Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Evaluation of Website Design
In this unit, I created a website from scratch, and followed a tutorial for another website. Overall, I was not too excited when I learnt that we would be doing website design. I knew that I would find it difficult as I do not understand Dreamweaver or general scripting very well.
Regardless, I did the tutorial fairly quickly and thought "well, it can't be that bad then", but how wrong was I? Shortly after doing this tutorial I had forgotten most of what I had done in said tutorial, so it felt as if I had not really done it at all.
After that, I designed the final web page which I would be basing the website on. I created at least 6 different sketches based on popular sites and taking elements of other sites. I decided on 2 of those which I thought were best and made more detailed versions of them. With these, I decided on the best and imported it to Photoshop. I then used the 960gs template to make it the perfect template for my website. Using this, I was ready to start with Dreamweaver.
However, as I had forgotten what I learned from the tutorial, I decided to re-do that tutorial. It went even quicker this time as it came back to me as I was doing it, so this was not a waste of time. Using what I learned there, I started on the final website, but unfortunately I did not have much time left to submit the website so I added backgrounds and placed boxes, text and the logo, but I didn't have time to add hyperlinks. If I were given the chance to do this again, I would pay more attention to the lessons, the tutorial and any practice, and I would make sure that I did the designing at home as I did it in college this time, which wasted too much time.
So overall I am not too happy, as I felt I ran out of time, but for how long I had, I feel I gave it a good attempt.
Friday, 21 September 2012
Web Design Research - Good and Bad Websites
What Makes a Website Good?
Like most things, there are good websites and bad websites. Distinguishing between good and bad, and realising why they are and what makes them good or bad, however, is based on many guidelines that websites should follow to be successful.
For starters, there are some web standards to be followed and present in each website that wishes to be a successful site. There are many web standards, including recommended markup languages (like HTML, XHTML, etc) to ensure that the site is accessible by as many devices as possible. There also need to be at least basic standards for ECMAScript, or more commonly JavaScript.
Getting the right balance between moving images and non-moving images is another thing to think about when designing a website. Deciding on whether to use fixed or fluid features on the website can be important as if there is constant movement, for example, it could force someone off the site as they may not be used to that kind of movement on a website. However, if there are just copious amounts of standard, still images, that could be seen as boring, or cluttered on the page.
It can be important to use the right colours when creating a web page. If a web site is made with newer, or perhaps custom-made colours, then it could be possible that older systems may not recognise those colours and cause visual errors on the page. Using websafe colours eliminates the chances of this, and, as the name suggests, is a set of colours that are safe for usage on the web without any worries about compatibility.
Consistency can be a problem for some people, as well. If a site has a navigation bar, for example, on the top of the page, it is advised that the navigation bar stays there for the whole of the web site and its links, as if it were moving around to different places on different pages, it could prove annoying or cause people to lose their place on a website and less likely to return in future. Therefore, it is best if features of a website are kept in one place once set.
In older browsers, such as Internet Explorer 6 (or even older), there can often be a problem with many websites, as the browser may be too primitive to effectively navigate a website. If, for example, Google search did not work on Internet Explorer 6, then that would be a problem. Most of the time, on such browsers, the website will not be completely inaccessible but certain functions and visual effects may be disabled on that site in that browser. Therefore, it is best to make a website available equally for every browser.
Like most things, there are good websites and bad websites. Distinguishing between good and bad, and realising why they are and what makes them good or bad, however, is based on many guidelines that websites should follow to be successful.
For starters, there are some web standards to be followed and present in each website that wishes to be a successful site. There are many web standards, including recommended markup languages (like HTML, XHTML, etc) to ensure that the site is accessible by as many devices as possible. There also need to be at least basic standards for ECMAScript, or more commonly JavaScript.
Getting the right balance between moving images and non-moving images is another thing to think about when designing a website. Deciding on whether to use fixed or fluid features on the website can be important as if there is constant movement, for example, it could force someone off the site as they may not be used to that kind of movement on a website. However, if there are just copious amounts of standard, still images, that could be seen as boring, or cluttered on the page.
It can be important to use the right colours when creating a web page. If a web site is made with newer, or perhaps custom-made colours, then it could be possible that older systems may not recognise those colours and cause visual errors on the page. Using websafe colours eliminates the chances of this, and, as the name suggests, is a set of colours that are safe for usage on the web without any worries about compatibility.
Consistency can be a problem for some people, as well. If a site has a navigation bar, for example, on the top of the page, it is advised that the navigation bar stays there for the whole of the web site and its links, as if it were moving around to different places on different pages, it could prove annoying or cause people to lose their place on a website and less likely to return in future. Therefore, it is best if features of a website are kept in one place once set.
In older browsers, such as Internet Explorer 6 (or even older), there can often be a problem with many websites, as the browser may be too primitive to effectively navigate a website. If, for example, Google search did not work on Internet Explorer 6, then that would be a problem. Most of the time, on such browsers, the website will not be completely inaccessible but certain functions and visual effects may be disabled on that site in that browser. Therefore, it is best to make a website available equally for every browser.
Thursday, 13 September 2012
Web Design Research - HTML5, Java, etc
Research
Some websites are made for a certain purpose. These websites, such as Facebook and Youtube, can also be likened to web applications (which would be downloadable applications of a certain function) as they are mostly single-purpose sites and so would only be used by people with a certain mindset which, in the case of Youtube, would be to watch videos as Youtube is one of the most popular video viewing and sharing websites.
HTML5 is a markup language for structuring and presenting content on the internet. The last HTML in its series was HTML4, which was standardised in 1997. Since then, however, other markup languages have become prevalent such as JavaScript, XHTML, DHTML and many more. HTML5, however, is the newest and possibly best of the current generation and is made to be 'future-proof' and universal; it would be the same for each different language. It is said that HTML5 is still under development so the current version we are seeing is unfinished and not to its full potential.
Java is a programming language which is the successor to C and C++. Having been influenced by many other previous programming languages, it is somewhat of a group-together of those and as such it has also influenced many more. Java was designed by James Gosling and Sun Microsystems, the company that distributes it to this day. Java was selected by Google and Android, Inc. to be used for the Android Operating System, which is an operating system made for smartphones.
Ecommerce (or E-Commerce) is Electronic Commerce. Ecommerce is the act of buying or selling anything online. For example, sites such as Amazon.com and Ebay.com have the primary function of Ecommerce: The purpose of those sites is to buy and sell items online. The only difference between the two is Amazon items are mostly sold new, whereas Ebay is popular as a place to sell old or unused items. Ever since online shopping has existed, so has Ecommerce. Online shopping was created by Michael Aldrich in 1979 and as such, he created Ecommerce.
Cookies, also known as HTTP Cookies, web cookies or browser cookies, are small pieces of information stored inside a web browser (such as Google Chrome, Firefox, etc.). Sometimes, cookies have to be accepted, by a pop-up menu asking for them to be allowed, but often, cookies are more of a 'background job', simply being done silently without you knowing. Cookies cannot carry viruses or malware (malicious software) so they are usually harmless, but certain cookies called tracking cookies can be used to gather and store data on users - something which is frowned upon, as it is seen as an invasion of privacy in a way.
Some websites are made for a certain purpose. These websites, such as Facebook and Youtube, can also be likened to web applications (which would be downloadable applications of a certain function) as they are mostly single-purpose sites and so would only be used by people with a certain mindset which, in the case of Youtube, would be to watch videos as Youtube is one of the most popular video viewing and sharing websites.
HTML5 is a markup language for structuring and presenting content on the internet. The last HTML in its series was HTML4, which was standardised in 1997. Since then, however, other markup languages have become prevalent such as JavaScript, XHTML, DHTML and many more. HTML5, however, is the newest and possibly best of the current generation and is made to be 'future-proof' and universal; it would be the same for each different language. It is said that HTML5 is still under development so the current version we are seeing is unfinished and not to its full potential.
Java is a programming language which is the successor to C and C++. Having been influenced by many other previous programming languages, it is somewhat of a group-together of those and as such it has also influenced many more. Java was designed by James Gosling and Sun Microsystems, the company that distributes it to this day. Java was selected by Google and Android, Inc. to be used for the Android Operating System, which is an operating system made for smartphones.
Ecommerce (or E-Commerce) is Electronic Commerce. Ecommerce is the act of buying or selling anything online. For example, sites such as Amazon.com and Ebay.com have the primary function of Ecommerce: The purpose of those sites is to buy and sell items online. The only difference between the two is Amazon items are mostly sold new, whereas Ebay is popular as a place to sell old or unused items. Ever since online shopping has existed, so has Ecommerce. Online shopping was created by Michael Aldrich in 1979 and as such, he created Ecommerce.
Cookies, also known as HTTP Cookies, web cookies or browser cookies, are small pieces of information stored inside a web browser (such as Google Chrome, Firefox, etc.). Sometimes, cookies have to be accepted, by a pop-up menu asking for them to be allowed, but often, cookies are more of a 'background job', simply being done silently without you knowing. Cookies cannot carry viruses or malware (malicious software) so they are usually harmless, but certain cookies called tracking cookies can be used to gather and store data on users - something which is frowned upon, as it is seen as an invasion of privacy in a way.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)