ISLT 7360: Introduction to Web Development
Spring 2012
Course Description:
If you've never created a website from scratch, Intro to Web Development is for you. The course will help you learn basic web page design and authoring skills, along with browser/server interaction, directory management, and other technical skills. You will also learn to evaluate your website's impact on communication, understanding, and accessibility.
Reflection
Introduction to Web Design was one of the first courses I took towards my Masters degree. I had produced websites with the use of Dreamweaver and other programs that allow for point and click designs. The requirement of hand coding was a new experience and made me appreciate the work required to make a website work and appear precisely how a person desires.
We were required to evaluate our own work:
I am glad that I was able to go through the evaluation process. I liked to hear what people thought about my work as well as that people hope to use the website in the future. I found that this website was more difficult to build than I had originally thought. I had originally created several more subcategories and planned to break down the content even further once on that page. Once I began to code this website and realized the best means to do this was to hyperlink each page to a new page, it became a difficult proposition to have so many sub categories and so many links. This is why I have reduced my content from my design document. I still intend on adding more recipes, but to have some many subcategories and then within that having additional links seemed to be too difficult to navigate. I found this way to be easier. I was happy to find my Mom and co-worker so excited about the website. They were both very excited to see what recipes I had put on and hoped to see more in the future.
In addition to the difficulty I experienced, I really appreciated having all the eyes for spelling errors. Ian was especially helpful with any coding errors I might have had, and because of his vast knowledge of websites, he was very helpful when it came to reassurance of validation. He was also very helpful when it came to looking at times that my other evaluators might not have noticed. He knew to change the browser size to see if that had any effect on my website. I appreciated that input. I also liked the many questions that were posed. My husband, my observed evaluator, made comments about the pictures, wondering where I got them. I reminded him that I had been taking pictures of the meals we had made, and then he realized where I had gotten them. Staging the images was difficult because I do not always make everything look pretty. That has taken some time for me to continue to stage my meals, take pictures, and then eat.
We were required to evaluate our own work:
I am glad that I was able to go through the evaluation process. I liked to hear what people thought about my work as well as that people hope to use the website in the future. I found that this website was more difficult to build than I had originally thought. I had originally created several more subcategories and planned to break down the content even further once on that page. Once I began to code this website and realized the best means to do this was to hyperlink each page to a new page, it became a difficult proposition to have so many sub categories and so many links. This is why I have reduced my content from my design document. I still intend on adding more recipes, but to have some many subcategories and then within that having additional links seemed to be too difficult to navigate. I found this way to be easier. I was happy to find my Mom and co-worker so excited about the website. They were both very excited to see what recipes I had put on and hoped to see more in the future.
In addition to the difficulty I experienced, I really appreciated having all the eyes for spelling errors. Ian was especially helpful with any coding errors I might have had, and because of his vast knowledge of websites, he was very helpful when it came to reassurance of validation. He was also very helpful when it came to looking at times that my other evaluators might not have noticed. He knew to change the browser size to see if that had any effect on my website. I appreciated that input. I also liked the many questions that were posed. My husband, my observed evaluator, made comments about the pictures, wondering where I got them. I reminded him that I had been taking pictures of the meals we had made, and then he realized where I had gotten them. Staging the images was difficult because I do not always make everything look pretty. That has taken some time for me to continue to stage my meals, take pictures, and then eat.
Artifacts
Design Document:
This was the design for my final website.
Final Website
This is my final website created for Introduction to Web Design. The entire website was created through hand coding.