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Web designing is something which should be talked about more often. Many times people put up homepages that are, well, simply horrendous. What they should have done was get help from someone who knew what the hell was going on, but instead, they charged head first into the world of web architecture.

When I first started, I knew very little on web architecture, or basically, putting up a homepage. Since I was in Professor James' 409 class, I quickly had to learn the basics and slap up a sample homepage. This helped me a lot with the understanding of the language involved.

Now I am confident enough to say that I can legitimately be called a web designer. I can do many new things, and I'd like to share these things with you through means of my report, and the links contained within.

I believe that web designing has become a part of me, and I'm hoping to construct another web page in the near future. I think with the proper help and a little determination, you too can soon become a web designer.

Since this was the first recommended site by Dr. James, I decided I may as well see what all the talk was about. This site was interesting and many things went through my head. The following are some comments which I jotted down while looking at the site, with a short description of each.

Comments...

The real purpose of this site as I see it, is to give netizens an idea of what they should or shouldn't be doing on their homepages. The thing that must be understood, however, is that these suggestions are strictly the opinion of Mr. Glover.

Glover sets up his site extremely well, with a fancy dancing picture of himself as the navigating mechanism. All four of his initial links are divided into explicit categories and the user knows exactly what he's getting into. This was a useful and important feature of his page. Many times we are faced with deciding whether to click on a link or not, simply because we don't really know where it'll send us. Glover doesn't confuse the user, he clearly shows where each link is going.

By having a top ten list of ways to tell whether you have a sucky page, Glover gives the user an interesting way to determine whether their page is sucky or not. This reminded me of the Top Ten list made popular by David Letterman, and it appealed to me in that sense. What better way to find out potential bad news than in a comical format? This eases some of the pain, I guess. Anyway, this was a good feature because it showed and explained why these ten things shouldn't be included in a homepage.

He then has a link which tells you how to change your homepage from sucky to savvy. This too is in the top ten format, with a nice icon to click on when you want to see the next item. These suggestions were pretty much helpful to the user who knows a little about homepage construction, but if your knowledge on the subject is minimal, it may be too technical. There are some things in there which don't apply to the average homepage constructor like frames and graphics and stuff like that, but there are other useful suggestions like not having blinking words on the screen. It's suggestions such as these which make this section a valuable tool to any Netizen.

Then there's a section filled with pictures of his Disneyland vacation. Now I thought this section was a bit much, but hey, it is his homepage. I will say, however, that some of the pictures are rather interesting, but I don't really find anything of value in this section. Maybe the way in which it is designed, with a nice link from picture to picture, but other than that, its just your plain old pictures of someone else's vacation. Oooh, wow! Sorry, that's not my thing.

The last link I'd like to talk about is his section on himself. This is where we get to know a little bit about his life and what he does. This was just a link for people to know what sort of person is writing all of these suggestions. He gets pretty personal in describing who he is, but I think it was a good thing.

Now as far as understanding the material within each link, they were mostly common sense bits and pieces of netiquette knowledge. I thought he was basically talking about three main things.

The first thing was saving time. What this means is saving time through the reduction of picture sizes and stuff like that. He's much more technical about it, but for the sakes of users like me, what he's really saying is to shrink your pictures to save time on the downloading. Or at least this is what I think he's saying.

The next thing is on saving space. In his top ten section, he lists several things which could definitely save space on your homepage, cutting down the time in the process. He suggests cropping photos and other common sense things to help in saving space on your page.

The last thing which I thought he was talking about was personal annoyances. These were the things like blinking texts, construction sign icons, and things like these which seem to drive him crazy. Most of these I agree with, but there are probably people out there who would tend to disagree.

I next decided to check out Dr. James' paper on homepage architecture, where I found some interesting ideas which made me think. The first thing which I thought was interesting was his discussion of his homepage. Dr. James states that,

"You see, I have two homes, my regular house and my Home Page. My regular house requires upkeep, naturally, and we clean and tend the plants, and fix things, and shop around for things that go in it, and of course, we give loving care to our cats, who see themselves as part of the house."

He then went on to talk about his own homepage and why it is a homepage. He says that,

"I don't use the term 'my home' for just any bunch of computer files around. But these particular files are connected to the Internet. This means that millions of people could look at them, at any time, and read them, or copy them to their own computer."

After thinking about this for a while, I too think of my homepage as being my second home. The only difference is that here, I can express myself however I want to. Seeing as how I'm still living with my parents when I'm not dorming, I can display whatever I want on my homepage. It's my own home and it belongs to me.

The next thing which I thought was interesting was how Dr. James felt about his homepage. He has a section called home pages are loved, in which he says,

"I was proud the way the whole Page fit into one screen. There was even a little space left at the bottom. I worked hours to get that little extra space. It brings out the shading in table border and best of all, it lets you know that that's all there is."

After thinking about this for a while, I realized that I tend to feel the same way about my own homepage. I mean not to that extent, but yes, I do feel happy when I complete a certain section of my page which has been giving me a problem. I guess in this sense, you could say I do kind of love my homepage.

The third thing which I liked from his paper, was on the section, Cyberspace Home. Here, Dr. James talked about being an architect for a homepage. He states that,

"Just think: you have the world at your finger tips. Because you determine what the browser sees and has access to, you are acting like a virtual god -- building a cyberspace architecture through virtual pathways to people's minds."

I thought this was a pretty cool way to look at it. I mean, I never thought of myself as this "virtual god" before, but it sounds pretty awesome. If you actually think about it, you sort of are in total control when constructing your homepage. I just think it's more cool to say, "virtual god" though!

So how does all this relate to Glover's views on homepage architecture? Well, to begin with, we can say that both Dr. James and Glover seem to love their homepages. As far as the architecture part, I'd have to say that Glover goes more into an opinionated argument, whereas Dr. James talks more about what sorts of pages are out there on the Internet. Dr. James also comments on what he thinks should be on a homepage, but Glover goes more into depth, showing examples and adding humor to his suggestions.

Dr. James thinks that when making your homepage, you're in total control of the situation, and can do virtually anything. Glover agrees, but says to use caution when doing so. I guess to sum it all up, Dr. James speaks more of what pages mean to him, while Glover speaks more of what should or shouldn't be on a homepage.

I first became a web designer when I created homepages for my Psychology 409 classes. It was hard to get started, I kept procrastinating. Maybe it was from a fear of the unknown, especially since this was also one of the first times I've used the internet. Once I started, I found that creating a homepage wasn't really that difficult, in fact I found it kind of interesting and fun. At first creating my homepage seemed to take forever, but once I started to get the hang of things, I realized it wasn't much more difficult than writing a paper. Of course it wasn't easy picking up the programming language needed to create a homepage.

Now that I have a better understanding of web designs, I've thought about creating a homepage whose topic would be more interesting to me. I haven't decided on a topic yet, or if I will create another homepage, but at least now, I know, I can if I want to. My advice for future students would be to learn how to use the net, and how to design a web page. The information learned would be of great value, even if it is only applied for a class. I mean you never know when you may have something to say, and one of the easiest ways to get an audience would probably be on the net.

I think Dr. James has created a great generational community classroom. The only problem I've found was the limited amount of topics covered in this class. Perhaps allowing students to relate a psychological topic of their own choice, and applying this topic to the internet, may provide the students with a more enjoyable curriculum. For example, if people have phobias concerning the use of the internet, I think it would be interesting to find out what these phobias are and how they affect different individuals. I'm sure if the class brainstormed a few ideas dealing with the internet, a few interesting topics would manifest. Dr. James would always be there to clear up any misconceptions students may have concerning the internet, and keep the emphasis on the psychological factors dealing with the internet.

Web Issues - This link will explain to you the ways in which homepage construction can be done. It is very in-depth and pretty interesting to read.

Macmillan's HTML workshop - This is a crucial link. It'll show you the basics of homepage architecture and send you on your way to creating wonderful new homes.

The Web Design Group - These guys are out there to help you if you need it. They're a band of experienced architects willing to aid those in need of help. Check this place out if you're having problems with your home.

Jeff Glover's homepage - As stated before, Glover gives you some interesting advice, and a few laughs here and there. An appealing site to visit. A must for any beginning architect.

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Report 2	Introduction	Principles	Psychological
	Become	Annotated
Leon's Page	My Home Page	409b Class Page

If you have any comments or reactions to this paper, feel free to e-mail me.