Sunday, 15 September 2013

Reflection

So basically I have learnt that the web is intricate and really rather frustrating. But in all seriousness, I really enjoyed learning how to build my own webpage and how the internet actually functions. Looking at the basic code that we learnt and comparing it to the source codes behind webpages like twitter I cant understand how some people have the patience to deal with the frustrations that come from making one tiny mistake. I know it isn't just one person creating the pages, but man.. 

I do really look forward to continuing on with this though and will enjoy it a lot more when I have enough knowledge to deal with the little mistakes I made and how to fix things when they wont do as they are told or sit where they are supposed to on the page. Even though I find it fries my brain trying to fix the tiniest problems, I will definitely continue on with the class and learn all I can. With the web being such a major part of our society and even more of our future I believe it an important skill to know and to be able to build on especially in the industry of Graphic Design into which I want to enter 

Menus and Videos to make that webpage the most awesome ever

This week we learned about new formats of menus and how to embed videos into our code.
Firstly we went about changing the basic layout of the top menu which goes horizontally across the page allowing the user to choose which page they want to view.

We used a pre-made CSS code from CSS Max Design and as our menu goes across the page we obviously went with a horizontal code.

By copying this CSS directly into our own code we could simply alter some of the settings to get the desired layout. So that's one of the most basic menu layouts, but we also learnt about Sprite Menus.

A sprite menu is an effective way to make a button change when you hover your cursor over it. 
Instead of this being difficult and having two different images in the CSS to change between, a sprite menu works with one image and changes the position of the image within the 'window' through which you see it.


We created the layout for our button using Photoshop. It can be done simply by creating 4 squares and changing them to suit. 
So if your button is 100px wide and 80px high you need to create a square that is 200px wide and 160px high to accommodate the other 3 squares

After designing out menu layout we used the Menu of Awesomeness for the Sprite menu CSS and tested this in a new HTML and CSS file (not our website layout as this menu was just for a practice) and after making sure the HTML and CSS were linked (by changing the background colour) we then added the new CSS info that we downloaded from the menu of awesomeness. After this was added we went through and changed the settings to achieve our own style and info. 
This included adding our own sprite menu image into the CSS and changing things like the hover to suit our own measurements. For example the hover needs the image to go up and across for the change to be in the right spot, so the hover needs to be changed to -100px, -80px;

Now onto the video embedding, when using video or YouTube they both have a share button. Once there it has an embed option and gives you the code to add to your CSS

Easy peezy

Also, if you wish to see this

Yeeeeaaaa


Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Image Optimization among other things

This week we have been playing around with our website build. 
I chose to design a jewelry website and showcase designers and their jewelry.  Firstly we drew up and designed a sketch of what layout we wanted our website to form. We were following the layout that Philippa has supplied with the Evolve mock up but we could change it around slightly to fit our content. 
So we started building it by using the HTML from the Evoke website that we had already created in the last few weeks and linked a new CSS file to this new HTML file using the <link href="css/goodasgoldstyle.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

 We then reset the margins to zero using the universal tag (in css)
*{ margins:0;
border:0;
padding:0;
}

To ensure that the CSS has linked correctly you can add a background colour and test it on the browser

body{ background-color:#333;
}

I learnt quickly that you don't need a hash in front of the body tag as it is a natural CSS tag. With the # it doesn't work.

Next, we added all our div names onto the CSS 
ie. #container{
#sectionOne{

This ids are what i have given them and the CSS doesn't recognize them, so they need a # to reference that particular part of the HTML.


We then took our chosen images into Photoshop and adjusted them to the correct sizes needed to fit into the sections we laid out.

Using the slice took or image size adjustment I changed my images to suit. I also used the content aware took to widen some images so they sat nicely on the page. 

We then saved these files for web. 
By doing this it allows you to choose how you optimize your image. You can change the resolution and also adjust the way the file is saved, all while showing you how many pixels it will require to save in that way. 
The choices are  gif, jpeg or png

These need to be saved into the same place as our HTML index and CSS
I created a separate folder for the CSS and the Images to keep them tidy and away from my HTML files.


  To add the images into the HTML you need to select into the correct div and use the tage <img src="folder/pathtoimg" />

But you can also add the folder into the CSS file instead of the HTML 

#backgroundimage{
background-img: pathtoimg;}

 Positioning the images in the CSS you need to adjust the position etc
#socialMedia{
position:relative;
top:60px;
left:60px;
}

using positive numbers will move the image down, and using negatives will move the image up. 


If the image isn't sitting right in the box under the sectionOne closing tag in the CSS create another tag called #sectionOne img{ and change the settings}
I also had trouble with text and image within the same div, and found i had to separately adjust the p tag for it to work correctly and be able to adjust the padding without it changing the positioning of the image also.
We also started work on our second page which i called 'about'
To do this we copied the original index.html file and paste the copy into the same folder just renamed about.html

This then needs to be checked to ensure it still links into the same CSS file (which it should because its identical to the other file) and this can be done by simply opening the about.html file into the browser and it should be the same as the index.html file. 

Next we started dealing with the problem of the menu, beginning with the top menu and ignoring the bottom menu.

In our <ul> tags we needed to add anchors to link the page with where it needs to go. 

<div id="menu"><ul id="navlist">
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Showcase</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Designers</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>

</ul>
</div> <!--end of menu-->

Linking the home button to the index page will bring the user back to the main page, and the # are there until the new pages for the other links have been created. 

Finally at the end of class we started editing in and out the content on the about page to suit the design which we had created. 

Yay, almost there. Getting one thing wrong is thoroughly frustrating but I'm slowly learning what I can do to change things. Two more weeks!!




Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Deesign of the interface

This week we learnt about the visual design process and principles when it comes to designing a web page. 
Research! This is obviously the first step. You cant create something amazing without looking at whats out on the market and whats new and hip.
Making concept sketches, developing a few of those concepts that you find work the best and present those 1 or 2 finals to the client to choose from. Giving the client too much to decide between can result in a monstrous web page with terrible design.

We also went over the different ways of finding a good layout for content and overall structure of the web page

  • Card sort
      • This is making cutouts for each piece of information that is needed to be on the page and playing around with them for layout and positioning on the page.
  • Wire frame
      • Get an online wire frame layout and then put content on there to see layout options
  • Paper Prototype
      • Making a paper prototype of the website to see if its working correctly. By 'clicking' on a link you can ensure that its travelling to the correct page. Cheeaaappp to make.
  • Clickable Prototype
      • Online tool of a plain background with clickable buttons to test the page and links are working correctly. 
Homepages are usually the first to be designed with a main theme and only a couple of variations are made as explained above to present to the client. But involving the client in the design of the web page gives them a feeling that they have contributed to it and personalising it for them. A client who hasn't had much input in the design might feel it doesn't speak the correct message or feels impersonal. 

Using Template Designs  can save a lot of time and money by not having to redesign each page. Only the key pages are designed such as the Home page and Blog page.

Philippa also went over the concept of Skeuomorphism which is the idea of making buttons and web pages more user friendly by making items look like actual objects.
ie. apple making the notepad look like an actual notepad or some web pages have coffee stains and stickers on them 



The Design Principles

  • Dominance
      • The heirachy of the page and its content
  • Directional Line
      • The direction in which the eye follows ie. using a person pointing in an image to direct the eye towards a certain place
  • Contrast
      • Difference ie. colour, hue, texture
  • Consistency
      • To make viewer feel as though still on same site even when many pages in
  • Repetition
      • Repeating things for usability and to keep viewer comfortable
Usability is a biggie. How usable is the website for the viewers?
The points for this are
      • Learnability
      • Efficiency
      • Memorability
      • Errors
      • Satisfaction
Using these ideas we went on to redesign a web page with a theme of our choice from a basic structure which Philippa provided. We will be continuing on with it next week and actually building it in HTML



Wish me luck