Rational
Five weeks ago for my new project I had to design a website by using Dreamweaver CS5, the website would showcase such things as our general interests, work and the type of people we were. I decided to design my website around the type of person I am. In my designing session we were told what CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) meant and how they influenced the design of your website, we also learnt about how HTML codes are used. As each DW design session was two hours we were then put into groups of three or fours and then told that these were the people we would be working with.
Five weeks ago for my new project I had to design a website by using Dreamweaver CS5, the website would showcase such things as our general interests, work and the type of people we were. I decided to design my website around the type of person I am. In my designing session we were told what CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) meant and how they influenced the design of your website, we also learnt about how HTML codes are used. As each DW design session was two hours we were then put into groups of three or fours and then told that these were the people we would be working with.
As the websites we were designing would be predominately about us as individuals the first task we had to do was to design a moodboard which illustrated everything that interested us, from music to art etc. This would give us an idea of what we wanted our to showcase. If we had any problems with designing our websites templates were available on the NOW (Nottingham Online Workspace) however we were encouraged to try ourselves before using them as it would be seen as an easy route.
The first page of my website is a brief introduction to the content of each webpage along with images which gives a brief illustration of what to expect. In terms of the layout I feel the colours I've picked suit my personality and also were eye catching. In terms of inspiration I took out a number of books from the library as well as looking at a variety of websites from; musical artists to BBC news.
Over the last five weeks I have attended seminars, workshops and lectures in a bid to help me understand Dreamweaver better. In addition to attending these sessions I took it upon myself to downlaod the software to my laptop so I could practice more. Each week we were set tasks to complete in our spare time in preparation for the next session, I felt doing these tasks helped me understand Dreamweaver better as during the my first term I struggled with the software and this fustrated me.
During sessions we would also refer to design sites such as Litamatic and W3 Schools which provided tutorials on how to set up and layout webpages which would enhance your digital portfolio. I found that although both the seminars and lectures were practical one session would be more technical and the other would be more easy going, this made it easier to break down the different parts to making a website.
As with all the work we do there must be some form of progression and I feel that this website illustrates hdow much I have been able to understand and learn throughout the five weeks. The more I was learning the more I begun to feel confident about experimenting with different things such as layouts.
Over all I have found this project challenging but interesting as I have been able to explore design codes, website layouts and hopefully convey some of my personality into my website.
