Constandina Tutten's Weblog

Chapter 3 in Creating a Web Site is entitled “putting your page on the web.”  And a lot of the content in this chapter was familiar to me.  Maybe I’m not giving myself enough credit coming in to this class!  We first learned about web hosting and the process by which a user’s browser takes an url and figures out how to retrieve the web page that was requested.  The chapter spent a LOT of time going over domain names and how to choose the right one for a new website.  This is something I have researched before.  Early in my years as a full-time mother, I decided I would use some of my time to learn about technology I could use when I reentered the workplace.  Among other things, I designed a web site (using a free template provided by the web hosting company I used) and spent a good chunk of time just playing around with it.  And I remember at the same time doing a lot of research on search engine optimization and how to obtain an appropriate, yet catchy, domain name.  At the time, I used 1and1.com for my web hosting.  One thing I did not know is that .com upper level domain names are more expensive and more in demand than other upper level domains, like .net or .biz.  But it’s true!  I know I automatically assume every website I visit ends in .com.  The remainder of the chapter dealt with transferring files to and from your web space using browser based uploading and FTP based uploading.  It seems that the ease of use is about the same for either option, but that the FTP based uploading has the advantage of allowing a user to upload groups of files at once, vs. one by one in the browser based option.

We wrapped up week 1 with chapter 17 in Creating a Web Site.  This chapter dealt with blogs and how they differ from other websites.  The honest truth is I don’t think I will ever enjoy blogging.  There is surely quite a bit positive about the idea that blogging has a greater ease of maintenance due to its more informal nature, as well as that it often requires little or no effort in the way of a “from the ground up” website design like a more traditional site.  The fact of the matter is that I am a rather introverted person and do not feel at ease in such a public forum.  However, I understand that blogs offer additional benefits in the way of networking, professional exposure, etc.and I am determined to give this blog my all this semester.  Maybe the whole process will grow on me.

Along with our reading assignments in lesson 1, we were given a number of websites to look over and review.  Both texts have companion websites, we were directed to several websites that showcased the best in web design, and also assigned to check out gimp.org for graphics.  The graphics portion of my website project is something I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about and will be a big factor in what kind of website I end up creating.  I thought about doing a personal site, but I’m really funny about photos of myself and my family being online.  I also thought of doing a website that was in some way about the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, or one of its smaller components, but worry about what kind of copyright issues I’m going to run into photo-wise, unless I make the trip to NC to take photos myself.  The 2 sites I found the most useful in this assignment were those for Favorite Website Awards, and Web Pages that Suck.  Kind of the best of the best and the worst of the worst.  I really liked the Disney World of Color website on thefwa.com, very beautiful but still simplistic.  The Bella De Soto website noted on webpagesthatsuck.com (and noted as one of the worst web pages of the decade) was truly painful to look at.  But honestly, visiting some of these sites got me thinking about other sites I regularly visit that are really not that great from a design standpoint, now that I think about it.  For example, I am a devoted watcher of Lifetime’s series Army Wives and have visited the website for the show many times, but I think it’s actually a little too “busy” and overwhelming.

Along with the chapters in Creating a Web Site, we were also assigned to read the preface in our second text, The Principles of Beautiful Web Design.  I actually went ahead and also read the first chapter of this book as well.  While this book is extremely well-written and detailed, to me it is definitely not as user friendly as the main text.  It seems to not be geared toward the novice web designer.  Granted, I realize I read ahead of the preface a bit, which primarily dealt with the idea that good web design is classic.  The first chapter really gets into the nuts and bolts of web design in terms of columns, proportion, text font, etc. I found it a bit intimidating.  But I do wonder about one thing.  There were mentions of several things that should be avoided at all costs, such as flashing banners, etc.  But I wonder, at some point are we going to get in to how the target audience affects what will be effective on a website?  I would think that there are many design components that may, say, appeal more to females than males.  And I would think if it was a website primarily for a younger audience, a flashing banner might be attention-grabbing in a good way.  But this reading assignment did really get me to thinking about what message I want to convey to the different people that may visit my site.

So now we move on to chapter 2 in Creating a Web Site.  I have to say that I am really impressed with this text.  I have several family members who work in the computer science field, and I have always felt like they were speaking a foreign language when they “talked shop.”  But this book has made this information so easily understandable for me.  I was so proud of myself for writing a web page from scratch using HTML in Notepad and then actually having it render properly in my browser that I actually had to call my dad (one of the many computer geeks in the family) and tell him about it.  I did seem to run into problems once I started trying to add photos to my page; they did not display once I checked the browser.  Also, I tried several times to go to validome’s website to check out my webpage, but I was unsuccessful as my browser kept timing out.  So I need to go back and “experiment” more with adding images, and try finding another validator I can use.  I finished this chapter feeling much more comfortable about a class I had a lot of trepdation about signing up for.  Broken down into simple-to-understand steps, the process of creating web pages does not seem quite so daunting.

I have spent quite a bit of time considering how to approach this blog assignment and have come to the conclusion that the best thing for me is going to be to break down each lesson section by section.  So this post will focus on chapter 1 in our text, Creating a Web Site.  This chapter discussed the basic terminology associated with the internet, and discussed such concepts as browsers, servers, and types of websites, and also underscored the importance of designing classic, timeless websites.  I came into this course with enough knowledge that this chapter didn’t really teach me anything new, but it was interesting to learn about the different kinds of operating systems, browsers, etc.  I started out using a pc and so have maintained a sort of loyalty to them, although I was required to use a Mac for an instructional design class I took as an undergraduate.  I have used Mozilla Firefox almost exclusively for years, and only use Internet Explorer for my classwork.  For whatever reason, I have never been able to get blackboard to work properly in Firefox, even with current, updated versions.  This chapter was a good foundation to start the course off with.

My name is Constandina Tutten and welcome to my blog!  I am in my second semester of the masters in library and information science program, and I will be maintaining this blog as part of my Instructional Graphics course.  While I do not consider myself a very technical person and have only tried blogging on one other occasion (as part of another course), I know that I will leave this course having acquired very valuable skills and knowledge in the area of web design.  I am looking forward to what this semester will bring.