Final Post

Hello, This blog contains an archive of my readings and thoughts for an Instructional Technology Studio (Design) Class (6190). I will not be updating this blog again. These writings and materials are presented as an archive of graduate level work in the Instructional Design & Development program at UGA (Studio 2) in 2005, which was meant to be a second Master's Degree. Due to a serious health issue at the time, I did not finish that program. Materials for my work in IDD program include my project journals, documents and links to projects (hosted elsewhere) for Studio 1 (project: Spiralism, a CSS/flash based online exhibit) , Studio 2 (project: SPARC, CSS/standards; interviews with artists on creativity), and Introduction to Instructional Technology (readings, presentations).

Reflection10: Project Management Journal in Blogger

Dr. Orey and others,
I am interested in your response to a project management journal done using some sort of journaling/blogging tool. I chose to use blogger because it was free and I didn't have to setup anything (so it is something that any student could use). I could have easily set up a journal utilizing a different software.

One thing that I was hoping was that people would give me deskcrits via the commenting feature of blogger. Only one person did, everyone else emailed me, although the give a desk crit goes to blogger. I'm not sure if that was because it was different from everyone else, people just preferred email, or something else.

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.

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

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!

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!

Reflection 5: What I've learned and What I still need to figure out

Well, I now have a project with a name: SPIRALISM and I have my service hours taken care of. Well, at least planned for! YAY!


Regarding my project:
-It will be spiral based although I am still trying to figure out layout...
-I have the color schemes: blues, purples, white and light orange for accent colors


What I need to figure out or learn:
Can a spiral navigation path work within a website? Thinking beyond the box of the screen, how can I make it both organic, yet logical?
How do I create a short organic flash movie that opens and closes without input from the user? The open part is easy, what I am having a little trouble figuring out is the closing...
How can I utilize CSS to do all of this? Flash movie/html but the rest using CSS/HTML?
Do I have enough spiral images?

Reflection 4: Class project and inspiration

So our class project was to find a website and an object (which could be photographed) which inspires us in terms of design. Inspiration is a really hard thing for me to define in such limited terms, although I am inspired on a regular basis. In fact, I'm full of ideas which are refractions and reflections of objects I see, ideas from people that I meet, words in conversation,etc. I am seriously considering changing my project from something color related to a website on spirals. I would like to build a whole website around a spiral. What do you think?


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For the purposes of this homework assignment I wrote:
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----begin class post----
Wow, inspiration is one of the hardest things to define...

I find inspiration in a lot of different places. In many ways I am inspired by spiral imagery, both physical and symbolic, in a terms of design and my artwork.

The first photo is a few spiral paperclips scattered on a piece of paper. What I like about them are the simple shapes (triangle, square, circle) and colors (red, green, blue).
----end of class post-----
-----------------------------------------

I am not exactly sure why I am so drawn to spirals. Perhaps, it is the natural elements and the old golden rule of mathematics (they are both orderly yet creative)...or perhaps, it is their use in celtic imagery...

Here are a few interesting websites I found about spirals.



A very mathematical description of spirals
Celtic symbolism
celtic spirals
Spirals in Nature, science & art


...and of course...
fractals

Sacred Symbolism: The golden rule & more

Reflection 3: Project thoughts

I was a little worried about the whole flash aspect of my website but I think I'll be ok with that. The idea is to take the color wheel (at least the primary & secondary colors) and make it either interactive or demostrative.

At this point, I am thinking about using these little squares



oh, and here are my two flash things I made in class.

embedding them didn't seem to work in blogger so here are the links
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~fay/IT/projects/morph.swf
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~fay/IT/projects/robin.swf

Reflection 2: Project thoughts

Well, it sounds like the color thing might turn into something really cool (possibly). As I think about this a little I wonder whether I have taken all an 'infinite' project. There are so many tangents to color from tones, shade, to rgb vs. cmyk to emotional aspects of color to the history of color to pure pigments. I could pick ONE color and do a whole project. Such as RED.

I recently read a book called COLOR: A Natural History of the Palette, Victoria Finlay, Random House, 2004. It follows the author as she crosses the world searching for the origins of color. Part travelogue, part adventure story, part art & regional history, part journal. I've briefly read/studied the origins of dyes and pigments in school (as a precursor to making color wheels, value & graduation triangles, etc.), but the way these stories are presented, it is easy to see that value, history and religious/political/cultural importance of color.

For example, red, crimson, comes from an insect (cochineal). These animals are still harvested for their blood to tint paint, cosmetic products, and according the author cherry coke.

Gives new meaning to blood red, hmm?

Reflection 1: Project thoughts

Ok, so I started out thinking that my EDIT 6190 project would be a perfect opportunity to give this some love and really make it a great resource:



...but then Dr. Orey mentioned to the class that he was trying to get a graphic design SIG, but that he would like to somehow capture that info. The topics to be covered were design/layout, fonts, and color.

Ah, color. Although I am a font addict (I admit it~ I had close to 1000 at one time) color is my old friend. Anyhow, I offered as my project to somehow incorporate the color component of the SIG into a project on color & color theory. I am not sure where I am going beyond that.

Now, I know this project should be fun :) but for anyone who knows me they know that I am all about color. (I have taken color theory workshops in the past and of course, studied color theory through art classes)

I get bored in drawing classes if there is no color (beyond b&w!)

So, here is what I hope to include:
-SIG Color components (whatever material/formats)?
-My own color resources links (I have tons of bookmarks)
-Suggested readings links (a few very good books on color & color theory & online books )
-Good uses/bad uses of color (screenshots & links)
-Some kind of color demonstration or interactive color mixer (a flash thing)

What do you think? I know it sounds like work, but I swear that this will be fun for me. :)

Robin

Welcome!

Hi and welcome to my EDIT reflection journal. I will be posting my reflections, desk crits, etc. here.