Website Post

My Website: studentweb.engl.wsu.edu/355/mpeterson/me

To start off, I made a quick outline of what I wanted in my website. I jotted down ideas for the different pages I wanted and how my information should be organized. Then I looked for inspiration from free-css.com. I was looking for something simple for a layout because I wanted to be able to completely make it my own. 

Once I had a template, I went to a site called designseeds.com to find inspiration for a color scheme for my website. Then I went to making it my own. After changing all the colors or the website which was a long task, I worked on a background image. I made the background image from scratch using my own photos and free stock images of photo frames. After I put together the background image and got it in the right spot, I began to add my own content. I used all my own photos for each section. I think the hardest part was thinking about what I should include and what I shouldn't. I think the hardest page to format was my Favorites page. I wanted it to look a certain way and I was having a hard time figuring out the right way to do it. Google definitely helped a lot.

I feel as though my site is very close to what I had in mind. I worked really hard to make my site look appealing to me and get what I wanted and where I wanted them. My vision for this website was to have a simple website that was appealing to the viewer and not crowded with a lot of information.

If I knew everything there was to know about code, I would probably add in elements like slideshows to show off my photography. But I really feel like my website looks the way I really wanted it to.

I definitely used the visual and textual modes. For the visual, I made an organized site with a more calming color scheme. I feel as though the simplicity of the colors and organization portrays to the viewer that I am a more calm and organized person. My first color scheme had a lot of bright orange colors. I changed the colors because I felt like the site was giving off a different vibe. It seemed to peppy and crazy which I tend to lean away from.

With the textual element, I tried to have enough text to get my point across, but I didn't have long chunks of text on my pages. I wanted people to be able to look and get a general idea of who I am. I didn't want then to have to read a novel about my life where I described everything that ever happened in my life. I stayed away from the aural mode because I've come to websites where music starts automatically playing and it either scares me or annoys me.

For my website, I think my use of color is my biggest strategy. I spent a long time looking for the right color scheme and I even changed my colors halfway through the assignment in order to get it just right. I wanted softer colors to convey the fact that I am a very easy going calm person. One of my favorite colors is blue so that also was a main reason I chose that as the background color.

My banner at the top of each page is a photograph of me. I chose this to be the banner to emphasize to the viewer that the site is about me. It it the first thing that someone would probably see on my site so it would instantly let them know that this isn't a site about cats or how to fix your car, it's a site about me.

In the content of my site, I talk about where I am from, where I live now and other things like my hobbies. I organized these into different pages to one meet the requirement of three pages but also to have the viewer find what they were looking for. If they wanted to find out random things I liked, they could go straight to the Favorites page. I also accompanied each sub category with a photo that I took. So for my hometown, I have a photo of the water and sunset since I live on the western side of Washington right on the Puget Sound. For Pullman, I showcased a photo of a snowy sunset. I chose this one to go with the sun set photo before, but to contrast between the blue skies and water. I also put these photos close to the text accompanying it so that readers get a sense of what they are reading before they read it. On my hobbies page I put a photo of a self-portrait I made. The piece shows me holding a camera and the art itself is a digitally made portrait. I put this next to the Photography and Art section because a viewer would see that image and know what I was talking about in the paragraph. If I didn't have a photo, the viewer might get bored and not want to read it. If I had a photo of my cat there, it wouldn't make sense to the viewer.