Web II Reading 5

In this reading the author discusses site redesign and how to go about redesigning sites, especially old sites, to stay up to date. He discusses how using a modular grid is very basic and old fashioned but is the best way to go with the site redesign. His purpose in redesigning the site is to have a blog style. Since his website is mostly text and meant for reading he wants to keep it very simple and go with a classic blog design. I think this is really smart when you’re going for a specific use for your website to focus on that. If he were making a portfolio based website, the design would be much different and focus more on type and the graphics. When redesigning a website he said working around content is best. I think that this can be affective since throwing content into a design that isn’t at all connected could give off the wrong feel for the website. Talking more about a readable website he discusses the footer and it’s ability to make the design more slim and accessible by putting links and other necessary items in the footer neatly at the bottom of the page. I think this is a smart choice considering in a website dedicated to text and reading information, this makes it so your eye doesn’t distractedly jump around at different elements. I personally have not used a footer in one of my websites yet, but I do like the idea of having information neatly in one area AFTER the most important information. I’m used to putting all my information above the fold but I think experimenting with a different approach wouldn’t be bad. But I also think it depends on your websites purpose on whether you should use one.

http://gawker.com/

Gawker is one website while it doesn’t have a traditional footer, does have all their information and links at the bottom of the page because it is a website meant for reading.

Web II Reading 4

In the new version of CSS, CSS3, there are new style rules available. One of them being the Alpha property. Color can be determined using RGB properties instead of a numeric number. Looking at the coding you see 4 values, Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha. Alpha is opacity. I find the RGB way of determining color more time consuming and complicated than a simple code because it’s numerous values instead of one simple number. However I love the use of opacity. Using Alpha can help give your site a more distinct feel to your web site and set it apart from other websites.

http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/REC-css3-color-20110607/#rgba-color

Here you can see the code more easily explained.

Web 2: Reading 2

Although it still works very often people will use markup incorrectly which makes the codeing very cluttered, disorganized, and wrong. “Classitis” markup is using class far too often to break down for example every line just to apply styles to a cluster of information. This is old and adds unnecessary information. The proper way to go about this is to use a div id . “Divitis” use no structure and write jumbled non relative coding using far too many divs. The textbook author says that divs are good markup but easily abused by using them in place of other elements such as paragraphs. Also, inline CSS is discussed and said to take up too much bandwidth and be unnecessary. I’m not sure I agree that banishing inline CSS is all that import but I can see how the author thinks it would make for more organized codeing.

Quality assurance testing

One way to go about making a site more accessible is to use text alternatives for things like images and video. This makes it so that even if the user can’t experience the media they have a description of it. Another way is making the background easily distinguishable from the foreground. A few ways to make sure it can be operated easily are to make sure all functions are accessible by keyboard, not including flashy content that can induce seizures, and clearly marking navigation. Text should be readable, and use consistency.

To test your sites accessibility and consistency keep checking every link, proofread multiple times, and use an HTML validator

Disability and the web

Using the web with different disabilities, such as visual, could be frustrating. If they have a tool to read the words out loud, the text may be confusing or not make sense without images if the site is designed that way. Screen magnifiers exist for those with lower impairment and would help with most websites.

For cognitive and mobility impairments here are touch screens and specialized keyboards. These would help with most tasks on the computer not relating just to the web. A well designed website or maybe a website specifically for those with these disabilities would work better with this hardware.

One of my favorite sites

One of the websites I frequent is Design*Sponge.

It covers mostly interior design with the occasional posts about food, style, and hosting pretty parties. A few months ago they changed their website. I wish I could remember what it looked like but honestly I’m so used to the current one.

I really love their design. The use of actual ribbon instead of vectors looks great. Funny thing is I hated it at first. Well hate is a strong word. But I wasn’t fond of it. And now I love it! People hate change, but they eventually get used to it. When looking at the page source, it’s yikes, very complicated. But I recognize a lot of the tags and markup, which is nice. I like actually understanding a basic grasp on “How’d they do that!?”

I also love how organized it is. The side where it says “I want to” lets you browse their large amount of posts by theme. And they post an awful lot. A few times every day.

Grawr

I was having serious issuers with CSS. I must have looked everywhere for WHAT I was doing wrong. I copied everything right. And…it wasn’t working. I even ran my coding through a validater, it basically acted like I had no CSS. And then a lightbulb. or rather, a duh moment. Style tags! How’d I miss that important step?! Well I’ve got it now.
For the record, coding isn’t my thing. Tedious black and white subjects aren’t something I do well in. I’m better in abstract things. Ah well, I’m getting the basics so let’s see where it takes me. I have a pretty picture in my head of my future website with my portfolio all beautiful and stuff. So hey, that’s the goal.

ello

first post here. Not much to say but hello and looking forward to having more interesting posts.