Hey everyone, I know its been a while since I've posted anything but as I look back my weeks were filled with opportunities to learn and fun gatherings with my family. It was wonderful to spend Thanksgiving with my family. They gave me lots of encouragement about the path that I am on. My grandmother really enjoyed my christmas cards that I made to send out in a few weeks hopefully the others I send the card to will like it as much.
This last week it seemed like one thing after another was going wrong but now its to Saturday and I'm trying to think of things to do to relax and things I want to learn in the next week. The next couple of weeks at my job are going to get busy so there will be fewer and fewer minutes to work so the next week will be important for me. Wish me the best of luck!
Enjoy your Holiday!
Riverview
Winding Path - Photo by Michaela Horton
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Another Wonderful Week
Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed how much I have improved in my knowledge and skills about design. The more tutorials I do and the more I spend time practicing in photoshop the faster I complete the projects I am working on. Although at this point in the game I haven't decided on a specific focus inside the design world, I'm still soaking it all in and enjoying the ride.
Typography has become an interest to me in my design path and I was lucky enough to attend a Master Lecture on Typography this last week. It was interesting and reaffirming to know what I have been spending my time researching is really what others who have official training are learning.
Since my last post I have completed two projects one personal and one for work. Yay! I actually have gotten paid to do some designing! My supervisor came to me because she knew I was starting to work with design and asked me to create a promotional coupon for customers during our grad fair. My personal project was my own Christmas E-card to send out to friends. I am really excited about this one because it will show the important people in my life what I've been working on for the past couple of months.
I still have a bunch of ideas and projects I would love to start working on but doing too much will not increase the quality of my work or my knowledge of design. Its best right now to stick to one or two things a week. I look forward to another week full of learning and rich experiences.
"Life has no limitations, except the ones you make." -Les Brown
Typography has become an interest to me in my design path and I was lucky enough to attend a Master Lecture on Typography this last week. It was interesting and reaffirming to know what I have been spending my time researching is really what others who have official training are learning.
Since my last post I have completed two projects one personal and one for work. Yay! I actually have gotten paid to do some designing! My supervisor came to me because she knew I was starting to work with design and asked me to create a promotional coupon for customers during our grad fair. My personal project was my own Christmas E-card to send out to friends. I am really excited about this one because it will show the important people in my life what I've been working on for the past couple of months.
I still have a bunch of ideas and projects I would love to start working on but doing too much will not increase the quality of my work or my knowledge of design. Its best right now to stick to one or two things a week. I look forward to another week full of learning and rich experiences.
"Life has no limitations, except the ones you make." -Les Brown
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Some things I've learned about User Experience
Have you ever spent hours searching a website for that one page you happened upon weeks ago? However, you just can't find it! This is a prime example of the creator of the website not paying attention to the user experience. Even as a beginning level web designer that I am I KNOW that I want users to come to my page and enjoy their time while there.
From my research there are lists and lists and opinions on top of opinions about user experience what are the most important concepts about it to remember when creating a site. Since I'm just a beginner so this is a short list of 3 things I find really important. These include:
User Expectations
Awareness of Current Trends
Use Tags Effectively
I think the number one most important thing to remember when tackling usability is to not break the expectations of the user. In other words if the user expects the link to change colors when clicked on and it doesn't change then their expectations were violated. This causes the user to be less likely to return to your site or at the very least become frustrated with having to visit your site because of poor usability.
The second thing on my list is a general awareness of current trends. When creating a website you also have to be aware of what users have come to experience on other websites like the placement of navigation bars and logos. If suddenly the logo appears down in the lower right hand corner of all the top webpages and that link takes you out to a the site map then you should think about adjusting your webpage to meet these trends.
The third and final point i would like to bring up about user experience is just a general good practice using tags effectively. HTML tags are organized specifically this way for a reason. They organize your webpage, make it easier to scan, and allow search engines to find and categorize the information on your webpage. Imagine looking at a newspaper where no headings appeared. How would you know what stories interested you the most or where to begin reading. Using the correct HTML tags to format your page is good coding practice, as well as, increases the ease with which a user can follow the flow of information on your site.
User experience should be a number one concern for designers creating a site and as this experience is an ever changing flow and exchange between the user and designer all that can should be done to create a positive user experience on your website.
From my research there are lists and lists and opinions on top of opinions about user experience what are the most important concepts about it to remember when creating a site. Since I'm just a beginner so this is a short list of 3 things I find really important. These include:
I think the number one most important thing to remember when tackling usability is to not break the expectations of the user. In other words if the user expects the link to change colors when clicked on and it doesn't change then their expectations were violated. This causes the user to be less likely to return to your site or at the very least become frustrated with having to visit your site because of poor usability.
The second thing on my list is a general awareness of current trends. When creating a website you also have to be aware of what users have come to experience on other websites like the placement of navigation bars and logos. If suddenly the logo appears down in the lower right hand corner of all the top webpages and that link takes you out to a the site map then you should think about adjusting your webpage to meet these trends.
The third and final point i would like to bring up about user experience is just a general good practice using tags effectively. HTML tags are organized specifically this way for a reason. They organize your webpage, make it easier to scan, and allow search engines to find and categorize the information on your webpage. Imagine looking at a newspaper where no headings appeared. How would you know what stories interested you the most or where to begin reading. Using the correct HTML tags to format your page is good coding practice, as well as, increases the ease with which a user can follow the flow of information on your site.
User experience should be a number one concern for designers creating a site and as this experience is an ever changing flow and exchange between the user and designer all that can should be done to create a positive user experience on your website.
Friday, October 1, 2010
The good and the bad
This last week has offered several opportunities for me to gain some real world experience in the design realm! I am OFFICIALLY part of the design team for TAGA (Technical Association of Graphic Arts). For the journal that is published for the conference I'm going to have to dive back into bridges because bridges are the focus of the design. Maybe my previous experience with bridges will help me out! I also have a personal project I hope to be able to complete; Christmas card. I hope to be able to design and send out my own Christmas cards.
I found a book on typography this week that I was going to buy with some gift cards from last year but unfortunately the current edition is Out of Print and Out of Stock and the new edition isn't being released for 3 more weeks... my timing couldn't have been worse. I am now keeping my eyes peeled for a good book to replace it with but nothing has popped up yet. Although I should be kept pretty busy with the free ebooks on design I got from the following site: 10 Free Ebooks for Web Designers
I found a book on typography this week that I was going to buy with some gift cards from last year but unfortunately the current edition is Out of Print and Out of Stock and the new edition isn't being released for 3 more weeks... my timing couldn't have been worse. I am now keeping my eyes peeled for a good book to replace it with but nothing has popped up yet. Although I should be kept pretty busy with the free ebooks on design I got from the following site: 10 Free Ebooks for Web Designers
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Thank you!
This last week has been very exciting for me. I've made some crucial decisions for my future and am well on my way to implementing these decisions. I also spent some time this week sitting down with a Graphic Designer and we talked about things I should be doing. This was very encouraging because I'm doing a lot of the things he suggested already. I also went to a meeting of TAGA the Technical Association of Graphic Arts and am looking forward to going back for a second week!
Things seem to be falling into place and it feels GREAT! I want to take a moment to thank all my family and friends who have been a great support for me in taking these first steps. I cannot fail with such a strong support network to back me up! I cannot wait till I have my own copy of the adobe software and can spend most of my free time working on projects. But for this coming week I am planning on focusing most of my time and effort to learning all I can about CSS and website design. I've started laying out a design for my personal portfolio but it is far from ready and is very basic.
Wish me luck on my next week of adventures! I'm looking forward to sitting in a coffee shop somewhere working on my designs and sipping coffee!
Things seem to be falling into place and it feels GREAT! I want to take a moment to thank all my family and friends who have been a great support for me in taking these first steps. I cannot fail with such a strong support network to back me up! I cannot wait till I have my own copy of the adobe software and can spend most of my free time working on projects. But for this coming week I am planning on focusing most of my time and effort to learning all I can about CSS and website design. I've started laying out a design for my personal portfolio but it is far from ready and is very basic.
Wish me luck on my next week of adventures! I'm looking forward to sitting in a coffee shop somewhere working on my designs and sipping coffee!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
First Step in the Journey
Does anyone ever wonder how much the timing of events in one's life affect the ability to operate? I can't help but feeling that way today. My name is Michaela (sounds like
michael - a) and I am aspiring to be a creative professional in the design field. I began this journey after graduating from college and being totally and utterly lost.
Exactly how is anyone lost after graduating from college you might ask? Well its purely simple I want to be happy and proud of the job and career I have for my life. My decisions up until a few months ago were unfruitful in my one solid goal for my life. So I began searching for my lifelong career. After weeks of traversing through the Internet, my past experiences, and my hobbies one major career stood shining like a beacon drawing me ever closer to my fate. Graphic design.
I am truly excited now and look forward to what I will learn along my path. However, getting back to the first sentence of this post. My freshman and sophomore year in college I worked on a website as an ongoing project I had help and found it extremely fascinating but I just didn't get it on my own. I struggled with CSS documents and struggled with remembering how to tag and html page. But now its like the fog has cleared on my journey and I am ready to face the day because bits and pieces are falling together and the knowledge that I held previously and my new knowledge are meshing together beautifully.
My hopes for this blog are two-fold. I hope to record my journey so that years down the road I can look back and laugh at the peaks and valleys of venturing out into the great unknown held and also to help anyone by offering my own perspectives on tidbits that I come across or struggles I have.
Exactly how is anyone lost after graduating from college you might ask? Well its purely simple I want to be happy and proud of the job and career I have for my life. My decisions up until a few months ago were unfruitful in my one solid goal for my life. So I began searching for my lifelong career. After weeks of traversing through the Internet, my past experiences, and my hobbies one major career stood shining like a beacon drawing me ever closer to my fate. Graphic design.
I am truly excited now and look forward to what I will learn along my path. However, getting back to the first sentence of this post. My freshman and sophomore year in college I worked on a website as an ongoing project I had help and found it extremely fascinating but I just didn't get it on my own. I struggled with CSS documents and struggled with remembering how to tag and html page. But now its like the fog has cleared on my journey and I am ready to face the day because bits and pieces are falling together and the knowledge that I held previously and my new knowledge are meshing together beautifully.
My hopes for this blog are two-fold. I hope to record my journey so that years down the road I can look back and laugh at the peaks and valleys of venturing out into the great unknown held and also to help anyone by offering my own perspectives on tidbits that I come across or struggles I have.
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