Learning Report: Nashville State Community College Web Design Capstone

The Report

The first step for the team to take once the client details were finalized was to begin with a needs analysis for our clients.  Because of the differences in expertise, the team thought it most beneficial to pull together our individual points of view for the client questionnaire.  Initially we all were responsible for a portion then presented our ideas to the group.  What we found was, although each of us had unique questions, the majority was similar.  Our reoccurring theme seemed to revolve around audience targets and site examples, both of which aided in our visualization of the sites.  The remaining questions centered on design, graphics/logos, and site components.

After completing a questionnaire, we began discussions about what specialized focus each of us could bring to this project.  Although specific specialties were not outlined, it did bring out the core of our concentrations from our contributions.

LePooch & Co.

For the first mock up we completed, LePooch, it took all three of us offering up individual visions to get the creative juices flowing.  I began with mine created through Adobe Photoshop CS3 – my web design first-tool-of-choice.  After attending Digital Imaging 1, I learned to love the flexibility of Photoshop for creating a site design.  After condensing the deign vision, we decided to move forward with the mock created by Krystal.  After that the first site started to come alive.  Jessica began to create templates for the homepage and corresponding pages.  After we received our initial and corresponding comments from Denise, LePooch’s owner/operator, we received the final business outline and began to insert content into the pages.  Having the knowledge attained through my Dreamweaver CS3 class, I was not only able to read the code entered in by another coder, but I was able to help alter specifics to help meet the need of the content to fit the design.

Because I was mainly involved in the Blueprint stage of this site, I was not directly impacted by design/coding problems that arose. 

EnVigur

For our second business owner, Ray Langton with EnVigur, the process began similarly.  I offered up my version of a mock up to the group for feedback. Again, we decided to work from a template Krystal came up with. Because after all submitted mockups, Krystal was identified as a solid designer-relative to the others in the group. While my design skills are strong, in this group, my strengths were better served in proposal writing and preparing the images for the galleries. Also, because she was more involved with the design, she also decided to work up the templates for the index file and the individual pages.  My work came in thereafter to fill in the content, modify both the HTML and CSS to accommodate the content, and build an image gallery, accompanied with JavaScript, to finalize all expectations by Ray.  This is where the knowledge from my Dreamweaver and HTML class came in very handy. 

I was able to decipher Krystal’s code with ease and make necessary adjustments to make it all work.  Although I wish I could say the required Introduction to HTML was enough to help with this task, the work we were asked to complete with this project was more involved than what was presented by the class.  Through recommendations of various staff members and outside web designers I began an outside concentration into CSS.  I found a few books, HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS and The Art and Science of CSS, helped to make the process more of a hobby than work.  Through their examples I was able to meet the needs of both the client and W3C standards.

From my Introduction to Web Design class, I was able to emphasize the usability from the audience’s perspective to alter existing code that tailored to the client’s content.  The template creation process is an indispensable resource that aids in the formation of a site, but I will now always remember to keep an open mind when adding the content. 

Combined with the experience from my most recent Photoshop II class, I was able to enhance the photos that were provided to us by Ray.  Most of the photos were well taken, but added contrast and the occasional levels adjustment helped to make the pictures of the rooms and beach scenes with a sky background better eye-catchers. 

From my perspective, the errors that surfaced for the EnVigur site had to do with the difference of coding from a template and implementation perspective.  Most of the coding practices that were used created great templates, but did not translate over to the content-filled side.  Most of the errors that I ran across were easily trounced.  By allowing most of the inherited CSS properties and values to do their work, the errors seemed to vanish.  There were some times that the CSS had to be rewritten to correctly translate what the client expected.  In those times I relied on my past site-building experience, and outside debates/conversations with web design professionals, to make all necessary corrections.