I spent Monday morning making some final adjustment to the website based on the results of the feedback session last week. Once I had made the changes I received some from John on how I could improve my website and I hope have them done this week.

I have only got a few design changes to make and the evaluation, for A5, to write so this means that I will have be able to spend more time research and revising the type and newspaper terminology ready for next weeks timed task.

With only a week until the presentation I have been doing final changes and checks of the design and the content. I have a few changes still to make to the presentation and the handout I plan to have these finished tomorrow to give me maximum to amount of time to practice.

Another Tuesday and another timed tasks. This time the task was to create and A5 article about Jonathan Gee. The timed tasks are something I am really enjoying and something I will miss when the A6 assignment has finished.



I am happy with my final version of the article but I don't think that I managed my time quite as well this time as I handed it in only ten minutes before the end. This didn't leave me with much time to make many alterations and improvements unlike last time.

Overall I am feeling confident that I will be ready for the hand-in on Tuesday and I am looking forward to the final timed task.

My targets for next week are:

• Finish the website
• Ensure I have made no 'silly mistakes' on my website such as: missing alt tags etc...
  
• Check I have met all my project goals from the A3 assignment
• Write A5 evaluation and begin A6 evaluative journal entry
  
• Finish presentation handout and check spellings etc...
  
• Practice presentation
• Research and revise typography and newspaper terms
  

Usability testing was number one on the agenda for Monday. Gaining feedback is vital for the development of any website so I was keen to see the results and make the required amendments.

The feedback process was very quick, with only around 5 minutes to look at each website. This didn't allow more extensive tasks such as testing all the links and checking all the spellings and grammar etc...

However it did mean that the answers were based on people first impressions of the website and this is very useful as it often based on first impressions that a user will decide to use the website or not.

I will be posting an online feedback form as soon as the new version of the website is ready so I would really appreciate any feedback you have.

Following a short lecture on newspaper devices (such as; drop caps, teasers etc...) was a timed task. This time the task was to create an advertisement for a job at vodafone as an "Online Digital Designer". I enjoyed this task and feel happy with the final result.

A6
With the A6 presentation just a few weeks away it was time for some practice and this came in seminar groups. I feel that my presentation went ok but I would not have been happy if that was my final version.

I have a number of changes to make to my presentation but the main thing I need to do is practice as sadly I didn’t have the time to do much of this over the half term.

My targets for next week are:

• Make amendment to the website and upload the new version
• Gather as much feedback as possible for the website
• Make changes to my presentation and the handout
• Practice my presentation
  

Over the last two days I have completed the changes to the website but I feel that I would have got it done a lot quicker had I been in college and away from distractions.

Despite the distractions Internet Explorer has been my main problem and has cost me a lot of time. I have tried to solve as many of the problems as possible without using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and this has also meant that my options were very limited (mainly to the use of the spacer.gif).

I would really appreciate any feedback you have on the new design.

New version of my website for the A5 assignment. (The feedback form will be uploaded soon).

I will also be uploading the original version soon for comparison.

Now I have made the changes I can concentrate on A6 and I plan to have the handout and the presentation finished tomorrow. This will give the rest of the week to make amendments and practice the presentation to ensure I am ready for next Tuesday's seminar group.

My targets for next week:

• Finish and upload working feedback form
  
• Finish handout and presentation
• Practice presentation ready for Tuesday
• Continue to use DTP (Desktop Publishing Software) in preparation for the timed tasks
  

9 o'clock brought with it the first of the timed tasks. The objective was to provide a typographical solution for the design of a small tube of paint. With the practice timed task not going very well I was determined to do better.

My major downfall last time was time planning and this is something I feel I have made a massive improvement on and this helped me to finish before the deadline. The design of the paint tube didn't allow for much creativity but it really helped me to improve my typographic skills.

After gaining feedback on the first version of my website I have a number of changes to make ready for the usability testing the week after half term. I am pleased with my progress of the assignment and hopefully the new version of the website should be up by the end of the week.

The usability questionnaire is my main objective at the moment and this is essential so that I can gain effective feedback. This feedback will enable me to make any necessary changes to the website.

This week and over the half term I am going to spend a large amount of time learning and preparing for my presentation. Presentations have never been my strong point but I am confident that with enough practice it will run smoothly.

My targets for this week are:

• Finish my handout for the A6 assignment
• Make the required changes to my website and upload the new one
• Complete my usability questionnaire
• Practice, practice ,practice my presentation
  

Tuesday morning began with a visit to the Design Mechanics. After attending the last meeting with Dave Pannell I had a basic understanding of how the company worked and I was really interested to how see it in practice. I also wanted to hear the views of the designers who work there and see what they thought of the way the company worked.

The overall impression that gained was that they felt it was a great way to gain experience straight after leaving a university or college course and which makes for a great stepping stone for the future.

The volume of work creating in such a short time means that it is a great place to help build a portfolio that displays successful corporate design in both print and web design. The process of not meeting the client seemed to be a good idea for most of the work but I think this depends on the client and the quality of the feedback that they are willing to give using the feedback forms.

A5 has gone well this week and I have managed to finish the first version of the website. I have really enjoyed the task of authoring the website especially this week as we were allowed to spend the entire day working on our websites. This allowed me focus and get into a working mindset which enabled me to work faster and more efficiently.

Now that the first version is done I am focusing on the usability testing and the design of the feedback form that I will be handing out on the day. This is something I have never done with previous websites that I have built I think that I will gain a lot from it, which I can take into consideration in my future work.

After the visit to the Design Mechanics, Steve gave us a lecture on type explaining some professional names given to the different part of the characters that make up a typeface e.g. baseline, arm, stroke, counter etc...

I am going to take this information and try and break down some of the more famous typefaces designed by Erik Spiekermann using the information from the lecture and include this in my presentation.

Typography has the focal point of today and this is something I have really enjoyed learning about. With the A6 assignment I have been able to take the time and the study the fonts of Erik Spiekermann, as this is the typographer I will be presenting about, and look at the level of skill that is required to create a typeface.

After reading interviews he has done and reading his blog you can see that typography is his passion and it is almost an obsession.

“I read everything, everywhere. I cannot order a meal unless I have identified the font on the menu – drives everybody crazy – and I constantly comment on highway signs, traffic signs and transit signs.” Erik Spiekermann, Design Within Reach

The A5 assignment brings a completely different challenge especially when it comes to testing the website in multiple browsers. Using Dreamweaver and the layout tables can also cause problems in it's self especially as I haven't used them for a few years.

With the problems of tables I am constantly wanting to layout the website using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Hopefully the next website I create in college will be using CSS for both the layout and the formatting of text. With the use of CSS you have much more control but this can ultimately cause more problems in terms of cross browser support and validation.

In seminar groups today we talked about the A1 assignment and this is something I need to work on and really think about how all aspects of my work are related to this assignment. I think that due to the fact that the assignment is on going through the entire course I have always given A2, A3 and A4 preference over it and this is something I cannot afford to do.

My targets for next week are:

• Create draft version of presentation ready for seminar groups
• Complete website template in Dreamweaver (Ensuring spellings are correct, valid CSS and XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language) 1.0 Strict)
  
• Start creating pages of website using template
• Collect more examples of inspirational artwork
• Review the A1 assignment in more detail and how it applies to my work

A new semester and two new assignments.

This will be the first time, on this course, that I will be authoring a web site and it is something I am really looking forward to. In the past I have spent a large amount of time in Dreamweaver or notepad creating the website and at times changing the whole design.

With this assignment, and the web plan from the previous assignment, I hope that I will be able to be a lot more precise with both my measurements and my code as I will have a lot more time to test and modify the website.

At times on the course it has been motioned that in the first few months that there is a lack of practical tasks such as; web design, but now I am starting to realise the important of things like web plans and how they are a skill that needs to learnt and improved upon.

The A6 assignment is very different and again I feel that this is very useful much like it was with A3 and A4. I feel that A6 will allow me to dramatically improve my DTP (Desktop Publishing) skills, e.g. InDesign. I also think that the fact that the presentation is an assessable part of the assignment the feedback will be a lot more detailed and allow me to greatly improve my presentation skills.

For A6 I have been given the famous German typographer 'Erik Spiekermann' to talk about and I have spent most of the day researching him and his work. I have found this very interesting but I know that I have to continue my research and gain a much larger knowledge of his work before I am any where near thinking about starting to create my presentation.

Gaining Merits in both A3 and A4 I know hope that I can continue this with future assignments and hopefully progress to gain a distinction in one of the future assignments.