Tag Archives: UX

A Deep Dive Into HTML & CSS

Leave a reply

This week we got to really dive into writing HTML and adding flair with CSS. In class we got to design a very basic webpage. Mine was simply “Welcome to my site” & “My name is Jessica and I am writing on my site” beneath it. For our homework assignment we were able to add a little more glamour. While I was working on it I thought I was doing such a good job and it felt like it was even taking awhile. Revisiting it about a day later, it looked HORRIBLE!! It looked so plain, ugly, and basic. But I guess it’s all in the process. That all goes to say, I’m excited to keep exploring the world of CSS. On Codecademy, one of the lessons prompted us to link a CSS sheet and it turned the boring HTML into a masterpiece. Get ready “Welcome to my site” — big things are coming.

Readings this week focused on utilizing inspect element to its fullest potential and responsive web design. Focusing on the latter, responsive web design is critical in today’s age. We are constantly switching between laptops, phones, tablets, and in some cases even our watches. User experience design is at the forefront of technology and web design. How can our users be more engaged? How can our design be as efficient and intuitive as possible? Responsive web design is just the first step. The W3 School article broke down how to customize essentially every aspect of a site — from templates to videos — to be able to make these aspects automatically configure to a given device’s mentions. Something as simple as an image scaling to fit varying dimensions can make a user’s experience that much better. The small pain of an in-cohesive site, truly makes a difference in how a user thinks and feels about whatever brand or service or personal blog your website is trying to promote.

Project Management and Final Project Updates

Leave a reply

What resonated with me the most this week was stated in the Agile Manifesto:

“Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.”

I want to be able to continue thinking like this as I approach both the final project and future web/digital projects. I tend to overthink things and get bogged down in the granular tactics instead of focusing on the big picture. I overcomplicate and get frustrated. I have to learn to be flexible, take a step back and look at the project as a whole in order to be as successful as I can be.

The Agile Best Practices video had great concepts that I think can be translated for any managing any project—planning, feedback and testing. For the final project, I will need to create a plan, ask my classmates for feedback and continue testing for the user on the front and back-end.

Updates on the final project: I had SO much trouble getting my site to be hosted on my server on my computer. I did see that it slowed my computer down a little bit, but it was not anything too significant. However, I have not had as much time to go into the code and begin updating it to fit my needs. I’ve begun taking pictures, short video clips, and creating content for the site, since I think that will be the easiest portion of the project. Moving forward, I hope to use a more efficient project management tool to keep me on track of small things I can do every day to alleviate the workload and added stress as we finish up the summer semester. Something I hope to be able to keep in mind is looking beyond the front-end and UX of my site and approach the customizations with a problem-solving lens, as explained in our reading.