Menu Formats

I have been playing around with menu formats very quickly on Adobe Illustrator because this can quickly be transferred into Dreamweaver. I would like to include rollover images as some of my buttons, as I believe this is an interesting addition to a site that makes it easier and more fun to navigate. Colours show you can click, where you've been, where you've left to go.

SKETCHBOOK WORK

Personal Promotion Site

Portfolio

Link to Blog

Education

Influences

Essays

Sketchbooks


I need to consider who the website will be aimed at.
I need to carefully plan the navigation round the site prior to taking my thoughts into dreamweaver. It is impossible to do without careful planning especially when you get to making links around the pages.
What is the image/voice of my site.

Ideas
I wish to create a primary navigation bar at the top of the page beneath the header. This will include education, approach, projects, sketchbooks, essays, blog






I have been considering the layout for my site. I will have a header bar with by name and site name at the top of the page with a primary menu beneath it. The secondary menu will appear below this. Images can scroll across the middle (see sketchbook> as a banner, with expandable links. There will be short written article about each feature.





It detrimental to plan my site properly before going into dreamweaver so I have started doing this in my sketchbook. There is no harm in picking up skills in dreamweaver at the same time so I have been doing so without focusing too much on what i'm doing being suitable for my final site.

PERSONAL DEADLINES

Planned timetable for work...


Week One - Briefing/Induction

Start up blog, start thinking about ideas for site and video media


Week Two - Workshop

Research other sites, start taking notice of their layouts and paths through site. What works well? What doesn't?
What is important to me on my site.


Week Three - Encoding and uploading streaming media

Map drive. Generate ideas for video. Start using Dreamweaver


Week Four- Tutorials

Dreamweaver tutorial with Graham 2pm. Get questions ready for this, what do I need to know specifically for my site. What have I been struggling with whilst playing around with Dreamweaver?

Week Five - Tutorials

Site @ 2.50pm. Speak to John about ideas. Is there anything I need help with or unsure about? Discuss what is going well.

Week Six - Mid Semester Review

Complete tutorials this week in Flash and HTML with Chris Jackson
Wednesday and Thursday at 1.30pm

Week Seven - Group Presentation

Ten minute presentation on website progress. Want to have my idea set out by then, maybe some visuals, and page and menu planning. Be ready to make video too.


Week Eight - Tutorials

Whatever video I have decided to have included in my site have ready for this week and get it uploaded.


Week Nine - Tutorials

Finish all visuals to go on site. Collate all work and essays to be included on the site. Get them all saved in one folder so they are ready to use once working on final thing in Dreamweaver.


Week Ten - Group Presentation

Will have video on homepage to show and most of the site created


Week Eleven - Easter

Finishing up site, making sure it works online. Will have a lot of core module work to do by this point on final major project so I need to be very prepared and organised.


Week Twelve - Easter

Tidy up work, sketchbook, blog. Post to blog a personal critique of project, responses to the module. What have I learnt? What did I enjoy?


Week Thirteen - Assessment

What I want from this module.

We have discussed and concluded that we actually want to progress down different routes. So we have decided to work alone but still keep chatting about our ideas in order to improve them.

I wish to create a personal promotion website that will display my work, ideas, blogs, and influences. I'm sure even more factors will emerge for this through the ideas generating process.

Although much of my work is not yet ready for final portfolio display I believe it will be beneficial to start creating a hosting interface at this stage in preparation. Even if it is not one I use permanently, it will surely take me through a learning curve and I will gain experience and insight into web design. Consequently I will be able to continually improve it to a high standard or start from scratch producing an even better designed one in the future. I want to learn skills on this module that will broaden my potential as a designer.

Group Work

Decided to work as a group with Chris and Alex. This morning we have discussed a few possibilities:


* creating styles of opening credits for films, using the overlay of film and animated vector graphics

* a collation of our research blogs, providing a well structured reference point for students

* photographic documentation around Liverpool of regeneration process (or pehaps degeneration)

Initial Response to Brief

Being given a simple brief as creating a website, there is opportunity for an experimental response with a very open theme. My first notions include creating a story site that is entered in a playful way. I remember being fascinated as a child with books that have choices to be made. These involved choosing if the character ventured into the woods or down the road, then you turn to a page that is a continuation of the choice you made. This means that many different interlinking stories are contained within the single publication. I am thinking about creating a website with this kind of decision process involved within it.