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.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
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.
Holiday
Assignment Progress
iMe – I have completed most of my webplan for this assignment, the only thing left to do is design the look of the site. I am going to design the site in CSS, but I haven’t made any decision on the colour scheme yet.
Possible combinations and ideas include:
Pink and yellow
Orange and gray
Red and white candy stripe
The structure and layout of the site will not change, so I can produce the site in a number of different colours, using the CSS code to change the appearance.
CiSSy
I spent some time looking at the entries on the BBC website; this gave me a better idea of what is required. I will produce three different solutions for the specified task. The good thing about this assignment is the lack of a specific design requirement for the site. It can look and function in anyway, as long as it shows the BBC content in an easy to access way.
I have looked at the sites that are specified as examples of the sort of thing they are looking for and the element that seems to be on most of them is video. I will be looking to incorporate some sort of video playback into the site.
Culture Vulture
I have produced the essay based on my chosen cultural icon. The second part of the assignment is to produce a design that will be applied to an unknown lifestyle product. I am going to base this design on the works of Piet Mondrian. (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/mondrian.html).
The Biz
This assignment will be given back soon as it needs amending. There are a few things missing and the essays need a slight re-write in places.
I got all the work that I wanted to do in the holidays done, didn’t have to work much either which helped a lot.
Ta, Dale
iMe – I have completed most of my webplan for this assignment, the only thing left to do is design the look of the site. I am going to design the site in CSS, but I haven’t made any decision on the colour scheme yet.
Possible combinations and ideas include:
Pink and yellow
Orange and gray
Red and white candy stripe
The structure and layout of the site will not change, so I can produce the site in a number of different colours, using the CSS code to change the appearance.
CiSSy
I spent some time looking at the entries on the BBC website; this gave me a better idea of what is required. I will produce three different solutions for the specified task. The good thing about this assignment is the lack of a specific design requirement for the site. It can look and function in anyway, as long as it shows the BBC content in an easy to access way.
I have looked at the sites that are specified as examples of the sort of thing they are looking for and the element that seems to be on most of them is video. I will be looking to incorporate some sort of video playback into the site.
Culture Vulture
I have produced the essay based on my chosen cultural icon. The second part of the assignment is to produce a design that will be applied to an unknown lifestyle product. I am going to base this design on the works of Piet Mondrian. (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/mondrian.html).
The Biz
This assignment will be given back soon as it needs amending. There are a few things missing and the essays need a slight re-write in places.
I got all the work that I wanted to do in the holidays done, didn’t have to work much either which helped a lot.
Ta, Dale
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Bussiness as Usual
Hello all,
With the first assignment handed in I’ve been spending more time on “iMe”, “CiSSy” and the new assignment “Culture Vulture.
The key to these assignments for me is to make sure I don’t fall behind as I did with “The Biz”. The feeling of panic before handing an assignment in is not something I enjoy, but I put myself through it more often than I should. As a result of this I will be using the week off to complete work, and if possible get myself ahead of what I need to do.
A7 – iMe
The main part of this assignment is too produce a webplan for my portfolio site. This needs to be done as soon as possible and I will do it side by side with my CiSSy webplan.
I will update my blog with evaluation and insightful comments as per usual over the holidays.
Tasks to Complete
Webplan
Blog entry
A8 – CiSSy
I have completed the first draft of the essay for task one. This needs a small rewrite and a slight reorganisation.
After this it needs to be referenced and placed into the Pagemaker template.
A webplan needs to be produced for this assignment and I will complete this for after the holidays.
Tasks to complete
Task one essay
Webplan
A10 – Culture Vulture
This is the new assignment and the first task was to choose a design icon of the 20th centry to produce an essay on. The subject of the essay would be to prove that the subject is a icon and has influenced other areas of design.
The product I have choosen is the Mini and the length of the essay is a 1000 words.
Tasks to complete
Any other work I need to amend will de done over the holiday as well. Please feel free to leave any comments.
Cheers for reading, Dale.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
New Assigment
Hello,
The first assignment “The Biz” has been handed in and the next assignment “Culture Vulture” has been handed out.
The first task for the new assignment is to research three products or artworks that have had a large impact on 20th century culture, and produce a 1000 word essay based on this research on one of them.
The research into this has to be done carefully as choosing the wrong thing to write about will make attaining a 1000 words difficult
I have started the web plan for “iMe” and have written most of the first draft of the first “CiSSy” essay.
Thanks, Dale.
The first assignment “The Biz” has been handed in and the next assignment “Culture Vulture” has been handed out.
The first task for the new assignment is to research three products or artworks that have had a large impact on 20th century culture, and produce a 1000 word essay based on this research on one of them.
The research into this has to be done carefully as choosing the wrong thing to write about will make attaining a 1000 words difficult
I have started the web plan for “iMe” and have written most of the first draft of the first “CiSSy” essay.
Thanks, Dale.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Good News Allround
*People sensitive to sarcasm please skip the following paragraph*
Grand news, those clever people at Telewest managed to fix my broadband, and within a reasonable time scale of five weeks. I’d like to thank all the people in there customer service department for being so very helpful, and for the wonderful attitude they had to my problem.
I will be sending a card or some sort of muffin basket to show my appreciation for this. I also don’t at all begrudge paying that months bill in full and I appreciate the wicked irony of them threatening to “limit my service” if I didn’t pay said bill.
*Sarcasm now ends*
With my internet up and running again I was able to work from home for the first time since going back to college two weeks ago. This has made a lot of difference to the work I have been able to complete.
A7 – iMe
Not a great deal done on this assignment at the minute, but updating this blog is a priority I'll be aiming to update once in college at the beginning of the week and at home at the end of the week. This will be done once my 16 hours self study has been completed. I will also be scanning and archiving my time sheets as evidence of self study.
A8 – CiSSy
We had the first lecture on beginnings of CSS which will come in handy for the first question of the assignment. I will do the research for this question this week and aim to produce a first draft for the week after.
A9 – The Biz
The basic drafts of the essays for questions 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 are completed. These need a bit of spit and polish, referencing and placing into the essay template.
The test plan for 6.2 and the documentation for 6.3 needs to be produced but the basic design work i.e. the layout and the content for them has already been produced.
The database of competitors is up and running, I will aim to add ten a week till the hand in deadline.
The lecture and notes on the outline business plan have made the process of completing this seem relatively easy, with a 1000 words not seeming like enough (don’t make me write any more though).
Important Stuff
Leeds United 3-2 Birmingham City
Bye bye Blackie, don’t let the door hit you on the behind on the way out fella, cause your going to be spending a lot of time sat on it.
Ta for taking the time to read, Dale
Grand news, those clever people at Telewest managed to fix my broadband, and within a reasonable time scale of five weeks. I’d like to thank all the people in there customer service department for being so very helpful, and for the wonderful attitude they had to my problem.
I will be sending a card or some sort of muffin basket to show my appreciation for this. I also don’t at all begrudge paying that months bill in full and I appreciate the wicked irony of them threatening to “limit my service” if I didn’t pay said bill.
*Sarcasm now ends*
With my internet up and running again I was able to work from home for the first time since going back to college two weeks ago. This has made a lot of difference to the work I have been able to complete.
A7 – iMe
Not a great deal done on this assignment at the minute, but updating this blog is a priority I'll be aiming to update once in college at the beginning of the week and at home at the end of the week. This will be done once my 16 hours self study has been completed. I will also be scanning and archiving my time sheets as evidence of self study.
A8 – CiSSy
We had the first lecture on beginnings of CSS which will come in handy for the first question of the assignment. I will do the research for this question this week and aim to produce a first draft for the week after.
A9 – The Biz
The basic drafts of the essays for questions 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 are completed. These need a bit of spit and polish, referencing and placing into the essay template.
The test plan for 6.2 and the documentation for 6.3 needs to be produced but the basic design work i.e. the layout and the content for them has already been produced.
The database of competitors is up and running, I will aim to add ten a week till the hand in deadline.
The lecture and notes on the outline business plan have made the process of completing this seem relatively easy, with a 1000 words not seeming like enough (don’t make me write any more though).
Important Stuff
Leeds United 3-2 Birmingham City
Bye bye Blackie, don’t let the door hit you on the behind on the way out fella, cause your going to be spending a lot of time sat on it.
Ta for taking the time to read, Dale
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Second Week
My second week back at college didn’t go as I would have liked. I had to spend a day off waiting for the good people from Telewest to come and fix my broadband, which they still haven’t done.
The repair man that came (late) kicked the side of the house and said it would “cost me” to fix it, then told me it was “knocking off time” and left me still broadband-less.
The lack of internet access has made working from home very difficult, research has been especially hard. I have learnt from this though, and realise that I need to be less reliant on the internet as a research tool and consider using more paper based sources.
Assignment Progress
A9 – The Biz
The progression in this assignment wasn’t helped by the lack of internet access but I still managed to complete the first task in draft format. This needs to be chopped down to a thousand words and placed into the academic template.
The lack of internet access made my think harder about the question asked and the essay is mostly of my own thoughts and opinions, not quotations and opinions of others.
I have made a start to question two, writing the first few hundred words as an introduction to the essay. I need to do more research into cross-browser compatibility and have scheduled some time to do this with the aid of my time plans sheets.
A8 – CiSSy!
I haven’t spent as much time on this as I would have liked, this will be rectified this week.
A7 – iMe
I have completed this, my second blog entry.
The repair man that came (late) kicked the side of the house and said it would “cost me” to fix it, then told me it was “knocking off time” and left me still broadband-less.
The lack of internet access has made working from home very difficult, research has been especially hard. I have learnt from this though, and realise that I need to be less reliant on the internet as a research tool and consider using more paper based sources.
Assignment Progress
A9 – The Biz
The progression in this assignment wasn’t helped by the lack of internet access but I still managed to complete the first task in draft format. This needs to be chopped down to a thousand words and placed into the academic template.
The lack of internet access made my think harder about the question asked and the essay is mostly of my own thoughts and opinions, not quotations and opinions of others.
I have made a start to question two, writing the first few hundred words as an introduction to the essay. I need to do more research into cross-browser compatibility and have scheduled some time to do this with the aid of my time plans sheets.
A8 – CiSSy!
I haven’t spent as much time on this as I would have liked, this will be rectified this week.
A7 – iMe
I have completed this, my second blog entry.
Thanks, Dale
First Post - Back to College
This is the first post on my college work blog.
This blog is part of assignment "A7 - iMe", I will use it to record my thoughts and progress on the work I have completed and the work I have yet to do.
The first three assignments have been handed out and I have completed time plans to divide up the time I will spend on them.
In following posts I will provide links to time plans as evidence of the work I am doing.
Thanks, Dale.
This blog is part of assignment "A7 - iMe", I will use it to record my thoughts and progress on the work I have completed and the work I have yet to do.
The first three assignments have been handed out and I have completed time plans to divide up the time I will spend on them.
In following posts I will provide links to time plans as evidence of the work I am doing.
Thanks, Dale.
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