Reflections/Compare/Contrast

Prior to taking this course I wasnt aware of the components,creativity and precision that goes into making a website. Ive come to see how important graphic design is and the roles it plays in the world of communications. I never thought of the science that goes behind constructing a website and therefore its importants. I went from knowing very little about how graphics,design and layouts play a huge part in advertisements and business. I know now that its not just throught pictures and words onto a piece off paper or onto a website. Instead everything should be concise in its place, order, and appearance to help convey information and to talk to a person without actually ever coming face to face.
I have noticed that the website that I first constructed didnt take into account all the things needed for the viewer such as typography,readibility and viewibility.
The story board that we prepared for class for our final websites was a great warm up for how I wanted my website to be viewed and portrayed. I did realize that it didnt come out anywhere near how my final wesbite turned out, but nonetheless it was a good tool to use for me to get my mind thinking about the website and any idea's I would eventually have.

Web vs print

Writing for the web tends to be much more informal where writing for print tends to be more formal structure. Writing for the web allows you to do so much more than you can writing for print. Your freedoms writing for the web is endless compared to print. For the web more of the writers personality comes to light. You can be more creating adding bullets and paratraph trim along with colorful texts and backgrounds. Not to mention the ability to create stylish extra's which will grab the readers attention. With print the fun is not as intense as on the web. There are typically no cool colors or fonts or anything for that matter, that would help to grab the attention of the reading audience for which it is trying to gain the attention. Its so much more time consuming for many to read print than the web. The web is vertually everywhere and to grab a newspaper or magazine is almost impossible in today's society. People are so busy with the hustle and bustle of their everyday life that it is easier to read the news on the web than stop at a news stand and buy a paper then find time to read it.  Almost everyone has web access at their finger tips with smartphones and portable laptop computers. Web all the way!

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a great way to roughly go through your presentation so you can visually see how you want it to flow and to make any necessary changes. Storyboarding is very helpful because creating a storyboard with pictures and how you will set up your presentation will give others to see a general idea of what you want to portray and offer any ideas. I am a visual person and to have each webpage laid out before me, helps to give me idea's of how I want to design each page. By doing this the storyboard has helped me form more of an idea of how I want my website to be designed. This helps to cut down on me having to go back and forth in my website and change things until it is the way I want it. Basically in a nutshell the storyboard has saved me some frusteration by helping me plan out the design of my website.

Week 4

Are there advantages and drawbacks?
I think that there are some great advantages to creating your own website. So long as you have the know how to do it yourself. The most important part is having the specific knowledge and capability of doing it entirely on your own. You are able to apply exactly what you want to share through your webpage. By doing it yourself you are able to personalize it more to fit what you want to convey. It will also be more cost effective as well.
The drawbacks to designing a website yourself would be if you knew aboslutely nothing pertaining to web design. If you had never taken a course on the matter or studied into the business of web design then the website could actually back fire and make your cause look bad. A professional would know exactly what would make or break your website and how to make it excel your business or etc. A professional web developer can take that task from you so your able to spend more time and effort in other area's. After all they do say time is money. A web designer may know more tricks at designing a website such as adding custom layouts. After all they did go to school for it and have much more experience with adding codes to create different types of templates. A non professional may only know how to start using pre-designed templates.

Accessibilty vs Usibility

These are both two different terms but are closely related and integral in forming a top quality website. Accessibility refers to having the capability to accomodate any user who visits your site. Just like accomodating a customer when he or she comes into your business. This would be being able to accomodate the visitor regardless of the type of computer they are using. Wether they have poor hardware capabilities or an old clogged network etc. Your website should be able to accomodate visitors with limitations on their end of the spectrum.

To me usibility is what gives the visitor the feeling of satisfaction. Compared to customer satisfaction at a restaurant. They feel that once they enter your website all their questions are answered and they dont feel confused when navigating the site. Its easy for them to navigate through the site and they dont get lost while they "browse". Without Accessibility, usibility wouldnt matter. Without usibility your site would useless.

Is this always a good thing?
Its a great thing because you can just do it yourself. Its a great benefit for people who run their own business's or just enjoy having that freedom of creativity. However the down side would be the ability for people to cloud the air with misleading information posted on the internet. Such as TMZ or Wikipedia. These websites dont have the correct information and therefore end up causing misinformation being conveyed to the
public.

Photo

This is my dream car

Evaluation: Website 2

The second website I chose was http://www.supercross.com/. I liked this page very much because of the color contrast they used with the black background and the variety color of fonts. The boldness of the headlines for the articles was a good idea. The graphics for the page where nicely chosen to stick with what the page covered which was the sport of Supercross. Everything was aligned which much precision and detail and the links were nicely organized together. Navigating the site was made easy. The web designer made it easy and conveinent for the viewer to find what they are looking for. Wether it was purchasing tickets, vieweing video, photo's or checking out the schedules the links for each were displayed in plain view so I didnt have to search very hard at all.

Evaluation: Website 1

The first website I viewed was caranddriver.com. The graphics on the page were good as far as catching your eyes and grabbing your attention. The colors on the page helped me as a viewer scan the entire site. The font was setting to primarily one size other than the title of the articles and the website itself. The page was easy to navigate and the links where all perfectly aligned to the left with nice attention to detail. Each link was within an outlined border and had font which was easy to read and all one size. The topics where interesting and visual appeal with respect to the pictures were great. Loading time was quick which was nice. I can understand how that would be a negative if someone visits your site and has to wait long periods of time after clicking on links and navigating the site. Everything fit nicely in its own place on the page. The multimedia was great because it had video's to watch. A Very Professional website! Nicely done.