Sarah Lindsay s Module 5 Reflection 1

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1 Sarah Lindsay s Module 5 Reflection 1 To: Joy Durding Date: December 9, 2010 From: Sarah Lindsay Subject: Module 5 Reflection OVERVIEW The purpose of this report is to explain my final site s audience and purpose, as well as usability and accessibility considerations I implemented throughout. I relied on assigned readings throughout the semester to support my claims and design choices, have cited my sources, and have also included color schemes, gradients, and several different logos and banners for my website. INTRODUCTION For my final project in my WRA 210 Introduction to Web Authoring class, I was instructed to great a website using a template that incorporated CSS and HTML, which we learned about throughout the semester. I decided to make my website a resume and portfolio website, which I could then use in my other classes and, once I graduate, my professional life. Though it took me a while to find a template I felt could meet the needs of my website, I knew what sort of content I wanted to include. I also have a strong background in photography (I m enrolled in a studio art photography class for non-art majors next semester) and have included both Polaroid and digital pictures I have taken over the years. ANALYSIS Audience My site is mainly for future employers. It gives them a chance to see what I ve done in the past, what I am capable of, as well as the opportunity to view my resume and read a little about me on a personal level. Professors, fellow PW students and my friends and family will also be users; I want to make the site accessible to them as well. However, I don t want to make it look like it s just a site geared towards potential employers. I want my grandparents and friends to be able to use this site and come away with it with a better idea of who I am, both at work, school and in my free time. I want to make an impression on everyone who visits my site, no matter their disposition. To appeal to employers, peers and professors, my site is composed of my Professional Writing portfolio (or at least the very beginning of it), my writing (such as fiction, poetry and non-fiction), and my photography (digital and Polaroid). I earned my BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, and I wanted to make sure that this side of me was able to show through in my site along with my Professional Writing skills and future goals (I would like to become a copy editor eventually). All of these talents are related to design and writing, and showcase my different abilities and interests. I feel they round me out as a person and give a bigger and stronger impression of me than a mere resume would or could. It s important for me to have my friends and family using my site because they have been a huge support during my time in college and in my life in general. I want them to know what I m doing with my degrees and what I ve learned from my major. This site will be a great way for me to show my parents what I ve learned and where my tuition money has begun to pay off!

2 Sarah Lindsay s Module 5 Reflection 2 Purpose My website is intended to demonstrate both my knowledge of web authoring as well as my academic prowess in Professional Writing, and in English. I wanted to build a site that shows how professional I am, but also how approachable I am as both a student, and a future employee and co-worker. Because I am planning to use this site as my portfolio after I graduate, I did my best to fulfill all of the components of an actual, physical portfolio. This particular layout appealed to me because it incorporates both the professional, solid color grey with the more youthful and eccentric electric green within its design. Joshua David McClurg-Genevese s article Principles and Elements of Design made me realize that though there is a lot of negative space in my layout, it is compensated for by the strong rhythm of the background and the balance of the headers, navigation bar and main body. It also employs a san-serif font, which, to me, looks cleaner as well as more approachable than a stuff serif font. Usability & Accessibility Considerations For my Module 3 assignment where I made a terrible website and then explained why my design choices made the site practically unusable I looked at Constance Petersen s top ten things web authors should keep in mind when designing their sites in her article Writing for a Web Audience, and did exactly the opposite of what she recommended. For this Module, I decided to use some of these same points as a reference guide when creating my portfolio site but instead, to make it more effective. 1. Emphasize key concepts. In her article, Petersen says, Make sure that emphasized keywords are visually distinct from hypertext links. I made my heading stand out by making them larger and bolder; I found this made my sections more clearly defined and separated from each other on my different pages. 2. Simplify for understanding. Use fewer words, smaller words, and simpler words, and place those words into simple sentence structures, was one of the tips Petersen gave her readers. There truly isn t much text on my website aside from my about and contact page. I wanted my work to speak for itself, minus the small explanations I gave for the work on my portfolio page. 3. Make each page stand alone. Petersen insists, Don't expect that users will enter your Web site at the home page and work their way through the site in an organized manner. Again, this is why I decided to separate my writing, my photography and my Professional Writing portfolio onto separate pages. This way, my audience knows what kind of material they will find on each different page. 4. Link wisely. Along with Petersen, the article "Where Am I?" talked about how a good website always tells the user where they are, where they've been, and where they can go. My layout is perfect for this; not only are all links to all pages available at all times, but I decided to make the link to whatever page the audience is currently on active ; in other words, there is a border around the link to the current page that lets the audience know which page they re currently on. In addition to this, the links on my site are all in blue, which distinguishes them greatly from the rest of the plain text. Once they ve been visited, the links turn purple, which allows audience members to know where they ve been previously.

3 Sarah Lindsay s Module 5 Reflection 3 5. Be current, accurate, and credible. I found that this was one of the most important items to consider when creating this site. Since I m using this site as my portfolio and a home for my resume, I need to make sure to keep it updated at all times, regardless of my job situation. So far, I have attempted to keep my site seem current by keeping my resume updated, changing the title of the book I m reading on my about page, and adding new portfolio pieces as well as photos and writing samples. While it s obvious that this site is current because everyone is creating their sites for this assignment, I have plans to continue using it throughout my academic and professional career. There were several other concerns I addressed throughout the making of my website, aside from limited knowledge of CSS and HTML coding. Thankfully, the template I downloaded was easy to manipulate and gave me plenty of space to consider the other problems I came across. In her article Your About Page is a Robot, Erin Kissane talks about the about page of many websites being too cliché, too non-specific and unclear, which deters and confuses readers. To combat this as well as reach out to my different audiences, I tried to open up on my about or home page without crossing the line into too personal or unprofessional. I talked about my goals, my current academic and professional situation, and, just to make the site seem current and updated, I included the book I m presently reading (which can also make me seem more relatable to the reader). Garth A. Buchholz says in his article Losability vs. Usability, what happens when your well-designed, user-centered Web site peaks, then starts losing traffic to a competitor? I found this question to be very relevant to me in particular; while my website is designed to make me stick out to potential employers and the like, there is a lot of competition in the field of Professional Writing. I have my peers, as well as the alumni who have graduated before me to think about; not to mention the students who will come into the major after me, who will be taught the most recent and up-to-date information about Professional Writing and web authoring. How will I be able to compete with them? I plan to continue updating my site as well as taking every opportunity I can to learn about writing, photography and design; though I want to be a copy editor ultimately, I know that I have to expand my knowledge base and keep myself versatile as well as diverse within my talents and interests. The only way I m going to be able to appeal to potential employers against new and upcoming Professional Writers is to gain as much experience as I can, and showcase them on my website as effectively as possible. I find it relevant to note that I did not take differently-abled audiences into consideration with my website. There are no audio-translations for the sight impaired, nor is the site usable without a mouse. I m not sure as to the problems this will cause for me in the future, but I see myself being able to make audio-translations of what little text I have on the site as well as making a printable document that will contain all of the information, and writing and photography samples for someone unable to use a mouse. GRAPHICS There were several different graphical elements that went into the completion and creation of my template and site, including color schemes (with their codes) for my fonts, headers, and background; gradients; 100x100 logos; banners; all of which included the colors and fonts used in my template. They are listed and shown below.

4 Sarah Lindsay s Module 5 Reflection 4 Color Schemes Fonts Headers Background Gradients

5 Sarah Lindsay s Module 5 Reflection X 100 Logos Banners BIBLIOGRAPHY Kissane, Erin. "Articles: Your About Page Is a Robot." A List Apart. A List Apart Magazine, 22 Aug Web. 09 Dec < Petersen, Constance J. "Writing for a Web Audience (Web Design & Usability)." Smartisans.com for Useful, Usable Software & Web Sites (home of SoftMedia Artisans, Inc.). IBM DeveloperWorks, Web. 09 Dec <

6 Sarah Lindsay s Module 5 Reflection 6 McClurg-Genevese, Joshua David. "Principles and Elements of Design." Digital Web Magazine. 17 Apr Web. 09 Dec < Bucholz, Garth A. "Losability vs. Usability." Digital Web Magazine. 11 July Web. 09 Dec < Powazek, Derek. "Comments: Where Am I?" A List Apart. A List Apart Magazine, 8 Aug Web. 09 Dec <