok so that's still junk food), the baking supplies, the sliced deli meats, stuff you could actually live on. Not rows of chips and candy bars. This could actually have been a kind of fun reform to do, but I still ended up doing something else.
A less serious reform: tell someone at Market Square that the black floor mats they have for you to wipe your feet on don't do any good when THEY'RE OUTSIDE IN THE RAIN. Seriously. The mats are outside. Soaking wet (even after the rain's stopped) so students walk in with wet shoes and make a mess. Why aren't the mats inside?? Sure, maybe a wet mat gets more dirt off than a dry one (maybe), but dirt + water = mud. That just doesn't make any sense to me.
And then there's the reform that I actually decided on: recycling. Increasing both awareness of the importance of recycling and the amount of recycling done on campus. More details to come :)
Small Annoyances
Well, I think I've pretty much got a decent grasp of Dreamweaver. The templates are helpful, because I really wouldn't know how to organize my site without them. There's just a few things that are bugging me. First is the date thing. It's automatically included in the templates (or at least the ones I've been using) which, okay, fine that's not a big deal. But the date doesn't show up in Dreamweaver. I didn't know it was there until I was previewing my site on the Internet and a random date just popped up right next to my home page link. They were squished together because I hadn't been expecting something other than a date to go there. And I couldn't just delete the date either, or move it or the link away from the edge. I think that's built into the template, and I can change that, but I kind of wanted all the links to be in that same spot. Anyways, I finally figured out how to get rid of the date everywhere except the home page, where I don't have a link and so don't mind the date. I had to go into the code and just comment out the write date command. So really, it's not that big a deal, it's just a minor annoyance that I have to remember to do for each page.
The other annoyance is just plain weird. The default font colors for the template are green, grey, and red. I like the green and grey, but the red has to go. I'm pretty sure I've changed all instances of red font to a nice blue font, which frankly looks much better than the red ever did. But before I decided on the blue, I was testing out a pink font (making my website done in the same colors as my blog). I tested the pink on one of the web pages, decided I didn't like it, and turned it back to blue. While I was working with my first two pages, the pink was fully gone. So I kind of forgot about it. But when I created the next two pages, changed the red font to blue, got rid of the date, and previewed the page, what do I see but PINK FONT???? The links to return to the home page keep showing up in pink!! I don't know why, these websites never used pink, ther's no pink anywhere in any of the CSS rules, and the hover color is the correct blue, so I don't know where this stupid pink color came from but I don't appreciate it. Unfortunately, this is just a small issue, so I won't get around to trying to fix it until everything else is done, because two links just aren't that important.
The other annoyance is just plain weird. The default font colors for the template are green, grey, and red. I like the green and grey, but the red has to go. I'm pretty sure I've changed all instances of red font to a nice blue font, which frankly looks much better than the red ever did. But before I decided on the blue, I was testing out a pink font (making my website done in the same colors as my blog). I tested the pink on one of the web pages, decided I didn't like it, and turned it back to blue. While I was working with my first two pages, the pink was fully gone. So I kind of forgot about it. But when I created the next two pages, changed the red font to blue, got rid of the date, and previewed the page, what do I see but PINK FONT???? The links to return to the home page keep showing up in pink!! I don't know why, these websites never used pink, ther's no pink anywhere in any of the CSS rules, and the hover color is the correct blue, so I don't know where this stupid pink color came from but I don't appreciate it. Unfortunately, this is just a small issue, so I won't get around to trying to fix it until everything else is done, because two links just aren't that important.
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