Week One
Prompt: What do you hope to achieve in this class by the end of the term? Are there special projects or technologies you’d like to see covered by the end of the term? Is there a site (or two) that gives you butterflies in your stomach? What is it?
Response: By the end of the term, I'd like to have a handle on the basics of HTML. Even before that, perhaps, I'd like to gain a better understanding of the applications of coding in general. It feels very elusive in my mind right now, and it feels difficult jumping right into it right now. I’m feeling like I need a super-simplified breakdown- which is why I’m finding the readings to be super helpful supplementation. The two apps we’re currently using, Visual Studio Code and GitHub still confuse me a bit. I’m not clear on their purposes and uses. This being said, a review of possible tech would be helpful! For instance, do most people use VSC and Github? Are these specifically beginner-friendly, or more industry standard? In conclusion, (as a super-beginner) I feel I’m going to have to really get to the basics before I can recognize special tech or projects I’d like to cover. One thing did catch my eye in class the other day, though- scrolling-activated animations. I love it when websites have these, so I’m excited to get to learn this specific skill. I love the website for Glossier- a trendy makeup company. It's understated and restricted in it's use of many different colors, using a light pink as the main accent which creates a cute, feminine touch. The large images of their beautifully packaged products make me want to click, and ultimately, buy.
Week Two
Prompt: What are you planning to do for project 1? What content do you plan to show? How will you make each page unique while maintaining a cohesive design across the project? How will your color palette, imagery, and typography choice complement your subject matter?
Response: For project 1, I’m planning on doing a personal food log. Each of the 5 content pages will represent 1 day, where I will feature pictures and descriptions of each food item I consumed that day. I want to photoshop each image so that only the food itself is showing, like a cut out mask on a colored background. I hope to involve some interaction within the photo content- for instance: when you roll over an image of a food item, I want to show it gone/eaten/unwrapped. I’m thinking of featuring a “spotlighted meal of the day” on each subpage. I thought collecting my own content would be a good way to ensure a cohesive design. Each page will be unique in its visual content because the images themselves will be different, allowing for the introduction of new shapes, forms, and colors on each page. Though I plan on maintaining a color scheme, of course, each page may involve a slightly different layout/placement of color blocking. Hopefully the variety of images will create uniqueness to the pages. I will likely be sampling colors from my images for the colors used in the design. I’m also considering choosing just 2 or 3 colors- maybe a warm colored palette- and using them throughout the site. My typography will complement my subject matter by reinforcing the “journal” aspect of my concept. I plan to have some of the text and images overlap. Besides that, I’m still unsure about my typographical choices- I’ll explore this more in my design comps.
Inspiring site of the week: Apple. The scrolling activated animations are awesome.
Week Three
Prompt: This weeks journal prompt, I want you to clearly imagine one user who'll love to use your Project 1 website. This user could be you, it could be someone similar to you, it could be someone completely opposite from you, it could even be a non-human animal or an alien or an amoeba. You get to choose. Really imagine what they are like in their mind. What do they spend their time on? what are their hobbies, clothes, music, favorite foods, books, tv. what's their personality like. Once you've imagined this person. write about them. just a paragraph, three to five sentences. try to have fun with it.
Response: Perhaps a fellow vegetarian or college student would love to use my website. I think it could be compelling to other people who don’t want to eat meat but also aren’t super health freaks. Very specific hobbies of this person might include carrying more groceries back from the store than they can comfortably hold, but forgetting some kind of necessity they were supposed to pick up, listening to the same songs over and over again, and fighting the urge to put stickers on everything.
Week Four
Prompt: Read this short article https://hbr.org/2019/08/learning-is-supposed-to-feel-uncomfortable and this one on resistance https://www.mindful.org/the-neuroscience-of-resistance-and-how-to-overcome-it/. Considering these articles, make a list of 5 things to keep you going when you feel resistance or discomfort.
Response: Five things to do when I experinece discomfort: 1. Remember that it's important that I feel discomfort- it means I'm learning. 2. Don't be afraid to show that you don't know how to do something. 3. Keep the overwhelmed feelings at bay by handling one thing at a time and asking for help. 4. Welcome the feeling in instead of trying to push it out- have emotional courage. 5. Push yourself (without being hard on yourself) to learn instead of giving up.
Week Five
Prompt: Response to Umoju Miller talk.
Response:
Week Six
Prompt:Why did you choose the business/cause that you chose? Why do you think your redesign will be better? What area/content will you focus on in your redesign? Look at two other similar websites. What stands out about those sites? What bothers you about them? How will you improve things in your own design?
Response:I chose Pajaro as my redesign business because I love their mission and I’ve always appreciates the aesthetic that they’ve curated. They didn’t have a website before, only an Instagram page and logo. So, I wanted to take their awesome aesthetic direction and make something that would be helpful to both the company and the customers. In my redesign, I focused on showing off the beautiful photography they feature on their Instagram by creating a gallery-like homepage. Something I noticed about other sites is an overly complicated and overcrowded home page. I don’t think people need to know everything about your cafe immediately, I think I should let them navigate further into the site if they have that interest. Also, I think cluttering up the images with text can really deter the attention away from the content of the images and the chance to show off the product. So, Pajaro’s gallery really shone through in this project.
Week Seven
Prompt: None: Focus on Project 2
Response:n/a
Week Eight
Prompt: Read this article on mobile-first design and share your thoughts on mobile-first vs desktop first. https://medium.com/@Vincentxia77/what-is-mobile-first-design-why-its-important-how-to-make-it-7d3cf2e29d00
Response:When I was designing for Project 1 and 2, I designed for desktop first. It seemed like that was they way that would make sense, and even after reading the beginning of the article, I felt like creating a more detailed and fleshed out version of the design felt intuitively like the thing to do. Desktop felt more “important” even though mobile phone internet usage is skyrocketing, and I know it. After getting through the rest of the article, though, I totally understand why designing mobile first is better. When they talked about the mobile version being an “afterthought” I understood. It's true, it will feel disappointing when all of the cool features you designed for desktop are unusable in mobile.
Week Nine
Prompt: This one's about "why." Read this article (try to pretend it's not a cheezy article about business success). Spend some time thinking about why you are pursuing a career in design. Really dig down, do the 7 "whys" tool in the article. OR If that's too challenging right now, consider people in your life or people who've inspired you. Think about what drives them, what their "why" is. Why did they work so hard to do XYZ, was it from past experiences they had, was it because they saw a need they were called to fill? What's their deeper "why?" Ask them if you know them, or look up some biographical information and try to figure it out. Write about either you or your inspiration. Add an inspiring site of the week. This one's not a site, but I love the idea of a vector illustration a day and I like that she did them in series'. https://medium.com/the-100-day-project/100-days-of-vector-illustration-6f2f10209b0b
Response: My reasons why -I do design because I like to be creative. -I like to be creative because that is just the way my mind works. -I enjoy this process because creating something of my own and sharing it is fulfilling. -It is fulfilling, and I am pursuing my education in order to learn and grow even more, with a community of other students. -I do this because I want to have a career in which I get to be creative and collaborative- I just want to do something that makes me happy and fulfills me.
Week Ten
Prompt: Fill out a self evaluation for Project one: https://forms.gle/5HiADMQTuvg2M7LCA Fill our a self evaluation for Project two: https://forms.gle/izX8si2y9wsP67zt7