My Personal Website Plan-4/1/08

Plan A was to do my website on my family, but when I heard you mention quite a few people tend to do that I changed my mind and knew I would need to come up with a plan B. It didn't take me long to figure out plan B. It became quite clear as I went though the process of this class.

When I came into this class I had my reservations - the main one being, I knew nothing about the class content and wasn't sure whether or not I would be able to perform to the level necessary to succeed. Now that I have gone through the last five weeks, I realize that I am capable. That is not to say I haven't had my moments of doubt, but if I decided if I can do this anyone can and want to share this new found knowledge with anyone who wants to learn it. Hence, my Website will be to outline the class content. Offering others like myself an opportunity to learn the things that I learned.

Hopefully, I will design my website in a format that will entice others to want to learn it.

Website Design

Eventhough website design is available for anyone to create their own website doesn't mean they should. There are a lot of dos and don'ts related to website design that even the professional website designer's mess-up, yet alone the novice designers who don't have a clue what they are doing. A poorly designed website could be the very reason why viewers stop viewing and ultimately be the reason for a failed business. You need to weigh your options.

Advantages to creating your own website are. Only you know what you want your website to convey and only you have a stake in its creation. As the creator you have complete control of layout, content and flow as well as color, text, and graphic choices. And you maintain control of costs. Ultimately, your destiny is in your own hands.

Drawbacks to creating you own website include a lack of knowledge in the dos and don't of website design. As the non professional website designer you are not versed on the dos and don'ts of good versus bad website design and could end up creating a bad website. You may have saved money in the process, but never make any money either, because you created a bad website that no one wants to view.

My thought process would be to tap into the professionals expertise, while keeping a hand in the creative process. This makes for a win/win scenario.

Web Resources - Web Design

For the most part this weeks readings pertained to evaluating Web sites. The article by Kim Guenther dabbles into the area of Web Page content organization.





Let's start with the Criteria for Evaluating a Web sites.

1. Purpose - begs the question - what is the sites purpose? Namely check the URL code. The final 3 syllables of the domain name will help you to accessing the purpose of the site.



2. Authority - deals with the author. Their credentials, whether or not they are the authority on the topic, and contact information.



3. Objectivity - pertains to the degree of bias. Is it hidden or explicit? In what way does it impact the usefullness of the information given. And does the author's identity suggest any form of bias?



4. Appropriateness - questions the content. Is it reading level appropriate and developmental level appropriate for the reader and is the subject matter accurate, complete, and relevant for the topic?



5. Currency - relates to the material dating. Is the material up-to-date? Can you tell the last time the material was updated?



6. Responsibility - questions the authors willingness to give credit where credit. Is a reference list provided? And, is contact information available to validate the information.



7. Clarity - deals with the content, or subject matter. Is it clearly presented, legibly written, and well organized for the reader? Are the graphics used in a manner that adds value for the reader rather than distracting them?



8. Accessibility - relates to ease of access. Is it quick to load? Is it easily navigated? Is it retrievable?

Hoaxes are out there as well and can prevent challenges to the unsuspecting reader. If "About" or "Contact Us" is not available beware.

In addition to leaning ways to evaluate Web sites, links were also provided for additional tools to use to help identify the criteria needed for good Web sites versus bad.

Below are two Web sites and my evaluations based on the criteria learned in the reading.

http://www.albright.edu/index.php

Purpose - The site informs the reader about the college.

Authority - The college name, address and tab titled "About" is available on the first page.

Objectivity - the only bias in this case is that the site pertains strictly to the school and what is available to the prospective student, current student, parents, faculty and staff, and visitor and community. It is in no way prejudice to the reader.

Appropriateness - everything listed is relevant to the facilty, student, potential student, parents and visitors to site looking for knowelege about the institution and it's offerings.

Currency - the site is continuely monitored and updated with new information (i.e. class offerings, calendar of events, etc.).

Responsibility - I did not see and citations, although in this case I didn't expect to considering the site is being written about the school, for the school, by the school.

Clarity - I believe the site is very well written. The information is presented clearly, neatly and legibily. The graphics illustrate the information in a non distracting way. And at a glance, I didn't note any typigraphical errores.

Accessability - I believe the Web site is very easy to access. It only took a moment from the time I hit enter until the site appeared on screen and once on the site it was just as easy to navigate from screen to screen.

http://www.crpinc.com/

Purpose - The site is a commercial site for the purpose of informing the reader of the company offerings.

Authority - All the critical information is listed on the home page Company name, address, phone number, and links.

Objectivity - Again, I believe the author's only bias is that the site is specific to there area of expertise, other than that the site is objective about the way in which the information is delivered.

Appropriateness - The material contained on the site is accurate, complete and appears to be wel written. I believe the content has been written at a appropriate level for reading and the developmental level of it's audience.

Currency - Within the content of the Web site it is quite clear that the information is up-to-date. (Check press release section).

Responsibility - Again, the site has been written by the author for the company. Hence not reference lists were found.

Clarity - I believe the site has been well written in laymens terms, using font friendly text and formatted quite nicely. The only thing that I didn't like was some of the graphics used. I wasn't quite sure of there relevance in the context of the page.

Accessibility - I felt the accessibility to the site was quite easy, although I didn't like the flow within. Rather than have links on each page to manuvre, I needed to go back page/s.

After taking the time to evaluate Web sites it has been quite the eye opener. I am sure I will be far more critical of Web sites now then I have been in the past. Pretty much like I disect advertising now!

Kim Guenther's article "What's Your Style: Organizing Information for the Web" gives insight to linear versus nonlinear formatting, inverted pyramid writing and organizing information for the web, as well as creating a style for the web.

Her opening is quite interesting. How she lets the reader know that Web site design is usually limited to "look and feel", rather than the way the words or content is layed out on the pages and how sites look great, although people find it dificult to navigate and use the information provided?

The best part is how she lets the reader know and I quote. "You don't have to be a usuability expert or an information arvhitect to successfully write for or organize Web site content. The key is to organize your information before even one line of code is ever written to develoop the site."

Week 2 - How Scanners Work

Here is an outline of the five areas covered and learned in this session about scanners.

1.) Types & Basic Principles
2.) Anatomy
3.) Process
4.) Resolution & Interpolation
5.) Image Transfer

There are four types of scanners:

• Flatbed scanners - are the most versatile and commonly used.
• Sheet-Fed scanners - much like the flatbed except the document moves while the scan head remains immobile.
• Handheld scanners - use same basic technology as flatbed scanner, but rely on user to move them instead of a motorized belt. Doesn't provide the best image quality.
• Drum scanners - used by publishing industry to capture incredibly detailed images. They use technology called photomultiplier tube (PMT).

and the basic principle of scanners is to analyze an image and process it in some way. Image and text capture (OCR- optical character recognition) allow you to save information to a file on your computer you can then alter or enhance the image.

When it comes to the anatomy, rather than list the actual components, I'd rather discuss the key component the CCD array. The CCD is the most common technology for image capture in scanners. CCD is a collection of tiny light-sensitive diodes, which convert photons (light) into electrons (electrical charge). These diodes are called photosites. Each photosite is sensitive to light - the brighter the light that hits a single photosite, the greater the electrical charge that will accumulate at that site. The image of the document scanned reaches the CCD array through a series of mirrors, filters and lenses. The exact configuration of these componants will depend on the model of scanner, but the basics are pretty much the same.

The scanning process is quite basic, place the document on the glass, hit the start button and let the scanner perform its magic. Rather than go through a very detailed explanation of the inner workings of the scanner, I'd much prefer to move on to more interesting information relating to resolution and interpolation.

Scanners vary in resolution and sharpness. Most flatbeds have a true hardware resolution of at least 300x300 dots per inch (dpi). The dpi is determined by the number of sensors in a single row of the CCD or CIS array by the precision of the stepper motor.

Sharpness depends mainly on the quality of the optics used to make the lens and the brightness of the light source. A bright xenon lamp and high-quality lens will create a much clearer, and therefore sharper, image than a standard fluorescent lamp and basic lens.

Many scanners proclaim resolutions of 4800x4800 or even 9600x9600. To achieve such high resolutions the specifications will usually be labeled software-enhanced interpolated resolution or something similar.

Interpolation is a process that scanning software uses to increase the perceived resolution of an image. Which it does by creating extra pixels in between the one actually scanned by the CCD array.

Another term used when talking about scanners is bit depth, also called color depth. This simply refers to the number of colors that the scanner is capable of reproducing. Each pixel requires 24 bits to create standard true color and virtually all scanners on the market support this. Many offer bit depths of 30 to 36 bits, but still only output in 24 bit color.

Scanning the document is only one part of the process. For the scanned image to be useful, it must be transferred to your computer. There are three common connections used:

• Parallel - connecting through the parallel port is the slowest transfer method.
• Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) - SCSI requires a special SCSI connection. Most SCSI scanners include a dedicated SCSI card to insert into your computer and connect the scanner to, but can use a standard SCSI controller instead.
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) - USB scanners combine good speed, ease of use and affordablity in a single package.
• FireWire- usually found on higher-end scanners, firwire connections are faster than USB and SCSI. Fire wire is ideal for scanning high-resolution images.

On the computer you need software, called a driver, that knows how to communicate with the scanner speak a common language, Twain. The Twain driver acts as interpreter between any application that supports the Twain standard and the scanner.

Resolution refers to the number of pixels in an image. Resolution is sometimes identified by the width and height of the image as well as the total number of pixels in the image. For exampe, an image that is 2048 pixels wide and 1536 pixels high (2048x1536) contains (multiply) 3,145,728 pixels (or 3.1 megapixels). As the megapixels in your camera increase so does the maximum size image you can produce. Hence a 5 megapixel camera is capable or capturing a larger image than a 3 megapixel camera.

A 17" monitor is most likely set at 800x600 pixels, while a 19" monitor is usually set for 1024x768 pixels. What this means is if you open an image that is 640x480, it will only fill up a portion of the screen, whereas if you open an image at 2048x1536 (3.1 megapixels) it will become necessary to move the slider bar around to see the image. Now add the fact the monitor has a finite number of pixels per inch (like 72) so if you are going to display a image on a monitor ony you would want to drop the quality down to 72 to save file space. When you go to put your image on a webpage or in an email you will first want to mke it a useful size (not to big, not to small).

Image size and resolution is important in that the key is selecting a resolution that will scale that input size in inches to that desired output size in pixels. Following is an example.

You have a 4x6 inch photo, and you want the six inch dimension to fill a 800x600 pixel screen vertically. Obviously 600 pixels / 6 inches = 100 dpi scan resolution is required. Scanning 6x4 inches at 100 dpi will produce an image of (6x100) x (4x100) = 600x400 pixels, aligned vertically just fill the 800x600 pixel screen height. Horizontally, this 400 pixel image would fill half the 800 pixel screen width, so we could put two of these side by side. However, if it were a 8x10 inch photo, then 600 / 10 = 60 dpi resolution would produce an 480x600 pixel image which fits vertically, but we would have to crop to fit two of them horizontally.

Here are some pixels settings to remember.

• 640x480 or 800x600 pixels for 14" monitors
• 800x600 or 1024x768 pixels for 15" monitors
• 1024x768 or 1152x864 pixels for 17" monitors
• 1152x864 or 1280x1024 pixels for 19" monitors

Web Resources-Graphic Design Folder

As I read through the websites the first thing I learned was the definition of Graphic design, which is the art or profession of visual communication that combines images, words, and ideas to convey information to an audience. This is not something that I would have went out of my way to learn unless driven by this class. Graphic design has never come up on my radar as something I would have ever imaged to be important to include in my list of things to learn. Until I learned its impact on my everyday life and how graphic design is all around me and can be found everywhere in my day to day life in the form of

• logos
• advertisements
• product pakaging
• magazine layouts
• websites
• brochures
• posters
• newpaper layout
• business cards
• billboards
• book design
• greeting cards

and this list barely scratches the surface.

Until I read this information, I didn't really think about it much. Now I look around at everything looking for the graphic design and whether the basic principles we learned in class are present.

The next thing I learned was the (3) basics relating to graphic design, Print verses Web Design, the elements of design, and the graphic design process.

1. Print Design vs. Web Design

Print Design

• magazine ads
• product design & packaging
• business cards
• logos

vs.

Web Design

• flash websites
• email newletters
• html websites
• banner advertising

2. The (6) Elements of Graphic Design

• shape
• lines
• color
• type
• art illustration & photography
• texture

3. The (7) Steps to Graphic Design

• gather information
• create outline
• harness creativity
• sketches & wireframes
• design multiple versions
• revisions
• stick to the steps

I never really thought about what was involved in bringing a graphic design to market. Eventhough, all the steps make sense the last step is what intrigued me the most. In today's fast paced world we are always trying to find ways to cut corners to get to the end result, yet in graphic design to get to the end result there is no cutting corners if you want the process to be successful.

The next thing I leaned was something called Letter Anatomy and its elements

• baseline
• meanline
• x height
• cap height
• ascender
• descender
• serifs
• stem
• bar
• bowl
• counter
• leg
• shoulder

What all this means exactly I'm still not sure of, but in the weeks to come I am sure this information will come to bare fruit?

I never really thought about the role that graphic design plays on my everday life. It turns out it is pretty extensive. It is everywhere and in everything. It influences everything about our lives from soup to nuts. I guess I really never thought about that much.