Evening all,
This is my first blog entry for quite sometime and because of this it should be a long rambling entry.
Not going to happen, I’m going to update what I have missed and edit this to make it look like I’ve never been away.
Assignments
Due to car crash (not my fault) and computer pyrotechnics, haven’t been able to do that much work over the last month, this has left me behind on all my assignments. Also the above mentioned computer light show left everything other that a CD drive that I’ve had since 2001 in a state of ruin. This obviously includes my hard drive and the contents of it.
iMe: I need to update my blog entries. I have redesigned my portfolio site as I wasn’t happy with the last effort. This needs to be implemented as soon as possible.
My six (now three) month learning plan needs to be written up and I need to become proficient in both PHP and MySQL as quickly as possible. I might drop the MySQL part of this to save time.
CiSSy: The essays are finished. This means I have 3 weeks to make the 3 WebPages needed fro this assignment. I also have to photocopy any evidence of research fro submission.
Kiss: I will be handing this in on Monday, essays need typing up and the e-card needs producing again. Hopefully this will not be as time consuming as it was last time.
Team Project: I’m awaiting further instruction from the gaffer as to what needs doing.
Thank you for reading, Dale.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
New Year
Hi all,
We get a new assignment for the new and it looks very interesting. The assignment is called ‘Kiss’ and the brief is to design an interactive e-card for Valentines day.
This will give me an opportunity to use Flash as an authoring tool again. This will be the first time since the Channel 8 indents that I have been able to use it. My Flash authoring is pretty weak at the moment, but hopefully this assignment will fill the gaps in my knowledge of Flash.
I have started to compile the research for the assignment, but the way it needs to be presented is not stipulated. Having looked at the brief I think the most appropriate way to present the information would be in essay form, with test plans for each of the learning outcomes.
The design of the card is pretty open ended, as is the way it is interactive. Having looked at a lot of e-card through my research, most of them have little or no interactivity. Most are just simple animations that look poor. I haven’t really found one that stands out and that will be the aim for my design.
Thanks for reading.
We get a new assignment for the new and it looks very interesting. The assignment is called ‘Kiss’ and the brief is to design an interactive e-card for Valentines day.
This will give me an opportunity to use Flash as an authoring tool again. This will be the first time since the Channel 8 indents that I have been able to use it. My Flash authoring is pretty weak at the moment, but hopefully this assignment will fill the gaps in my knowledge of Flash.
I have started to compile the research for the assignment, but the way it needs to be presented is not stipulated. Having looked at the brief I think the most appropriate way to present the information would be in essay form, with test plans for each of the learning outcomes.
The design of the card is pretty open ended, as is the way it is interactive. Having looked at a lot of e-card through my research, most of them have little or no interactivity. Most are just simple animations that look poor. I haven’t really found one that stands out and that will be the aim for my design.
Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
iMe Evaluation
The first publish of the website for the iMe project has to be completed for Tuesday 19th, I have designed the site and made the web plan.
The layout of the site has been produced in CSS and the content needs to be added. Making the layout wasn’t that hard because of all the tutorials around. The useful ones were on Max Design and A List Apart; they also have other useful CSS tutorials.
The assignment is progressing well, the blog entries are becoming more evaluative and my sketch book work has improved a lot.
The main problem I have with the assignment is the design of the website. I don’t like what I have produced, but I realise that I have an opportunity to change this later on next year.
The assignment hasn’t really been my priority as the group assignment ‘On the Job’ has taken most of my time up. As well as this last week I had flu and didn’t manage to do the full 16 hours of self study, as well as missing 2 days of college. I will have to make up this time over the weekend because of the 2 deadlines on Tuesday.
The layout of the site has been produced in CSS and the content needs to be added. Making the layout wasn’t that hard because of all the tutorials around. The useful ones were on Max Design and A List Apart; they also have other useful CSS tutorials.
The assignment is progressing well, the blog entries are becoming more evaluative and my sketch book work has improved a lot.
The main problem I have with the assignment is the design of the website. I don’t like what I have produced, but I realise that I have an opportunity to change this later on next year.
The assignment hasn’t really been my priority as the group assignment ‘On the Job’ has taken most of my time up. As well as this last week I had flu and didn’t manage to do the full 16 hours of self study, as well as missing 2 days of college. I will have to make up this time over the weekend because of the 2 deadlines on Tuesday.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
On the Job
On the Job Evaluation
The second week of this assignment has gone well. The web plan is complete and the designs for the web pages are near completion. The process of managing the project is something that I am starting to find easier than I did last week and after extra clarification I have made a check list for everything that needs to be handed in for the pass and merit criteria. Now that I have this on paper, it makes the project seem less daunting.
To help me manage the project I am using MS Project. I have only ever used this once before, but it was easy to get into. Everyone in the team is updating there own version of this, which will mean that parts of 9.1 and 9.2 are covered by this one thing. I’m going to use this software for the time management of my other projects.
The project is on schedule which gives me and the members of my team time to do referral work.
6 Month Learning Plan
I have made a contract for the 6 month learning plan, on this I have listed a number of PHP related skills and when I hope to achieve them. I choose to learn PHP because of the amount of things that can be done with it. Because it is server side, users don’t need to install any extra software. This means PHP can do many things that needed plug-ins with other software.
The second week of this assignment has gone well. The web plan is complete and the designs for the web pages are near completion. The process of managing the project is something that I am starting to find easier than I did last week and after extra clarification I have made a check list for everything that needs to be handed in for the pass and merit criteria. Now that I have this on paper, it makes the project seem less daunting.
To help me manage the project I am using MS Project. I have only ever used this once before, but it was easy to get into. Everyone in the team is updating there own version of this, which will mean that parts of 9.1 and 9.2 are covered by this one thing. I’m going to use this software for the time management of my other projects.
The project is on schedule which gives me and the members of my team time to do referral work.
6 Month Learning Plan
I have made a contract for the 6 month learning plan, on this I have listed a number of PHP related skills and when I hope to achieve them. I choose to learn PHP because of the amount of things that can be done with it. Because it is server side, users don’t need to install any extra software. This means PHP can do many things that needed plug-ins with other software.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Top Dog
Hello all,
It’s been an interesting week since my last entry. The group assignment has been handed out and the groups have been decided. The group consists of me, Adam and Luke and after a vote it was decided that I would be the Project Manager.
This to me proves that democracy doesn’t work and a much fairer system such as Communism should be adopted.
Only joking, I was and still am happy to do the job. The amount of extra work the Project Manager has to do is currently blowing my mind, its strange delegating work that you would normally do you self to team members. Then you have to worry if the work is up to the standard that is normally produced by yourself, knowing that it its not good enough as the P.M its your problem.
I have confidence in my team and I know they will produce the goods. The mini deadline I have imposed for this week is to have a finished web plan. From this on Monday we can start the design process and by Tuesday have a number of designs to show the client.
The project is making a website that has pages for Interactive Media, Photography and Fine Art. The brief is very open and Andrew (the client) has given us the say in the direction the site goes. With this in mind, we are going to students on the courses and asking them what they want.
Today I went to the art department and completed some questionnaires with the art students. This has given me a lot of ideas about the direction the page should be taken in and the response to some of my ideas was good.
The main thing they wanted to see was examples of work done on the course, photos of the trips they make and a lot more information than on the current site. Most of them only use computers for research and I think from this the site should look as much like print work as possible.
On Thursday either my self or Luke/Adam will ask the first year Interactive Media and the Photography students the same questions. I think the Photography students will be fairly computer literate as will (should) the Interactive Media ones.
The experience of Project Management has been an interesting one so far and as long as I keep on top of the work load it shouldn’t be one that I don’t enjoy.
Thanks, Dale
It’s been an interesting week since my last entry. The group assignment has been handed out and the groups have been decided. The group consists of me, Adam and Luke and after a vote it was decided that I would be the Project Manager.
This to me proves that democracy doesn’t work and a much fairer system such as Communism should be adopted.
Only joking, I was and still am happy to do the job. The amount of extra work the Project Manager has to do is currently blowing my mind, its strange delegating work that you would normally do you self to team members. Then you have to worry if the work is up to the standard that is normally produced by yourself, knowing that it its not good enough as the P.M its your problem.
I have confidence in my team and I know they will produce the goods. The mini deadline I have imposed for this week is to have a finished web plan. From this on Monday we can start the design process and by Tuesday have a number of designs to show the client.
The project is making a website that has pages for Interactive Media, Photography and Fine Art. The brief is very open and Andrew (the client) has given us the say in the direction the site goes. With this in mind, we are going to students on the courses and asking them what they want.
Today I went to the art department and completed some questionnaires with the art students. This has given me a lot of ideas about the direction the page should be taken in and the response to some of my ideas was good.
The main thing they wanted to see was examples of work done on the course, photos of the trips they make and a lot more information than on the current site. Most of them only use computers for research and I think from this the site should look as much like print work as possible.
On Thursday either my self or Luke/Adam will ask the first year Interactive Media and the Photography students the same questions. I think the Photography students will be fairly computer literate as will (should) the Interactive Media ones.
The experience of Project Management has been an interesting one so far and as long as I keep on top of the work load it shouldn’t be one that I don’t enjoy.
Thanks, Dale
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Dale gets a Paddlin’
How do,
After a nice chat about the quality of my blog entries, this week’s entry is going to be a long and interesting one. After taking a look at some of the first-years blogs and seeing the different way they are approaching the blog has made me realise that mine is not up to scratch.
From now on I will give a more detailed evaluation of the work I have produced and start to plan what I will be doing for the week ahead. I will also show or link to sites or work that I like and comment on them.
On Tuesday I handed in the A10 assignment “Culture Vulture”. I found parts of this assignment difficult, especially the reverse design process. Before the assignment I would have thought having almost infinite scope for a design would have helped.
This was not the case and rather than help it made things harder. I would come up with ideas and then quickly discard them as other ideas came into my head. I now see how important an in-depth brief is and feel this is a lesson learnt, particularly for the based client projects.
The assignment was to produce a surface design pattern for an unknown object. This object was an Adidas trainer and was part of a competition, the winner having the design produced and available to buy.
I based my design on the work of Piet Mondrian, as I felt it work transfer well to any medium and the amount of white space would mean I could include any company logo’s ect. on the design.
After a nice chat about the quality of my blog entries, this week’s entry is going to be a long and interesting one. After taking a look at some of the first-years blogs and seeing the different way they are approaching the blog has made me realise that mine is not up to scratch.
From now on I will give a more detailed evaluation of the work I have produced and start to plan what I will be doing for the week ahead. I will also show or link to sites or work that I like and comment on them.
On Tuesday I handed in the A10 assignment “Culture Vulture”. I found parts of this assignment difficult, especially the reverse design process. Before the assignment I would have thought having almost infinite scope for a design would have helped.
This was not the case and rather than help it made things harder. I would come up with ideas and then quickly discard them as other ideas came into my head. I now see how important an in-depth brief is and feel this is a lesson learnt, particularly for the based client projects.
The assignment was to produce a surface design pattern for an unknown object. This object was an Adidas trainer and was part of a competition, the winner having the design produced and available to buy.
I based my design on the work of Piet Mondrian, as I felt it work transfer well to any medium and the amount of white space would mean I could include any company logo’s ect. on the design.
The other two assignments haven’t had as much work on them as I would have liked. By next Tuesday (21st) I will have completed both web plans and will post my time planning sheets, to show the improved use of my time outside college.
Also thanks to anyone who has posted a comment on my blog and I will get round to posting a response on yours.
Thanks for reading, Dale.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Six Month Outline Learning Plan
At the end of the course, I would like to go to university and complete my degree. I would also like to learn the following things that are not on the course, as I feel they will help me in the future;
PHP / Databases: Learning how to implement and control large websites using databases is something that would give me an advantage, when/if I study this at university.
Quark Express: This page layout software is more popular than Adobe’s PageMaker and is more widely used in industry. Not being able to use this may put me at a disadvantage.
I will have to fill in a UCAS form and research suitable universities that have the top-up degree course.
PHP / Databases: Learning how to implement and control large websites using databases is something that would give me an advantage, when/if I study this at university.
Quark Express: This page layout software is more popular than Adobe’s PageMaker and is more widely used in industry. Not being able to use this may put me at a disadvantage.
I will have to fill in a UCAS form and research suitable universities that have the top-up degree course.
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