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.
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                      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.