The End

I have really enjoyed Writing for the Web this semester. I have learned a lot of valuable techniques from the many software demonstrations, as well as playing around with DreamWeaver. We all have the skills to build a starter website. With the growing technology, this is going to be a great step in front of the competition. We know the basics and with more practice, we will be able to design strong websites.

I am going to graduate school next year. The program I hope to get in to is a Magazine, Newspaper, and Online Journalism program. If I had not taken this class, I would be nervous about going for that program. Now, I have some knowledge of web design and some of what will happen with the program.

I enjoyed working with and learning from all of you in this class. I hope the rest of your year goes well!

The Website Launch

I am so excited to have launched my website! I think it is something we can all be proud of accomplishing. I know that I spent a lot of time trying to develop a website that could represent me, and I think I was able to do that. My website is simple but still offers the information that I wanted to tell others. It is exciting to see something that we all created out on the web for everyone to see.

I am eager to show my website to graduate schools, other professors, and friends. I am planning a graduate school trip this weekend and hopefully will have the opportunity to show them what I have created.

I have really enjoyed looking through all of your websites. It is so interesting to see all of the different routes everyone took. Each person had something new and different to add or some technique that I had never thought about using. After looking through them, there are a few things that I would like to change/add to my website.

I can't wait to start on group projects and create some more awesome websites!

Color and Grammar

So I checked out the website about color. I thought it was very interesting and informative. I enjoyed being able to use the interactive lessons and games to better understand the purpose of each color. I had already learned that certain colors meant certain things like red can mean anger and blue can mean calm. However, it was nice to see a list of other words that are associated with each color. Also, it was interesting to see the positive and negative attributes to each color.

I also enjoyed the article on grammar and composition. As an English major, I have an interest in grammar and how words are put together to form a proper sentence. I thought it was interesting how Bradford Connatser divided our language into two different categories, prescriptive grammar and organic grammar. I can see these differences in everyday life just carrying on conversations with others. I even have a different way of speaking that I know isn't always "grammatically correct."

Connatser mentioned that technical writers have to be aware of the difference between organic and prescriptive grammar. Readers aren't always aware of the prescriptive grammar rules and have a harder time comprehending certain documents. Connatser said that sometimes technical writers use exceptions in their writing to help the reader better understand the information. He said that the way things are said sometimes trumps proper, prescriptive grammar. If the prescriptive grammar will confuse the reader, it should be avoided.

It is hard for me to agree with this. I have taken class after class to learn the proper way of forming sentences and choosing the correct words to use. I don't want to have to abandon these rules because someone else isn't going to understand what I'm writing. I understand that some people might think something is incorrect and that could reflect badly on the writer, but I want to use the correct rules because I know it's right.

Homepage Creation

So I think these next few weeks are going to awesome. I am extremely excited about being able to start our actual websites and put our designs on the screen. I have so many different ideas that I want to test our and see what looks best on the internet. I actually created my mock homepage this past week, which makes me even more excited. As of right now, I may have too many ideas to accomplish in the few weeks we have, but I am going to try. I really want this to be a website that I can show potential employers and graduate schools. I am excited about using the techniques we have learned in class with photoshop. I hope you all are excited too!

This is kind of what I want my page to look like.
Does anyone else have any ideas about your own pages?

On another note, is our homepage design that we are turning in on Monday supposed to actually be what we want our page to look like or just a general idea?

Web Design!

So I was pretty excited about font last week. This week, I am even more excited to continue work on our webpages. I think it is going to be a challenge to get everything looking the way I want it, but I think it is going to be a great talent to learn. I have been searching through random websites to look for inspiration for my own website. I have found a few things that I like, but I haven't found that one thing that I really like. I am going to continue looking for neat designs that I can pull from.

This week's reading on imaging was also pretty interesting. It is crazy how every piece of a document is important to the readers. Everything can be interpreted in a different way so it is important that the design conveys exactly what you want to say.

Font!

I actually really enjoyed the general principles of this week's reading. While most of the reading was about two different research experiments, the importance of font was prevalent. I really enjoy utilizing fonts to help tell a story or affect the design of a document. The article talked about how each font has its own personality and offers something different. I totally agree with this. Each document has a perfect font to help it convey a message. Some people just stick with the basic or default fonts available, but I think it is important to play around with what you can do with fonts.

Page Design

Woah! What a chapter! While the information was very beneficial to page design, there was a lot to get through. And it was also occasionally hard to get past the dated-ness of the book. The year 2000 doesn't seem like that long ago, but a lot has changed with the internet in the last 10 years.

Neilsen's main focus of page design was the keep it simple. Over use of anything is going to deter the user. People want to quickly find the information they are looking for. Neilsen says to keep extra graphics to a minimum, because they will cause pages to load slower. If a page takes longer than 10 seconds to load, the user is less likely to continue using that page.

A major point in this chapter was to design a page so that it is compatible with various monitor sizes and devices. Some people are going to be using a 19" screen while others may only have 5" worth of screen. The webpage has to be able to display properly for both users.