(Almost) final version of my portfolio now uploaded.
I am still not happy with the header but due to restricted fonts at college will experiment with more soon.
Also not sure about the colours and may come back to these dependant on feedback from others.
My second screen design for my portfolio is now uploaded*.
I have tried to incorporate the feedback I was given and remove the large black border and text. I have incorporated a smaller grey border around my design (as was suggested by Scott) however I am still not sure about it. I am also not sure about my navigation it seems a little lost and out of place.
I have yet to have chance to experiment with some more colour/logo ideas, though I will hopefully be posting a mid-week blog with these ideas included.
My initial design for my portfolio is also available for comparison.
*Note: The 'Crigglestone Nursery' image is only temporary and will be changed on my final design to one more suitable.
My initial design for my portfolio is now uploaded.
I've gone for a very simple idea with a high contrast border around the outside to hopefully draw the users attention directly into the centre of my site with my content.
Any feedback is as always appreciated.
The first site I looked at was a student site - www.lynde.net/ found through www.sessions.edu/
Upon first entering the site I was a little shocked to see a very small containing box. This made me think almost instantly that it severely limited the amount of work which could be displayed at any one time. I then noticed the picture on the front page with the 'tagline' for the site, 'Great design. Great business.' Although this is quite an adequate tagline I do not think there is a need for it to take up the whole of the front page when it could easily have being some of his work.
The colour scheme I feel could also do with some work. The page background has stripes which are very close together which begin to hurt your eyes after a while and the main body of text is black and a bright orange background. This doesn't give the best contrast and also begins to hurt your eyes after a little while.
Clicking through to the portfolio section of the site what immediately hits me is the navigation. Only one piece of work is shown at a time on the site yet there are 25 pages worth of work. The reason I know there is 25 pages is because the navigation is purely page numbers. This I feel is a very bad way of making the user navigate the site as it is difficult to remember what page has what on it and if there is anything of interest on that page without clicking on it.
As well as this, when hovering over a page number it is actually a different page number which changes to the hover state. (I.e. Hover over 9 and page 8 will change to '9' and be bold but if you try and click on it, it will then change back to 8 - very confusing). The site is also will not validate despite being only HTML 4.01 Transitional and with very little on it. For a prospective employer this could be very important and shows a more in depth knowledge of the industry.
The second site I looked at was a professional portfolio - http://www.cagedfish.co.uk/
This site is very bold and in your face as soon as you enter. The colour scheme is bright pink and could be too bright for some users. The main body of text however uses a white background with black text which gives good contrast between the two and makes the text easy to read.
The navigation is a little awkward from the homepage as it is at the bottom of the site and you must hover over different fish before you can tell what the link is. The navigation is also at text at the bottom of the screen also but to me this would just confuse the user more as it appears that there is navigation all over and new users may not know where to click.
Once on to the portfolio section however the navigation is much better as a list of recent projects are down the right hand side and clearly labelled.
The portfolio is also divided into an ecommerce section and a print section. I personally think this is quite a good idea as it stops the navigation becoming too long and also allows people looking for more specialist services to see them more easily than looking through everything.
Perhaps the biggest shock for a professional design portfolio is that it doesn't validate. In fact it doesn't even have a doc type. This seems like quite a basic mistake to make and would severely affect my views about the company. On top of this the site is created using table and cells due to what appears to be a site created from a template. Although to most clients this would probably not be an issue as they would not know such things, to people with even a little bit of experience it must be very off putting for them.
My screen designs for my iTunes redesign are now uploaded to my 'Tune In' blog.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Filezilla - FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
This will be used to upload all my files to the web server for viewing on the Internet. It will be used for uploading files for testing as well as uploading completed files.
XHTML (eXtensive Hyper Text Markup Language) Strict 1.0
This will be used to create the skeleton of the site in which all the content will be placed. It will be used on every page of the site, no matter what the extension. It will contain code which calls upon my CSS (see below) such as < div id= "___" > etc.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Level 2.1
This will be used to style my pages. It will be linked to my site externally so it can be used for numerous pages not just one. I will use aspects of both level 1 and level 2.1 but will try and not use level 3 features as these are not as widely supported as earlier versions.
PHP (Hypertext Protocol) 5.2.4
PHP will be used to make my pages dynamic. It will be used on various pages throughout my site such as my feedback form page (to allow users to send me feedback more securely than a mailto: link). It will also be combined with MySQL (see below) to allow me to create a login form for my site which will allow certain individuals to see other areas of my site with more work on which I do not want to show to the general public.
MySQL 5
MySQL will be combined with PHP to allow for the creation of dynamic pages. MySQL will be the database which will contain the user names and passwords of individuals who have permission to view the secure area of my site containing other parts of my work.
My target audience will be split into 3 distinct groups.
My primary target audience is to be educationalists.
Educationalists will be attending my presentation and so are the primary target audience. I will be showing them my work and so the complexity of the site is not really an issue. Because I will be showing them my site in college the speed of the connection is quite high and so the file size of my site can be quite large and graphics heavy if needs be.
My secondary target audience is to be potential employers.
My potential employer will be someone who is quite high up in a company management. They will be looking for someone experienced in XHTML, CSS and PHP. They will be quite web savvy and be able to work their way around quite a complex site without too much trouble. They would most likely be accessing my website from their office and so they would probably be using quite a high speed Internet connection and so a large file size site would not matter as much with this section of my target audience either.
My tertiary target audience is to be potential clients.
Potential clients will be quite different to my other two target audience groups. For them to be looking for a designer on the Internet, and to have come across my portfolio they will be quite web savvy, but too complex a design may confuse them slightly. There is also no telling what sort of connection speeds they will be using to access my site but most will have some sort of broadband connection with only the minority still using a dial up connection. This means that although my site could still contain quite a few images, I would have to be careful not to go over the top and alienate this portion of my target audience. I must also be careful not to alienate my target audience by using mark up which only displays correctly in the latest browers as a lot of the general public may still be using older browsers (the majority IE6).
I have now created a new blog which is solely dedicated to my SMLP (Self Managed Learning Plan) and can be found at http://craigallington-smlp.blogspot.com
My previous post regarding my assesment of my current level of PHP can now be found there.
1. To create a portfolio website using XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS level 2.1.
This is quite an obvious goal but a very important one. By using XHTML 1.0 strict it means that it will force the website to be more accessible to a greater number of people (as apposed to XHTML 1.0 transitional or even variations of HTML 4.01)
As for choosing CSS level 2.1 I chose this as it is the most widely used level of CSS. Although some facilities of level 3 are available the usage in most browsers is limited (especially in Internet Explorer) and so once again would limit who could access my site.
2. To use new skills I have learnt througout the course in the creation of my website both technical (I.e. XHTML, CSS and PHP) and creative (I.e. Creation of images using Photoshop).
The portfolio site is there to demonstrate my skills I have learnt on the course and so using the skills in the portfolio site it's self seems a sensible option. Although I have already mentioned I would use XHTML and CSS, PHP is a very new skill to me but also very effective. It would be used for a contact page and also for a login page to access further areas of the site.
3. To comply to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Conformance Level "A": found at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/.
Once again accessibility is a key factor for me and by conforming to conformance level "A" it once again means that it allows more people to be able to access my site (and hopefully more prospective employers, etc.)
4. To create a website which is suitable for my primary target audience - potential clients.
Making a website suitable for a target audience is obviously a huge factor in creating websites and my portfolio site will be no exception.
The biggest factor will be making this goal measurable. To do this I will create some sort of questionnaire and hopefully attempt to get some prospective employers to look at my site. Of course this may be difficult and so I will try and get a questionnaire which peers can fill in but which is aimed as if they were my target audience.
I've taken the feedback I've been give on my original Trexi design and made some changes seen below.
If anyone would like to give me any more feedback on my updated design then that would be great.
I'm still not sure about the logo where it is at present. I might change it back and put it somewhere else. I'm still not sure about the PI logo either, I think perhaps I'm trying too hard to use the font I've used but again feedback on any of these things would be appreciated.
I've just spent a little while trying to make a header for my Trexi site. I've tried to keep with the theme of the 'police tape' style design of my trexi it's self and came up with this:
This past semester has been somewhat...different.
To begin the semester was our CSS beauty assignment. This required us to not only learn CSS but also learn about the history of it too. I found this one of the most difficult assignments to date mainly down to the fact that I had never used CSS before, only once previously for our summer assignment. Although I found the assignment very difficult I also found it to be very enjoyable as CSS is a very valuable tool to use in making websites.Below are 2 of my 3 trexi designs. My 3rd idea isn't as strong as these 2 (though I will be uploading it soon) but any feedback on these 2 for the moment would be appreciated.
This first idea uses the idea of some sort of tape surrounding my figurine. The yellow tape will contain some sort of text, though at the moment I've not decided on what.
For this idea I tried to keep away from my trexi being a character and used my design of 'spilt coffee'. From initial feedback it has been noted it looks more like a cow than spilt coffee and to recreate the idea of coffee on a computer could be a challenge but it is not a reason not to try.
As I said, 3rd idea to come shortly. Watch this space.
After spending the past few weeks looking at the National Occupational Standards it is clear that the differences between the 'industry professionals' and BTEC's standards are vast.
Before making any sort of comparison I feel it is important to firstly look at who is writing the Skillset standards. The majority of contributors are part of large companies (e.g Sky and Channel 4) and so perhaps their view of the industry and it's needs are somewhat distorted.
This is perhaps most obviously seen in IM11 which doesn't state 'designer' as a job role which would require you to know about copyright laws and intellectual property rights. This is most likely down to the fact that these big companies have huge in house design teams where as smaller companies with much smaller design teams can't afford to have so many different roles. A scenario which me are much more likely to face.
However BTEC are not perfect in their standards either, not by a long way. Due to the large amount of time since it's last update the BTEC syllabus is very outdated and in such a fast moving industry where the only real way to keep 'up to date' on goings on in is by using the Internet, a syllabus last updated 2 years ago (and most likely very minor changes at that) much of it is very, very dated.
The BTEC syllabus is also very long - 198 pages - which could be easily condensed. The reason that the BTEC syllabus is so long in comparison to the Skillset standards is mainly down to the fact that BTEC is purely academic and so means that certain goals and time frames should be set.
This brings up the question as to why Skillset does not include such measures in it's syllabus. This is Skillset's major let down, the fact that although they state what we are expected to know (or at least have an awareness of) they do not say as to what exact level (goals) or when we are expected to have learnt it by (time frames).
If Skillset were to implement these measures, especially some more specific goals, then it would give an even greater advantage to both educators and students than it currently does.
The big thing that needs to be looked at in both syllabuses (or syllabi dependent on your point of view) is the actual content that we 'must' learn. Obviously the Skillset standards are much less compulsory than BTEC's but never the less should be taken into consideration by educational institutes.
When comparing the two, the thing that jumps out at me the most is the technical aspect of the industry. BTEC offer very little in terms of technical units. Even learning something as valuable (and industry standard no matter where you work - almost) as CSS isn't compulsory so I suppose that a distinct lack of PHP, MySQL and databases is nothing to be shocked at.
Skillset on the other hand have a whole unit dedicated to coding scripts to 'provide functionality to interactive media products'.
BTEC of course faces a problem of it's own. Having to maintain an academic element to it's syllabus BTEC has to divide it's units between academic units as well as personal development work. This means that a lot of the units that Skillset recommend are unable to be implemented into the BTEC syllabus due to time been taken up by essays and such.
In an ideal world Skillset and BTEC would get together and come up with some sort of syllabus which took points from both syllabuses (again or syllabi) and made an academic/industry relevant one. But I can't see that day ever happening.
As it is, it is down to us (as students) to look at the skillset syllabus, decide what is relevent, and try and learn some of it ourselves in our own time instead of expecting everything to be given straight to us.
For all those wondering 'Who' or perhaps in some cases 'what' was that, my CD track listing from Wednesday was as follows (where possible I've added links to the iTunes store):
Let's Get Ready To Rhumble - PJ and Duncan
Everybody Hurts - R.E.M
War - Edwin Starr
Fixing A Hole - The Fray (Radio 2 - Sgt.Peppers 40th Anniversary)
The Worst Out Of You - The Freaks Union (First album unavailable on iTunes)
My Girl - The Temptations
Tendency - Battle
Eleanor Rigby - Thrice
Frontin' - Jamie Cullum
With A Medium Into Trance (Dropout Mix) - Pete Namlook and Pascal FEOS
Empty Rooms - Gary Moore
Connections Are More Dangerous Than Lies - The Ataris
Eanie Meanie - Jim Noir (It was used for the Adidas adverts not so long back too)
Lighthouse Keeper - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly
Run To The Hills - Iron Maiden
Feeling Good - Muse
I hope everyone enjoyed at least some of it, and hopefully someone found some new music to like (even if it was 'mainstream' according to Craig)
Blue and green are very natural colours. Green is of course the colour of plants and blue is of course the colour of the sky. If you look at a picture of the globe from space the most predominant colours you will see are also blue and green. Both colours are all around us and by using these colours in design it gives a much more natural look to your product be it a website or printed piece of work.
The blue-green combo is a valuable colour combination to use, and to ignore it would be a foolish mistake.
Of course if my word, and the powers of nature aren't enough to swing things for you, perhaps some industry professionals may change your mind. In a book published by Jakob Nielsen entitled 'Designing Web Usability' the front page of the book uses a blue and green colour scheme (see below)
As well as this Microsoft also use blue and green quite a lot in their programs. For starters the task bar on a XP PC has a green start button and the rest of the taskbar is blue. As well as this Windows Live messenger uses a blue 'buddy' and a green 'buddy'.
So with so many big companies using the blue-green combo, and with nature adopting it's own colour combination of the two, to turn down the use of blue and green seems quite a stupid thing to do,
It is the definative colour combination.
Below are some of the photos I took from the sculpture park. I've not had time to resize them properly so apologies for the large file sizes. Most are around 2MB so beware when viewing the large images. 
This turned out to be on of my favourite photo of the day. It was taken inside 'The Basket' and although by accident I really like how the grid is sharp and in focus yet the background behind it is blurred and fuzzy.
This was a picture of the famous 'skyspace' which I (ahem) 'love so much'. I actually quite like this image as it captures the clouds nicely in the window of light shining through. I think if I used this picture as a basis of a design then I would probably come up with quite a good design from it as the potential is endless. My first inital thought was some sort of CD cover.
And finally we have our famous shadow puppets photo. This was taken with Craig, myself and Scott all adopting random positions and taking photos of the results. Although I think Scott has some better pictures this was one of my favourites from my camera. The shadow on the right I actually think could be one of the sculptures but who knows.
I will upload more photos soon and host them from my website, link to follow shortly.
Today we visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and once again I began to wonder if we were artists or designers. Visiting a sculpture park seemed to suggest we were in fact 'artists' but my complete lack of understanding of any of the 'art' or sculptures at the park proved the fact I was a obviously a designer (or perhaps maybe just a very bad artist).
Walking for 2.5KM to visit a gallery with various pieces of work called 'sheep shit snowball' (literally) seemed to me to be a waste of time, and as the main galleries wouldn't allow for photographs to be taken inside them we decided to take our own pictures on the long trek back. I'll upload them soon.
After spending a just over an hour in the park our creative side began to come out however and we tried to create some of our own 'artwork'. This began simply with Craig and Scott kicking leaves to create lines in them showing the grass beneath. Though this sounds nothing special, neither does a wooden hut or a sculpture of a man when that is all that's said about it.
We then got the idea to create our own 'leaf angel' and as no one wanted to get dirty I decided to be the one to do it. Although it didn't turn out as well as planned, the idea was definitely there. Scott and Craig took some photos of it so hopefully they will post some on their blogs or send them to me to upload.
We then began messing around with our cameras, burying them in leaves, setting the timer and throwing them between us and spinning them around again whilst on timer. These pictures created some quite unique shots which do actually look quite good and could possibly be used for various design pieces (hopefully over the next few weeks)
We also began using our shadows to create pictures including us standing behind each other to make it just look like one person, and us basically being stupid sticking our arms out in weird ways and taking photos. Again these worked out quite well and again hopefully Craig and Scott will upload some of their pictures soon, as will I.
In the end I was thoroughly enjoying myself in the park, more so than on any of my previous visits, and was quite disappointed that we had to be back at college and would of happily continued to spend time in the park just being creative. As Scott quite rightly said 'It sometimes takes hours to be creative, it can take just a simple thing to set you off.
Oh, and I still don't understand the big fuss about the sky space sculpture - after my third time of viewing it.
