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What is your address on the internet? This is a question that my friends and co-workers always ask me. Working on my home page and reports have made me a part of internet that I never knew I would be. What you are going to embark on is my adventures in Web designing. It has been a blast for me. Although at times it was difficult and frustrating, the rewards to learning html was great. In the sections below, I comment on a home page that Dr. James wanted us to look at. This page concentrates on Web architecture and how to improve your designing.
After reviewing that page, I will be discussing some of Dr. James' views on Web designing. Some of his ideas are very interesting and I will comment on them. Finally, I will be able to share with you my experiences with Web Architecture. It was a wild ride but one that was worth the price of admission. I hope you will enjoy my report.
The first section to grab my attention was his Top Ten Ways To Tell If You Have A Sucky Home Page. The word "sucky" really caught my attention. Who is this guy to tell us that we have a "sucky" home page. I didn't know what to expect on this page and was waiting for the page to load. Within seconds the page appeared before my eyes. The first thing to hit me was the Warning sign. Even though he wrote this top ten list, he goes on to say how "good design is a matter of Your personal taste." I totally agree with this statement. I relate the internet to television. If you don't like what you see, you can always change the channel or the address. The internet world is at your own fingertips.
Jeffrey Glover's Top Ten Ways to Tell If You Have a Sucky Home Page is as follows:
I would agree with most of his top ten list except for number eight and three. Personally, I find pictures of pets very amusing. I may be a bit bias because I love pets. Jeffrey Glover has many pictures of his loved ones. People love pets like their children. If people want to show pictures of their pets, they have every right to. Animals have a personality of their own. I feel that this adds to the personality of your home page. Maybe a lot of users may disagree, but I'm sure some will agree.
As for number three, I disagree with him totally. Hey, the internet is up there and it is very advantageous for many people. One way of advertising or getting people to know you is through the internet. I'm sure that if companies see that you are able to write beautiful home pages, they will see that you have talent. In the land of oppurtunities, you should use whatever media you can to get ahead. Hey, for people who want to do this, I say, "Go For It".
In this section, Mr. Glover explains what style he thinks is sucky and what style he thinks is savvy. This section is the most informative. In Sucky to Savvy, Mr. Glover has three parts to each page. The first part explains the element or style that he is commenting on. The second part explains why a certain style is sucky or savvy. Finally the third and most important part explains how you can improve your home page. I will go over a couple of things that was interesting in the Sucky and Savvy List and comment on it.
The Sucky List is just like his top ten list. The only difference is that he explains how to turn the sucky element or style into a savvy one. For example, the first element on his sucky list was blink. He goes on to explain that reading blinking text is very irritating. I would have to agree with him about that. So, in the third section of that page, he explains how to avoid blinking text. His advice is to try using bold or a larger size text to emphasize your point. I feel this advice is very good.
Another sucky element that I learned to improve from him was Loud Background Images. When I first started making home pages, I thought that using all kinds of backgrounds would be cool. I would only look at the background and use it for my pages. I never really looked at how well the text fit in with my background. This was because I was more concerned with how it looked than what I wrote. Mr. Glover was correct in saying that people will not be staying on your home page long if they can't read it. His advice was to use a photo editing program to lighten it up. I thought this was a brilliant idea. With this advice, you can have the same background design and your text will be clear.
The Savvy List has the three sections like the Sucky List. The first page that I thought was very interesting was the thumbnail graphics page. Mostly everyone likes graphics. Pictures and graphics are important in making a home page look beautiful. If the graphics are extremely nice, people will come. But, many people on the internet today are very impatient. If a home page isn't loaded fast enough, people click off before seeing it. The reason many of these home pages take long is the graphics. Thumbnail graphics reduces loading time and gives the user the power to see what he wants to see. Mr. Glover explains how to make thumbnail graphics.
The second page that I liked was the "Be Unique." This title says it all. On the internet, you see the same things over and over. Many people have the same styles and elements. Everyone on this planet has different personalities. I totally agree with Jeffrey Glover when he says, "The key is to infuse your page with what makes you." What makes the internet so exciting is that people learn from each other everyday. One way to have people learn about you is to make a home page that is "you and only you."
Jeffrey Glover's page was very informative and useful. I would recommend it to anyone that is new to web architecture to visit his home page. He explains his points well and has very intuitive advice for people. I wish I could have seen his page earlier. It would have helped me a great deal. The Sucky to Savvy section has a lot of information. If you have time, you should stop by. It will be worth your time.
One article that seemed to catch my attention was my teacher's article on home page architecture. Dr. James has many sections which relate to home page architecture. I enjoyed reading each of the sections. I feel that reading this article will help you to understand the importance and fun of home pages. Each section has many opinions and interesting information. There are three sections that I really liked in Dr. Jame's article.
Sucky Home Page?
Top Ten Comments
Sucky to Savvy
The Sucky List
The Savvy List
Overall Reaction of Glover.com
Psychological Aspects to Web Design: Dr. James Speaks
Home Pages are Loved
Dr. James is right on about this. For some reason, the home page is a part of us and we love them. I know that when I made my first home page, I was so proud of myself. I was so proud that I wanted all of my friends to come and look at it. Some of my friends thought it was great, some didn't. The people who didn't find it neat hurt my feelings. I'm sure many people feel the same way I do. For some reason, that home page is a part of you. This is why Home Pages are Loved.
Psychological Characteristics of Hypertext Links
Dr. James puts a psychological perspective on links that are very interesting. He examines what people are doing and thinking when putting up links. There are three features of links that Dr. James' comments on. The first is the affective feature. This refers to the motivation of why the designer put the link there. The second is the cognitive feature. This refers to their argument or implication of the link. The third is the sensorimeter feature. This refers to their location and appearance of the link. Dr. James' analysis of links makes us think about many things. I do all of these features when I put up a link. All of these are connected in each and every link that I have.
Dr. James explains how important it is to have an organized home page. He says that we should try to achieve two important results with a Home Page. The first is that it should be clear and informative. The second is that it should be beautiful, with a creative and entertaining style. I have to agree. In order to maintain the interest of the users, these two results is a must. Some pages have either one or the other. Many home pages are one or the other. The trick is trying to combine both. This takes time to plan out. But if you want a page to be nice, you have to work at it.
The first time I entered the world of the internet was my sophomore year at the University of Hawaii. I took Information Computer Sciences 101. It was a class which I learned a lot about computers. One of the things we had to do was make a simple home page. Back then, the internet was popular, but not to the magnitude as it is now. I was first intimidated by making a home page. I thought that it would be very difficult. In a way, I was scared because I thought html language was going to be like C-language. I took C-language a semester before and hated it. When I learned html, I was surprised and relieved. It was fun! I went on to do my home page and enjoyed every single minute of it. Seeing something I did on the internet was amazing to me. I tried to make it as nice as possible. I couldn't do everything I wanted to do because the semester ended. I thought my home page making days were over.
It is approximately two years later and I am doing html. Little did I know that I will be making more home pages and writing reports on the internet. The things I am learning now is tons more than what I learned back then. Times has changed and so have computers. The speed of the computers are faster and there are more things on the internet. It is amazing how things a changing so fast. I am glad that I am taking this cyberpsychology class. I am learning things that I never thought I would be able to do. With computers, there is always something new and something to learn. That is what I like about this class. Although you are making your own individual home page and reports, classmates or people on the internet are always helping you. It is a community at your own fingertips. I plan to work and try to learn more and more about web designing. It is a fun and interesting thing to do.
Learning html isn't simple. It takes a lot of time and effort. To become good in something, you have to work hard at it. Learning computers is like a sport. The more time you put into it, the more you will get out of it. At first, html was very confusing. After hours and hours of practice, it became easier and easier. Once I knew how to make one thing, I could go on to the next thing. Taking ICS 101 helped me to prepare for a class like Dr. James' class. I wasn't an expert, but I knew the basics of html.
In programming, there are basic functions which need to be learned. In html, learning common commands and links are important. Once you get the common commands down, everything gets a lot easier. After learning this, you can experiment with different styles and techniques that other people teach you. Finding different styles and techniques are easy to find. Pages like Mr. Glovers is one way. Another way is through Dr. Jame's Generational Curriculum. Look through them and you will learn a lot. Ask questions to other classmates. There will probably be someone in your class that can help you. I did all of this. It made my internet life a lot easier.
Taking Dr. Jame's class encouraged me to learn more about computers. I am realizing how important it is to a have computer experience. The job market looks good for people who can use computers. Technology will only become more advanced. Hopefully I can keep up with the advances. I am planning to purchase a computer later. I don't have a computer at home. This past semester, I have just been using University of Hawaii computers. They are fine but I need to purchase one of my own. I need to save up for one. At the moment, I am waiting because I know that computers will get more advanced. When the times comes, I will purchase one. It will probably be the best investment of my life.
Hey G6, welcome to Dr. Jame's Cyberpsychology class. What you are going to embark on is an adventure of a lifetime. In the section above, I mentioned hard work and effort. You will need to put in valuable time if you want to get anything out of this class. This means putting in many hours on the computer. Every single hour is beneficial for you. The harder you work, the easier the work gets. In fact, don't look at it like work. Look at html as fun. I know many people who have taken this class and now enjoy using the internet.
Don't be scared if you don't understand anything in the beginning. Everyone is confused at first because they don't know what to expect. I didn't know what to expect and was stressing my rear end off. Don't do this. It isn't worth it. Once I calmed down, everything came to me. I started getting help from my classmates and everything became easier. There will probably be some people in your class who understands. Get to know your classmates because they will help a great deal. Another helpful hint is to look at past generations and how they did their reports. Look up the source documents and analyze how they did things. This will help you a great deal in what you are looking for. There are many articles on the internet and in books that can be very helpful. Help can be found just about anywhere. Just ask. If you have any questions, you can ask me by E-mailing me
The Generational Community Classroom is a very wonderful idea. Having present students see past student's work is very educational. Every year, computers are changing and new technology is advancing. Though there are advances, some basics still apply. Students can learn different things from past students. I am glad to be a part of the generational community classroom. Keep it up Dr. James.
The advice I would have to Dr. James is to be more involved with the students in the labs. In the beginning, I had a hard time figuring out what was going on in class. It would be a lot easier if some classes were conducted in the labs. Discussions could be held there. Sometimes, many students have questions but don't know how to explain it in computer related terms. It is easier to show what the problem is than to say it. Some lab monitors have no idea what this class is about and can't seem to help sometimes. That is why I suggest that maybe questions should be done while the person is on the computer. In ICS 101, we had a lab and there were teaching assistants. Maybe the classes should have labs with teaching assistants in them. I think this will help future generations a great deal.
There are many articles that you may look at to improve your web designing. There are different servers which you may do net searches in. I was looking at the server Yahooand searched for html help. Click on different sites to see what they offer. One site is called Tine's HTML Help Page. Pages such as these explain a variety of information on html. This will help you to learn the basics. There are many sites that will help make your html experience easier.
Looking at the infoseek server, I searched the subject "html easier." What I got was the following sites.
There are tutorials and other information. They talk about the problems we may encounter as programmers. I found these sites to be very educational.
Generational Community Classroom
Annotated Index to Web Design: Helping the Beginner
Learn HTML Here!!!!!
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