On Website Creation Part 2

In the world of website design and creation, I feel as if I am an intermediate beginner. I have had to create websites for other classes but am by no stretch of the imagination what anyone would call an expert. I was excited during the completion of this task because I was able to learn so much more about website design. There are a gracious plenty background aspects to designing the simplistic and elegant websites that so many of us love. 

The process of creating a cover image, icons, and images was honestly one that gave me fits and sent me into a tailspin at times. I have never created a new cover image for either twitter or facebook and was daunted by the process in the beginning. Canva proved to be a wonderful tool for designing a facebook/twitter cover photo. I honestly cannot say enough positive things about the Canva experience. The one downside to Canva is that I was not able to have a background created from scratch (or at least not in a manner that I could figure out). It would have been beneficial to have the freedom to create a background from scratch within Canva. For example, I would have liked the opportunity to pick my own background, border or no border, and script versus having to adapt it from a pre-existing template. Regardless of having to use the pre-existing template, I was able to personalize this photo and place a Civil Rights/inclusive feel to the image by including some of the free graphics (rainbow hearts). 

I did not experience the same ease of creation when I started working on the icons, however. Having never really been a super duper creative person, I was gobsmacked by my lack of creativity when working on the icons for this site. When I first read this directive, I did not understand and/or realize that I had to create the icons. I found several, beautiful, free icons on IconFinder that were free and required no linkback (therefore, Creative Commons-esque). I thought I was in business because the graphics I used were gorgeous. However, I re-read the directions and realized just how off the mark I really was, and then I wanted to cry. After this, I opened up my handy-dandy PowerPoint 2013 and showed the world just how ineffective my creative skills actually are. I created a calendar, Pinterest, and Google Plus icon set. For the calendar, I utilized part of one of the tutorials, and I think that it turned out only okay. I did not follow every single step because I could not figure part of it out. For Pinterest, I created a logo that had the red and white color scheme. It doesn't look anything like the Pinterest logo, but it does have the same color scheme. As far as the Google Plus icon, I really love Stars and I chose to create a star icon based on my love of stars. 

After creating the cover image for Facebook and Twitter, I used this image to "brand" the website. This image was present front and center on every page of the website. Since websites should be image heavy, I chose to utilize Weebly's Creative Commons search and find images that were related to the theme of Civil Rights. As related previously, these images were all gained through a Creative Commons search within Weebly and proper attribution was made at the bottom of the page.

I cannot say enough positive things about using Weebly's template driven design features. Weebly takes the difficulty of coding and creating design elements out of the mix. Having previously authored websites using CSS and HTML, anything where I do not have to write CSS/HTML, makes me extremely happy. I do NOT feel as if Weebly stifled my creativity in any way whatsoever. Weebly has a wide variety of attractive layouts and you can insert many different types of media from a wide variety of locations. If I had a Media Specialist position, I would seriously contemplate using Weebly to host my Media Center's website.

The design decision I am most proud of in regards to this website is the Canva cover I created to unify all platforms (Weebly, Facebook, and Twitter). Branding is one of the topics that was recently talked about recently at the Georgia Library Media Association 2016 Summer Institute. Branding is very important to your Media Center's web presence. The area that I would most like to change would be icon creation. If I were able to, I would use the free icons without the need for attribution to jazz my website up, rather than it looking homemade (it really does, but I did my best). 

On Website Creation Part 1

I have previously made websites for other classes and consider myself to be somewhat advanced in website design and creation. Even with having proficiency and a keen interest in website creation, I still find myself stumped and sometimes scared during the website creation process. My perfectionistic tendencies tend to get the better of me during the website design and creation process. I always try to find ways in which I could make the site better and sometimes become bogged down in the details.  When thinking about my App Smashing project, I decided to create a model Civil Rights club that could serve to inform High School students about Civil Rights struggles within the United States. The audience for this fictional website is High School students at the fictional Lawrence High School in Cheek County, Georgia, general high school students, and also the general web searching public.

I had a great time creating the App Smashing work product using ThingLink. The App Smash was created about one of my favorite topics, the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia History. For purposes of this website, I decided to extend this topic a bit further than Georgia’s boundaries. I decided to have more inclusive information about more current topics. The essential information I wanted to convey to my target audience is that the Civil Rights struggle is a REAL, CURRENT, daily struggle for certain individuals and groups. It is easy to get enmeshed in a bubble such as High School, where your own problems are readily at the forefront of your mind, and students really need to escape this bubble and think about people who have real, ongoing, daily struggles for their Civil Rights.

Given this very interesting topic, I sought to do it justice in a creative and effective way. This was a very daunting process. I know we all know the old adage that with great power comes great responsibility. This situation is a great power/great responsibility situation because young minds can be so easily influenced. It is critically important that correct information be spread about this very important and delicate topic.

Design Considerations
            
Prior to reading the materials in this week’s Module, I would have just jumped into this project headfirst with no consideration to design whatsoever. I would have just picked designs that I thought were interesting and visually attractive. I guess I am sort of a minimalist because when I design, I like to have stark pages that are free from busy and distracting elements.

Siepert (2015) establishes that users seldom read all materials presented on a webpage; instead, users will click on items that are interesting and will click on things of interest to them (para 3). Given this information, I do not take offense if users do not read every single kernel of information on this page.

Weebly, the website platform I chose to utilize in order to build my website is absolutely 100% amazing and user-friendly when it comes to building. Thankfully, this site allows for inclusion of Creative Commons images. Within Weebly, creators are allowed to import images from your computer, from a website, or from Flickr. I cannot express how much I love Flickr’s interface within Weebly. Weebly takes the hard work out of this process because it will create citations at the bottom of the page.

After beginning this process, there are many more considerations I have about the design process. I am intimidated by the creation of icons and will probably outline this process in my next blog post. Until then, I wish my fellow classmates good luck in the design process. I am very excited to see everyone else’s websites because I am sure that I can learn from everyone else!!