Reflection 9: After the showcase

I think one of the things that seemed to cause some confusion with my project is that people expected it to be instructional. I also sensed this with some of the other projects, too.

In general the response to my project was very positive, but I also think that people do not realize how hard it is to work with CSS or what my site really did. Some of the problems that I encountered (getting the flash to work properly in firefox, formatting without tables...etc.) involved code trickery of one sort or another. I spent alot of time on 'code junkie' sites reading about the various problems and solutions.

I think there are few people in studio (at least in 6190) that even realize why CSS is important or what it does, which is troubling to me as I see CSS as an important part of the future of the web. It is also the reason why I developed the alternate style sheet so that people could see CSS in action. CSS is also, to a certain point, part of the whole drive towards web based standards. Of course, I could have perhaps explained this better in either my project info or in the showcase.

To sum up, I really learned alot with my project. I'm glad I got to use Flash and learn it, but to be honest the accessibility and compliancy issues bother me alot. Yes, Flash is cool and definitely seems to be the 'hot' development tool at the moment.

Although I think all of the Blue Socks winners definitely deserved their awards, it did bother me that all of the winners were entirely Flash, with the only exception a hybrid html/Flash site ('walk to rhythm'). I do not know if that is typical or exactly the criteria used to judge the Blue Sock awards, but it would seem to me that accessibility should be part of the discussion. It has bothered me off and on (sometimes more, sometimes less) than UGA seems to be moving away from web compliancy and standards -- or at least, it seems some parts of the website would be of little use to those with disabilities or even very slow modems .

Michael's timely post to the listserv about accessibility and providing written transcription of audio components of websites was certainly relevant, but there is also the other side of it: text reading/audio web transcription of websites for the site impaired.

Perhaps categories for the Blue Sock award would be useful, because a site that is completely ADA and W3C Compliant is probably not going to be the prettiest.

Feedback from the showcase

Here are my comments/feedback transcribed from the showcase:

"very informative. The 'crossing off' feature for visited sites is nice. This would be a great research tool"

"very interesting. I wondered a little bit about the purpose of it, but for what it is, or anyone who was interested in spiralism, this site is very helpful"

"I liked the way after you visited each link, it crossed out the link, so you don't look at it again."

Desk crit 5: Lauren

Hi Robin,
I enjoyed looking at your project, especially your
photographs and galleries. I like the fact that you brand your
photos, and how you've explored options for changing the style
sheet on the fly. I wanted to start learning CSS this semester
and found that it over-taxed my brain -- it is just a very
different way of thinking! So, I cannot begin to know how
you managed to do it! I like how your flash piece integrates
with the the look and feel of the site, and would maybe like
to have one fewer color block element in the blue theme --
maybe the violet on the left side which is very close in value
to the blue that is used for the link blocks. I like the
colors and the background image in the blue theme, but the green
theme colors seemed to be placed or used in a way that better
conveys structure and hierarchy. If that makes any sense.

I also agree with some of the other comments you have received
that it would be nice to have the opening flash piece freeze
on the title a little longer before going into the gallery.

Thanks for sharing your site -- I would really appreciate any
suggestions you could offer on my 6190 project.
Thanks!
Lauren

Desk Crit 4: Emily P.

Cool stuff, I'm impressed! This is an excellent example
of how to make a table-free website. (Thinking about peeking
behind the scenes to learn more about that!) I like your colors,
photo series, and layout. You've also included wonderful project
and spiral resources.

Here are some quick comments for you:
Opening page flash: When the spiral swirls down
and the title appears, could you let the title stay
there for a bit longer? Maybe a few more beats, so
there's enough time to read it.

The navigation looks very professional. Again,
wonderful use of color! It would read better
if you could separate the spiral project work
from the support stuff. The "*links behind" bit was
lost on me, I tried to click it for more links. Maybe move
project resources and the * items to the very
bottom, separate them from the rest with a larger break,
and take out the * explanation. The other part of this
is the a:hover view, this would be
better if the treatment were consistent
(swapping the background color,
underlining, whatever you go with). I'm partial to the
blue navigation, it seems much more put together
than the other (although, I like having the
options between styles).

The mini photo gallery jumps from the
other layout, (with the red borders and spiral bkgd)
and does not accept the green style. It would be good
if this matched the other project pages.

Now that you've learned about CSS -- have you played
around with making your own templates for Blogger?
A challenge: make your blogger pages match the
look-and-feel of your project pages.

Oh, I just looked at your code -- I'm so excited to
see the unordered list driving your navigation!
I saw A List Apart in your resources, have you
looked at Listamatic? http://css.maxdesign.com.au/index.htm

Desk Crit 7: Jennifer Buoy In Memorial

Hi Jennifer,
I thought the structure and color design was a great choice and very appropriate for a memorial site. I feel like I now know your grandfather. :)

My only suggestion is on the intro page in the body of the text, to include some sort of navigational cue or directions, e.g., 'to start click on the photo' "click on the letters to navigate," however you might want to word it or address it. It took me a minute to figure out how to navigate. :)

Also at the end, it might be nice to sort of frame it with a similiar page summing up or even take the person back to the intro, which does such a great job explaining your project. I don't think that's necessary to your project, but something to consider.

Looks great. Understated and respectful in the best way.
Robin

Response to Ericka's critique

I did find a broken code string on the mini photo gallery, which I've fixed :) and I moved the 'home' link to the top of the menu. As for the additional image in the second css, 'green version' I added that so that people could see what CSS can do. :)

I'll check out the flash....

Desk Crit 3: From Ericka

this is a really cool way to show your artwork, and i can tell
that you learned a lot doing this project. i definitely like
the photo slide show of your artwork with the captions;
however, once you go to slide 14 then click next it goes to
slide 2 instead of slide 1. you probably should double check
that. in the mini art gallery, the links on the left have
extra spaces between them. i'm not sure if you are aware of
this or not. also, i think it is kind of weird that the first
link in the left column is not your home page. this could just
be personal preference, but i'm not sure if i like the spiral
graphic behind the links. it kind of looks weird to me since
it doesn't go down far like the spirals on the right. finally,
when you change to green i really like the sprials to the left
of the links, but they aren't there when the theme is blue.

keep in mind these are suggestions and observations. good luck
with everything.

Website consultation 04/20/2005 1 hour

Description of Service: Website consultation
Discuss content of website, audience, scope
Drek Davis Art Grad Student
Date of Service: 04/20/2005
Time spent: hours and hours 1 hour

Reflection 8: A few changes

I'm trying a new thing: creating a separate style sheet so that folks can see what CSS does. To be honest, I'm not sure anyone cares..... ;)

I also made the links outside my project open a new window. Is that a good thing? I don't know. maybe. In theory it should be.

I feel like my project is as polished as it is going to be. Is it a good web project? Not really... audience wise, it is kind of limited.

Things left to do:
Finish up my service hours
Finish my digitization
Write a final project reflection & course reflection

I think my digitization project may not be completed until after Thurs. I might even stay Thurs night to work on it. Basically, I have the video... I just need to add in a title, strip out the audio, and perhaps, add in music... I'm not sure about that part. Maybe I will work on it tonight.

My service hours are finishing Drek's website or at least, continuing to work on it. I will load the two prototypes tonight for Drek to review. In all honesty, that will finish up my service hours committment. However, I will continue to work with Drek over the next month to get his website where it needs to be.


Robin

Desk Crit 6: Ericka Mayweather Spanish language project

I thought your project looked fabulous -- very story oriented and creative. I was able to navigate through it without any problems. My only two questions/concerns were that I couldn't figure out how to pause/stop in the middle of a segment. Of course, for teaching, having a 'pause button' may not necessarily be warranted. Also, the music seems very loud. I am wondering if there is a way to control the music level on you end.

Services 04/24 8hrs

Drek Davis MFA Student/Artist
04/24/2005
8hours spent
webdesign,graphics

Desk Crit 2: Jennifer

I really like the use of color and the overall layout of your site. It is visually appealing. When your homepage first opens, I thought that the spiralism title came in a little bit delayed. If it came in sooner, it might be more beneficial for first time visitors. Also, I thought that you could have the slideshow automatically start instead of the user having to initiate the start. The last recommendation would be to have the "links outside spiralism" pages open in a new window automatically.

--from Jennifer

Reflection 7: I can't believe it validates!

Somehow I managed to write CSS well enough so that it would validate via the W3C checker. I am kind of amazed. It's definitely not the prettiest CSS (I didn't use class enough or condense the code as much as I could) but it does work fairly well.

The thing that I most happy with is that it is a tableless website (unless Dreamweaver sneaked in a table here or there!) All of the formatting is with CSS, including the embedded Flash.

The only real problem that I have had is the flash scale problem with firefox. As firefox is much more strict about coding (which is a good thing) it does weird things with the flash. If you set it to 100% or no scale, it doesn't really work properly, especially, if you're already using another style sheet.

All in all, I've learned alot about CSS and much more about using it for layout. I'm not quite to the point of submitting something to csszengarden...

If I have time before the dress rehearsal, I will put a second style sheet, so that people can apply a different style sheet in order to see how powerful CSS really is.

whew... now, I've got to finish up my service hours project and make sure that I've uploaded all of my desk crits!

Desk Crit 5: Haley Grizzle Bike Safety

I thought your project seemed user friendly and graphically appropriate for its kid friendly audience. The only problems that I had were navigational: I couldn't figure out how to go forward and back. You may have fixed those since, but as I an unable to view it, I wasn't sure.

April 7/April 21

Desk Crit 4: Dan Banks

I like the organization of your site and I think the presentation is good. My only suggestion is possibly to include some additional info, e.g., rollover titles, or info about what kind of media is used for mixed media (is it computer generated or ink?)

Desk Crit 1 Received from JP Murrell

Comments:
At 2:42 PM, JP Murrell said...

Hey Robin!

I love your artwork. One of the few things i would add is make the Spiralism Image at the top of the screen a "button" that returns your to the first page. I might even do a little bit more of an intro page that would explain the whole project. Other than that is looks great! The design is really cool.

-JP Murrell

Desk Crit 3: Julius Gantt Church website

Likes: Ease of navigation, sense of community through well chosen graphics, image/photo gallery, especially the scrolling aspects

My only suggestion was about the flash intro graphic. The center space/real estate seemed a little empty until the church name scrolled in. Also, the color seemed a little heavy on the green side. We discussed using a light gold or yellow and filling the space a little.

Overall, I think the site is well organized, shows a good sense of the subject/community and fits the intended audience.

Reflection 6: What have I learned/Where have I been

What I have learned?
the good:
--wrap text around a path in fireworks
--create flash animation using dreamweaver
--create multiple effects in flash
--create css in dreamweaver

the bad:
--I hate flash. It's too 'flashy' and is quirky depending upon browser used.
--css in dreamweaver. A mixed blessing. The wysiwyg editor seems to do weird things with a css and at times, seems to override it.
--macromedia radically changes products from one version to the next. tutorials and help in flash mx do not always apply to flash mx2004.
---does it validate? oh, I'm not even looking!

Desk Crit 2: Emily Pitts Who Owns the Octopus

Who Owns the Octopus?
I really like the graphics and I thought the logic game was a lot of fun. The color scheme is well thought out and the design is visually pleasing.

My two comments are that it might be good to have a 'help' or 'instructions' button. If you hadn't been there, I'm not sure if I would have known how to navigate. I also became confused after I matched up icons to their corresponding houses and then they reappeared in the list. Is there a way to sort out the icons, so that the once they are used, they go into a different list spot on the screen? If there was an 'instructions' button, I just missed it. My second comment would be to include tool tips. You mentioned that as a possibility and I think it is a very good idea.

This was one of my favorite projects that I saw at the dress rehearsal. It looks great, works, and has a very strong design.

Desk Crit1 Receiver Saif Altalib: Project Muslim Student Association

Project Creator/Receiver Saif Altalib:

Date reviewed: MM/YY
Comments: Saif, Thank you for the opportunity to give a desk crit. :) I think graphically it looks great. The red/greencolor scheme is used carefully and does not dominate the content of the site.
The images are small and load quickly. Additionally, they add contextual information.The navigation is comfortable and seems clear,i.e., it follows a common web navigational structure, which is generally easy for people to use and understand.

I have two comments which are more content oriented. Some of the links do not seem to work. As this may still be a prototype, this may not really be an issue. My second comment is regarding the 'contact us.' I agree that it's good to use the generic"president," "vice president," etc. in the menu, but it would be useful to include their names and contact info somewhere on the website. This may be part of your greater scheme as the links didn't open with a mailto: but pointed to a php generated page(at this time, the index).
Date reviewed: 04.05.2005
Project: Muslim Student Association
Creator: Saif Altalib
URL: http://www.uga.edu/muslim/msa