Multimedia Production

Monday, 11 January 2016

Sunday, 10 January 2016

This module has taught me many things. I did not know how to code or hardly anything about CSS or HTML before starting and had to read up on these before getting stuck in. At the start I found it very difficult because it was like learning a whole new language. making each page of my website was really rewarding and seeing everything come together after tiring and late nights is really rewarding.

When I first decided to do a new business website for young people, I was able to get my peers opinions and ask them what they thought of my ideas knowing that I would be getting first hand important information coming straight from my target audience. My idea was to make the website clean and easily accessible to my customers/consumers. Looking at the final product, I can say that I was able to complete that to the best of my ability.

Dealing with CSS and remembering to organise my usb folders was one thing I knew would be important to create a habit of from the start. Overtime I finished working on CSS, I would make sure to save all my work at least twice to avoid missing or lost work which I knew would be a headache if I didn't remember to save and remove my usb safely (eject safely). This is one thing I will take on to my other tasks and for my upcoming group work because before I would just remove the usb without safely removing which I didn't know would give me a high percentage of losing my work.

During this project, I played around a lot with style css and the most important thing I learnt from doing that is taking my time and being patient with font sizes, particular coding and especially on my gallery. The gallery challenged me as it took the longest which I didn't expect. I am still not an expert in creating websites but I have learnt some very exciting techniques which will help me further in the future when creating a personal website or even in a job. I am glad that this module was compulsury because it allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and learn something completely new.

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

My website banner

I had created this banner which consists of my business logo in the middle and on either side of it is myself and my business partner's cartoon version of ourselves. I think it looks great, I wanted to cut out the cartoon versions of us and just have the logo in the middle with the navigation tabs right beside it split in the middle, so three tabs will be on right side of the logo and another three tabs will be on the left side of the logo but I changed my mind because that would look too bland and the caricatures give character to the banner.

I think this makes the website look more aesthetically pleasing and modern which is what our business is all about. When your targeting young people, your website has to reflect them. After asking the opinions of my class mates because they are in the age range I want to target for my business, they approved of it and said it looked cool and modern. To learn how to crop/cut an image in Photoshop, I used a tutorial on YouTube and looked at plenty websites on google which made the process very simple.

I was experiencing some difficulty on Dreamweaver because I made the above banner with the right specifications I was given in the workshop, when changing the banner size, it affected the look of it so when trying to upload the new version of the banner (the cropped version) it didn't fit and looked odd. I have now fixed the problem by going back and changing the specifications to the same ones of the first banner and it worked.

The first basic coding I have learned

https://www.codecademy.com/en/tracks/htmlcss

Code Academy has really helped me when I get stuck coding, I have done the basic lessons/tutorials which helped me go back and make sure what I had done was right in Dreamweaver. This website is very handy for practicing as they get you to repeat simple coding and show you the outcome which really helps with someone like me who prefers interactive learning instead of just copy and paste which really doesn't teach you much apart from just giving you a quick fix. If I want to do some coding after university, I will remember what this site has taught me with its easy and quick tutorials which are free. I have already recommended this site to some of my class mates that are having trouble coding too!

Changing the font in Dreamweaver

This is the first tutorial I watched when I encountered a problem when I was trying to change the font of my navigation tabs. I had found a font I really liked on Microsoft word and tried to used the name of it to insert it within the coding but I while was doing my research into why this was not working, I found out that when changing the font on Dreamweaver, you can only use the font styles that are already given to you as an option so I had to pick between those ones and just be more creative with the sizing. This tutorial was a bit long for my little problem but it did end up helping me with learning more about how to do more with design in Dreamweaver instead of sticking with the basics we are taught.

Folders and organisation

What is a site root and what does it consist of?

A site root is where all the information/images/coding/HTML and CSS etc. is kept. It is important to keep my folder as tidy as possible to avoid clutter. When I was making my website banner on Photoshop, I had a bit of difficulty with making sure that the banner was fit to the right specifications so that when I uploaded it onto Dreamweaver it would fit without any issues. I had made a banner and saved it as a JPEG image and as a PNG file, because of this, I had two of the same images on my USB and a few days later I decided to change the design of my banner so I created a whole new file. With all this work, I was forgetting that I was accumulating a lot of images on my USB outside of my site root folder which created a bit of confusion when trying to remember which image was the most recent to use on Dreamweaver. What I learned from this is that when creating something as important as a website, you need to remember to keep the device you are keeping your files on very neat and straight forward so if you encounter a problem, you can easily locate your necessary files without confusion. I have now made sure that whatever is on my USB and in my site root folder is relevant to my website and that I can easily navigate around it.

Image obtained from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site+root&biw=1366&bih=584&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizhK-7uM_JAhVMbT4KHW_aA40Q_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=usb&imgrc=wLMQussUjUOXXM%3A

This site helped me with understanding a bit more about what a site root is and why it is needed when creating a website:
https://helpx.adobe.com/dreamweaver/how-to/first-website-part1.html

Website proposal (without website wireframe and moodboad)

My Business website proposal

Project timeline:

First phase:

The first thing I want do is to create my website banner. My website banner will include my business logo and will be in black and white and very simplistic. To make this banner I will need to use Photoshop.

Second phase:

General structure will be made on CSS with the coding practice I have had. I will be doing some more research like looking at YouTube tutorials

Third phase:

Add information, pictures and links on the website so it comes together very nicely so I can see my ideas come to life. This will also help me see if I need to change anything or move anything around especially in the navigation bars that will be at the top of the page.

Fourth phase:

Do the last checks to make sure everything is the way I want it and all the tabs work properly before I hand it in properly

Site’s purpose:

The Strive Base website's purpose is all about informing customers/consumers about the business and what services we offer. This site is going to have information regarding our events and updated media content that is posted on our YouTube channel. People will also be able to view pictures of past events in the gallery and have easy access to the YouTube channel. There will be clear links to our social media pages because we are all about young people and young people use social media more than anything on the Internet.