The end of the module reflection January 13, 2012

The semester has passed and we reached the end of the Creating Web Presence module. It has been an interesting and engaging module that covered a whole range of useful tools. Parts of the module were too easy for example Photoshop or type tasks; however, they were only easy to me because I work as a graphic designer for 6 years now and I am familiar with covered subjects. I believe those tasks were very interesting and new to my peers. I did not find any of the tasks too difficult. Even though some tasks covered complicated topics like HTML and CSS, still the exercises and workshops well structured so well that it was not difficult to execute. The most difficult thing for me was the writing for web. English is my second language and I never was a big writer before anyways. So editing text was a challenge. It was an useful exercise though and I am very happy that I tackled it.

I enjoyed quite a few thing during undertaking the module. I really enjoyed the workshop on HTML and CSS as I finally, after a few years, managed to understand it’s principle. It was very useful. I also enjoyed wire-framing with Balsamiq Mockups. It is the most useful tool that I am sure I will use a lot in the future. I have already used it to make a mockup of a website for a different module. As to the things I did nt enjoy,I will have to mention writing for the web again. I love designing, editing films… anything to do with still or moving images.. do not enjoy the writing though. Summarizing the whole module was an interesting and engaging experience. The only thing I would change is introducing a bit more of CSS and HTML.

My strengths in this module was understanding of design principles. That comes from my experience with graphic design. Another strenght is my general knowledge of digital media.I had a bit of an advantage comparing with most of my peers as to a few more yeras of experience.

My weakness is the writing and animation. I have mentioned writing before. As to the animation, I cannot use flash so I created a simple animation in Photoshop, which is not an amazing tool for the purpose.

My performance during the module is hard to judge. My posts to the blog were regular and fulfil all the criteria. I have worked hard tomantain it to a good standard. On the other hand, my attendance was very poor in the second half of the semester due to the extra hours at work. However, I tried to keep up with the workshops by regularly checking the blackboard and completing the given tasks.

I have definitely learned a few new skills and strengthened the existing ones. I got more familiar with web platforms like Flickr or WordPress. Getting more familiar with WordPress was especially important as now I am using it to create all of my work diaries for other modules. The thing I am proud of the most is understanding the principles of HTML and CSS. It was my desire for a long time to grasp it and this module allowed that. It also inspired me to experiment more with it in the future and to learn about web design.

To summarize, it was a very interesting and engaging module. It taught me new skills and techniques. I definitely benefited a lot. My only regret is that I have missed a few last workshops as I could benefit even more.

 

Xmas activities :) December 28, 2011

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Animating with Photoshop December 19, 2011

I have created the short animation with Xmas greetings (posted earlier on today) in Adobe Photoshop CS5. I have learned how to do simple animations in Photoshop recently while working on interactive web banners for the University of West London. While making this simple animation now I learned something new. I tried to convert my gif image to flv and I couldn’t find a freeware that was good enough. I experimented and imported the gif image into my Adobe Premiere CS4. Surprisingly, gif worked and was still animated on the timeline. Moreover the speed of the animation can be altered and it gives a very interesting effect. I am planning to use this technique for more sophisticated animation that I will use in my video production work in the future.

Xmas greetings

WATCH THE VIDEO

Sound by benjaminflack

CHECK THE ANIMATED IMAGE

Search Engine Optimisation December 5, 2011

Search Engine Optimisation is an activity aiming to position certain website high in the organic (natural, non paid) results of search engines. There are many ways of SEO a webiste. SEO can be done by modification of the content of the page as well as site’s code (which has no influence on the look of the site).

From the design point of view it is important not to use frames (HTML page that “frames” other HTML pages) as most of the search engines do not index the text within frames.

It is also important not to design the webiste entirely in Flash and not to use image maps or javascript as the only method of navigation, It is advised to create a site map that uses normal html links to every page on the site as well as to add a standard HTML link on each page of the site that links to the site map.

As to the content, the optimisation of the title tag is very important because many engines and directories place a high level of importance on keywords that are found in the title tag. The most important is the optimisation of the site’s content with the right keywords (words that people are most likely to choose when searching for the website). It is recommended that each page should contain least 200 words. The text should include most important keyword phrases, but should remain logical and readable.

As to the code, the important thing is the optimisation of the meta tags inside the head element, which provides meta-information about the document. Meta element is used to provide information that is relevant to search engines like describing the content of the document. It is also useful to optimise the images using ‘alt’, which is used to define an “alternate text” for an image and it tells the reader what is missed on a page if the browser can’t load images and will then display the alternate text instead of the image. Optimisation of Text Hyperlinks is also important as search engines check if what you are linking to is something closely related to the content of the page. Some of the engines look for keywords in hyperlinks and in the surrounding text of the hyperlinks. The next useful thing is optimisation of Heading Tags, which should include most important keyword phrases. Some search engines use them in the analysis of the page content.

Useful links:

Basics of search engine optimisation

A Guide to Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Photoshop textures December 2, 2011

Another excersize in Photoshop. This time it was building textures from scratch. I have done this a few times before so didn’t really learn anything new. However, it was a good way of practicing. Still I believe that it is much better to use textures of real objects in designs. Therefore, I have a huge library of photographs of textures that I had taken in the past. Moreover, I extend my library regularly all the time by taking more photographs of interesting textures that are all around me. Photoshop textures often look very artificial.

vintage texture collage

Wood texture collage

Wire-framing November 16, 2011

I have learned to use Balsamiq Mockups. It is a great tool to create wire-frames. It surprises me how easy it is to use it. It is a very useful tool. I will definitely use it a lot. I have already created a wire-frame for my soon-to-be company’s website. Soon I am going to use it to create a wire-frame for a website for my other module. Until now I was creating my mockups either on paper or in Photoshop. They lacked functionality which was a big problem. With Balsamiq Mockups it is possible to link pages and create a fully functional wire-frame.

Exercise: Wire-framing

I could not access the materials for wire-framing exercise so I decided to make a wire-frame of my own website.

Overdrive productions