Friday December 6th

1. What are you most proud of on your product website? Explain what it is and why you are proud of that specific item. This could be a design, layout, image, navigation, etc.
2. Looking back on the website process and after seeing other students websites, what would you have done differently? Would you have spent more time on it? Mapped out the original idea better? Explain.
3. Thinking about just the "interaction" element of your website; meaning how the user interacts with the design and layout - where they click and how they navigate through the site. What did you do to make this easier on the user? What could you have done better to make the interaction of your site better? Explain.
4. Think back to all the websites you looked at yesterday in class, was there a website that stood out to your or was a favorite of yours (besides your own)? What made it good? Why was it your favorite. Explain.
5. If you were to give advice to future web design students about this project, what would you tell them? Why would you tell them that?

I am most proud of the fact that I finished my entire website on time with a lot of information on each page. I had a good amount of information and pictures on each page that I thought looked really well in the end. I also enjoyed my color scheme with the different color blocking. Overall, I am most proud of--if I had to pick something--was my small, medium, and large pages. I think the puppies for sale pictures I made were super cute and I loved the pages. I really did like my website and thought it was my best one yet.
I would have either put less information on each page or make less pages. Instead of 15 pages I had like 20+ and by the day it was due, I had to go back and delete some pages I did not finish because I had no time to complete them. I also would have made the references page first because going back and having to find each image on Google was time consuming and challenging.
All of my pages linked up with the right page and the navigation was big and on the top for easy access for the customers. Also my footer had a navigation bar so users could go to the top or bottom of the page to link up to new pages. I could have added other places to click on on my website. You could only click on the navigation bar and the two click here buttons for job applications. I should have linked up my pictures with stuff and linked the companies I mentioned in my website with their home website.
I really enjoyed Daniel's website. I loved his shop now page on the home page (that you made). I also enjoyed how the bottom of his website stayed the same, not just the footer but some pictures. I also really liked Frankie's. His was overall just a really good designed website and looks like one that would actually be used online by a shoe company.
The advice I would give to future web design kids is: DO THE REFERENCES PAGE THROUGH OUT YOUR WEBSITE. It is so challenging going back and finding ever single picture that I used off of different sites so just copy and paste the link right as you get the photo. It will help so much and save so much time. 

Monday December 2nd

Journal - Reflect on your product website so far. What have you learned? What do you like about your website? What have you found frustrating? What do you wish you knew before you started? Go in to detail about the learning process as you have built this site.

So far, I really like my website. I think the layout with the color blocking looks really well and I think it could be one of the best websites I will make. I have learned the ins and outs about tables and how helpful they are. I learned how to make tables within tables within tables to create different spaces and places for text and pictures. I also learned how to make a good navigation bar like on real websites. I wish I would have known that I did not need as many pages as I am making because I am making so many pages. 

Thursday October 31st

Journal - Tell me about the color scheme of your product website? What is it? Why did you choose these colors? How do these color relate to your target market and audience? How do the colors relate to the product? What plans do you have to make these colors work for your site?

My color scheme is full of blue's, green's yellow, red, and orange. I choose these colors because when I think of puppies, I think of bright and fun colors that everyone loves--just like puppies. These colors relate to my target audience because once again, they are fun bright colors and make people happy like puppies do. Puppies make you cheerful and happy just like these bright and fun colors! My plan for these colors is to use them as accent colors. My text will be black and my backgrounds behind the text will most likely be white. I plan to use these colors on my navigation bar, pictures, and other alternate things on my website. 

Monday October 28

Journal – what did you choose for your product website? What is your idea behind the site? Describe your site in a paragraph.

The product I choose to sell is puppies. I am selling all different breeds of puppies; but only puppies. You will be able to choose the type of puppy you want ranging from breed, size, color, and sex. You will also be given a brief description of the puppies attitude such as if they are high maintenance. You will also be given a record of all the training they have had--if they are potty trained, can sit, stay, go on walks well, and more. 

Monday October 21

Journal - What have you learned about copyrights when it comes to web design and images this semester? Why is it important to give credit where credit is due (even if it is a lot of work)?

What I learned about copyrights this semester is every picture has different rights. Some pictures have all rights reserved meaning we are not allowed to use them without siting where we got them from. Some have some rights reserved so we may use them. Others have no rights reserved meaning we can use them as well. Websites such as Flickr and Google have special searching tools to look for pictures that only have few rights reserved so people can use them.

It is important to credit where you got the picture from because if you don't: one- it is against the law and you could be sued for stealing someone else's work; two- it is not your picture, someone else took it, so you should give them credit for doing so. 

Tuesday October 8

Journal - Tell me about your Homecoming weekend (whether you went to the activities or not!). Tell me about what you did over the weekend.

Friday I went to school but had to leave early for the parade. I was apart of the parade on the senior homecoming float as a mime for the circus theme with a two of my close friends. After that, my friends and I went back to my house and got ready for the football game. Sadly we lost the game but I still had a good time. After the game, I went home to get some beauty sleep.

Saturday I had to play in my soccer game at 9:00 a.m.; it was freezing but we won so it was okay. After my game, my bff Lauren and I went to Jose Peppers and got some lunch then after went to get my spray tan done. After my tan, we came back to my house, painted our nails, then started getting ready. Lauren and my dates came and picked us up from my house and we all went to pictures together. We had around 40 people in our group. After pictures, we went to dinner at Fugo de Chaio. After dinner, we went to the dance then our after party after that. 

Sunday morning I had another soccer game at 9:00 a.m.; again, it was freezing and we lost so it was terrible. After my game, I came home slept, ate, and did homework. My brother came home from college around 5:00 for his birthday and we went to dinner as a family at Cheesecake Factory. After that, I came home and went to bed. 

Monday October 7

Journal - Go Google "website wireframe". What do you find? Look at images and web content. What is a wireframe? How can a wireframe be helpful and give you ideas when creating and designing a website?

I found a bunch of different website layouts; templates for different websites.  Some of the layouts are hand drawn on paper and others are customized on the computer. On the links that pop up, the first is Wikipedia (of course). Wikipedia's definition of a website wireframe is "A website wireframe, also known as a page schematic or screen blueprint, is a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website." My definition of a wire frame is a template visual of the type of website you are wanting to create. 

A wireframe can be helpful by letting you map out each step of the process so you are not just winging it. You can get caught up and confused over all of the different parts of making a website and you can have so many ideas and lose them all if you do not write it down. Wireframe is very helpful for website creators or even students like us creating websites that we have no idea on how to do. 

Thursday September 19

Journal - What kind of knowledge do you have in photo editing programs? Do you know how to use Photoshop? Fireworks? Or how about online programs such as Pixlr or Sumo Paint? How do you edit photos or create images? Explain.

I have know a decent amount about photo editing programs. In middle school when I did not have an iPhone, I used to send my pictures to Photobucket, save them to my computer, edit them on Picnic, and add them to Facebook. I used to use Picnic on almost all of my pictures back before I got a smart phone. Now that I have an iPhone, I edit all of my pictures on different editing apps such as PicCollage, PicFX, Instagram, Twitter, and just on my camera. When ever I am adding a picture to Instagram, I always edit it first to make it a different effect or better looking then add it. Now when I add picutres to Facebook, I do not edit all of them because I add so many it would take forever to edit all of them and same goes to Twitter. For some reason, it is only Instagram that I edit for.

I have used Photoshop before but not extensively because I see no point to using other photo editors on computers if I can just edit them on my phone. I have never heard of Fireworks, Pixlr, or Sumo Panit therefore I have also never used them or heard of any of my friends using them. 

Monday September 16

Journal - Tell me about your weekend. Where did you go? What did you do?

This weekend I did not do too much. Friday night I drove up to Baker University to see my boyfriend and we hung out there with some of this friends. Saturday during the day, I just hung out at home with my friend Lauren and my sister Hailey. Saturday night, I went to the Flatlands concert to see Toby Keith, Kelli Pickler, and Miranda Lambert sing with my boyfriend, parents, aunt, and uncle. Sunday, I again stayed around the house and did some homework, cleaned my room, did laundry, and watched TV. Sunday night, I had a soccer game at 6:30; my team won that game even though we had one sub, it was raining, and it was dark because they could not figure out how to turn the lights on. After my game, I went home, showered, got ready for bed, and went to bed.

Friday September 13

Journal - What are some things that you have wished you could do in Dreamweaver that you haven't been able to do? What do you want to learn how to do when making a website? Explain.

The main thing I wish I could do in Dreamweaver is be able to put the pictures where ever I want. I want to be able to turn the image or put it where I want. I also wish to do the same for text. I wish I could make small texts boxes and put them where I want. I also wish that I did not have to go and hand link everything back to the home page. There should be an easier way to do it. I want to learn how to make a website like Twitter or Facebook or Yahoo. Those websites are good and easy websites to make. They allow you to do what you want on it which I like. 

Monday September 9th

Journal - What makes a website “user friendly”? Elaborate on your answer.

A "user friendly" website is a website that is easy to navigate. It does not take thirty clicks to get to one thing. You click on--lets say "home"--and it takes you to the home page. That is it. No non-needed extra clicking that is hard to remember even how you got there. Another characteristic of a user friendly website is the font is legible and does  not clash with the background that makes it hard to read. You should be able to read it from a normal distance away, like how one sits at a computer, without having to get super close to the screen to tell what it says. A user friendly website how pictures describing what it is talking about; not paragraphs on paragraphs that are too long to understand the full content. The website should also be fun and creative--not boring, one-color, plain page. A user friendly website should be fun, have easy to read content, easy to locate different pages, pictures, and be easy on the eye--no bright, neon colors that distract from the reading. 

Tuesday September 3

Journal - List all the different file types you can think of. What types of files and images do you think are best for a website? What do you know about copyrights? How do you avoid using copyrighted images?

Copyrights are rights that are granted to its owner stating that you can not copy this because it is not yours. If someone has copyrights over a website than you could not go in and copy their website and use there information. If you use it, you must give credit to who and where you got it from. You can avoid using copyright images by giving credit where credit is due to the place you got the image-either through a hyperlink or writing down the URL. 



I only know two files types: .jpg and .pdf. I have no clue what the best type of file or image is for a website; I know slim to no information about file types. But since I only know two types of files, I could assume those two would be the best for a website simply because they must be common if I know them since I am no file expert or computer wiz. 

Thursday August 29

Journal - What have you learned about making a website so far? What has been easy about it and what has been frustrating? Explain.

I have learned that making a website is a lot more complicated than I thought. I thought I could just go in, add text where in a million cute fonts, put pictures up all over and scattered around, and make it really cute and how I want it. But you can't. You can still make it cute and your own, it is just so much harder than I thought it would be. I almost thought it would be exactly like word or power point, and I wish so bad that it was, but it's not. Also, I did not know to add a page or link that it was that complex and tedious of task. What is easy about making a website it that after a while, all the steps become natural and you remember what step comes first and how to do each one. It's just getting there and learning that is the hard part. Also, making a hyper link now is super easy and I feel like the hyper link queen. The most frustrating part of a website is not being able to put your text and pictures in the places you want all pretty, curved, tilted and more. I do not get why I can't do it but I can't and it is so annoying. Also, choosing a color pallet is frustrating. I know what colors I like and what colors look good but it makes me nervous that it looks bad or the colors look bad paired together. 

Monday August 26

 Journal - Tell me if you agree with this statement and then explain why or why not. "Images on the internet are 'free game' - if someone posted I should be able to use it."

I agree to this statement to an extent. If you find the picture on Google, such as you find a picture of an ocean when you type in ocean on Google, then you should be able to use it. Why not? I however do not agree with different types of pictures like peoples personal photos. You should not be able to steal and use a picture of a random girl you found on Twitter as your picture in a presentation. But the problem with that is, you don't have choice if someone wants to use your picture and in the end, it's your own fault. It is your fault because you're the one who put your personal pictures online and even if you don't want your picture used, it's no longer your choice. If you don't want your picture that you put up online to be used, then do not put it online. Whatever you put online is no open to the public and is open for others uses. Now if you put a photo up on your private Facebook account that only your friends can see and you see your picture on a friend's power point, I think it is wrong of your friend to do but once again, it's your fault for putting it up online and allowing people to see. You have to be okay with your photos being used by others if you put them up online. After they're up, it's anyone's game. Though I don't feel like your photos should be "free game" for anyone to use, but they are. That person should give the photo credit for where they find it, but hardly any one does, which is illegal by the way; all you can be is careful of what you put on. 

Thursday, August 22

Journal - What do you know about plagiarism? What do you know about plagiarism on the internet? How do web design, the internet and plagiarism all effect each other? Explain.

Plagiarism is taking someone else's work, copying it, and using it as if it was your own words. You could say there is different forms of plagiarism. One would be copying and pasting it exactly as another person writing it and only changing the name to your own. Another would be taking most of it, changing a few words, and saying it is original when clearly it's not; changing the word talked to discussed does not count as making it your own work. You stole some else's idea and attempted to make it your own without any thought into it. Plagiarism is not looking at your friends idea and writing something completely different but about the same idea. That is just called helping out a friend. Just because they thought of the idea does not make it copying if you just use the idea, not the words. That just means it's a great idea.
Plagiarism on the internet is a lot more common and easier than other types of plagiarism. Copying someone else's paper on the internet requires you to copy and paste. That's it. Really simple. A person can copy anything on the internet with a few clicks of the mouse and that's why it is a lot more common and why it's the most known form of plagiarism. Though it is done quit frequently, there have been ways made to tell if your work is plagiarized or not. Teachers use Turnitin.com to see if their students copied and pasted there essays.
Web design., the internet, and plagiarism have a lot in common. We get on the internet everyday and write essays, journals, etc so plagiarism might me more common in a class that we use the computer everyday in rather than in a government or art class. Plagiarism is the easy way out for most students but that does not mean they should do it. If you plagiarize, you have a big chance of being caught with the technology we have today. Don't cheat. Do it yourself. If you're stuck, as a friend or parent, don't steal someone else's hard work that they put a lot of effort into and call it your own.

Tuesday, August 20

Journal - After watching the short clip of Ashton Kutcher's acceptance speech what did you take away from his advice? What does this quote mean to you -"Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use."

                What I took away from Ashton’s speech was that you would never think someone like Ashton would say the things that he did. What he said was very inspiring and compelling but who knew a great looking, multimillion dollar actor would be saying that being smart is the sexiest thing out there; but he is true. Everyone can be smart; some people are naturally, some must work very hard to be smart, and others see themselves as not smart even though they can be. Smartness comes from the work you put in and what you’re willing to do to obtain that knowledge. Everyone and I mean everyone has to work to be smart, even the naturally smart kids have to work.

To me, Ashton’s quote means that being smart and learning is what can change the world and make it better. Those people who choose to use their brains for a good use are the people that keep this world running. Everyone can be one of those people if they set their minds to it and work at it. It might be hard but you can do it; even if you think you can’t, trust me, you can. We all come from different places, some may have it easier than others and some have to work extremely hard each day to get by but that doesn't matter in the sense of becoming smart. We all are different. We come from different places. We all have are struggles. But we all have a common denominator. We all have an innate sense of smartness in each of us; it just depends on how we want to use that smartness whether for ourselves or for others and how far we are willing to go to become smarter each and every day.