Web Development

Project One

This was our first project as real website creators, and I have to say it was a really thrilling experience. While it wasnt always easy, it was good for my brain to push myself to these new limits. I chose to create a photo gallery of sorts of my trip to Europe this past summer.

Struggles Faced:

This project, while it seemed easy at first, was a test of my determination, creativity, and capability to learn and apply new skills on my own. I faced a few struggles along the way, but I would say that the biggest one was making sure my files were all named, organized, and sourced correctly. That created a few issues for me along the way: for instance, I would change the name of an image file in my folder, but I had already linked that image using its original name, and was really confused to see it disappear. Although looking back, it was a very simple fix, I was really confused at what went wrong at the time.

Things I'm Proud of:

One thing I’m really proud of is the way that my photos on the second and third page are in an interactive gallery. That sounds cooler than it actually is, but basically when you click on a photo, it will open that image in new tab. I added many photos to my project which was tricky in the sense that I had to ensure everything was named and sized properly, but I’m proud that I got them all working in the end.

Things I Learned:

In all honesty, I wish I would have worked on this more on the front end versus in finishing touches, because by the time I went to wrap up my project, I realized I could have done a lot more with the actual content, but by then it was too late. This is something I hope to improve on in the future. Even still, it was fun to see everything come together, and the rush I felt from fixing a code that wasn’t working properly was a fantastic feeling.

Project Two

This was our second project which required us to create three panels of the same web page. Panel one was only allowed to have bootstrap starting code and css. Panel two was essentially the content from panel one placed into a bootstrap template, however, we were not allowed to create a custom style sheet to alter the css. Finally, panel three was a duplicate of the panel two html plus an added custom style sheet so we could create it look just how we wanted. All in all, it was an interesting project that taught me a lot about building webpages from different starting points.

Struggles Faced:

The sheer volume of time and attention to detail quickly became a struggle for me. Especially since I felt that I did not have a grasp on the idea or the grid system until the Thursday before it was due, I set myself up for an extremely difficult task, as I had a whole lot to do in only a little bit of time. With that being said, I know my panel one suffered because of this. There were many things I felt I couldn't get quite right, but when I attempted to put in time to fix them, I found that I could only help but shift my focus to the other two panels. I cared more about making sure they looked presentable, therefore my panel one wasn't near my best work at all. I had to be realistic about meeting the deadline, so I decided to shift my focus to altering the bootstrap-made templates rather than building from scratch.

Things I'm Proud of:

It’s very simple, but I am very proud of how my panel three turned out. In my opinion, it looks clean, professional, and effective. I especially like the responsive gallery that I added on both panel one and panel three because I think it ties all of my work together and displays my photos very nicely. I am a fan of the color scheme and typefaces I chose, and with a few alterations, I believe that I could truly use this website as a starter for a real functioning photography website sometime soon!

Things I Learned:

The question is more so “What didn’t I learn”... (just kidding there's plenty I still don't know) but I truly feel like there were so many questions that I had about this entire process that were soon answered once I really started working on the project. I researched everything under the sun to fix the things I wanted to fix, and I can now carry all of that information with me to the next project. Specifically for panel one, it took going to office hours and having the grid system re-explained for me to understand it, but it's now something I am comfortable with. I also learned a lot about linking pages to one another and linking starting points within the page.

Project Three

This was our third major project of the semester which involved creating two separate WordPress sites: one for commerce and one for content. We could choose any topic to build our websites around. For the content website, I chose to create an “Athens Summer Concerts” site that shared information on upcoming Athens concerts. For my commerce website, I chose to create an online storefront for vintage t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies.

Struggles Faced:

If I’m being honest, this project was a very big struggle, from learning the WordPress program initially to trying to organize my content, I felt very lost in the system. I had to call on a lot of YouTube tutorials and blogs to understand how to navigate through the different panels, but eventually, I was able to get things where they needed to be. Additionally, I found that having 2 projects going at once was a struggle for me, as it was difficult to know how to allocate my time.

Things I'm Proud of:

It took me a while to find WordPress themes that I actually liked, and I feel that my extensive searching was worth it in the end. I like the themes that I ended up using, and I liked how I could manipulate them to make them my own. Though I had a difficult time, I am proud of the overall amount of work that I put into this project. My results are nothing impressive and probably very underwhelming, but I will take it as a success given how much time and energy I invested. Lastly, I am proud of the concepts that I chose to do. I think they gave me great content that I turned into informative websites.

Things I Learned:

A whole lot- from how to use the WordPress program to why it advances my web development skills. At first, it felt like throwing away all of the HTML knowledge we accumulated, but I finally came around to understanding how it just exponentially enhances it and built a mental model of WordPress around that. I also learned many technical skills relating to WordPress, such as how to alter the colors and fonts, how to organize my posts and pages, and how to install and activate plugins. While these are just some of the basics, I know I will continue to learn new skills that will advance my WordPress ability even further.