Reflections

The process of creating a Web site during this class has been beneficial to me in immeasurable ways. I have finally created a web site from beginning to end and everything in between. Until now, I had always focused on individual elements of a web page such as coordinating the body text with a feature color for subheadings and with a background color. I also had some experience with tables and I really spent time and enjoyed creating graphics for the web using Fireworks. But this project demanded that I begin the process with a proper flowchart. It also required that I think through my navigation method more carefully. I also followed through to the completion stage where I actually posted my site to the Internet; this had never been done before. I have gained so much knowledge in this short time that I couldn't possibly put it all into words!

Web Authoring Tools Used

The first part of this project was done using the Site Builder provided by Tripod. I also used Word for typing, editing and counting words. Inspiration was a very inportant part of making the flowchart for the site. The Quizzes and Final Project were created in Dreamweaver and I spent some time with Fireworks adjusting the images a little bit. Top of page

Challenges

Because of my prior exposure with web design, there were few challenges encountered during this project except the rush to complete the assignment withing the time constraints. The reading required by the course itself was demanding because of the digital textbook and articles. Top of page

Solutions

I stayed up late every night after my family was snoring! And I purchased the hard copy of the textbook; this, I will always treasure.

Posting Problems

The biggest challenge I encountered was trying to upload the site created in Dreamweaver into a free Tripod account. I was convinced that a free Tripod site would not support Dreamweaver files. Thankfully, I was wrong - I communicated with my classmates who corrected me in that regard and encouraged me to keep trying. I also remembered reading somewhere that many hosts require the index page to have an .html extension instead of .htm, that did the trick!

Thanks...

I am grateful to my instructor for challenging me to give this project 100% and to my classmates for bringing up design issues that I would not have thought of on my own. In the real world, larger websites are created by a team of designers, not just one person. Given the opportunity, I would gladly work with this fine group of educators again!    Top of page