Unit 44 Website Design

HTML

HTML is a computer language used to create websites. It works by using closed tags like <img>
and mostly come in pairs like <header>....</header>, the first a opening tag and the second being a closing tag.
A web browser reads the files and turns all the tags and information within them into a visual and interactive web page.
HTML also can use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to define the design of the website like text, color and shape etc.

Both HTML and CSS are important for web design and one cant be without the other. I will describe this using a house as an example. The HTML is everything within in the house which shows what kind of people live here and what they are about. In this case it would be images, links, text and videos etc.
The CSS is the Structure of the building itself like walls, floors, wallpaper... in this case it would be the borders separating the content of the HTML, the colors of everything and the size of some content.

Now without the HTML no one would want to want to live in this house nor visit the website as it would have no content and be empty. Without the CSS everything else in the website would be a mess, in one big mash up on the ground and harder to understand whats going on, which wil also put people from visiting the site.

These is the building blocks for any website.


Website design issues

http://mimarch.net/#slide10

This website has a huge flaw to its slideshow. You have to hover over the squares on the slideshow to change the image behind but the way this happens is horrible to your eyes as it changes so fast and all you have to do is slightly hover over one. It is also transparent making it hard to read within the slideshow change.
A second flaw is the the navigation bar, There's the main one with Home, Markets, About Us etc, which is fine but the second at the top left is so strangely placed. Its at a spot you would expect the company name or the logo to be and that this bar would be in the middle left of the page.
The footer i find is the best part of the  website and have nothing to fault.




http://www.wrdaonline.org/

Theres only one main thing that comes to mind straight when i went on this site and that was the colour scheme, it was dreadful on everything even the drop down boxes on the navigation. for that reason it would be a website i wouldn't want to spend much time on as its not nice on your eyes.



http://www.bolenreport.com/

Straight away there is so much to take in with way too much text  and columns (messy), the colour is all over the place especially in the navigation bar  where its at its worst, its not needed and could be just black and white.

The layout of everything is good and i knew where everything was i just think there should be less columns or text.

http://www.rudgwicksteamshow.co.uk/

This website is all over the place, there is just way too much there and the colour scheme does not help. I can understand what the websites about but i don't understand what i'm supposed to do on the website and where i'm supposed to go. its pretty much a poster but put as a website.

Poetry Slam

In our group we came up with this paper prototype to not only make a basic design but also understand where we want interactive items and links to go.

I also sketched an idea of the design for the website after the group work. With both of these above we kept to the guidelines of what Poetry Slam wanted but kept the design simplistic, but also added in a few things of our own like the news feed to give it something new and different which is also helpful to the user to know what is going on.

After our group work i worked on additional ideas for the home page and others like the gallery and Event pages.

In the actual website so far i have got it to the point where the design is simple but everything thing works. I also added in the welcoming paragraph from there website to the front.

There is still allot to add especially to the design which i'm working on the CSS to do so.

Evaluation

I have learnt allot doing this unit and i am pretty happy with my outcome, but i know i could do more and at a better quality of a website with the amount i have learnt doing this and expanding my knowledge of HTML and CSS scripting over time.

I have had a mix of feedback good and bad and most of the points made by people have pretty much been the same. The main thing that i was getting from people was that the layout was nice and simple with nice colors but it needed more of a design to it and was suggested a few ideas like adding in a drop down menu or make it less bordered.

This is definitely the main thing i want to work on as its always the first thing anyone sees when entering a website and also the main thing that people who viewed the website commented on.

There is also a few more plans of what i do want to add to the homepage like a slideshow above the the navigation bar and then to add another logo and associations into the footer.

The other thing i got from most people was to fix the logo and get rid of the white around the outside of the logo but what i would like to do is design a new and better looking logo for the website.

other than them there wasn't much else said but there is one thing i want to work is to make it a bit more lively maybe with some pictures or  a small simple design in the back.

There is definitely allot for me to work on even before moving on to the design of the other pages like the gallery and from the feedback i got i can understand which areas of the website needs a priority to change and make better to the user.