Online Semester 3 - Week 3

We discussed more plans for Techmole with the group, including Ken who joined the lesson from his own computer in Brighton. We confirmed what articles we would be writing for the site and we also started looking at designs, since we had now brought together the hosting servers with the newly-acquired domain name. A design was finally chosen on, which looks more like a magazine style site.

Online Semester 3 - Week 2

Week 2 was delayed by a week because of the snow chaos that hit Farnham. Today we talked about website statistics and how useful they are people to run them. One program in particular that we looked at was Google Analytics, which a lot of websites are increasingly using. Whilst it is a powerful tool, there are some aspects that are very user friendly. The final tool we looked at was the Google Keyword search tool, which tells you what search terms are popular and to assist writers in developing SEO (search engine optimisation).

Online Semester 3 - Week 1

Yesterday we started planning our group website. Me, Mike, Paul, Ken and Jack will be starting a new site called Tech Moles - a website with key focus on how technology has affected and is affecting traditional media outlets, such as music, film and video games. We wrote the brief for the website yesterday and established what we'll be posting and when we'll be posting. I will be taking on articles for the music parts of the site.

I also bought a domain for the site yesterday for £6.85 (which will last two years) - £1.37 each. Bargain.

Website Construction: Week 5 (10th December 2008)

Apart from uploading my CV (I forgot to bring it into uni today), my website is done. There are still some padding issues but other than I am happy with the results. The main tasks today was to upload my feature (already written the night before) onto it as a PDF and then convert all the other document files (in Past Work) into PDF. The one thing that made it take it longer than I would have liked was linking things. I didn't realise that to link something from the PDF file to another that you had to do it in Acrobat, as opposed to doing it in Word and hoping for the best.

Other than that, the links are tested and if you click here, you will find The Website Of Max Raymond!

Website Construction: Week 4 (3rd December 2008)

This week I am experiencing major headaches with this website. The padding problem is still an issue and I have tried everything I can to make it better. Nothing is working and even now I'm still confused as to why it looks in Design mode but when opened in a browser it looks like a mess.

I have an idea for my feature. I am planning a write up of the year I've had in terms of reporting gigs for The Musical Chairs and discussing what mediums I've used to tell my review with (like Flickr, a photo sharing website, and YouTube). It's also a good oppurtunity to embed photos and video on the site and seeing how well it works.

Website Construction: Week 3 (26th November 2008)

Lots done today. All the pages are now designed and linked. My biography page has a picture that is optimised. The biography itself isn't long but it tells the reader what they need to know. The current work page has been set up and once my features for my print assignment and online assignment are done they will be linked to. All my past work has been linked to. The only page that might need some more tweaking is the links page.

A couple of problems though:

1. Colour scheme - looks a bit too retro possibly. Might experiment next week with different variations of the scheme.
2. Padding - in Design mode in Dreamweaver, the padding is fine but when you preview it in a browser there appears to be a fair bit of white space. Need to investigate that further.
   

Website Construction: Week 2 (19th November 2008)

This lesson has been pretty much spent one one thing - getting all the pages sorted out. I now have my five basic pages and my sidebar has been created. The colour scheme I have looks a bit retro but for the moment it will do. The only page that is at the moment fully complete is the home page. I've put in a brief introduction and the hyperlinks are all set up.

I also went on Fireworks and designed my banner for the site. It fits in the header pretty nicely and doesn't look out of place.