Portfolio - Delivery Requirements

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.

Compilation Tracklist Version 2

1. First Album - Machine gun - Sum 41
2. Cover version - Gold digger - The Automatic
3. World/Traditional/Folk - Fields of Athenry (Live) - Charlie and the bhoys
4. Pop - Five Megamix - Five
5. Classical/Opera - Por ti sere - Paul Potts
6. Rock - Pledge of allegiance - Louis XIV
7. Personal choice - Patience - Ruarri Joseph
   
8. Rap/Hip-hop/Electro - We are rockstars - Does it offend you, yeah?
9. TV/Movie/Musical - Hundred mile high city - Ocean colour scene
10. Local - Save me (Live at Leeds) - Embrace
11. Dance/Electronica - Breathe out - Pete Namlook and Pascal FEOS
12. Last album - Sea legs - The Shins

Portfolio Website - Target Audience Profile

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).

Assesment of Current PHP Skill Level - Moved

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.

Portfolio Website Goals

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.