Week 2 Analysis: Site Launch Feedback

For this weeks assignment, Analysis: Site Launch Feedback, we were to view a video which showcases our professor giving past students feedback on their created website for their fictitious company. This was to help us understand what to do and what to avoid for our projects submission. It also helps us become more aware of what we need to look out for when editing our website.

What struck you most about the sites reviewed?

What struck me most about each site was the professional looks of the website. I was also struck by what I was feeling that I liked and disliked about each site as they were being reviewed. I have a better understanding of what I expect of my own website. I was also shocked that it seemed like there weren't enough use of the stock images. I will make sure to use the images given to me for my business. It's also good to know how imprtant brand consistancy is. That seemed to be a heavy topic, so I will make sure to keep that in mind for my project.

Identify 3 specific issues discussed - How will you avoid the same mistakes on your own site?

Three issues that were discussed during this video:

1.     Incorporate focus points higher in on the page.
To avoid this mistake, I will make sure to place any information of significance, higher up on the page and make it stand out more, so it’s a clear focus piece to the viewer.

2.     Make sure that each page is consistent with it’s information, headers, and footer.
To avoid this mistake, I’ll make sure to have all the headers, and footers remain in the same positions on each page, to avoid any confusion for the viewer.

3.     Usability issues.
I’ll make sure that any and all the links on my webpage work.

What do you need to spend more time researching?

I’ve learned I need to spend more time looking at other websites, similar to my companies, to gain a better understanding of what these websites brands represent. Also, doing research on similar businesses so I can gain a better outlook on what kind of content I need to be writing up and adding to my website. I also need to figure out what information is the most important to my viewer, and where I can place that information to make it easily accessible to my viewer.

What will you do differently as a result of seeing this feedback?

From seeing this feedback, I’ll make sure that I’ve provided all working links, no dumbie, text, and a consistent look. Consistency is key! Making sure that the color is synced, the fonts are consistent, text, spelling and grammer are correct, and the headers and footers are consistent. I’ll also make sure that my users don’t have to scroll so much, and navigate everywhere in order to find information they need. Then, I need to be sure that I do not place a dense paragraph of text. Breaking up text with short sentences and bulleted information is really important to creating a clean page.

Week 4 Lynda.com Certification: Writing Articles

Today I watched Writing Articles on Lynda.com. First off, I had no idea that there were different ways to write articles so that was already shocking for me. I loved when the speaker Tom Gellar said “have your motivation, topic, structure, and story in place before you write.” This is so important for me. If I’m writing on a topic that bores me, it’s a massively daunting task to create an engaging story for the reader and myself. Learning about Scriviner, which help you organize your materials, was nice to find out about. I’m someone who has to have my materials in order before I start anything because it makes my process easier. I didn’t know that video and audio articles existed and I also hadn’t realized that articles are nonfiction, because I hadn’t thought about it. Learning the different kind of articles types was also fun; features, news, reviews, commentary, promotional, research, and how-to’s. I personally write a lot of reviews and I hadn’t realized I’m writing a form of article.

Doing proper research is so important now, because the internet has so much information available, you can find truths and non truths on any topic you research. The most helpful tips I learned were to go for research. I learned about Google Scholar.

Week 3 Lynda.com Certification: iPhone Photography

Today I watched a lesson on Lynda.com on how to create and edit photos taken with the iPhone. As someone who takes photos constantly of people, for my work, gaining knowledge of how to create beautiful is so important. My iPhone6 Plus is what I use on a daily basis, to try and capture the tones I’ve created on clients hair and makeup. This Lynda.com lesson has been really helpful for me because my photos showcase my artistic ability and that really helps me gain clientele. I did appreciate the other camera applications that were listed, which I’ve now downloaded. Being able to tap and focus and train the exposure is awesome!

Portfolio Project Submission: GDC Personal Brand

Star Rating Sought: 1

Project Description:
For my Personal Brand project, the objective was to create a logo, brand, and theme that could be projected onto websites, mobile sites, business cards, etc. My personal goal was to take my real life business and create a new logo and expand on that logo. I decided upon a color theme that was appropriate for my business and expanded it into a logo, that included my businesses name, Mod Muah.

Link to Deliverable:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8BwV1FqKccNX3ltWEktVE5NSDA/edit

Feedback Received:For my original submission, my instructor thought my theme was to purple. I decided to change my background color and adjust the fading purple elements on each item shown to make it look more professional.

Resources Utilized:
Adobe Photoshop CC

Portfolio Project Submission: DAA Reflection: Project Revision and Portfolio Submission

Star Rating Sought: 1

Project Description:

For this project we were to expand upon our Self Portrait video project from the previous month. The self-portrait project was meant to focus on showcasing yourself through video by using adobe Premier Pro. For the audio portion of the project, I added additional sound effects, and adjusted the background music. The objective of this project was to learn how to use Adobe Audition to create better quality sound to video previously created. In this project, I wanted to create music that complimented my video and add vocals that further defined the text that was displayed across the video.

Link to Deliverable:

Feedback Received:
When revising this project, I had received feedback from my peers and instructor to adjust the background sound effect I had previously used. I ended up removing the sound effect all together.

Resources Utilized:
Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014, Adobe Audition CS6, and YouTube.com