Friday, December 6th

Write a detailed journal entry reflecting your product website.

           I'm most proud of the layout of my website. I believe it is very eye pleasing and it doesn't make your eyes move to much. I also like it because it's simple yet complex at the same time. It took me the most time but it turned out very nice. Plus, since its the structure of the website, it really holds the webpages together.
          I think I would have taken more time on the concept of the website. I look around and everyone has all these cool ideas with salons, or pet shops and I did a clothing website. I wish I would've taken more time to think about my website instead of jumping right into the designing process. I still think I pulled it off I just think I would've done better with a different idea.
           To make it easier for the user to navigate, not only did I have links in my navigation bar, but also in my footer. I know personally I find it a lazy pain to go all the way to the top of the page to navigate to another page, this way, they can get to the main pages without scrolling back to the top. I also added areas where on the main pages, they could get to the semi pages (I had a Sweater Weather page with links to Sweatshirts and Hoodies).
            I wasn't here yesterday but just looking around me I know which one would be my favorite. I think the nail salon one is fantastic. The colors are vibrant and easy on the eyes. The concept is great too. Another reason it was my favorite was because I could relate to it in real life situations. Also, she was adding links to make it super easy to navigate.
            I would tell them to make sure they:
                      1. Don't have more than one template. It gets really complicated especially since you're only                             supposed to have one template.
            and
                      2. Make sure you take your time on the idea of the website. You want to make sure that                                   you're completely satisfied with your idea or else you'll either have to start over or live with                           it.

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.

               I learned how to make a template in DreamWeaver (DW). I also learned how to make an object circular in FireWorks (FW). I like that I incorporated everything we've done this year into the site. I have what we did with the travel website, I have links, and all that jazz. What I've found frustrating is, that one time, I accidentally changed something that wasn't on the template and it made it into another template. I wish I knew how to make a slideshow in DreamWeaver before we started so I wouldn't have this big open space on the index page the whole way through. 
             Well first we had to build a template so we learned how to do that, or at least how to save a template. Then for some of my items I had to learn how to make a circular item on FW. It was kind of hard to build a template yet at the same time easy. Mrs. Scheuerman was right next to me showing me how to do it so it wasn't that difficult. It was kind of difficult to make an item circle because I wanted it to be transparent but it kept getting a white background. I finally figured out you had to click on the circle and make sure that it was still transparent whenever you save it. If you work on anything else, it will automatically go back to a white background.    

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 for my product website is a light purple (#6F68C2), a bright purple (#8D5F8E), a light blue (#5D8AB9), a blue (#29227E), and a grayish-white (#DFDFDF). I chose these colors because they worked well together. It relates to my target audience because most of the bands colors are on the Cold part of the color wheel. The colors relate to the product because it makes the product pop in front of the background. I plan to incorporate these colors into my whole website to make these colors work for my website.

Monday, October 21st

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)?

       I've learned that you cannot just take an image and cite it if it has the copyright sign. I've learned that you can filter out pictures that you can't use and get pictures you're allowed to use. 

Tuesday, October 8th

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

                      My homecoming weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday I hung out with one of my friends, Grace, and we went to Starbucks. After that, we went to the football game and hung out with a lot of our friends. I played Pokemon at half time on my friend Connor's phone while he tried to unlock my phone. We left after half time though because our parents didn't want to get stuck in the rain. On Saturday, I woke up early and got to school at eight because I was helping set up homecoming. It was a lot of fun setting up and we all got bagels/donuts and juice. After we got done, I went to my dads work to help him with the computer. Around 4:30, I started getting ready for homecoming. I got done at 5:45ish and my friend Arlo got to my house at 6. We went over to Greg's house and took pictures and then went to Cheesecake Factory. We stayed there until 9:30 then went to the dance. The dance was so fun! I had a lot of fun just hanging out with my friends. I got home around 1 because Arlo lives in Lawrence so we had to drop him off. On Sunday, I went to and stayed there until 11. Then at 1 I went to Johnson's Farm and we got pumpkins and some vegetables. My family and I went through the corn maze and I was the only one to make it all the way through. That's what my homecoming weekend consisted of. 

Monday, October 7th

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?

A website wireframe is a blueprint for a website. It plans what the website is going to look like and what is going to be on or in the website. It makes sure you organize your ideas into one section and it helps you see how you want to design your website. It also helps you plan what you want your website to look like. 

Monday, September 23rd

Journal - What three cities did you choose for your travel website? Why did you choose these cities? Explain.

                     The three cities I chose for my travel website were Florence, Galway, and Sydney. I chose Florence, Italy because I love art and they have a lot of art from the renaissance. They also have beautiful scenery and I absolutely love Italian food so I want to get authentic food. I chose Galway, Ireland because it has rolling green country sides and castles. Also because the college that I may potentially attend is there. Finally, I would like to go to Sydney, Australia because it's a beautiful city and I love hot weather. I've always wanted to go down under and now that I'm older we're looking at colleges. I may be going there next summer or the summer after that to look at a college there(UNSW) since my grandparents want me to be prepared and make sure I like it there.    

Thursday, September 19th

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 know what photo editing programs are and I know how to do the basics like changing the colors, cutting out a background but that's really all. I know how to edit a picture on my phone and make it look really cool too. I have no idea how to use Photoshop. My dad tried to teach me one time but I got really confused and couldn't remember anything within the next minute. I don't know what Fireworks is to be honest. I've heard of it but I've never actually seen it.  I know how to use Pixlr because I had to do a school project and I used that to help me. I've never used or even heard of Sumo Paint. I usually just edit photos on my phone using apps because it's easier for me. I know how to add backgrounds to images, merge to images together, and change the picture and properties completely. There's an app called Photo Merger and you just take as many photos as you want and you can merge them together. There's another app that I can't remember the name but you can cut out a background and then replace it with another. There's lots of apps where you can change the color of picture simply by pressing a button. Then there's the Morphed app which you can change the properties of a photo to make it look either weird or cool. 

Monday, September 16th

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

                 This weekend I had an ice cream social, homecoming float planning, photo shoot, and dance. On Friday after school I went to my dads business and we had a big ice cream social. I helped serve the ice cream and by the end of the night, we went through five eight-pint cartons of ice cream and I didn't get any(sadly). On Saturday, I had dance practice for a big competition coming up in Orlando, Florida. So we've been practicing tons on my solo and group routines. On Sunday, I had Grace come over to my house for about an hour then we went over to Jeremy Jacob's house to start building our homecoming float. We started getting all the props ready for it but that's really all. Right after that, I had photo shoot with Mr. Arlund and so we went straight to that. My weekend was pretty busy but I had a lot of fun. 

Friday, September 13th

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.

                      In Dreamweaver, I wish I could put pictures where I wanted to put them instead of not being able to angle them or anything. I want to learn how to put the pictures where I want them in a website. I don't like it when all the picture are above or below the text. I want to be able to put them where I want them to be. 

Monday, September 9th

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

           A user friendly website is easy navigable, easy to read, and understandable. A user friendly website needs to be easy navigable or else your viewer can't see your site. If they can't see the different pages of your site then they aren't going to want to stay on your website. It also has to be easy to read. You need a background that isn't going to blind the readers. The same goes for the text. Not only does the reader need to be able to read it but it also shouldn't be in crazy colors. The final thing is it needs to be understandable. If the reader doesn't know what the website is about, then they're most likely going to leave your site. You need to make sure you stay on your topic throughout the whole website. If your webpage is easily navigated, easy to read, and understandable; then I believe your website is user friendly.     

Tuesday, September 3rd

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?

                  The only file types I can think of at the time are PDFS and GIFS. I think PDF and images that go along with the PDF are best for websites.  Sometimes GIFS can be cool on a website but sometimes they're pretty lame. I know copyrights are when someone owns an image and you can't use it. You can avoid using copyrighted images by using your own photos or finding a picture without a watermark or © symbol. If you're on a microsoft program, most have clipart which you can take without giving credit for. 

Thursday, August 29th

Journal - What have you learned about making a website so far? What has been easy about it and what has been frustrating? Explain.
                     Iv'e learned about making a website how to change a background, place tables, and enter links. I think the easiest part has been putting a background on a page. It's really simple and I feel like almost anyone can do it. I also think entering a link is pretty easy. I think its easy because its just a matter of copying and pasting a URL. The most frustrating thing is definitely not being able to change one page and have it do the same to the next. An example is whenever you change the background it only changes on one page and not the rest. I understand why its that way but it still takes more time than it should.  

Monday, August 26th

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 do not agree with that statement, "Images on the internet are 'free game' - if someone posted I should be able to use it." I don't agree with it because the person who took or created the picture should get credit for it. I think that they took their talents and made an effort to create something so they should have the credit. I think its okay for you to use it but I think they should also be cited. It's fine to use their pictures as long as you put them in your citing or else you're just stealing their pictures. 

Thursday, August 22nd

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 whenever you copy someones work without giving them credit. You can get in a lot of trouble for doing it. I know that if you get caught doing it you will get in a lot of trouble. You could get fined or even go to jail. I know that if you copy someones exact words it's plagiarism.   
                I know that on the internet a lot of people just copy and paste and don't give credit. An example being someone who doesn't get their summary for a book done, they could just copy it done off of the internet. It's really easy just to accidentally plagiarize with the internet too. You could just be researching something and find something interesting. If you copy the writers exact words, that's plagiarizing. Even if you change a couple of words in every sentence it's plagiarizing  You need to write something in your own words for it not to be considered plagiarism.    
               Web design, the internet, and plagiarism all effect each other because on the internet someone designs a web page that has amazing writing, and someone could plagiarizer it. If I were to design a webpage that has my daily life on it and someone was making a journal for school, they could easily steal my work without giving me credit because that's how the internet works. Now, teachers have programs where they can check if you plagiarized something so someone can't get away with it.     

Tuesday, August 20th

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."

              From Ashton Kutchers acceptance speech I took away his first two sayings. One, seeing opportunity. If you don’t take opportunity then you aren’t going to go anywhere in life. You have to take chances when opportunity comes. Two, being sexy. Being sexy is to be smart and I agree with that. There is nothing more attractive than someone who knows what he’s saying. I like to hold conversations with people and not end a conversation with, “kay.” The quote,  "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, “ means to me that just because someone already did one influential thing, doesn’t mean you can’t do another. We influence the world everyday with our thoughts, behaviors, and acts. We should build our own generosity so that people can use it too. Ashton Kutcher’s acceptance speech was touching and made me a strong believer of him once again.