I could never have imagined the amount of work that is required, or the expected level of commitment that this course commands a year ago. Keeping down a full time job and supporting a family is one thing, but doing this and attempting to further my academic progression is near impossible when your employer is less than flexible.
Sometimes, I regret my emotive obsession for perfection, as each assignment draws closer to submission. That said, despite sleep deprivation I am never discouraged, or inclined to be hopeless of success therefore, I always achieve each deadline. Thankfully, with every assignment I complete, I am beginning to suppress my intolerable behaviour and focus on what is essential. To identify possible implications that could affect my future progression, I have reviewed each of the assignments I have completed.
A1 Sketchblog and Online Journal
Initially, I was bewildered by the sheer amount of cross-referencing required and felt the purpose of collecting inspirational designs was surely only relevant to each assignment. It only dawned on me during the last assignment A7, how essential the sketchbook is to visually represent my design progression. All three of my sketchbooks are filled with annotations, mind-maps, details of websites visited and times the information was viewed, replies from fellow students from my online journals, notes from weekly tutorials, production plans and targets, questionnaires and marketing surveys, summative evaluations, reflecting on my progress and of course a collection of design inspirations.
The online journal is the written version of progression to complement the sketchblog. Writing is something that doesn’t come naturally to me, I sometimes struggle to put my thoughts into words. Due to my situation, the majority of my learning is independent; therefore it is essential for me to keep a lifeline with other learners. With extensive use of the Blogger, it has enabled me to communicate with fellow students, offering advise and debating has encouraged my commitment and supported my learning and that of others.
A2 – That’s the Plan!
The principle of this assignment was to plan the essential requirements that I hoped to accomplish within the final website. Through SWOT analysis, I was able to evaluate what aspects of the current website designs worked effectively and what characteristics to avoid. Considering how a visitor navigates through the site and what engages the visitor to visit the site again.
Quantifying real world costs associated with such aspects as maintenance and hosting, gave me an insight how companies can make profit after a design is completed. This assignment helped me to realise the importance of the core process. Similar to the design process, the creation of an effective website is achievable when you empathise with your client’s aims and objectives, only then can you develop a realistic plan based on their budget, consideration of lead-time and design parameters.
A3 - Back to Basics
Focussing on how a page is put together, how it is delivered to a browser, how it behaves and, crucially, how the designer’s intention maps to how it is used by real people, increased my overall knowledge of web design. By understanding the target audience requirements, I was able to design a website that was both aesthetically pleasing and usable.
Taking into consideration typical screen resolutions of a visitor, colour schemes for people with colour blindness and slow connection speeds, helped me to appreciate the elements to include in the design to avoid unnecessary hardships for the visitors.
Choosing an appropriate name for the website, that would make a solid first impression and ensured the name is memorable, I found more time consuming than the initial website build.
A5 – Builder
I found this assignment totally fascinating. It led me to understand the basic principles of source code. After spending hours relentlessly experimenting with code to ensure it validated to strict 1.0, it became more expedient to me, to learn HTML and CSS, rather than opting for a (WYSIWYG) what you see is what you get tool like Dreamweaver.
A7 – Whaling Whales
Despite given the opportunity to (APEL) Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning my existing design work, I felt compelled to create a design solution for the brief that formed the assignment. This decision allowed me the opportunity to assist fellow class mates with their designs, facilitating design progression and offering technical expertise from a print background.
With my wealth of experience, you would imagine this assignment would be easy for me to complete. Due to designing unique letterheads that required reversed feeding for over printing and an unusual way of presenting a corporate manual, I challenged convention and created unnecessary work.
Points to consider for the second year
- Try and complete the assignment a week earlier to avoid rushing
- Consolidate timesheets within the gantt chart to cut down on unnecessary paperwork
- Purchase books about CSS and complete tutorials
- Keep a record all internet sites visited against the element of the unit
- Set achievable weekly targets after each tutorial, review progress in blogger
- Make sure you have adequate amount of printer consumables
- Avoid the distraction of unnecessary research
- Book a few more days off to attend full days in college
- Keep study periods within sociable hours
- Make sure blogger is completed every Tuesday and minimum of four comments are posted before Friday
