Digital ME project self-evaluation.

Here is the link to my website:

http://www.samanthafreeman.site90.net

                In this project named “Digital ME”, our task was to produce a portfolio website containing at least 5 pages using both HTML and CSS. This portfolio had to show off our work and skills to the best of our ability, as well as to give us the chance of an online presence – a very important factor in finding a career in multimedia.

                Firstly, I made a mood board to explore my general interests, colour and typography I could use within my site later on. I also looked at other people’s websites as inspiration before starting my designs. Another important step towards the beginning of the project was coming up with wireframes for my 5 pages within my website. This is where I came up with my final pages: “Home”, “About Me”, “Gallery”, “Video”, and “Contact” pages. These wireframes also made me realise I wanted to produce a 2 box layout in HTML and CSS – this is where floating was needed to get a right-aligned navigation bar, which I learned independently to get my desired layout.

                After all the layout was pretty much sorted as I had planned it, I started to produce some drawings and illustrations to possibly use within my website layout. For instance, I produced my header and navigation by doing drawings with black pen, then scanning and manipulating them on Photoshop to the correct dimensions and optimised appropriately. I also did this with a scan of squared paper to be used as my main background. I feel the process of optimisation was very important when uploading images onto my pages as it helped greatly with image loading times, which I noticed are pretty reasonable now my website is online.

Optimisation is also something I did when using video within my website. For instance, to experiment with loading times, I converted my latest moving image H.264 file into an MPEG which I uploaded onto Vimeo and embedded within my “Video” page. I feel this piece of video is not as good quality, but still does its intended job of loading quicker than the original very large file.

I came across a small amount of problems whilst working in Dreamweaver, such as previews changing between the software and in a browser window. This meant I had to try to discover what the problem was by myself until I got it right. I found this quite frustrating at times but I think I worked most of my main issues out before my website needed finishing.

Overall, I think the final outcome of my website is quite effective and I think my use of floating in my layout is more successful than it would have been with just a 1 box layout with navigation above the content. I also liked my colour scheme throughout my website, which is mainly why I decided against using different colours on each page like I had originally planned. I also think my mix of images, typography and embedded objects is balanced well throughout the pages and have kept it simple enough for the audience to cope with.

If I did this project again, I think I would spend more time on producing high quality imagery and illustration for the design of my website to enhance the aesthetic experience for the audience. If I did this in the future now my site is online, I feel my portfolio could be more effective at its purpose of attracting possible employers to my work.