Running Errors

This week I am finding out what a pain XHTML really is. The main problem I am having is with validation, as it is strict you can barely do anything, for example for colour I am having to use pictures.

CSS
I am new to the concept and have been researching it and all the problems I have can mainly be solved with CSS however as we have to show progression I can not use CSS for everything.

The picture below shows my website still being made, there is a larger space from the side banner not yet coloured (as it needs to be a picture). The space it’s self is caused by a spacer image that I used as I could not use CSS to measure the tables. This is frustrating I was wondering can anybody help with this situation, or post some links which might help.

















The main problem/struggle I am having is the character space, as I am trying to follow accessibility rules I need to keep it to 60 characters, if anyone knows a website which can help in this area please don’t hesitate to link it.

All in all this week has been an enjoyable one mainly managing my time and sorting out XHTML. The form I have is working but I cannot upload the website yet as it is not finished. However it should be finished sometime this week and I will post another blog entry after to let you guys comment on my progress so far.

Things to do

Finish my website error free and fully validated.
Upload the website.
Get feedback from the website.

CGI Help

http://web.mit.edu/wwwdev/cgiemail/user.html

This is a link that might help if you are strugling setting up your form.

Happy Times

A3 is finally finished now and I am touching up my website. Validating it is a pain especially with strict I almost wish I had chosen transitional. The main reason I am enjoying this is that it is mainly all practical and it is filling my sketchbook fast with testing screen shots and user screen shots.

The struggle is finding the correct age group to view my site and actually comment on it correctly I.E. not family as they tell you what you want to here.

I will be uploading my site next week and I would love it if people could give me feedback, all feedback is good feedback. A new program that I have starting using which helps a lot with A1 is “Mind Genius” it is installed on every PC around collage and can easily create a mind map which as you all know is needed for A1.

More designs, I have scrambled some old magazines for both 1st and 2nd years to use as inspiration I will be giving them to Steve so just ask if you need some more work ect, books / magazines are the best things to get inspiration from as there is so many pictures and font designs in them which could be potentially usable.

Colour is a word that makes me wish I’d done better on my website after reading the colour index I found out I should have been using a light brown background, well at least I am noticing all this now which will make it easier in the future.

The goal for next week is to have my website fully finished and validated with plenty of feedback from all. The unfortunate thing is that it is NEVER finished, because as soon as I get feedback I will be acting on it and making yet even more changes.

New Terms

Learning even more terms this week, once again it’s typography. Learning all these new terms as helped me a lot this week. The main reason is that know I no how to improve my work and what I am doing wrong. The main thing I need to work on is my Widows and Orphans, the hard thing is finding out that when uploading is done it squashes the text and can make these appear where there was none before.

A cheerful time this week as I learned more on CSS and Dreamweaver, however perhaps the best thing of all is that I think I have finally done my template for the assignment, however I am not quite sure on whether that’s how I want it at the moment even though it is finished I still keep seeing problems arising.

I will work on this all week and find a solution to the things I don’t like via using more tutorials, if anyone knows any more useful tutorials other than the ones I posted please post them they are very useful tools for everyone in the course.

Problems with HTML Strict is that it was mainly designed for the use of CSS to incorporate the tables ect, however on this assignment we are not allowed to use CSS. This begs the question, can anyone help here too with a helpful tutorial?

The most fun part of the week was defiantly learning more on Dreamweaver, all this was mainly done in self study watching a few tutorials, but also from reading back on my lecture notes. Know all I have to do is master InDesign. The main reason being is that I have been using Page Maker, even though they are very similar I will be having a play round testing the new features of it this week in self study.

Fun! That is how to describe the feeling when a time task is handed out, however there can also be stress from this. Like I posted last week I am testing my self in my sketchbook to make sure that I am up to scratch on my design knowledge so when the next task comes I am ready.

The main thing that I need to work on is the little drawing tasks that occur before actually designing an item, I think if I practice at this I should be able to do a lot better in the next time task.

My goals for next week:

To finally have a template integrated into the website
To create a feedback form for the website
Practise design tasks via doing little designs in the sketchbook
To do at least 3 mind maps in my sketchbook

Quick fire

New Skills
Learning more about Dreamweaver over the last few days has been a good experience, I have moved on from knowing nothing to knowing something which is always a good experience. Naturally I have been noting my progress in my sketchbook to make sure that I have all the evidence of testing, mainly I am still using the tutorials I put up last week, however when I find some new ones that are interesting I will be posting them on the Blog and/or the forum.

Designs
Today was a test of patience within the room, when we had our quick fire test, the room was silent which was a weird feeling as I am used to the odd noise from the room but it was dead. I myself was quiet and hard in concentration. The task was frustrating but yet gave a kind of adrenalin rush to get things done.

From the last quick fire tests I learned one thing and that was to polish of the designs on paper faster than normal this gave me more time to spend actually developing my work which in total made me feel better about completing it.

The task its self I originally thought might be more daunting but as I said it was a mixture of adrenalin and frustration, this was defiantly applied 5 minutes before the end when everyone was rushing to grab the plastic folders. I am not yet sure what the environment is like in the working industry, but if today is anything to go by its fast pumping adrenalin action.

Sketchbook
The sketchbook yet again needs more work. The main thing I personally want to improve on is the mind mapping so far I have done very little in this and it needs improving. Another aspect that needs changing is my inspiration, although I may have a lot of it at the moment it is not yet all annotated, so my goal for this week and next is to improve my sketchbook skills and mind mapping skills.

Industry
Another uplifting moment this week as I was one of the people that got picked to go visit Dave at the Design Mechanics. This will give me some incite into what the industry is really like as I will get to see it first hand, as well as see all the work that has to be achieved. Another good moment is that I get to ask any questions I missed last time.

Free Tutorials

Dreamweaver Tutorials
www.entheosweb.com/dreamweaver

All Adobe product Tutorials
www.tutorialized.com/
cbtcafe.com/
www.ndesign-studio.com/

More Skills

Skills of the Week
This week I have learned a lot of new skill’s. One of which was an old skill but it has only just hit me how I should use it all the time and not just in certain parts of my life. This skill is called screenshots! I use this skill every day however I have only just learned the joy of using it to proof my work. This has lead me into doing a screenshot for almost everything I do for proof. So for this week it has been used for Page Maker and Dreamweaver there is a lot more programs that I need to do it for however so that I can proof I can use the programs. However it is also good for practical work for my sketchbook.

Today I have also started putting inspiration into my sketch book I have a lot more of it to print off, the last post I made was about glue and how ineffective it is at the sticking job so I have opted for cello tape and staples. There is one problem with doing all this though and that is that yet again another sketchbook will be used.

The Other new skill I have learned this week is how to use Dreamweaver, this is a skill that I have been looking forward to, however it is easier than I thought it would be. For the last few nights I have been looking into tutorials on how to work Dreamweaver and other Adobe products better, I will of cause be posting the good links I found after this post in case people also want to get better in software.

This week has also been a happy time for me as I am beginning to learn more about my creative skills. By this I mean that I am learning more about my own personal skills, before I couldn’t see anything wrong with certain types of text ect. But these last few weeks I have learned a lot about my self and the kind of things I don’t like. One that I hate know is centre text, to me it makes the writing look horrible and hard to read. Another worse text I have seen is jagged text going diagonally up a page, this was the hardest text I have found to read I will also upload a picture of this to show you what I mean. I think this means that my mind is made up on whether I am a designer or artist.

Key Points

Colour (I will be using a lot more colour in my sketch book to make it look brighter and more cheerful)

Inspiration (All my inspirational work should be in my sketchbook by the end of the week)

Dreamweaver (Following up lectures on this will improve my work later on)

Page Maker (Just improving my application skills)

Sketchbook (Checking lecture notes in my sketchbook to make sure I understand everything fully before doing an assignment)