Website Design Evaluation

Evaluation


What software have you used to create your website, web presence and to put your ideas on the web. Have you used specialist software or free online software or both?
For the final website outcome, I used Dreamweaver CS6, I used Blogger to present my work and my ideas to put them across the web. I used Dreamweaver for my actual website, however, before I used Dreamweaver I used a website called Wix to practise with which was free online software.

What issues did you have in designing your website?
I didn't come across any problems when designing my website. I used Photoshop and Wix to design it, and it all went the way I wanted it to.

What issues did you have in making your website?
I had a few complications with Dreamweaver as I got slightly confused to begin with. I followed a step-by-step guide on how to do the coding, the image re-sizing, the layout, the text and etc. I got confused with a few parts of making my website on Dreamweaver and I did a few steps wrong at first, but I fixed it and the process went fine after that.

Was it easy to get primary resources? What did you do?
I took pictures to put onto my website. The pictures I took were mostly landscape and scenic and I tried to make sure that the pictures I used all linked together so that it would make sense to anyone viewing my website.

Coding: Did you use it, understand it or does it not make any sense at all?
I used coding when making my website on Dreamweaver. I thought it was quite easy, I didn't have to use a lot of coding, just adding div tags to make my captions and my pictured editable and so that if you click a certain option the expected topic will appear.

Did you produce interactive web pages? Were they creative and functional?
I didn't get to this stage. I tried to do this, following the tutorial, but I simply didn't have enough time to complete it.

If you were to do it again, what would you do differently?
I don't think I'd do it much differently if I was to do this project again. I may have spent less time designing and more time actually making my website so I had more time to fix the errors that I made. However, I'm satisfied with the outcome.

Did you find it easy or hard to follow the tutorials?
I found the Dreamweaver tutorial quite difficult, because there were so many steps, it was hard to keep up and I ended up confusing myself with some of the steps but apart from that I haven't found any other complications.

If you had more time, would this be something you would like to do more of? Would you like to revisit web-design next year?
I don't think I'd do more website designs out of choice because I feel that it isn't a strength of mine, I didn't feel like I excelled in this project, Dreamweaver is a complicated software and I'd probably avoid using it unless necessary.

Preperation

Dreamweaver

So far, I have added the thumbnails at the bottom of the page and added div tags onto the template so that some parts on the sheet are editable. I found this complicated because the instructions are not easy to understand but I have tried to get to this stage. 

    I have added the full images onto the 'enter images here' div tag to the correct image so that when you click a thumbnail, the suitable image will appear.

I have tried to add  transitions to the page but I found this difficult to do because I have done something wrong in the process of creating the website on Dreamweaver. 

Copyright

What is Copyright? Copyright is a legal concept, it gives the creator of the original piece of work exclusive rights to it, but usually, it's for a limited time. It means "the right to copy" in most cases, but it also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for this piece of work, they also choose who gets the financial benefits of the piece and other related rights. You have to pay for your rights because this piece of work is now yours under the law. Examples of artists who have already had copyright put onto their work are people such as Andy Warhol, he has his own museum for his work to be viewed. Another artist is Lichtenstein who is famous mainly for his pop art and has his work copyrighted.

Libel and Sensitivity to Society: All people are different, which means there's a lot of mixed opinions about different topics. If you want to show your work or you want to speak out about it, you should think about other opinions and views before you make these points heard. It may result in being offensive or in someone complaining if you don't do so. Many examples are websites such as YouTube where people have uploaded offensive videos and people have replied their opinions, Tumblr is also another site where people may upload an offensive picture, GIF or video and it causes arguments globally.

Decency: Decency often means rude, inappropriate and or explicit work which has been uploaded for the public. People can control this by reporting said work or sending a complaint. People can also warn the viewer by reminding them that they are entering a explicit website etc.

Safeguarding: Safeguarding can be related to 'decency' but this mostly involves children and what they can view when they're surfing the internet. This is mainly installed in school computers so that children cannot see anything inappropriate or links which could cause damage to the computer like viruses.

Tutorials, Logo Designs and T-Shirt Designs

Photoshop Tutorials

I've been looking on Youtube for tutorials on different effects on Photoshop, as I would like to create a couple of logos that I could use for my website and for my t-shirt designs. This is the first tutorial I looked at > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rlyv9Juk04 it's quite long but I think I got the hang of it quite quickly. Here are images of the development and an image of my outcome:

Logo Number 1 Development:

Logo Number 1 Outcome

The outcome of my logo was successful but could be improved. I like the shattered glass effect, but I think it could of been portrayed better if I'd of made the shadow effect on my lettering work. I didn't add a separate text layer, therefore the shadowing on my letters didn't work as effectively as I'd like. I'm going to create a logo for a different band in a new effect and see if that works any better than this did.

Logo Number 2 Development

I will now try out a second logo on Photoshop using Youtube, if it comes out successfully i'll add it to a T-Shirt design.

Tutorial Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYGxhiEKGY0

I did a step wrong at this stage and as you can see it went incredibly wrong, I watched over the tutorial again and realised what I'd done wrong, I improved this fault and I got the outcome I wanted. 

Logo Design Number 2 Outcome

I thought that this outcome was more successful than the last and it was a much simpler tutorial to follow, it looks exactly how I wanted it too. I made a mistake in the process but I improved it and I'm satisfied with this now.

T-Shirt Designs

T-Shirt Design Number 1

T-Shirt Design Number 2

I prefer my first design as the background fits with the logo. I prefer the second logo, but it doesn't really fit with the T-Shirt.

Photoshop Website Design

Website Layout on Photoshop

I've been experimenting with designs for my website on Photoshop for when I do it properly on Dreamweaver. I'm mainly looking at colour schemes and the organisation of my images.

Website Template

Free Online Website Template

I used a free online website template to practise making a website on and to show website designing skills. The website is called 'Wix.com' and I found it quite easy to use. After practising on this, I will eventually create a website from scratch using Adobe Dreamweaver CS6. My website is http://bryonywardx.wix.com/bryonyphotography and within my website, I've uploaded some primary images.

Local Website Design Companies

Local Website Design Companies


http://www.creativespark.co.uk

Creative Spark
Creative Sparks are a creative agency based in Manchester. They basically create logos and the graphics for advertisement for large businesses. They've worked with massive companies like JD Sports, the BBC, Universal and the Co-operative.







http://www.fluidcreativity.co.uk

Fluid Creativity 
Fluid Creativity are also an agency based in Manchester that deal with helping companies promote with their Graphics, however, this company does that with website design. They try and boost company sales and etc by making their website really emphasise what the shop's about, they promote the company and give them a huge online presence by creating designs that will attract the businesses more customers. They work with companies all over the place, including America.