DP3

Am off and away in terms of DP3 , i have a theme , context and meaning. but first the brief:

Design, build and deploy a minimum five page website that is validated to WC3 standards and includes at least three interactive Javascript routines that enhance the interactive experience.
This phase will test your creativity, basic design understanding and coding competency. They should meet the following criteria:

1.Create at least three elements that use Javascript routines. These should enhance the interactivity of the website. Incorporate these elements within a website that contains a minimum of five XHTML pages.

2. Flash and video can also be incorporated into the design (not essential) but ALL 'swf' files MUST also have the relevant 'FLA' file in a form that can be opened by the version of FLASH available on the university computers in WAV207/105 (i.e.CS5).

3. The total website, including flash elements, should not exceed 5MB (10MB if video included) total file size.

4. Special consideration should be given to image quality. The Java-script and Flash elements should show technical proficiency and where possible, innovative ideas and narrative principles.

5. All elements (HTML and FLASH) should complement and link to each other and be coherent with respect to the overall website design.

So with all that jargon out of the way , let me get started . What am going for , is a website that shows the evolution of yours truly , a sort of online biography , there will be five pages , but they won't be your typical home gallery about etc , they will flow in a timeline , from the day of my birth , throughout school , college , to now and all the juicy bits in-between , i was always going to go down this path but if it haven't seen this image in a magazine then i would have gone down a generic route.

I will go into much much much more detail later on , but for know here are the basics : i will be using three colours: red , black and white  and it  will be a three coloum page layout. Hopefully my Mother won't might sending me old photos of my childhood. 

Evolution of a Designer - Part 1.

What was i thinking , in every term of the word "Fresher" , if you have no idea what am talking about, it is my designs of the past , especially my blog design ,  after having sessions with Shaun Blecher on good design  , it is clear to see that my designs weren't very good , it's just too cluttered with different elements on the page , and doesn't really have good flow. 

some of the randoms elements which on reflection doesn't not make sense

Thank lord am getting Photoshop and Dreamweaver on monday , so the much needed redesign and the transfer over to Wordpress can begin.  

Getting the Hang of this

Another excellent session with Giselle , this time on positioning of elements on the HTML page , just the thing i needed to know , with my design for my website being heavily based on specific DIVS being in a certain place. more on my design to follow.

Brillaint

Transfer to Wordpress

i have decided i will transfer over to Wordpress , is just seems like the better site to be on , and i have may have already found inspiration in terms of design.

What i like about this design , is it clean look , and that fact that you can embed Twitter , Facebook and Youtube on the blog itself makes me think that Wordpress is the way forward, hopefully by christmas , the move will have been completed.

Interaction Design is an Applied Art.

I can relate to Dan Saffer in terms of being self-taught , in fact most of the programs that i am most sufficient in (such as Photoshop) i self taught but that are many aspects of my growing design repertoire that i can never have taught myself such as the contexts with Jools and Danny , coding (HTML , CSS , DIV and CLASS tags) with Giselle and the mechanics of good design with Shaun , without those fundamental skills , there is no way i can progress as a designer.

"There are lots of good books out there now that, when combined with trying out what they suggest with hands-on work, can give you a foundation you can use for design. But the doing is important; you can read every book in the field and be a terrible designer. You have to practice it, live, preferably with a client and (eventually) with users" 

Very very true statement , the way i learnt the skills i picked up before university , was done by sitting down for hours on end , on Photoshop  making up designs , not very good designs , but designs nevertheless without those constant hours , i wouldn't have been able to hone my skills , produce a portfolio and get into university.

"I'd say there are two mistakes that new designers make: one is not coming up with enough variations—or, more accurately, not being able to come up with more alternatives. Which is to say, falling in love with one direction and not being able to see others."

Again another thing i am guilty of doing in the past , narrowed mindedness , in the past i would often stick to one design regardless of criticism from others , what i have learnt so far during this course is always have more then one opinion , leave yourself open .

Starting to get into the Groove

Today was the first time of probably using dreamweaver and i have surprised myself with how quickly i have managed to get back into the groove , hopefully it is a sign of a good year.

New Design + Wordpress?

So now that we are back up and running , looking at my blog in its current state , it is looking very very dated , so the plan is to completely design my blog from top to bottom , but since am working on a mac now , i need to get my programs sorted out , mainly Photoshop and Dreamweaver so the site redesign is still a way off. Am also looking into the possibility of moving over to Wordpress in the new year , i have heard nothing but good things about it and you change the url of the site , so www.inthemindofemilio.com is coming to a place near you. 

2 Design Evaluation - The Planet Zero.

The Planet Zero is a very unique website , and i assure you  won't come across too many like it , its aim is to expose users to world of zero emissions drawing influences from games like Super Mario Galaxy , what makes this site rememberable is because the way the site is designed , kids will marvel at the game-like aspects , all in all learning the advantages of a green zero emissions , parents will also enjoy its charm and appeal.

Again this is another Flash Website so from a personal viewpoint , i believe that HMTL5 is still catching up in terms of popularity , and again i doubt that it will work on the most popular tablet out there , the iPad , which is a same as this website in particular would have been perfect  using the motion capabilities of the iPad 

The very slick and simple design makes this website a pleasure to visit time and time again , it doesn't that very much text but then it doesn't need to , it using your senses and emotions in order to engage with the viewer , when you first open the site , you are met with only two colours , black and white and a timeline from 2001 to 2010 , but you scroll over the timeline with your mouse , the dates expand in sync with the musical tones that you probably haven't noticed before ,when you select the date , the musical score changes dramatically 

The website itself doesn't use HTML5 , it uses Flash so am guessing it is an older website , but even to this day , it is very impressive , the smooth  that run throughout also helps it appeal , there are other little impressive touches aswell , such as the way the little preview photos zoom in when you place the cursor over them,  the only problem that i can see is that , since the website is using flash i doubt the site will work on the a tablet as the iPad which is a shame