Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Domain Names

for our next project as part of spp3, we have been given the task to create a portfolio and as we are 3rd years we have finally sat up and listerned.

we now understand that as we are almost at the end of our course and about to enter the big wide world of industry it is more imporant that ever to have a good portfolio not only to show off our skills but also our unique selling point that makes us stand out from the rest.

so the first place to start when thinking about a a profolio is a domain name. its one of the most important things when thinking about creating a website as it can mean the difference between a sucessful site and a site that just sits in the backgrown and is unnoticed.

so when thinking about my own domain i have to think of something unique and memorable so that i can just say it someone once and they will remember it. so the first thing i thought of was my name as that is pretty unique, i mean how many leatherdays do you know?

so i googled my name and all it came up wiv really was this and facebook of course. so i had a few ideas

www.hannahleatherdaydesigns.co.uk (too long)
www.hannahleatherday.co.uk (doesnt really say much)
www.hannahleatherdayonline.co.uk (too long and serious)
www.hannahlonline.co.uk (not catchy enough)
www.hannahldesigns.co.uk

then i thought about a name that isnt based on my name sonething that is a bit more catchy and fun. so then i thought i want sometime girly fun and pink.

www.pixelfairy.co.uk or maybe www.pixeldust. then i founfd that that was taken and used by too many web companies already this means people would have to look thrugh all of the other sites to get to mine and i would end up in the background.

i had got loads of good ideas for these domain names already so i decided to go for pixldust.co.uk it was a slight variation on pixeldust and it was unique and catchy.

From simply looking at domains i got so many ideas and i realised just how important a good domain name is and i now have some understanding of the competition and the value of the perfect domain name.

Friday, November 21, 2008

The Finished Product

this is the main page from my simulated client project. this is the final product i think on a whole the progect was successful. my designs are bringht and colourful to keep people of a yuong age engaged for as long as possible.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Story so far

the image below the show the main problem i was having with the layout of this project.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Research

quote "a quick Google search for web accessibility benefits6 returns over 37 million results!"
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/future.shtml

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

research

http://itrdu1.linst.ac.uk/accessibility/assis-cognitive.php#sidenav

research

http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article3163.asp
"Mouth or Head Wands
These wands are either held between the teeth, or positioned in the middle of the forehead and held in place by a head band. They are used to activate keys on a keyboard and in rare cases a track-ball mouse.

People who use these devices will have a physical disability, for example quadriplegia (full body paralysis), or under developed limbs perhaps as a result of the Thalidomide drug.

Designing webpages with internal navigation (skip links), clean and simple content and minimal links, will assist people using mouth and head wands.

Speech Enabled Websites
Websites that are speech enabled allow people to listen to the content of the site being spoken aloud. The site owner pays a fee to a service provider for their site to be speech enabled. People can then access the spoken word through a link on the website or through a freely available application.

Speech enablement is not intended for people with severe visual impairments, but rather for people with reading difficulties such as Dyslexia, or people for whom the language of the site is not their own first language.

Designing a website with well formed HTML code, which conforms to the official programming language specification, will enable speech enablement to work with greater efficiency and accuracy.

Screen Magnifiers
These are software applications that work with the operating system to enlarge a selected portion of the screen. The magnified area works like a conventional magnifying glass, with much improved capability, and can be tracked around the screen to enable fluid reading of on-screen content.

People with mild to medium visual impairments will use screen magnification, including those with tunnel vision or Age Related Macular Degeneration.

Designing a site with clear indicators for different content areas, sufficient colour contrast between background and foreground colours and well structured pages will benefit people using screen magnification.

Voice Recognition Software
Software of this kind enables people to control their computers through voice commands, without the need for a keyboard or mouse. Voice recognition is a mainstream technology, but one which has assistive characteristics.

People using voice recognition software may have a physical impairment which prevents them using a keyboard or mouse, including people with Muscular Dystrophy and Parkinson’s Disease. In addition, people suffering temporary conditions such as Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) might use such technologies for the duration of their recuperation.

Designing a website with concise link text, which is independent of surrounding page content, and good structure of information will help people using voice recognition navigate pages more easily.

The Browser
All browsers have in-built features which allow colours to be customised and font sizes to be changed. Many have additional features that allow custom stylesheets to be used, portions of the page to be magnified, or pages to be self voiced. Whilst not a conventional assistive technology, they are undoubtedly the one application that almost everyone will use to improve their browsing experience.

People will make use of these features if they have mild eye conditions such as short or long sight, if they have colour blindness or more persistent sight conditions such as early onset Diabetic Retinopathy. People with motor control difficulties may enlarge text size to provide a larger clickable area on text links, people with Photo Sensitive Epilepsy may turn off images to prevent fast moving visual content from being displayed. The list is extensive and ongoing.

Designing pages to be fluid, so that the user can impose heir own choices on the way they view page is key to utilising browser functionality. Using CSS to control presentation, relative unit of measurement (such as %) to control font size and page widths and ensuring that information conveyed with graphics is also available when images are switched off will help people make the most of their browser."


LĂ©onie Watson
Nomensa

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Research

For my simalated client project i have decide to base my ideas on healthy eating with this targetted at 5 - 11 year old children. i have decided to do this as looking on the web i have found that there is a gap in the market for healthy eating information aimed at children, it is all simply aimed at adults. so for this project i thought the first thing to do was to look into this area in more detail in oder to get a better understanding.

the video below shows the way that food can be fun for kids, this program is shown on the bbc as is aimed to get children into the kitchen to experiment and have fun with food. however it does not have any information about healthy eating.

Simulated Client Project-Proposal

Introduction
I have been contacted by a local school who would like me to create a new piece of multimedia that will teach the pupils about public information. in this proposal I will cover these areas subject area, target audience, requirements, design solution, justification and a design schedule that will show a week by week breakdown of the tasks and also include a contingency. This with then ensure that the client can clearly see of my design solution in order to solve the multimedia problem.

Chosen subject area
the subject area that I have chose for this project is Healthy Living, within this vast subject area I have decided that the scope of my project will be based healthy eating. I have made this design choice for a number of reasons these include; my knowledge in this area is greater than in other areas and I think there is a gap in the market for healthy eating promotions on the web targeted at children. From the research on healthy eating, I have come to realise that there is a lack of information for children about being healthy eating. There is a lot of information about getting children to eat healthy but there a lot less information based on the children themselves. After all I think that if you are going to make children eat healthy then it is useful for them to know a little about it and why they should do it. not only do they then understand why it is important but also are more likely to want to have a healthy lifestyle in the future.

Target Audience
for this project my target audience will be children aged 5 to 11 as I think this is a key age to teach them about healthy eating so that they can then make the right choices as they become teens and young adults. Through my research I have learnt that
“In the UK an estimated one in four 11 to 15 year olds are overweight or obese - and the problem is growing every year. Based on this I have aimed my target audience a lot younger in try and help with this growing issue.”

http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/child_obesity.html

Requirements
for this project the client requires me to design and create a piece of multimedia that will inform children about healthy living. This has to inform children about the importance of eating healthily but also keeping them engaged. It needs to be fun bright and interactive to appeal to children aged 5 to 11 years old. It also needs to be easy to use and accessible at school or at home. It needs have simple and clear navigation throughout. With a clear message about healthy eating.

Design Solution
to solve this multimedia problem I will design and create a mini site, which will enable the children engage in games and interaction at the same time giving them clear information about healthy eating. This will be based around the balance of health plate, it will use simple colour codes to identify good foods, OK foods that can be eaten regularly but not a large amount and bad foods. The first page will start off with the simple food groups that when a child clicks on a colour code it will then list all the food related to that. For example if the child clicks on green it will give then a list of foods that are good for them. The next page will have the same colour code but be based around portion sizes. It will tell children that they should only eat a small amount of the bad foods and a large amount of the good food. It will do this in the same way previously using colour codes and the healthy balance plate. The third and final page will them be a simple game based on this the children will use a mouse to drag and drop the foods onto the colour coded plate until they get it into the right place. I think this will be a fun and interactive way to teach children about what is good for them to eat on a regular basis. To create this multimedia mini site I will use dreamweaver to create the first two webpages then use flash for the game. The child with navigate this site in a simple linear way it will enter thought the first page, learning about the foods that are good and not so gud then once completed the two information pages they can then be rewarded ny playing the game this way it will give a the information first so they are not distracted by the game.



Justification
throughout my research into this area I struggled to find any websites that were targeted at the children not at the adults as shown below. This sites however show the use of colour when sited area based around children.



However the image is an example of a website used to encourage children to cook and experiment with foods. It uses bright colours, coloured characters and lots of interaction to keep children engaged.




Schedule
Week 1 13/10/08 – 17/10/08 Design
Week 2 20/10/08 – 24/10/08 Proposal
Week 3 &4 27/10/08 – 31/10/08 Production
Week 5 3/11/08 – 9/11/08 Testing

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Simulated Client Project

one of our first projects for this year is the simulated client project. for this we have 6 weeks have a simulated project that we have to write and design a project to solve the problem using a piece of multimedia whether its a website, a piece of interaction, film or animation.

the project options include
Healthy living
Global warming
Sustainability
Sexual health

once we have chosen a project title then we have to i then have to write a proposal to pitch to the client about our design ideas and solutions to the multimedia problem. the subject area i have chosenis healthy eating as a i feel i know more about this topic than the others.

First week of year 3!!

well its the end of the of the first week back and we are all so scared of what is to come. Theres also a buzz of excitement going around too. theres also a lot of focus on not just what's happening this year but also when we go into the real world of industry and where we want to be after this year so wish me luck and lets go for it!!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Where do i want to be

i no i no huge question but having just started year 3 thats the key question that will enable me to progress enough this year to then be able to step out into the big wide world of web!! As i look back at where ive come i really believe that if i can get my head around what feels like a huge question then it wil really help me not only achieve the very best that i can this year but also get where i want to be. in college i started the final year with the attitude that i was going to get 3 A's at the end of the year and with alot of work i did but havin that focus helped me throughout the year. by no means am i saying that if i say i want to get a first so i will get one but if i have a realistic focus i think it will help me reach my goal and get to where i want to be (with a little help from the boys of course).

the next bit is the hardest im going to try and figure out what i want to do after. im goin to be goin into the big wide world with so many areas

i could be web design (front end/interface design)or work behind the scenes

Monday, September 29, 2008

Inspiration

As i was doing some reasearch on accessability for my final year when i found out about this inspiring man called John Benson.

John Benson is an american web designer who disbite having Cerebal Palsy which stopped him form being able to use his arms and legs was able to forfill his dreams of being a web designer.

After guaduating with a Internet Webmaster Technician Associate Degree he used a hands free keyboard called LUCY. He did this by aiming a laser pointer which was attached to a pair of lensless glasses. then when he has to use a mouse he uses his chin to manipulate a trackball.

this is crazy to think that he could use his face to be so creative and productive it must have took alot of determination to get him where he is today i think it is amazing and very inspiring

CS4???

Ok Ok Ok Ok slow down im just getting used to Adobe CS3 and now when i was looking to buy the software for my mac i dicovered that the new CS4 is out on pre-order and i cant help being scared and wherey about what is to come.

From what ive seen so far of it theres not much change so hopefully ill be ok



but as always ill keep you posted

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Principles of Web Design

Right ok so i've learnt about layouts now and I think I have more of a clear idea now to think bout the basic principles that differntionate between good design and bad

Emphasis
Emphasis is all about the important things that you want to draw attention to. therefore the most important things are the most prominent on the page. the first mast important thing would be the most prominent on the page then the second most prominent would be next and so on.... this can also help usability as the most important things are highlighted and can be found easily. when thinking about what is important on the page it is key to think about what your client wants to achieve and the message they want to send out though there site. therefore they are the most important areas to emphasis. another area where emphasis is used is the area that the client will find most appealing on the site; there they will stay there longer. some sites emphasis the logo as that is another key area. there are few ways in which you can emphasis these include bold, bigger, italics, different colours, drop shadows and borders.

Sense of Balance
hmmm balancing isn’t really one of my strong point anyways and now I have to try in on the web too!!
this sounds pretty simple but is hard to get right. you need to be able to divide a page down the middle both ways and it should be balanced. things such as images, colour, shapes and text. things should not lean to one side. this does Not mean that everything has to be symmetrical.

Arrangement
this is all about the way in which the elements connect with each other on the page, also about how they line up with other so in the end they are all aligned with each other making the page very neat and tidy. the best way to do this is using a grid or ruler on the page in order to make sure it is accurate and lined up perfectly.

Contrast
Contrast is essential within a webpage, without contrast your website would be boring. not only that but it is used to guide the users eye around the page. contrast can be used on areas such as logos, text and navigation these are areas that you would want to set apart from apart from the rest of the page. ways in which to contrast include reverse text, larger text, italics, drop shadows, glows textures, different shapes and borders

Repetition of Elements
Good repetition within a websites helps to maintain a theme. a theme is key as users become familiar and know there way around. the trick is to keep it simple repeat areas such as navigation logo and colours.

Visual Direction
this is all about the way the users eye moves through your website. its all about making the user go through the way that you want. it also helps pick out the most important things. the key is to look at what your eye is drawn to. A U shaped flaw line is easier on the eye.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Another website that might be useful

i came across this website, it might be useful for tutorials for the coming year!

Layout

The layout is another important step when creating a website so it is key that know the basics when it comes the layout then the rest is up to me.

The Golden Rules
we always read from top to bottom from left to right, therefore the most important things go at the top, larger and stood out from anything else (like a banner on a newspaper). the second important things underneath, smaller but still big enough to attract attention e.g. links, menus and navigation. information should never be stacked from top to bottom.

The Classic Inverted L Shape Layout
within this layout the top and side bars are the most important; this area is used for navigation and logo. this layout is good for corporate sites to appeal to a larger audience.

Top Header
this layout has everything important at the top leaving the rest of the page free for the rest of the content. this layout makes the site look clean simple and organised. this layout is used for drop down navigation

Side Navigation
this layout has no top bar for navigation, it looks clean, organised and simple to use for this reason it is frequently used.

Box Shape
with this layout all the information and content is in the middle of the page inside a square or rectangle. sometimes small elements are on the outside but usually all the interface is inside a box. this layout is very user friendly as it gives your eyes a rest as your focus is drawn to the center. this layout is therefore effective and popular.

Classic Header, Center Footer
this stacks everything neatly from top to bottom, logo, content, footer. links can be at the top with the logo or at the bottom with the footer. the footer can contain copyright information, links and corporate information. this layout is a very basic style design. this is also a good layout you to organize information by importance.

Left Justified
this layout does what says on the tin it aligns all of the interface and content to the left and is designed for a number of monitor and screen resolutions. this layout ensures minimal white space.

Right Justified
just like the one above this layout also does what it says on the tin all the interface and content is aligned to the right, no matter now much you stretch it

No Interface, Just White Space
this layout when done correctly can look beautiful and clean with no drawn borders or dividing lines this can look elegant. it can be any colour. the space is used for navigation space.

Full Design, No White Space
this layout has no interface design and covers the whole of the browser window, this layout can be eye-catching but very busy, it can also give a site a very modern futuristic look. the disadvantages of this are that the audience maybe overwhelmed and it can be very complicated to use. therefore this layout should be handled with care.

Middle Interface
Within this layout all the content is based in the center of the page leaving the top and bottom of the page empty, therefore this has a similar look to the box design. the only difference is that it isn’t contained within a box it stretches to each side of the page.

The Classic Black Site with Red or Green Text
this colour combination isn’t good for creating business web pages; it is used a lot for rock bands, gothic sites, sci-fi and video games.

3D Design
within this layout elements are made using 3D software. this is becoming more and more popular on the web and is used by a wide audience. the main disadvantage of using 3D on the web is the download speeds. it can take a long time to download therefore the user may get board and go elsewhere.

Horizontal Scrolling
this layout is used a lot by photographers, artists and online stores as they use it to showcase there work or products. the page scrolls from left to right; this provides a change from top to bottom. however most people don’t like scrolling therefore there are limited number of people that will visit sites using this design.

Unconventional Styles
websites that come under this category have no particular style. however do have a clear specific layout. this style of design is used by many art students, design firms, rock bands and fashion designers. it got its inspiration from print designs and allows total freedom to create what you like where you like. be careful though as this design has a lot of impunity to fail as you do not know how the audience will react to a website created like this. so there maybe the freedom to do what you like you then looses the stability of knowing what the audience will think. however if the navigation is clear it can be very effective. So the key thing to remember when creating a site like this is to make sure your audience will accept your unconventional site.

What are you going to communicate??

when creating a website one of the main things you have to consider is your audience and what you are tryin to communicate. when looking at this these are the key things that i have learned.
- i need to understand the needs and goals of the website
- being cool isnt enough
- clients are either seeking or already have a certain type of audience
- its my job to define the audience
- i need to gather information about the audience, these include things such as education, occupation, income, marital status, age, culture and gender (demograhic statisitics). these help to draw an image of the audience.
- you can then use demographic statics to estimate what browser, monitor size and speed the audience uses eg gamers are more likely to have huge screens and fast computers that can handle large file sizes. where as a older couple are less likely to have this. however it is important not to stereotype your audience.
- should always ensure that your site downloads quickly at low speeds
- 800 x 600 resolution = 760 x 420 design

when creating a website you should
- create a site map
- create a scope for the site
- what the designer will do
- what the client will do
- amount of money
- websites are not all about design
- Design is about the website the same as its not all about the content

Thursday, August 14, 2008

New Facebook!!!

So Mr Mark Zuckerburg has recently made a few changes to facebook recently and it seems to have caused a lot of different views and opinions on people within my contact list, now I must add these changes are mainly cosmetic and meant to improve the look and layout of facebook and but still people don’t like change!

As you can see in the images below there is quite a lot of difference




as you can see when you compare the two side by side the changes are very apparent the whole layout of the page is completely different this is a risky move to make as this can make the usability of the website far less familiar there for the users may become uncomfortable within the site as they are used to layout and can easily navigate around the site without much thought.

I have looked into this further and looked into what people actually think of the new facebook, just looking through my facebook I can clearly see that there are some strong opinions.

"Having used Facebook for about 18 months, I've grown fond of it. It's a great way to keep in touch with people, and my initial reason for joining was to view friend’s pictures from nights out. But I'm skeptical about the core developers' intentions. There has to be a way of making this move very transitional, instead of throwing it on (unsuspecting) users in one lump saying "here ya go, this is based on less than 0.1% of user's feedback, live with it, it's staying". Doing that is a bad way of developing anything, especially a living website with many million users."
http://www.new.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=34082321101

"The whole new facebook is bollocks to be honest. Your mini feed is bunched into a wall and then your home page is sent in to a frenzy of many little things cluttering it up and then your side bar is gone. Now, if they had given a choice to the current members to use the classic design and the new "bollocks" design for eternity, I wouldn't have minded but this just pushing people into the boundary that they would not like to be in."
http://www.new.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=34082321101

Having looked at all the opinions I found on my facebook and the forums I found the general opinion on facebook layout is awful everyone hates it!!

So here goes its time for my opinion. I don’t really want to sit on the fence here but I really don’t have a strong opinion either way, I have used the new version for about a month now after the new button on the right hand corner on there screen tempted me into trying the new version. When I first started to use it I didn’t get on with it at all. Now i'm used to I quite like it. I like the fact that you can see who is online constantly there’s no constant clicking to see who is online. from a practitioners point of view however I keep thinking about the complexity of the code behind the scenes that makes me worry about people that have slower computers, browser and broadband speeds than what I do, the same goes with the new chat feature. All of the other changes are purely cosmetic don’t get me wrong i’m not usually one for change and I do keep stepping back into familiar ground to the old facebook. I think given the chance like me people will grow to love the new facebook as much as the old one.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Pixels, RGB, File Formats and Web Browsers

Pixels and RGB
Pixels are small squares of colour/light that makes up an image. RGB stands for the three colour of light that make up the pixels it stands for Red Green and Blue these are the three basic light colours that can be mixed to make an image.

Bitmap/Raster Vs Vector
Bitmap/Raster
A raster image (also known as a bitmap images is made up of pixels. one of the advantages to this is because it contains lots of pixels it contain a high number of colours so it is good for photos that contain lots of different colour. A main disadvantage to using these images is that they cannot be resized easily, if stretched it becomes very obvious that is it made out of pixels (it becomes pixelated). These can be used on the web for high colour images that are not resized.

Vector
A vector image is made up for pixels but with lines between them. This is how they works the computer calculates all its points and lines which is then multiplied then the image is redrawn at the new size. So there is no loss of quality. These images are said to be resolution independent. Vector image have a limited range of colour and can be used for things such as symbols and logos.

File formats for the Web
JPEG
JPEG images can contain 16.7 million colours, therefore it they are ideal for images that contain a wide range of colours such as photos. These are small files as they are compressed using lossy. This means each time the image is saved data is lost therefore it is loss of quality i.e. Lossy. The trick is to find a balance between quality of the image and its file size. A main advantage is that they can handle lots of colour information disadvantage as this is a lossy file your image will never look as good as your original image

GIF
GIF images contain 256 colours. The colours within a GIF are organized and indexed. As it doesn’t have a large number of colours because they are index GIF images will find the closest colour they can. These file format are used for simple solid images and line drawings. Also these file formats are lossless therefore it does not loose data and quality. Gif files also have a transparency feature and are good for simple animation. One of the main advantages of a gif file is that they can perfectly preserve an image as it is lossless and doesn’t loose data. Disadvantages of a gif file is that they don’t support complex images like JPEGs, if you have a complex gif it can be a huge file size, does not support images that contain gradient areas.

PNG
PNG files have all of the advantages of a JPEG and GIF put together. They have good quality images and contain many colours and the transparency feature. they seem too good to be true right the only down side is that they are not widely supported by all browsers as much as JPEG and GIF. (This in my eyes is a little silly.)

Animation
Animation can be very attractive within a webpage and a very powerful way in which to get attention on my website, however they can be huge file sizes then therefore take a while to load in the mean time your will board and maybe leave you site.

Web Browsers
A web browser is a program that translates data on the World Wide Web into a webpage that we can read and use. There are many different web browsers used by everyone. This is frustrating as a web designer. So it is very useful to keep a track of the changes and trends within web browsers. One layout can be perfect within one web browser and a complete mess in another browser.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Back to Basics

I'm now finished second year and although I have learnt a lot of skills, I still think I’m lacking something in order me to take my work live and online. so here goes I’ve got a book and I’m going right back to basic so if anyone is reading this blog they will probably think I’m a little backwards but I feel if I do this ill learn the skill I’m missing in order for me to do more work for companies and have more confidence in my work.

so here goes

According to the book
The questions you should always ask when viewing a site whether it is yours or someone else’s are:
- Do I like the way this site looks? Why? or Why not?
- Can I tell what the site is about? Why? or Why not?
- Does the design seem appropriate to what the site is about? Why? or Why not?
- Can I find what I am looking for easily? Why? or Why not?

Using these questions will then make me look at things more critically and therefore help me to work on my design skills that I’m lacking at the moment.

Constructive criticism
Constructive criticism means recognising good things as good so that you can be sure to continue doing them. It also means recognising the bad thing as bad but also looking for solutions to the problems that they pose. It helps me to build myself and my skills not tear me down. It may give me an insight in order to become a better designer.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Phidgets, temperature

this is a really boring but useful post as i need to save this link

http://www.phidgets.com/documentation/AS3_API_Manual.pdf
from page 24

Thursday, May 15, 2008

I found some answers...

i think i have found some answer tto the do's and don'ts of web design that mite help me when working with clients.

http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Do’s-and-Dont’s-of-Great-Web-Design/33446

this tutorial all though is very basic, it is very useful when starting out as it tells you the main does and donts when creating a good website.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Can Professional still be Funky?

this is a question i've bin asking foir a while now and i dont seem to be able to get it right from what ive seen things that look professional to me look very boring and things that look funky and cool to me dont seem very proffesional where is the balance so i scale down the colours or put things in a certain font to achieve the proffesional look but then how far is there between scaled down and boring i think thres a fine line and i dont have a clue where i am hopefully the more i practise the better ill get!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

courswork ideas


Lovin' the new look

This is a website i use on a regular basis as it takes me bak to my yorkshire roots from time to time. ive used it for years for many reasons really i used to listern to the radio sation alot and with internet becoming more and more developed they were always saing go the website to find oit more or whatever. then having moved i found i couldnt listern to it so i would then use the website to listern to it. then when i didnt have time to listen to the radio i used it for the future releases feature to i could keep upto date with the new music.




so as i frequent user of this website i really have noticed and benefited from the new design and features that the improved websited has to offer, including
-the showbiz news bar that shows all of the current celebirty news fashing frequently on the screen so you can keep up to date.
- the bigger listern live button helps you access this feature more easily
- i also love that the last 5 songs played are displayed clearly

Friday, April 25, 2008

I Need Another One

Right i no this probably aint doin my street cred any good wen it comes to take that i just cant help myself

so i was sat in the fab virtually relity lecture on monday thinkin wow look at all the screens and stuff that can be used to make u believe you're somewhere your not or make you feel at the time. so then i thought about this video and ive tracked it down on youtube (shh i also have it on dvd) i thought id add it on here 1 to talk about it from a multimeda point of view and to make my blog a little more interesting



this wasnt the tour i went to i think was the o2 area but it was a massive effect that shocked and wowed the audience it was just amazing. As you can see its just a huge semi circle screen with a picture of the luvly take thst boys on it at first. they are huge and ment to be walkin towards us this effect is also done by making them smaller untill the real life take that come though a gap in the screen then they walk onto like running machines that keeps up the walking theme (all the time singing i might add very talented boys) this is a fab visual effect but not only that the effect on the screen changes to differnt themes as they keep walkin and then characters fro the screen are all the time comein in and out of the screen for example the space man. i think this is just one of the amazin effects during this tour

Thursday, April 24, 2008

I think I may have found the answer

this may seem really sily to people reading this but i found the answer to the question ive need to know for a while

What is XML?
For our purposes XML (which stands for eXtensible Markup Language) is a way of structuring, arranging and representing data. One of the benefits of XML is that it allows for customizable and neat representation of data which can be easily parsed (interpreted by a computer) while at the same time being clearly readable to a human.

XML uses 'tags' (similar to HTML tags) which may or may not include refining elements called 'attributes'. (Since most people know some HTML this is a good example to use but don't get carried away with the similarities: HTML is primarily a markup language, while XML – in relation to Flash at least – is primarily a data structure.) Consider the HTML bold tag – to create some bold HTML text we use

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Theres a new thing on Facebook

theres something new on facebook and im not sure about it think it may drive me a little bit crazy and im allowed to complain about it on here because this is a multimedia blog and i have a huge thing about "social networking at the moment.

so this new thing is wen u login and go to the home page there is now a new toolbar at the bottom of the screen that enables to instantly see who is online which is fab but it also enbles u to instantly chat to your friends online to me this bit is a lil bit too close for comfort and im sooo not sure bout it. i think this is because i have the people on msn who i can chat to all the time then i have the people on facebook who i dont want to chat to that often and who i can email or contact whenever i want but i have a little bit of distance there i dunno really may be im just ranting again ill probs like it in a few weeks i wonder if theres any1 that agrees with me.......

I need to get a wiggle on.....

so after looking at some of the 3rd year work online it has kinda motivated me to get myself into gear and start actually making things rather than thinking im crap at everything then talkin myself outta doin things i think the more i do things whether its just playing around with flash or having another go at php the more it will build my skills confidence and my portfolio

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

External Work

On the last review david and jools were please with my work but they said i have to take my designs and ideas and make them real. so i went to the comapny for the day and took lots of photographs and discussed lots of ideas and looked at some of the current car wash companies that have online services and advertising etc

since then the customer has not got back to me at all so i think i will just either add the website as a prject onto my portfolio or just have another word with him and tyr to get it all up and runnimg when i have more free time in the summer.

this has taught me alot about working with a client and im sure i will use these skills on future projects

i have a few more possible projects in the pipelines these include a website for a printing company and a website for a friend of mine who is on the same course

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Assesment/Feedback on Coursework 2

Thats another one down 1 more to go!
i have just had my assesment review to show my work what i have done for this piece of course work and i was sooooooooo scared as i didnt think my work was as gud as the boys but i was plesently surprised.

my website was a dating website called Date My Mate and i thought the tutors would be a little funny about this as it was a little bit risky and nothing like what all he other boys in my class had done but thye really liked my idea and i thought id put it forward in a productive and positive way

they seemed very impressed with my site but there was a few things that let me down on the day which were the uploadin images and the email which gave me an error on the email which i was gutted at because it had worked soooo many times but its just one of those things

improvements
i think i need to clean my website
they didnt like the fact that id centred everything
simon didnt like the black and pink
work on getting the images to upload
clean things up
work on accessablity
correct the error on emails

i think these improvements would be good for me to progress with this and learn more skills so then my site is professional enough add to my portfolio

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Im having a php breakdown

omg php is so much harder to learn that action script give me bak flash any day over this

nothing i do seems to work and a really really cant do it i just want it to click like it did with flash im just not getting this at all so wot im going to do is make a cuppa tea and work on my css and the pretty pink things and do more php at uni tomoz cant wait!not!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Dealth of the Author

After the lecture on dealth of the author last week, i walked out not really understanding a thing that was said at all apart from the fact that he was going on about modernism and postmodernism and bringing the old into the new. i didnt really get much more from this then when we asked to write about it in here i was like ok i'm going to ask for a second opinion on this so i did and it opened a can of worm so im gonna write it all down (it may not make sense) but its how i see it at the moment

Dealth of the Author is based around the truth and how the world id modern world is making it more difficult to figure out what the truth is as there is so many different versions of the same truth that people are getting more and more opinion instead of truth.

in postmodernist times there was no interent or any other forms of comunications that we have now so books were seen as a more revlevent or factual peice of information but can also be less up tp date

Friday, February 22, 2008

yet another tutorial

this is another tutorial that im gonna try at home coz at this moment in time im willing to try anything and everything
http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/PHP-login-script/26180
this is a tutorail i found that mite help me when i get ot thge upload image stage of the project

http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Images-upload-Website/28872

Monday, February 18, 2008

Reasearch for Coursework



so ive decided to make a dating site for my next assesment which is a social networking web site as being the romantic that i am thats the first thing i think about when someone says the word networking at how professional and up to date these things where as as you can see from the photo above. so now i understand how they have made so much money and the industry is sooo big. its not sleazy at all!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Don't Laugh At Me

i would like to say something rite now to get it out of my system i hate photoshop cs3 ive just done a really blonde thing and yeah i no if i told anyone that they'd laff at me so im gonna write it here instead so no one can laugh at me. so this is what i did bare in mind at this point i was thinkin i was a bit clever like coz id downloaded the trial version on to my comp this mornin so there i was playin around with the pink buttons that i made yesterday so i was copyin and paste then i wanted a new file so i opened it and you know the little window that comes up to ask me bout all the features so i changed the pixels to give me a nice big page to work with like ive bin taught then i accidently change it to grey scale then for about 30 mins i was gettin more and more wond up that everything was grey and every page i opened was grey

i can hear u all laughin at me but its not funny i was gettin angry and i thought id broken it

rite thats over now back to my luvly PINK BUTTONS fun fun

Friday, February 15, 2008

photoshop bubble buttons



this is a really really gud tutorial given to my by kam to enable me to create and desdesign my buttons for my website for my new coursework it was really really helpful and really simple and easy to use as it is done in only seven steps

http://photoshopfan.com/tutorials/buttons/button1/button1.html

photoshop glass effect tutorial

the link below is another really really good tutorial found by dave when i was wingin that i cudnt make my logo look 3d

http://www.interfaceuniversity.com/tutorials/ShinyGlassBall/page1.php

Monday, January 28, 2008

waterstones pictures



this is a picture i found at the waterstones exibition i went to this could be useful when im working on interaction as i could use it as part of a project and make the letters move so the user could rite messages or something like fidge magnets

waterstones pictures



i really liked this picture and think it would be useful in my ideas for future web sites

Monday, January 21, 2008

CSS Colour Codes



the image above shows the colour codes used in css, this is just something i think ill find useful when doin more css within my webpages

Browser Wars

Ok so everyone has there own opinions on browsers at the moment some people rave on about firefox and thats all they will use and others are more towards internet explorer so i thought being a up and coming web designer myself id look into it see what all the fuss is about

Early Browser Wars
In the early 1990s there were many simple browsers available. The first well known and widespead was Mosaic. Several companies licensed it to create their own commercial browsers, such as Spry Mosaic and Spyglass Mosaic.

Marc Andreessen,One of the Mosaic developers, founded the company Mosaic Communications Corporation and created a new web browser named Mosaic Netscape. the company was then renamed Netscape Communications Corporation and the browser Netscape Navigator for legal resons . The Netscape browser improved on Mosaic's usability and reliability, and it soon dominated the market, helped by the fact that "evaluation copies" of the browser were downloadable without restrictions or cost.

First Browser Wars
(this is when good old microsoft kicked in)

By mid-1995, the World Wide Web gradually began receiving a great deal of attention in the popular culture and mass media. Netscape Navigator was the the main web browser at this time, while Microsoft had just licensed Mosaic as the basis of Internet Explorer 1.0 which it released as part of the Microsoft Windows 95 Plus! Pack in August 1995. Internet Explorer 2.0 was released three months later, and by then the race was on.

New versions of Netscape Navigator (later Netscape Communicator) and Internet Explorer were released at a rapid pace over the following few years. Features often took priority over bug fixes, and therefore the browser wars were a time of unstable browsers, shaky Web standards compliance, frequent crashes, security holes, and lots of user headaches. Internet Explorer only began to approach par with its competition with version 3.0 (1996), which offered scripting support and the market's first commercial Cascading Style Sheets implementation.


Main Wikipedia page using Internet Explorer 4.0In October 1997, Internet Explorer 4.0 was released. The release party in San Francisco featured a ten-foot-tall letter "e" logo. Netscape employees showing up to work the following morning found that giant logo on their front lawn, with a sign attached which read "From the IE team." The Netscape employees promptly knocked it over and set a giant figure of their Mozilla dinosaur mascot atop it, holding a sign reading "Netscape 72, Microsoft 18" (representing the market distribution).[1]

Internet Explorer 4 changed the tides of the browser wars. It was faster and it adopted the W3C's published specifications more faithfully than Netscape Navigator 4.0. Unlike Netscape, it provided the possibility for truly "dynamic" pages in which the flow of the text and images of the page could be altered after the page was loaded. Installing Internet Explorer 4.0 was considered as a system upgrade that would provide more capabilities such as MP3 playback and, optionally, the Windows Desktop Update.

During these times it was common for web designers to display 'best viewed in Netscape' or 'best viewed in Internet Explorer' logos. These images often identified a specific browser version and were commonly linked to a source from which the "preferred" browser could be downloaded. To some extent, these logos were indicative of the divergence between the "standards" supported by the browsers and signified which browser was used for testing the pages. Supporters of the notion that web sites should be interoperable with any browser started the "Viewable With Any Browser" campaign.

A lot was at stake for these two companies involved in the browser wars. A popular web browser could earn a great deal of money: search engine companies would bid to be the default tool used in the web browser, and other companies with a web presence would bid to be listed in the default set of bookmarks which was preinstalled with the browser. Since a web browser is a powerful gateway to a great deal of information, the company which controlled this gateway could conceivably have a great deal of influence over its users.

Microsoft had three strong advantages in the browser wars. One was resources: Netscape began with about 80% market share and a good deal of public goodwill, but as a relatively small company deriving the great bulk of its income from what was essentially a single product (Navigator and its derivatives), it was financially vulnerable. Netscape's total revenue never exceeded the interest income generated by Microsoft's cash on hand.[citation needed]

Another advantage was that Microsoft Windows had over 90% share of the operating system market. IE was bundled with every copy of Windows; therefore Microsoft was able to increase its market share. Furthermore IE remained free as the enormous revenues from Windows were used to fund its development and marketing, resulting in rapid improvements.

Thirdly it was faster and it adopted the W3C's published specifications more faithfully than Netscape Navigator 4.0. Unlike Netscape, it provided the possibility for truly "dynamic" pages in which the flow of the text and images of the page could be altered after the page was loaded.

Other Microsoft actions also hurt Netscape, such as:


Microsoft FrontPage 2000 in web-authoring modeMicrosoft created a licensing agreement with AOL to base AOL's primary interface on IE rather than Netscape.
Microsoft purchased and released a web authoring tool, FrontPage, making it easy to utilise proprietary extensions and non-standard HTML code in web pages.
Microsoft included support for CSS in IE. Some web designers found it easier to write their pages for IE only than to support Netscape's proprietary LAYER extensions.
Microsoft locked up a large portion of the Macintosh browser market in 1997 as part of its agreement with Apple that year. The agreement made Internet Explorer the default browser on the Mac for five years.
The effect of these actions were to "cut off Netscape's air supply" as stated by a Microsoft executive during the United States v. Microsoft case. This, together with several bad business decisions on Netscape's part, led to Netscape's defeat by the end of 1998, after which the company was acquired by America Online for USD $4.2 billion. Internet Explorer became the new dominant browser, attaining a peak of about 96% of the web browser usage share during 2002, more than Netscape had at its peak.

The first browser war ended when Internet Explorer ceased to have any serious competition for its market share. This also brought an end to the rapid innovation in web browsers; until 2006 there was only one new version of Internet Explorer since version 6.0 was released in 2001. Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1 was developed as part of Windows XP SP2, and integrated into Windows Server 2003 SP1.


Consequences
The browser wars encouraged two specific kinds of behavior among their combatants.

Adding new features instead of fixing bugs: A web browser had to have more new features than its competition, or else it would be considered to be "falling behind." But with limited manpower to put towards development, this often meant that quality assurance suffered and that the software was released with serious bugs[citation needed].
Adding proprietary features instead of obeying standards: A web browser was expected to follow the standards set down by standards committees (for example, by adhering to the HTML specifications). But competition and innovation required that web browsers extend the standards with proprietary features without waiting for committee approval. Sometimes these extensions led to useful techniques that were adopted by other browsers, such as the XMLHttpRequest technology that resulted in Ajax. More often than not, however, these extensions proved harmful.
Support for web standards was severely weakened[citation needed]. For years, innovation in web development stagnated as developers had to use obsolete and unnecessarily complex techniques to ensure their pages would render properly in Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Netscape Navigator 4 and IE6 lacked full compliance with several standards, such as CSS and the PNG image format.

The near-universal adoption of Internet Explorer had also created a monoculture which has widened the damage done by malicious code.


Since Mozilla Firefox 1.0 was released in 2004, Mozilla and Mozilla-based browsers have established a growing niche in the browser market.

In 2003, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer version 6.0 SP1 would be the last standalone version of its browser. Future enhancements would be dependent on Windows Vista, which will include new tools such as the Windows Presentation Foundation and XAML to enable developers to build extensive web applications.

In response, in April 2004 the Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software joined efforts to develop new open technology standards which add more capability while remaining backward-compatible with existing technologies.[2] The result of this collaboration was WHATWG, a working group devoted to the fast creation of new standard definitions which will then be submitted to the W3C for approval.

In February 2005, Microsoft announced that IE 7 would be available for Windows XP SP2 and later versions of Windows by mid-2005.[3] The announcement introduced the new version of the browser as a major upgrade over IE 6 SP1.

Internet Explorer 7 was finally released in October 2006. It included features such as the tabbed browsing seen in Opera version 2, a search bar, and improved support for web standards. Additionally, it included a phishing filter and a new GUI redesign. Microsoft distributed Internet Explorer 7 to genuine Windows users as a high priority update through Microsoft Update.[4] Typical market share analysis showed slow uptake of Internet Explorer 7, and after statistics in September 2007 from w3schools.com showed Firefox at 35.4% had taken over from Internet Explorer 6 at 34.9% as the most popular browser[5] with Internet Explorer 7 lagging behind in third place at 20.8%, Microsoft dropped the requirement for Windows Genuine Advantage for Internet Explorer 7 one year later, in October 2007.[6]

Firefox 2.0, launched in late October 2006, also included a phishing filter and GUI redesign, as well as a spell-checker for text fields and several other new features.

On the 11 June 2007, Apple officially entered the second browser war by releasing a BETA version of their Safari 3 browser for Microsoft Windows. Whether or not this browser will become an important factor in the browser wars is yet to be seen.[7]

On 2007-12-28, Netscape developers announced that they will discontinue their web browser on February 1, 2008.[8]


Other browser competition
Microsoft Windows
Although it currently only has a small desktop usage share, Opera is the third most popular browser on Windows (it is also available on other platforms, including Linux, Mac OS, the Nintendo DS and the Wii). In September 2005, Opera removed the ad banner and licensing fee from their browser with the release of Opera 8.5. Their stated goal was to replace Firefox as the second most used web browser. In June, 2007, Apple's Safari browser was released for Windows in beta form.

Other notable browsers for Windows are Netscape 8 (an Internet Explorer/Firefox hybrid), and SeaMonkey (a replacement for the Mozilla Application Suite). Front ends for the IE shell like Maxthon, Avant Browser and Enigma Browser that added features like tabbed browsing to IE were once popular, but with the advent of Internet Explorer 7, are falling out of use. Internet Explorer 7 now also includes tabbed browsing.
Linux and Unix
The Unix-based Konqueror browser is part of the KDE project and is the primary competitor against Mozilla-based browsers (Firefox, Mozilla/SeaMonkey, Epiphany, Galeon, etc.) for market share on Unix-like systems. Konqueror's KHTML engine is an API for the KDE desktop. Derivative browsers and web-browsing functionality (for example, Amarok has a Wikipedia sidebar that gives information about the current artist) based on KDE use KHTML.


Mac OS
Safari is Apple's web browser and is the most popular web browser for Mac OS X The web browser is based on KHTML. Other browsers include Shiira, and OmniWeb, which use the API WebKit, and many Macintosh programs are adding web-browsing functionality.[11]

Camino is a Mozilla-based browser for the Mac OS X platform, and uses Mac's native Cocoa interface like Safari does, instead of Mozilla's XUL which is used in Firefox.


[edit] Mobile devices
Opera Mini is a popular web browser on mobile devices such as most J2ME Java enabled internet connected dumbphones and smartphones because of its small footprint. Opera Mobile for smartphones main competition is from Netfront. PC Site Viewer, the web browser included on many Japanese cellular phones, is based on Opera. In February, 2006 it was announced that Nintendo "will release an add-on card" with a version of Opera for the Nintendo DS (Nintendo DS Browser).[12]. This DS browser has since been criticised for its lack of Flash support and slowness. Opera is also used as a web browser on the Wii console.

Windows Mobile comes with Pocket Internet Explorer by default and competes with Opera Mobile, Netfront and Mozilla's Minimo.

Safari, Apple's browser based on WebKit/KHTML, comes with iPhone and iPod Touch.

XHTML and HTML Whats the Difference???

The First Website Ever!!

Portfolios

so i had my review and i was told i have to make a portfolio and fast if i wanted to get work experience for the summer so firstly i need some ideas so i thought id have a look at some other portifolios on




and i found some really good work especially this one who is made by a french girl



i really really like her work the colour and the funkyness of the whole style i think im goin to aim for mine to be as funky and as fresh as hers. its just ace

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Designer MIlNI

I love this its like me dream

When lookinfg at interaction this week i was look through some websites and how the user can interact with them wen i came across this which i love becuase its me dream to have a mini.

the site is amazing too its really really addictive and its quite simple to use its all bout designing the roof of your mini you can also save your designs and im sure if you had enough money they would actually do it for you too.

Ibar



this is a really good example of touch screens and how they can be used for interaction. this is how the simple screens can be used to make every day things more interestin and interactive. i think its fab!

Touch Screens



this is a really good example of touch screens and how they can be used for interaction.

Interaction Design 1

So im looking at the way in which people interact with the computer and thinking of more ways in which people can communicate with the computer in a more conventional way than just using a key board and a mouse

Firstly i looked at lots of websits that used alot of interection and theses are a few i liked







Saturday, January 12, 2008

Kick Starting My Career

Right so i had my Review yesterday and it went really well and gave me the Kick up the arse i needed in order to make me star my career and get the ball rolling becuse i have loads and loads of really good ideas and loads of designes ideas but i just need to make things happen now so im doin loads of designs for my own brand and looking at other peoples bands and portfoilos to get some ideas and im also looking into further geting my own domain name so here goes!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

WebSafe Colours

i found this really good colour wheel that you can scroll around and it gives tou the different shades of that colour, the colour web safe, web smart and unsafe so it is very effective easy and simple to use

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Myspace Vs Facebook!



i found this video of this american guy talking about Myspace Vs Facebook!
and as a frequent user of both in my time i decided to add it to my blog and add my little opionion so here goes!

as i said i have used them both for me it all started with myspace i just happened to sumble across it one day then more and more people got involved so newly single i thought yeah not so i made a myspace account. i was such a looser at first i didnt have a clue what i was doin then kept giving up and leaving it for months then wen i finally got to know what i was doin and understanding what was goin on in this lil myspace world that i had now created i began to like it and be more adventureous and adding more and more peoples info,colours, background, and music i was addicted then that was it no more essays it was all bout the myspace and i met a gud few people on it that we're that much of complete wierdos so it was all fun really then it changed and became even more techinal and new and trying to impress us and compete with the new networking websites that are now available such as bebo and facebook and now i think it has ruined it and now i only go on when i really really have to.

this is where facebook comes in....I started using facebook just recently after getting board of facebook again in the same way as myspace it was word of mouth that first made me come across facebook everyone started doin it and like a little sheep that i am i followed. then that was it really i was hooked instantly. I find now im on facebook almost 24 hrs a day its getting really bad. i think it has a few more pluses that myspace such as the events you can set up an event or a nite out in a matter of seconds which is a great way of getting everyone together and communicating at the same time. i use it so much most of the time i facebook more than i text as i know that all my mates will be on facebook at some point in the day! it started off just as a student thing and now my mum is using it at work and also to keep tabs on wot im up to. another plus of facebook is that you can have tags on your photos so you can see who exactly who is it passed out drunk on the floor or pullin such a drunken face that without a tag you would have a clue who it is!
Don't get me wrong it does have some down points to balance the arguement Facebook has far too many things for you to do like quizzes and applications that are crap and full up ur page so by the time u get to peoples wall u get bord and also it would be good to have some kinda bak ground colour or something

so in evaluation the this dissgussion i think facebook is the place to go it is the future every has to get involved!!!

Friday, January 04, 2008

Colours And Branding

Colours are really important when advertising as it is very important to use the right colours to attract people and give the right impression colours can have all sorts of effects on people such as mcdonalds use prominat primary colours because its ment to make you feel hungury and when coca cola brought santa claus he was green then he turned to red after they took over!

so im keeping all these points in mind when thinkin about my brand and the colours im goin to use when creating my website and creating other exturnal work

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Colours

Colours are very very important when designing for the web for a number reason not only do they have to be asseble for everyone but colours can have lots of differnt meanings to different people. for example red can be used for danger and anger to some people to other it could mean love and romance.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Take That Video



this is the take that beautiful world tour 2007 now i no this probably has nothing to do with multimedia but im goin to try and make it becuase i went to seee this tour twice and having been to see take that a good few times since i was about 7 years old i hthink i have enough take that knowledge to make that judgement (this is also another attempt to keep me doin my bloggs for im getting a little bord of talking about networks and databases now wans what better way to brightner up my blog!) i can do this i think by talking about the lights and the effects the they were both amazing it was by far the best tour yet and some of the effects are outstanding like the clubbing beemin lights that filled the whole arena during "Give Good Feeling". the disco ball in the middle of the area was used to make different effects during songs such as "Rule the World" where it was a made to look like globe and Could it be Magic where there were there things around it that held the dancers who spinkeled feathers onto the platform below it was just amazing! Then last but not least they did Never Forget where it was like a huge screen that showed there animated characters walking down a hill so they started off really big and then ended up normal size then they walked out of this huge screen it looked really really effective.

Hope this kind of makes this video a little more about multimedia!!

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

SPP2 Reading List Task

I don't really know if this is on the readin list but its on vlp and David Downes told us to read so i have done and its turning into my flash bible.

Its called Using ActionScript 3.0 Components and it is really helpful when using actionscript 3 rather that actionscrpt 2, this covers all the components within the cs3 program so theres everything you neeed to know, this is handy as when you have gone from knewing the old flash porgram its difficult when you are tryin to do something and you know what it is and how to do it in the old flash well this guide tell you exactly what to do. Another reason why i found this guide usefull as it has screenshots and the information is very clear and easy to follow, it contains screenshots and code that you can use to play around with until you get the right code your looking for which is very handy when your learning a new program. i used this alot when doing my first peice of coursework and it really helped me get to grips withe be new flash. another factor that was helpful for me is that its online all the time this means i dont have to carry a heavy book around all day everyday its always there also i have printed a hard copy as i am less likely to learn from ths when its on the computer as i will just use the bits i need and leave the rest so with having a hard copy as well i can go throw it properly and highlight the useful bits that i may need in the future.

Tiles

The Tile Machine


this is website that helps when learning about working with small spaces within the web. its called the tile machine and allows you to design and create your own tiles its really gud when getting used to working in small spaces within a webpage or those little icons at the side of the web addresses which i have totally forgot the name of. this website is really fun and addictive as well as useful so give it a go!

Pixel Art

Pixel Art is something that we did also when thinking about designing in small spaces its all about pixels which all little dots the make up an image to design and create images like this is very time consumin and not very effective but it is something that is used on the web so i might as well have a go