Website Creation!

Aim: To design and create a website for a specified customer.

Objectives: 

Complete designs for the website for a specified customer.

Start creating a website for a specified customer that shows examples of good practice.

Hi all,

Monday it is again and I knew today would be a bit rougher than usual as I am diving out within my comfort zone of Web Development. Upon coming into class today, we continued our work as usual but with no starter. For my U20_A3T1 all I had remaining was to create a second flowchart and pseudocode - I wanted this to be a contact/order form which Zoë had promised to help but had lost the tutorial file due to the unexpected data corruption. I decided to work independently and "wing it", I did this by accessing information from w3schools and creating a form in HTML. An hour later, this worked magnificently well but I was starting to come across some issues. Just then, Matthew T told me that a bootstrap form existed therefore I immediately changed/scapped my design as bootstraps are much more efficient. Although it is all new to me, I learnt a bit more of bootstrap and adapted their examples to re-create my own. By the end of an hour, I managed to create a contact form that asks for personal details as well as providing a message area. I played around with the different attributes the code handles and fiddled with its properties.

Bootstrap Form by Danny Chan

It is not until later I struggled to create a validation. Ultimately, this is because a validation already exists on bootstrap. Although this may seem like a waste of time, it was actually the opposite because I now have created a form which I can copy and paste when I begin designing my website. Furthermore, instead I decided to create a simple flowchart and pseudocode for when the user's mouse hovers over and image, thus enlarging it. As I have already covered this, I was able to take the practice I did and replicate it into my assignment, this was a strength. From all of my coding experience, my weakness is definitely related to speed as I require time to understand and learn the language's nature.

Soon later, Zoë went through with the class about good practices in web coding. Examples include: Comments, Variable Names, CamelCase, Syntax and White Spacing/Lines. These are all methods in which helps improve readability for the code. With logic, it is obvious that one piece of code you understand may be hard to understand by another. In the end, having good practice in coding will allow easier maintenance and sustainability. This has later helped me as it was taught last year.

As I have completed U20_A3T1, I have began to make my website in U20_A3T2. I need to include a lot and like a perfectionist, the amount of content and elements required to input can be overwhelming. However, I took a step back and started to take things slowly (like baby steps, my friend taught me). I began by creating the structure of the HTML document once again and eventually made my way through to linking the CSS file and adding a background I made in Photoshop. In the image shown below, it may look like a random image but it's meant to represent phoenix's eyes only. I used a variety of pre-set Photoshop brushes then changed the blending options to create this effect. In the end, I have implemented this but I may change it if it brings obstacles.

Phoenix Games' Background by Danny Chan

As I won't be in tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday due to centre training day, I have reflected upon my work and created some goals. Taking my work home, I will try to progress through the webpage to at least create the "skeletal" structure. In addition, I will also continue my art as usual. For reflection of today, I believe I have finally jumped over the big obstacle which was to "get started" and code things I wasn't particularly good at - my determination and curiosity pulled me through. Another weakness I had was getting past to stop feel bad. I occasionally make mistakes and it can sometimes linger on my chest for a very long time...

That's it, see you Friday!