Thursday, 29 May 2014

Tuesday, 20 May 2014


Website Terms Glossary

Cookies: Cookies are small files which are stored on a user's computer. They are designed to hold a modest amount of data specific to a particular client and website, and can be accessed either by the web server or the client computer. This allows the server to deliver a page tailored to a particular user, or the page itself can contain some script which is aware of the data in the cookie and so is able to carry information from one visit to the website (or related site) to the next.

Java: Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacentres, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet.

JavaScript: JavaScript is a programming language used to make web pages interactive. It runs on your visitor's computer and doesn't require constant downloads from your website. JavaScript is often used to create polls and quizzes.

Perl: Perl is a programming language which can be used for a large variety of tasks. A typical simple use of Perl would be for extracting information from a text file and printing out a report or for converting a text file into another form. But Perl provides a large number of tools for quite complicated problems, including systems programming. Programs written in Perl are called Perl scripts, whereas the term the Perl program refers to the system program named Perl for executing Perl scripts.

ASP (Active Server Page): ASP is also an abbreviation for application service provider. An Active Server Page (ASP) is an HTML page that includes one or more scripts (small embedded programs) that are processed on a Microsoft Web server before the page is sent to the user. An ASP is somewhat similar to a server-side include or a common gateway interface (CGI) application in that all involve programs that run on the server, usually tailoring a page for the user.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): CSS is an abbreviation for cascading style sheets; it is used as a way to define the format and look/feel of the website. This is important because you can separate the data from the way the data looks, making the website easier to maintain, it also makes the webpage easier to interpret for the web browsers by using XML technology. The style sheets are called cascading as they are separated into sections that can cascade or lay on top of each other.

HTML: HyperText Markup Language is the main markup language for creating web pages and other information that can be displayed in a web browser. HTML is written in the form of HTML elements consisting of tags enclosed in angle brackets (like <html>), within the web page content. HTML tags most commonly come in pairs like <h1> and </h1>, although some tags represent empty elements and so are unpaired, for example <img>. The first tag in a pair is the start tag, and the second tag is the end tag (they are also called opening tags and closing tags). In between these tags web designers can add text, further tags, comments and other types of text-based content.

The purpose of a web browser is to read HTML documents and compose them into visible or audible web pages. The browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses the tags to interpret the content of the page.HTML elements form the building blocks of all websites. HTML allows images and objects to be embedded and can be used to create interactive forms.

XHTML: Extensible HyperText Markup Language is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely used Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language in which web pages are written. While HTML (prior to HTML5) was defined as an application of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), a very flexible markup language framework, XHTML is an application of XML, a more restrictive subset of SGML. Because XHTML documents need to be well-formed, they can be parsed using standard XML parsers—unlike HTML, which requires a lenient HTML-specific parser.

Dynamic HTML: DHTML is an umbrella term for a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites by using a combination of a static markup language (such as HTML), a client-side scripting language (such as JavaScript), a presentation definition language (such as CSS), and the Document Object Model. DHTML allows scripting languages to change variables in a web page's definition language, which in turn affects the look and function of otherwise "static" HTML page content, after the page has been fully loaded and during the viewing process. Thus the dynamic characteristic of DHTML is the way it functions while a page is viewed, not in its ability to generate a unique page with each page load.

Uniform Resource Locator ( URL ): A uniform resource locator, abbreviated as URL, also known as web address, particularly when used with HTTP. A URL is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to a resource. In most web browsers, the URL of a web page is displayed on the top inside an address bar. It cannot have spaces or certain other characters and uses forward slashes to denote different directories. Some examples of URLs are http://www.cnet.com/, http://web.mit.edu/, and ftp://info.apple.com/. As you can see, not all URLs begin with "http". The first part of a URL indicates what kind of resource it is addressing. Here is a list of the different resource prefixes.

Voice Over internet Protocol ( VOIP ): A voice over internet protocol, abbreviated as VOIP, is a technology that allows telephone calls to be made over computer networks like the Internet. VoIP converts analogy voice signals into digital data packets and supports real-time, two-way transmission of conversations using Internet Protocol (IP).

Voice over internet protocols calls can be made on the Internet using a VoIP service provider and standard computer audio systems. Alternatively, some service providers support VoIP through ordinary telephones that use special adapters to connect to a home computer network. Many VoIP implementations are based on the H.323 technology standard.

VoIP offers a substantial cost savings over traditional long distance telephone calls. The main disadvantage of VoIP is a greater potential for dropped calls and degraded voice quality when the underlying network links are under heavy load.


File Transfer Protocol (FTP): FTP is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP based network, such as the internet.

Flash: Adobe Flash is a multimedia and software platform used for authoring of vector graphics, animation, games and rich internet applications (RIAs) that can be viewed, played and executed in Adobe Flash Player.

FLV : Flash Video (FLV) is a container file format used to deliver video over the internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer.

SWF: An Adobe Flash file used for multimedia, vector graphics and Action Script.

HCI: Human computer Interaction (HCI) involves the study, planning, design and uses of the interaction between users and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection of computer science behaviour sciences, design and several other fields of study.

Platforms: A computing platform is, in the most general sense, whatever pre-existing environment a piece of software is designed to run within, obeying its constraints, and making use of its facilities. Typical platforms include a hardware architecture, an operating system and runtime libraries.

SWF PLAYER: Swiff Player is a Free stand-alone player that enables Web Designers and Flash Users to easily play their Flash movies. Swiff Player offers a variety of playback capabilities including full-screen mode.

Shockwave Player: Shockwave Player is the web standard for powerful multimedia playback. The Shockwave Player allows you to view interactive web content like games, business presentations, entertainment, and advertisements from your web browser.

Audio Player: a media player which can only play audio files. JPEG: "Joint Photographic Experts Group" or "Image file format" GIF: Graphics Interchange Format; GIFs are image files that are compressed to reduce transfer time.

Animated GIF: A type of GIF image that can be animated by combining several images into a single GIF file PNG: Image file format Advanced Content: used to provide interactive menus and "special features" such as additional bonus/extras content and games for HD DVD (one of the high-definition video formats). The Advanced Content runtime engine is responsible for responding to user navigation input e.g. JavaScript, Shockwave, image maps, slices, SWF, audio, videos, Database; Conventions

World Wide Web ; W3C: is an international community where Member Organization, a full-time staff and the public work together to develop Web Standards, led by Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The UK and Ireland Regional Office is hosted by Nominet.

WCAG: covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also often make your Web content more usable to users in general.
 
BACK UP AND STORAGE
 
 

SEO TOP TIPS
 
 
IMAGE OPTIMIZING
 
GIF - Is good for icons and logos, something that is flat and simple with solid colours, this is because the maximum amount of colours in a GIF image is 256. Hasn't got great quality
 
JPEG - This is used for anything with a gradient, mostly photos are used in this format because of the amount of colours it holds, millions. Has really high quality.
 
PNG - This is Fireworks native image. It can have transparent, therefore able to have other shapes such as a circle, rather than just the standard square. This quality is inbetween GIF and JPEG.
 
 
 

FILE MANAGEMENT
 

SITEMAPS
 
 
MY SITE MAP
 
 

FIREWORKS ROLLOVER BUTTONS (NAVIGATION BAR)
 
 

PRINCIPLES OF WEB DESIGN

- Front End – What you can see:
*Colour *Shape *Texture *Composition

- Back End – How it works:
*Links etc *Programing *What makes it work

- Mock Up – Put a design together visually:
*Photoshop *Fireworks *72ppi – Resolution

- HTML – Hyper Text Mark Up Language
*HTML 5 is the version we are on now

- CSS – Cascading Style Sheets
*CSS3 is the version we are on now

- Java Script – Finds different pictures and replaces them

- PHP, Pearl, C++ - Allows websites to do things

- Servers – contains information: For example movies

Website has to have consistency and continuity:
For example headers or homepage links

Accessible for disabled people:
For example people who are partially sighted or blind would need sound

Screen size has to be adjustable:
For example screens come in different sizes, computers, mobiles, tablets, TV's etc
Mobile apps are useful in this situation

- Adobe Kuler – colour palette maker

-Hex (Hexdecimal) – colour palette code – 6 numbers

When annotating sites circle points you like or don't like, point out key features which are obvious (little details)

- Hierarchy – determines information, most important to least important.
This can be generated through visual methods such as colour, composition, space, texture and scale

-The fold – the line at the bottom of the webpage

CONTRAST

People with poor eye sight would find it difficult if there was little contrast on a website, as nothing would be clear or would stand out.
This often has an impact on the hierarchy of the page.

Types of contrast:

*Organic/Manmade

*Colour

*Texture/Flat

*Font/Images

*Scale – Big/Small

*Bright/Dark

*Messy/Clean

*Dull/Bright

*Curly/Straight

*Handmade/Computer generated

*Static/Movement

*Space – Crowded/Spacious

The top of the page is called the Header, this is normally where a title, logo and navigation bar goes

The middle is called Content, this is where the bulk of your website goes.

The bottom is called the Footer, this has little information and has the least amount of contrast so it doesn't stand out.

BALANCE

Balance impacts the stability of a page.
Balance needs space.

There are two different kinds of balance:
*Symmetrical – this is mirrored, the same of both sides.
*Asymmetrical – this doesn't really have a pattern, instead is the opposite of symmetrical

Symmetrical balance is achieved when the visual weight of each half of a page is the same but not composed of similar elements.

The weight/balance isn't just effect by the size its also effected by contrast.

- Gutter – Space between columns.
COMPARING MOONFRUIT AND WIX
 
 
ANALYSING WEBSITES
 
 
MINDMAP
 
MOODBOARD
 
 


PROJECT PROPOSAL
 
For this project I will be designing and creating a website to promote myself as a Graphics Designer, as well as designing and creating a website for a chosen client. I will be looking in to different web terminologies and devising my own glossary to show that I have an understanding of the abbreviations used in creating websites. I will be creating a navigation bar and a sitemap, both of which will be used in my own website design, to show that I have created my own parts of the website from scratch. I will also be creating different style logos for myself and a client and comparing which work best with the style of the website, also I shall be creating navigation icons to place on my website, for example for Facebook and Twitter, so my website can be linked to social networking sites.

I will be looking into and comparing the different software's used to create websites, and finding out which I work best with, and therefore would use to create my final design. I will be comparing the functions and features of Wix, Moon-Fruit and Dream Weaver, but also trying out different free website creators, to see if they are easier to use for an armature website designer. I will also research other designers websites, to find out where they got their inspiration from, and if there are any design ideas which I could be inspired to use on my own website.

I will discuss the drawbacks of designing a website, and how I would solve these if it was me they would happen too. I will also be organising some studio shoots, so I can use some new photos for either my clients website of my selves, to show they variety of photography I use in my work. Also I will be devising my own independent research, to either help inspire the creation of my website design or help promote myself. After creating my clients website and mine, I will take it through the stages of analysis and review and refine the work, to see what I could improve on, or what needs to be changed. I will then conduct a survey to find out what other people think of my website, whether they would visit it again, and what they would change about it. I will then write up my findings in my final evaluation, and if I have time I will take into consideration their views, and refine my website even more.