Criterion A- Research and Investigation

Our new unit is called "websites". For our product, we have to create an individual website on a topic that we chose. It needs to contain various avigations and informations. The topic should be something that one should be interested in.

This unit/project is most definitely important in society. As society is developing side by side with technology, it is crucial for us, the generation with developing technology, to have a firm grasp upon the modern trend of technology. This of course includes website designing. Websites are one of the most popular resources to research. Nowadays, it is used for even more various purposes such as shopping, calling (telephoning), conferences, entertainment, and even educational purposes. Websites are an inevitable part of our life no matter what, and it is extremely important for us to learn how to use them as well as make them. By learning to use and make the websites, it will facilitate our lives greatly, enabling us with more various options of activites such as learning, shopping, etc. Therefore, it not only holds a temporary value of being able to have other options, but as society is becoming more dependent upon the cyber world and the internet, it will give us a productive long-term effect. It also aloows us to follow the trend of modern society.

One of the phases that we were introduced was to go to thinkquest.org and look at different student-made websites about random topics. We had to then explore different websites they have made and pick one that was most appealing to me in a design standpoint. The most appealing website for me was the leadership page (http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/02289/). I thought that the website seemed very smooth, while very clean and organized. They did not insert any pictures that looked cheap (unlike the chocolate website)and it seemed easy to navigate. I also like how they had the intro video on the hompage but did not make it automatically start, because I never watch the videos and think they're annoying. Furthermore, it didn't take a long time to load despite it being quite colorful. I also thought the inserting-your-name when you went to the site was interesting. however, I thought it was a little unnecessary, but because it didn't take a long time, it was excusable. The colors they used and the targeted audience fit quite well too.

There were some website topics that seemed interesting while others weren't. I thought that chocolate, portable stuff (cellphones and games), and leadership were interesting topics, while topics such as "save the rainforests", "Amazonia: Endangered Beauty" didn't even make me want to visit the website. Again, the leadership site was interesting too. It had a lot of content in different media (games, videos, text) and so it did not bore me out immediately. It was a very interactive website, which i think was appropriate for the audience the website designers targeted. The content itself was also interesting. THe reason I believe I am not interesting in the websites related with amazon or rainforests is because of personal taste (in my opinion) since i'm really not into "save the nature" schemes.

Week 2
what designs scare you-
I think I can relate to almost all of the comments on this article. I most especially agree with "automatic video" and "Red...". i am especially annoyed by the automatic video features in several websites, even more than normal people would because we have such a slow internet connection in Mongolia that if there is an automatic video website, the internet browser would just freeze and I'd get frusttrated. I also could relate to the "red" article. Red is the color that excites, while tires one's eyes. It is very annoying to have a red background, especially if it is bright beight red. For me, it not only applies to red, but any other color that is heavily bright to hurt my eyes. I also do not want the blue website links, because not does it only hurt my eyes, but it makes the website look so cheap. I am not so sure on the black text though, because I like it in the sense that it is simple. I also could agree with other comments, such as disliking websites that have an automatic advertisement or audio with weird and repetitive music. It is just pointless, and because of the sound it creates, I naturally turn my speakers off if i ever have to visit again (which were very few out of the millions) or not go back at all. I also agree with PerAb's statement about the animated images and navigations, because that was what made the "chocolate" website look cheap.


Accessibility-
I most definitely agree with the "Website navigation", It was basically tips on what is a good website navigation. It said that it needed to be simple and accessible while having a good bread-crumb trail. Also, it is best to have a common layout that is accepted by most people.

"content accessibility" is basically about tips of content of a websie, in general terms. It basically says you should consider various audience with different needs or handicaps (such as deaf people, color-blind people, etc). Also, it said that you shouldn't use different colors for emphasis, but rather add a * or sth like tht.

I honestly did not understand much from "Logical Style". I was jsut recently introduced to HTML by Ms.Wilson, and I do not understand the concept of logical and presentational elements. But if there was anything that i understood, it was the last part of the article that said each browser has different formats, so rather than saying "bold", saying "strong" would be more effective because a website can be an audio webpage.

I thought that "Testing your pages" was much more easier. Even though I didn't understand it completely, I believe the main point it tried to say was to consider your webpage for different and different versions of browsers. So do not make it super high tech, and have the resolution set so that you wouldn't have to scroll sideways. Also, the hand-code might contain various errors, so have it checked with a software.

"10 Bad things" was quite intersting. I do agree with many of it, such as "page under construction" or "slow webpage". I thought the progressive downloading idea was really interesting and a good idea for a big webpage. But i don't necessarily agree with the part of the updates. i mean, for me, I go to webpages to just get information, not to get updates or new information. But maybe i'm not very involved in the cyber world.

All I understood from the next article was that the web designers musut consider different webbrowsers for different people. Also, it said to use CSS which is the most preferred. But it said that flash player isn't recommended unless absolutely necessary.

The article about colors seemed a little more clearer. it talked about dithering colors, colors that are non-pixellated for different platforms and web-browsers. Also it showed a list of colors which will prove to be useful in the future.

The HTML 4.01 discusses the advancedment and a little short history of the HTML. It is obviously very confusing to me. But as i understood it, there are 41 new additions to it that one can use. Furthermore, HTML 4.01 is the most standard script that is supported in almost every browser.

XHTML is sort of a extension or another version of XML. In many cases, it is known to be more useful because it is more reliable in the sense that it checks your work. Also, it is more accessible (meaning that it can work with pretty much any browser). The coding is similar to a normal HTML or XML. The only difference is that all tags must be closed, all attributes must be in lower-case, and some other special forms. But as long as the coding is done right (which according to te article is not hard t do), it provides greater benefits. Also, it should be considered as another language and the format the you need to put at the to of he document is different from XML or HTML.

The "mobile" was about how phones now have developed and uppots different web browsers. It said that the web technology for phone has developed incredibly. Before say the iPhone, the phone browsers did not support HTML and therefore needed an entire different coding. But recently, almost all kind of language are supported with equally good browsers. It als gave few tips on how to design a website for phone users so that it wouldn't be too uncomfortable to browser your website.

The "redesigning" article was a little confusing. But it was basically about what to consider when you rebuild your page. The most important things were fonts, navigations, background, search box, and logical structure. I don't think i will be considering this article too heavily, since i doubt i will be even able to make a webpage itself. But still, these were things that i could consider for even the first website i'd make.

I did not read the "bookmarklets" article. It is bcause i will be designing my page in HTML, and bookmarkletsonly work in Javascript.

Sidebar: A list of Reminders-

I do quite agree. To summarize it greatly, it's basically saying make your website idiot-proof. Do not have a fancy website that is hollow, since your content is more important. Be concise and straight-to-the-point. Be consistent and check your content. That was pretty much it.

Design Brief-
There are some basic steps that i will do to create my product. The first one is to investigate how websites are made through going through various websites and looking for information on HTTP as we are doing in class. Then, I will hopefully work with dreamweaver to start creating the website. I will also research information about the topic of my blog (BS/MD prgrams) and think about methods to make the information more accessible to the readers.

Design Specifications-
1. My website will provide reliable information
2. The information on my website will be useful and easy-to-see
3. My navigations will facilitate the exploring of my website
4. The design (layout, color choice, etc) will not inhibit the eliciting of the information from the website (basically it won't be a distraction, but it doesn't need to be an appealing website either)
5. The website will not have an automatic video on the home page
6. The content of the website will have more importance than the design of the website itself.

Testing method-
Since my product will be a creation of an informative website on the BS/MD programs in the States, I should ask 2 or more students in our school who are planning to go into a medical career in the States and ask them to evaluate my website from 1-7 on these criteria: Content, Layout, and Design.

Bibliography-

White E.B. "Sidebar: A list of Reminders". Webstyle Guide 3rd Edition. 2009. 21 Mar. 2010. 'http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/1-process/5-list-of-reminders.html'

Kyrnin, Jennifer. "What Designs Scare You?" About.com. 21 Mar. 2010. 'http://webdesign.about.com/u/ua/webdesignbasics/what-design-scares-you.htm'

Shannon, ROss. "Accessibility". 2000-2010. 21 Mar. 2010. 'http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/accessibility/'