Purrfection’s Weblog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/11/AR2009021101595.html

In this site they discuss how now Google offers you a way to displaying your location from your emails.  Now everyone can see exactly where you are at when replying and sending email.  If you traveled a lot then I could see how this might be useful for someone, but other then that it seems just like a feature not really useful.  I feel like it’s just a way to satisfy people’s curiosity.

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-02/lp_10coolapps

In this article they discuss the top 10 applications that make the most out of location awareness.  The ones that I liked to most were trapster, inap, shopsavvy, and safetynet.  Inap actually keeps tracks of where you are and then notifies you when it’s time to wake and get going. That was just a simple idea, but the fact that it’s an idea that can finally be put to life is amazing.  One of the big reasons that I am for location awareness is because it can be helpful in dangerous situations.  I hope that in the future it can help more people in that get in accidents or need help by automatically calling out for help and giving the destination. That in a way is what safety net is helpful in providing.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/16/facebook-myspace-ignore-location-on-iphone-at-their-peril/

Here they are talking about how the new apps for Facebook and Myspace didn’t include location awareness on them.  Also how that it was an issue holding them back from truely expanding and gathering new users.  I can see how that would be a feature worth looking into, but they need to work out all the kinks before they even think about going ahead with that idea.  They need to make sure it’s restricted and safe.  Don’t have the creeps hacking in and stalking people. The one thing neither Myspace or Facebook needs is that kind of bad publicity.

I think that in our field location awareness is going to make an impact in the way people want to see things.  It’ll make users more curious and we’ll have to satisfy their needs in some way.  If we don’t keep their attention then they’ll go off to another site and find what they want there.  Location awareness could be good if we could use it in a way to display sites differently to those different geographics viewing the site.  I’m not sure how well that would turn out, but it’s something to think about.

1.) The css3.info web site had a lot to share about the new css3.  They pretty much give you a preview of what all you can expect from the new css3.  Some of the ones that stood out to me were those involving borders, background, color, and selectors.  I’m really loving the new changes to borders.  Soon you’ll be able to create rounded corners with just css3.  Selectors are going to be a big deal to I think.

http://www.css3.info/preview/

2.) On the Mandarin Design site they really go into more detail about opacity with css3.  They discuss how you will be able to get more refined into what exactly you create.

http://www.mandarindesign.com/opacity.html

3.) In the webkit site I found good information on using gradients.  They go into explaining the two different kinds of gradients and using them as a background or even as borders.  They talk about how a gradient is an image, usable anywhere that image URL’s were used before.

http://webkit.org/blog/175/introducing-css-gradients/

4.)The topic on this link is having more control over links creation and usage.   You can declare all the different states of a link in one declaration, but they have to be in a certain order.  They explain it as targeting the link.

http://www.exforsys.com/tutorials/css3/css3-links-creation-and-usage.html

5.)  I thought this was a interesting blog about questioning Eric Meyer on css3.  It’s great in seeing what exactly he has to say about the new version coming out.  You find out that he’s most excited about the wider range of selectors becoming available.   Some of the things he discusses is over my head, but I do love that he also states we should share what we’ve learned to help css3 become better and give others more insight.

http://sixrevisions.com/interviews/six-questions-eric-meyer-on-css3/

These days it’s becoming more and more important about protecting the environment and it’s creatures.  Now more then ever people are getting involved and becoming more active in protecting those animals who are on the edge of extinction.  I want to provide people with a place to learn more about those animals in danger of extinction and how they can help.  I will give them a list of all the possible ways to donate to the cause and other ways to help.

Problem:  How to provide a way for people to get informed and educated themselves about those animals in danger of extinction.  What animals are in danger?  What can we do to help?  Are there other ways then just donating money that can help them?  Most sites out there today only advertise themselves and not other ways to help.

Solution:  Provide a web site that gives attention to those animals in danger or extinction.  Show those who want to help and get involved a list of those organizations that are for the cause of helping animals in danger.  Provide users a brief description of those organizations and what they do and where their money will be used if donated.  Also being helpful in outling other ways to help those endangered animals besides just donating money.

I’ve got two ideas going on in my head right now for my project.  The first idea is to develop a site that is all about recaps of television shows.  I want to make it more personable to where you can set up an account and pick the shows you want to keep up to date on.  By doing that you can have your own page customized to only the shows you’re interested in.  I haven’t run across any sites that do this completely.  If you know of some please tell me.  My other idea was for a site about endangered species.  It would have information on endangered species and then list out all of the organizations that you can go to and help the cause of preservation.  So unlike other sites that just promote themselves my site would give you the different options of donating and helping out.  I’m still not sure what I like most right now, I want to look more into each.

I like what Cameron had to say in his writing.  A lot of the time we do pull inspiration from outside sources and steal what works on their site and us it for our own.  Why fix something when it’s not broken?  I do think though that we need to be careful not to just right out copy other people’s work.  Look to those great designers for help in finding your own way of communicating the design.  Reading what Cameron had to say did really ease my mind.  I always use to think is it bad taking this idea that works on another site and incorporating it into my own?  It’s reassuring now knowing that I’m not the only one who had those thougths.

I first started by looking at other sites similar to mine to see what others were doing.  I started to notice a trend with the colors used and layouts between them all.  This information was useful in narrowing down what route I wanted to go.  After that I started to do some thumb nails of just general ideas for the site.   Doing those gave me some ideas for color schemes and possible layouts.  From there I began drawing out layouts for the comps.  I found out that I work best just sitting down with no noise and drawing out everything that came in mind.  I came up with lots of different ideas and then took different components from each to make the final ones.  When it came down to creating the final comps I found that I like to listen to music.  It helps me somehow to be more focused on my work.  The colors I choose to use I believe add that sense of comfort and relaxation that I really want to get across to my users.  I haven’t added in the photos yet because I’m still on the search for the right ones I think go along with each comp.  Maybe I’m making that harder then it needs to be, but I’ll figure that out once I get all of your feedbacks!

1.Kit10 Designs: I really liked this design because I love how she has the background image behind the main content.  The layout of the design never changes while the content does.  That concept of having a background image that doesn’t over take the content could be useful to me in my design.  I also like how the navigation is simple and only runs along the top.  I would really like to work with the background concept with my site. http://www.kit10designs.com/portfolio.html

2.BakersEdge:I first chose this site because of what they were selling.  Also because I’m trying to sell something too with my site.  The layout looks like something I would like to try.  The site does a great job in splitting up the content so that you don’t feel overwhelmed with the information.  I like how there is a balance between the pictures and content.  One doesn’t out do the other.  I want to incorporate how they divided their content into my site that will have lots of information.           http://www.bakersedge.com/

3.Restaurant Skorepka:I chose this site to help me get some thoughts on how to set up my navigation.  What I found useful is how they worked the navigation to fit in with the banner.  I like how they both look like a part of one another.  The consistency of the site is good while being versatile at the same time.  In my site I want it to also have that kind of consistency, but not being boring at the same time. http://www.skorepka.cz/en/napojovy-listek.html

4.Villa Hotel Tamara: I picked this site because it is very close in concept to the type of site I want to create.  The navigation is very clear and easy to navigate.  The photo gallery I really enjoyed.  I like the idea of it being a slide show.  The colors on this site are great at making me feel relaxed and want to know more about the hotel.  It’s this feeling I want to incorporate in my site design. http://www.hoteltamara.com.tr/index.html

5.The Paumanok Review: I decided on this site definitely for the imagery and how well it works to give off an emotion.  The photo has a way of taking me away from the site and into the scene.  This is exactly how I want my site images to interact with the user. http://www.paumanokreview.com/

Okay everybody so I think I finally figured out what I want to do with the final project.  I want to create a resort site.  Now I haven’t narrowed it down to what kind of resort yet.  It’s hard to choose between all the possibilities.  Although I do like the idea of a spa resort a little more then the others right now.  The problem that I will try to solve is how to draw people into wanting to come to the resort by just looking at the site.  I figure it’ll have to do with looking luxurious and relaxing, but also worth the money it’ll cost and the trip.  You know what makes it so much better then the other resort.  So that’s what I got…What do you’ll think?

I have to start off by saying that I loved this article!  It was great to finally get into the mind of a designer and go through his though process.  A lot of time when starting in similar projects I tend to feel overwhelmed.  This has to do with not having much experience at all with CSS.  My ideas begin going all over place and I’m never to sure where to start.  Seeing now that half of the process is just thinking and developing your design very helpful.  Since I’m still new to the whole building of webpages I haven’t yet discovered my own process.  Reading Mr. Bowman’s process is just what I needed to help guide me on the right track.  Now I see all of the little steps that must me acomplished to create that almost-perfect site.

1. Style Sheets
2. Positioning on the page
3. Using CSS to create a dynamic website that is fun and creative
4. Learning what problems that some browsers have in displaying websites
5. Exploring the different means of going out and finding the answers to your design problems