The stories default page houses each of my articles, including a summary and then a link the entire article. I included summaries, not only because my professor Bob Stepno highly encourages us to do us, but also so readers could easily view my writing and read in their entirety, the articles they so chose. When you click on the link to a story, the full article will appear in the same frame. By referring to the menu on the left hand side of the page, a user can easily return to the list of summaries and chose to read another article in its entirety.
In many articles, I linked to work of the same subject from my classmates. This site may seem to house only my efforts, but in actuality we worked as a class to get it done. So it is only appropriate to link to various articles my classmates have written, since they helped develop my site. When their links are chosen, their articles appear in another window. This allows a user to save the article and have the information of the writer instead of my site information.
To ensure readers know they are on my page or affiliated pages, I have maintained a sense of continuity on each page. All articles are roughly the same in shape and demeanor and the font is the same throughout my site. The font size and line length I chose allows for easy readability.
My main page is designed using frames, which I used despite the look of disgust i received from Dr. Bob after I showed him my design. After discovering how to manually write HTML code, I used a program called Front Page from Microsoft to help develop a smoother-looking page. The menu bar I was able to put in helps a ton with access to the rest of the site. When I was writing all my code manually, I was not able to provide a pretty look. I certainly was not gifted enough to create a workable menu bar in a frame setting!
The site now is easy to maneuver through and has a clean design. I would like to expand on this later though. There are many tools available to a site designer and I would like to learn more even after this class ends.
Back to the menu- The menu bar is on the left side of the screen and offers users the opportunity to click on my articles, bio, news site page or blogs section. When the user clicks on the desired link, the default page for that link will appear in the frame to the left. I designed my site this way, again against the better judgement of Dr. Bob, because I felt it was easier to maneuver to another area of my site when the menu was readily available to the left of the screen. I did make sure, however, to have work from another site appear in another window. I did this to avoid any issue of ownership. I like the consistency of having the main page up all the time with the menu readily available for direction change.
I also made sure that if a person was to save a page in my site at any time, that the link would clearly identify my site as the host.
The area I would like more time to work on would be the blogs section. I would like to improve my blogging skills. This section was the hardest for me to produce because I am having difficulty seeing blogs as a news source. Or even as a verifiable source for information. If a reader wants to know opinions on a matter, then so be it. The blog world may be perfect for that. But I like articles from news sites, I read them and then create my own version of the truth. I do not like putting my thoughts out there for people to mistake as the truth. I am not a reliable source. I’m just a person with ideas and feelings on a topic. If you want the facts, refer to an article I have written for publication.
Despite my great dislike for blogs, I do see their importance in the field of journalism and I know they will be a large part of our lives, especially in the future. So I better get used to them! I need to learn more in this arena and that I will continue to do after this class is over. I realize there is a way to place facts and links to facts in an opinion piece and I would like to expand my knowledge in this area of journalism. With more time, I could have linked to more news sources, articles, videos and photos. I could have given more examples and allowed users to view places I have gathered my information from and then they could have drawn their own conclusion.
The biggest improvement I can make to this site is adding visual aids to stories and to the site in general. I take a lot of pictures, so adding these to my site would make the place more personable, while offering users a visually stimulating visit. Adding links to video in my articles will be a later addition as well as learning how to create graphs and other information graphics. I would like to explore Dream Weaver as well. This is a very helpful tool and one I should be learning to master.
I know I have a lot to learn in the field of web design, but this class has given me a great platform to work off of. I can manually write HTML code and I understand it. Many people who design pages can’t say as much. I can read a code and spot a problem. And I can fix it! I know what I can do with my site and with the information Dr. Bob has given me through this class, I can learn to explore the web design world and use what it offers to make my stories better. I can make my articles clearer for readers now and I can place them on the web for all to read. That’s what’s really important for me.