Blog: Class Projects

I did my projects for Typography and Linking and didn't make it relevant. I feel that I am still learning many of Dreamweaver's basics and am not fast enough to make my projects look nice with the knowledge I currently have about web design. Instead I've been working on a design document that I hope to implement.

Blog: Typography

Cruise the web for sites that model good and/or bad use of text and typography. Make a post to your blog pointing out at least two sites and specifically what aspects of the sites show good and/or bad use of type and typography.

I feel totally unqualified to do this! I decided to search scrapbooking/rubber stamping sites, since that is a topic I'm interested in.

The Good:

1. Scrap Jazz
I like this site, because it is easy to read! They are utilizing the short line length recommendation by having a navigation bar on the right hand side and on the top of the page. Their font is not squished; with good padding and margins. They even break their text into smaller segments by placing boxes around different topics and using images to draw the eye around the page.

2. Hero Arts Tutorial
I really like how easy it is to follow their instructions. They are following the short line of text, nice font, good padding and margins. Hero Arts is also using a blue background color behind the instruction title to highlight the start of important text. Plus having all their example images on the left hand side really works to balance their heavy text side. I also like the way that they contained their text. Notice how they put their "More Resoures" with a blue background. I like their color consistancy for the important text backgrounds.

The Bad:

1. Club Scrap
One of my favorite places to go, but it is a bear to read through their list! I think it is because: it seems like everything is pushed over to the right hand side of the screen; the text all looks the same; and it is hard to figure out what is the more important information is, since it is all presented at the same type size and color. They also do not seem to be utilizing padding (which I know a little about after doing Chapter 7) and I think padding would help to break things up and create focus on different parts of information being provided.

2. RubberStampMadness Stamping Tips
Okay. It seems like the sites that I do not like have all the text bunched together in long lengths. This site also has a font that is harder for me to read. I do see the advantages now in breaking the text up into shorter line lengths, with nice padding and margins. I am not seing any of the tips given to break of the text and make the important information stand out. They are using color, but doing a brief scan of the colored words on this page does not make any specific tips jump out to me. This page has some good info and I most likely would have ignored it if I wasn't trying to figure out the typography on it.

Posting digital pictures on the web...

I ran my site through QuickScan (which I found off of the "GifWizard" link that I mentioned in my previous post. I discovered how slow my site will load on a 56k modem! And I discovered that I really need to optimize my images...sigh, more work. Of course, they wanted to charge me to do that. I being the total cheapskate that I am, found a different place.

Free Image Optimizer

Very easy to use and I'll have to work on getting my images updated. It probably won't be done until tonight, since the kiddos are trashing the house as I type.

I also discovered a good image optimization explanation here.

On Like Donkey Kong

I just read this and liked it--therefore my post title.

I've been googling and here are a few links I plan on checking out (not now, since I'm busy). Decided to post them on my blog for others to see. Let me know if you've found better ones!

http://www.how-to-build-websites.com/
http://www.entheosweb.com/website_design/default.asp
http://www.w3schools.com/
http://www.freecsstemplates.org/
http://www.oswd.org/
http://www.daniweb.com/
http://www.gifwizard.com/
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/

My trip to the used bookstore...

I found a book called "Web Pages That Suck" that was written in 1996. I almost bought it, but the publish date made me hesitate. $2 you know--lots of money!

The main reason I didn't buy the book was that I saw it was based on a website http://webpagesthatsuck.com/ and I figured that maybe I could find a lot of the information for free.

I haven't had time to check it out, but I will!

Puppy Sitting

Mary called me and told me she brought her puppy to work. I thought "How dumb is that." Then she told me that Cocoa was not behaving when her clients were there, so could I watch him? So here is a picture of Jill, Quinn and Cocoa.

Blog: Reflection #1

Take a few minutes to reflect on what you have learned and done in this class so far. Where could the materials or directions be improved?

If you are new to web publishing, what was harder than expected? What was easier? If you've done this kind of thing before, what do you differently? Include both your first experiences with Dreamweaver and blogging.

I am new to web publishing and I must say that working with Dreamweaver isn't as difficult as getting the material that I need to make my pages sorta like the way I want to. I spent most of my time working with Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0! I also spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how to layout my pages using my current Dreamweaver knowledge.

In regards to class, I am seeing how being a classroom setting might be better. I find that I tend to wait for a grade before I move onto my next assignment. Now I am making myself continue on without grade feedback, otherwise I would not keep on track with the due dates.

In regards to blogging, my reason to use a blog is for CIOS256. For fun, I do share pictures with family. This does not mean that I do not read information online and keep up to date on topics that I'm interested in. I will note that I should check out the other CIOS256 blogs and make extra blog entries that relate to this class.

I can see why business or individual would want to keep a blog. It is a great tool to encourage readers to leave feedback and engage them. My best friend (Kert the Artist) says she uses blogs in her high school classes with success.

I normally do not need to communicate via blog to reach an audience. I use forums. This enables me to browse a variety of topics quickly and also see what people have to say. I am also able to ask questions and receive a wide variety of response fairly quick.

Dreamweaver Thoughts

This may be your first experience with Dreamweaver. If not, do your best to reflect on the following questions anyway. What did you find most confusing or puzzling about Dreamweaver? What surprised you? What irritated you? If you have used other web editing programs, how does Dreamweaver initially compare?

My big puzzle circles around the remote host. There are a lot of prompts coming up about what to do with file transfers. Mainly dealing with dependent files. Should I just deal with it or turn off the prompts?

I was irate when I uploaded a file different than the one I had just been editing. If a different file is selected in the File Panel, Dreamweaver uploaded that file and not the file being edited in the document window.

I have not really used other web editing programs in depth, so I don't have a good comparison.

Soccer Cheerleaders

We had soccer again for the third night in a row! The kids are getting pretty good at entertaining themselves at the games. I like to sit down and enjoy the sun (hint to the sun...come on out and shine). This soccer business is taking up most of my time. I am finding there is too much to do in Fairbanks! I really need to do laundry, dishes, cleaning and more cleaning...and read my new Janet Evanovich!!!

Reflection #1 - Publishing

1) What did you find most difficult about completing the "first published pages" assignment?
My most shocking thing was that it was due today! For some reason I thought I had until Friday. I also wanted to tweak the pages and play around with it--stay focused Amy. Soccer is going on and we were almost late! Lesson learned: Have to be sure to watch the due dates and not play around with other things....

2) What has surprised you (in a good or a bad way... or both) about Dreamweaver?
Dreamweaver has an interface that is quite similar to Eclipse. That has made it pretty easy for me *so far*. No reason to jinx myself here and have everything go downhill.

3) What has surprised you (in a good or a bad way... or both) about this course?
I cannot find out exactly where my "web space support area/help pages" are! Geesh. I'm wondering if I even have it, since I'm using the class web server. However, there should be documentation somewhere.... Okay. Realizing that I need a "surprise" here and I can't think of one. I was happily surprised with the broken XHTML code--it was fun to figure that out. Another thing is the web development vocabulary. That will take some practice.

Fishing

We have been trying to figure out Fairbanks fishing! So far Grandpa has caught one small rainbow trout at Ballaine Lake and nothing at Chatanika River.

Now, to make this slightly interesting, I will now tell how to catch at fish in Fairbanks...don't go to Ballaine Lake! Joking...we saw someone else catching fish and I did get to fall into the lake there. In my defense, I wasn't the only one in the lake. There are also appears to be a few number of dogs that go swimming there. In fact, one dog was swimming after a beaver for quite a long time yesterday. If you are wondering, beaver are smarter than dogs....

Advice from Grandpa
If you are new to Fairbanks fishing areas, ask for a proof from people that give you information (pictures required). After covering over fifty miles and sampling lakes and rivers, what you see in the picture is the lone result of a rainbow that bit in Fairbanks.

Elton John--May 29th

We went to see Elton John in Fairbanks. The concert lasted 2.5 hours and the traffic was a mess afterwards! We decided to hang-out and watch the traffic (and watch and watch the traffic.) We had to really watch Phil, because he kept standing up to dance. We finally got him quieted down!