Online Learning Journal

A brief synopsis

This weeks task over the holiday has been to produce screen designs for our portfolio that we will be using to showcase our work throughout the two years of this course.

The sketches

I started with sketch book work and developed my ideas until I had a final product I was happy to transfer to screen.

Colour was introduced later in the designs just to get a feel for the visual effects they have on the user.

These sketches were to also devised to determine the layout of the page.

Digital work

These are the first drafts of digital works completed for my portfolio.

These are the second drafts.

Closing comments

These design are in no way the final product of my portfolio. There are still many variables that are under scrutiny and I may end up changing a number of factors.

This will be determined through the feedback I receive on my designs from my peers.

My website will utilise XHTML 1.0 [Strict] to describe the contents and structure of the text within the document. CSS 3 will be used to present/format the information contained within the XHTML file. This will be done by defining fonts, colours, hyperlinks, image placement and the layout of the page via an external CSS file. The finished page will then be able to validate to the W3C standards.

I will use my sketch book to record initial sketches and develop my ideas so that I can transfer these works to the screen with minimum of effort. I will the use a variety of software to make my ideas work for a screen rendition of work. I will be using the Adobe CS4 suite to achieve this.

Developing the code will be done using NotePad++ and offline testing using XAMPP which includes technologies such as myPHPadmin and Apache. When these concepts are in fully working order only then will they be transferred to my hosting account to go live.

Using a CMS will help me to achieve the MySQL and PHP section of my goals and will also let me explore other possibilities using other technologies such as JavaScript – though the main use of JavaScript will be for my twitter functionality and images galleries – if they are present.

Here are a list of the project/website goals I have set myself:

Validate to CSS 3

I think it’s time to start using CSS3 as the new standard. People will umm and arr about it until Internet 2 is public domain. So I look at it this way: If I don’t validate to CSS3 – who will? I will use the valuator on the W3C Standard site for validation of CSS3.

Validate to XHTML 1.0 [Strict]

This goes without saying and if I fail this section of my goals I will only disappoint myself. I will use the valuator on the W3C Standard site for validation of XHTML 1.0 [Strict].

Meet WCAG Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 1 minus 1.3 and 1.4

The clauses in the WCAG Priority 1 are:

• 1.3 Until user agents can automatically read aloud the text equivalent of a visual track, provide an auditory description of the important information of the visual track of a multimedia presentation;
• 1.4 For any time-based multimedia presentation (e.g., a movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives (e.g., captions or auditory descriptions of the visual track) with the presentation.

I will not be setting theses as project/web site goals as I do not intend to use video as part of my website.

I will validate these by using the checklist on the w3.org web site.

Page will be have a reading level less than 12 as set by the Gunning Fog index

As I want to keep my language simple to fit into my WCAG but not so simple that it deters potential clients/employees.

This will be checked by using a calculator at http://simbon.madpage.com/Fog/

To use scripts/technologies: such as PHP and JavaScript for functionality and interactivity.

I will be hot-linking to my blog and various other social mediums to make my site interactive. This may come in the form of a twitter box or/and similar.

PHP will be the building block of my site using it along side MySQL in a CMS of sorts.

These will be checked by myself and by the person assessing my work as I have not fully chosen what technologies to implement on my site.

Target audience

My target audience for this assignment are of high caliber and I will need to be assertive with my designs, code and presentation if I am to fulfill the outcomes and requirements of the unit.

Primary – Course Leader

• Gender: Male;
• Age: 40 – 45;
• Technological expertise: High;
• Profession: Teacher and examiner.

My primary target audience, concerning my online portfolio, will be the adjudicator of my work and so I must aim to fulfill the requirements expected by this person.

I will need to meet strict guidelines set out by the examiner and to take care with the littler details that many people may pass by such, as correct syntax of code for validation; correct use of copyright; following instruction given in assignment sheet.

Secondary – Potential Clients/Employees

• Gender: Both;
• Age: 40 – 45;
• Technological expertise: Medium;
• Profession: Recruiter for businesses.

As with any online portfolio I will be using this as an adaptable space to show case my skills and talents. Obviously the more time I spend on this the greater the quality will be and, hopefully, greater the chances of employ-ability.

As my secondary target audience may not hold a greater understanding of code and design than my examiner I may have the opportunity to explorer other technologies such as CSS3 which do not fully validate as of yet.

Tertiary – Peers

• Gender: Both;
• Age: 20 – 30;
• Technological expertise: Medium – high;
• Profession: Student.

The final target audience I have aimed for in with my online portfolio piece are my peers. If I can impress my peers with my portfolio then it will give me more confidence in my work and future interviews.

I will also have to strive to take attention to details with items others may not be aware of such as validated code and simple design issues. If I were to make a faux pas with the end product I may never live it down.

Who And Why

Chameleon is the web site I have chosen for my professional competitive analysis.

Chameleon Digital Media is a company based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The company is made up of a team of designers, developers and marketers and have been in the profession since 1998. This should provide me with a good insight into what makes an effective and established web page.

The company offer a wide range of services which opens the door to a larger target audience which is something I should aim at being able to provide by myself. Being able to offer a full package, rather than odds and ends, will be evident by the size of one’s portfolio.

With the criticism I gather on this site I will be able to paint a clearer picture of the demands that will be expected of me in the near future and to be able to showcase my skills in a more professional manner. This in turn will widen my employment possibilities in the near future.

Overview

From first glance of the website it is clear to see a hierarchy of information. The logo take’s precedence over all other text within the first fold line of the screen and is clear to see what the company’s purpose is: Digital Media.

The featured work takes up roughly one sixth of the horizontal screen space which is a design I would tend to steer clear of but I’m sure that this must be a positive function of the site otherwise it would be omitted from the design.

The second fold line omits the title of the opening paragraph which forces the user to use the scroll bar to keep in view. This paragraph cleanly states the company’s intentions and gives insight into some of the technologies that the company specialise in.

Overall the site has a sturdy clean finish and has a fresh colour scheme that reflects the times of our generation with environmental awareness and efficient productivity.

I think the content could have been spared on the first page or even given more room to flow down the page. From first impressions it feels a bit claustrophobic.

Navigation

The navigation on this site has two tiers and another situated half way down the home page.

I find this confusing and would prefer to use a navigation system that stuck to one area of the site and to keep it consistent. If this was a must in the design process then I’m sure the problem could be solved via drop down or fly out menus.

The second section of the navigation relates to the large internal advert contained at the top of the page. This then breaks down into a further navigation system to navigate between the secondary navigation system. This seems to be getting confusing very quickly and will be something I will avoid from any design I will produce for my portfolio.

The navigation also lacks the :active tag in its CSS which can cause the user to forget which page they are viewing if they were to get too incised with the content.

The XML file for the site navigation keeps Google up to date with crawling and is paramount with creating SEO friendly websites. This should be taken as the norm and never fluctuated on.

Over all the navigation could be improved upon with this site and is something I will need to investigate to find the appropriate solution to my portfolio.

Proximity

As previously mentioned the site’s content feels a bit feels a bit claustrophobic and I’m sure this can be solved by either increasing margins and padding or to keep sections of the site aligned vertically as well as horizontal.

Alignment

As can be expected the site conforms to a 960 grid and strict use makes for easy reading. The only problem I have with alignment issues is what has already been mentioned. A lot of the content become lost and amalgamated into a visual mud pie and would be solved with some vertical alignment methodology.

Repetition

A repetitive colour scheme is key to good design and this site has conformed to produce a quality product. The site has even used a sub colour legend to break down the three tier navigation system which kind of gives a sense of location on the site.

Images are all formatted to give the site a sense of belonging together. This is especially evident on the portfolio section of the site and is clear to see that images use uniform borders and consistent sizes.

Some of the text that appears on the screen can differ in certain section of the site through the means of contrast which leads me on to the next section…

Contrast

The colour scheme works extremely well, as mentioned, and fits within that magic seventy percent for the contrast ration. The images are vibrant and all seem to reflect upon the repetition of the site. With a good use of white space the text is clear and unobstructed in parts but, as mentioned, can ‘clump’ when scrolling further down the page.

The header has also been given definition by creating a subtle gradient fill to break away from the main content. This gives the user a clear structure of the sites content.

Typography

Keeping the typography down to a minimum I think that the choice to represent the site needs to be of a justified choice. Arial, Helvetica, sans serif is not the most flamboyant of choices but it serves its purpose: to provide clean, readable text that most users will be able to view as the designer intended.

There is little else to be said about the typography except that the logo has chosen to stray from the body text and use a text similar to that of Bauhaus.

Content

The content of the site is quite intense and can be quite a lot to take in. A more simplified and sparse design, I feel, could have translated the same information across to the user without overloading the sensory preceptors.

Although there is quite a lot of information to digest, it is presented in manageable chunks that are easy to break down. The quality of the content is also of great importance and the information chosen to be presented is straight forward and to the point.

Code And Validation

To say that this is a professional web design company they have failed to take care of validation on their site. This tells me a number of things – that it is not a requirement of the company to conform to these validation methods, which can be seen as a faux pas in our industry. It also tells me that the company may not be required to adhere to accessibility guidelines such as WCAG, again, another minor for the websites image/repetition.

It is clear to see that the page relies upon more than XHTML and CSS but if these basic fundamental codes are thought of as unimportant and brushed aside what then can be said for more complex languages such as PHP and AJAX?

Having said this though a lot of the errors on most of the pages seem to be repetitive which would lead me to believe that there is some formatting issue within the CMS when having set up for this operation. But, again, this tells me that maybe they haven’t mastered the use of such technologies?

Summary

From the evidence I have gathered here I have been able to get an insight into some of the design choices made and choices in content to display that have occurred in the background of building this website.

Repetition is a fundamental in any design process which is one of the first most design principles that stick out in my mind when viewing these sites for criticism. This along with a good head for colour theory can be thought of as the building blocks to good web design.

I will find it hard to produce a website of this magnitude due to the sheer amount of content that is communicated here. Only with time and experience will I be able to archive the same amount.

From my critical review of this site I can pick up on a few flaws to avoid in my design as well as borrowing some good design practice to create a strong portfolio piece at the end of my tenure at Wakefield College.

These are summarised as follows:

• Making sure all code is formatted to the correct syntax to avoid validation issues;
• Being sparse with the content (less is more);
• Keep a repetitive colour scheme for identification;
• Investigate other technologies to keep my site up to date with future possibilities;
• Control white space efficiently for easy to digest content.

If I take into consideration the criticisms I have listed hear I will be one step closer to creating a site that appeals to all levels of user whether there are surfers, potential clients or future employees.

Who And Why

For my competitive analysis of a fellow student’s online portfolio I have decided to stick closer to home and choose a local web designer, now working in a professional manner. I will justify my choice by breaking down each section of the site and providing a critical reflection on each of the choices that have been presented.

My critical insight into this study will enable me to create a summary of my future objectives and provide me with crucial material to help me reflect and build upon my own portfolio.

Mark Till is the freelance designer I have chosen to analyse for my competitive analysis. He lives and works in Castleford and has done since May 2006. With a BSC Honours Computing Degree he is a little younger than myself and has almost four years experience ahead of me.

My critical evaluation of his site will benefit my learning if I am to approach the task with an open mind and to provide criticism of both positive and negative to help develop my own critical analysis skills.

Overview

From first impressions the site looks very clean. There was no delay in loading from the search engine and the optimisation in Google has worked well. I was presented with Mark’s portfolio from simply typing his name in Google’s search engine.

The page itself provides the user with information, regarding the sites purpose, within the first instance: both in the title and within the first paragraph. This is immensely important for the end user and is a fundamental in keeping visitors interested in the site.

Navigation

The navigation on this site is simple and effective. There is no mistaking where the navigation is and where the user is located on the page. There is also a smaller navigation located in the footer that reflects the same as the one situated below the header.

Proximity

The proximity of the content has been spaced enough to provide natural breaks in reading and scanning. The header sits proudly at the top of the page with each section of the site falling in the obligatory fashion.

I’m not sure if the navigations size compliments the title of the web page as their size seem to be quite similar. This is only a aesthetic quibble and will no doubt be analysed differently through each user.

Each section has been given enough room to be worthy of having its own perimeter of white space around the surrounding area of text. This makes reading all that much easier.

A personal preference I would have changed would be to give a little more room between the navigation and the first paragraph. I would have given the same amount of space as delegated between the header/title and navigation. This would also reflect well in the sites repetition.

Alignment

The alignment is kept uniform throughout the design of the website by implementing a grid. This fundamental tool has kept the content of the site neat and easy to scan. There isn’t much more to say about the alignment at this point.

Repetition

With strong ties to proximity the repletion of the site has been reflected by keeping the same attributes to headers, navigation, subtitles and paragraphs. There is a natural hierarchy in the information presented and flow that can be followed when scanning the page.

One point of criticism that I have with the repetition, is that the site looses its dimensions when resized. There appears to be a ghastly green line that makes its presence felt when zoomed in or out by two levels in Firefox. Internet Explorer handles the resizing in an even inferior way and becomes really apparent when zoomed in/out at greater levels.

Contrast

Colour theory is a hard subject to nail down but I think the use of pastel greens and white has definitely given this site a visual impact. The tone of black for the text has also meant that no feature of the site stands out greater than the next. This helps reduce eye strain and is of little effort to read.

I’m not sure about the choice in using a gradient fill in the contact form. The contrast is out of the ideal seventy percent range and could effect anyone user that falls into Level One of WCAG.

Typography

Choice use of typography is key to any good design. It is especially important to be aware of these uses in web design as many people only use the fonts their computer was packaged with.

Mr Till has done himself credit by providing that browser with a choice of three san serif fonts ensuring that the majority of his visitor will be able to view the site as the original design dictates.

Keeping the number of fonts restricted has also helped retain repetition in the site and as stated before given the site a clean and easy to scan appearance.

Content

To give credence to the designer the site has all the information one would hope to find in a portfolio piece. The opening paragraph explains everything the site has set out to promote. The subsequent paragraphs that follow go into further detail and elaborate on the opening statement.

The portfolio pieces are well balanced and each piece of written content gives a good insight into the content of each. Thought has gone into which sites to showcase on this site as there are additional sites located above the footer but have not been given the same space as the chosen few.

Content is king in any portfolio and I think the right amount of content has been collated to present to the user. There is enough to read and to get a significant insight into the working mind of Mr Till but not too much as to bombard and confuse the visitor.

Code And Validation

The code, as expected, validates with no errors/warnings. This is to be expected of me from now on so I’m not going to digress into great detail surrounding the validation. I will divulge in the fact that the code seems to be uncommented which I see as a faux pas in this industry.

The XHTML has been coded to XHTML 1.0 Transitional which I feel could have been implemented to Strict quite easily. The code could be improved by using a few more indentations as well for a visually structured layout.

Use of Flash is always a tough nut to crack and can be helped by providing as much information as possible in the object tag; something that has been over looked in this design.

The CSS also suffers from the same symptoms as its predecessor and could have easily been presented in a more user friendly appearance. There also seems to be a few repetitions of code that have been duplicated unnecessarily.

Apart from these minor defects the code is solid.

Summary

Systematically pulling a web site apart, in a non-critical sense, to see the inner workings and decisions of the designer has helped me already to think about what I want my site to reflect and who it should appeal to.

Because I have noticed points for improvement so must other people, and potential clients/employees, in the same situation. I can help prevent these errors, though minor, to enable a increased chance for employability at the end of my tenure in college.

These are summarised as follows:

• Make sure the repetition of my site follows a uniform fashion with both the user interface and behind the scenes with the code;
• Enable my site to be resized without losing the content or design of the site;
• Keep my code slim – be critical of over-use and try to economise to prevent repetition;
• Be critical when choosing items to present on my portfolio piece – less is more;
• Use SEO to ensure that my site will be within the first page of Google and similar search engines;
• Maintain a hierarchy by using correct tags in my code and represent this through the end product.

Adhering to the bullet points will improve my designs in the near future when I am starting to contemplate my portfolio website.

Well, with only five weeks until the end of the year and four to the deadline for two more assignments it seems I am ahead of schedule for once. I’m looking forward to the reverse design process as the work up to this point has been enjoyable.

I have only one more week to produce these ideas but I think I should have more than enough to help me design for the mystery item. When taking these ideas into PhotoShop/Illustrator I will be able to apply some of the skills I have learnt on previous assignments and really go to town on the final stages.

Something I am struggling to get my head around is WordPress but, as stated many times through-out this blog, it’s something that is improving all the time. It really does take the strain out of creating x amount of templates and having a good grasp of PHP has helped it recognising some of the functions.

I am going to delve more into WordPress but at the moment I am just going to stick to the basics and get the site out of the way. If there is enough time when the site is complete I will investigate the other avenues of WordPress and try to get some ideas down for how I might like to create my online portfolio. I have learnt a lot of new skills/technologies on this course so I would naturally want to create a site that showcases them.

Everyone seems to know what they are doing and it shows in class at the moment – the quietness is quite deafening. I also notice that the time we have left at college is expiring at an alarming rate and that what little time is left should be used to my advantage, however that might be.

This week’s blog entry is concentrating on opportunities for employment and putting ourselves in the shoes of the interviewer. These questions could be expected to be answered in an interview situation.

I have chosen six questions in my interviewing scenario. These questions will help me to develop my employment ability skills and confidence in the near future.

1. What made you apply for this position?

Model answer: Your advertisement appealed to me because of the job opportunities and the position you offer. I have a chance to expand my creativity skills and develop my own personal growth in this industry.

Reason for question: I assume this question would be asked in a web design interview as much as any other interview situation.

2. What skills could you bring to our team?

Model answer: I have an up-to date knowledge of XHTML and CSS and would be able to offer many creative solutions to a number of scenarios. I have developed these skills through an intensive college course and feel I achieved well in doing so.

Reason for question: An employer would choose a suitable candidate on the quality of their skills over someone who has none.

3. How do you keep yourself up to date with current technologies?

Model answer: Keeping up to date in this industry is key to a successful web designer/developer and to do so I spend a lot of my free time reading about and using new languages.

Reason for question: An employer would want to see how someone would work of their own back to keep up to date in the industry rather than have to spend money sending them on courses.

4. What are your views on web standards?

Model answer: Web standards are vital in making web pages accessible to the masses. This gives business the opportunity to reach a wider target audience. I feel that web standards should be treated as such: standard.

Reason for question: Even though a company may not be strict in the sense of standards; if you were to answer in a professional manner it would reflect better. You can always drop your standards if the employer asks.

5. How would your friends describe you?

Model answer: My friends would describe me as an out going person who takes work seriously, who is very approachable and friendly.

Reason for question: This question is kind of a spanner in the works and seeing ones reactions to this question could be a deal breaker. Having a truthful opinion about yourself also speaks volumes to a potential employer or/and client.

6. Where do you see yourself in five years time?

Model answer: Hopefully I see my self with a wife, 2.4 children, big house, nice car and comfortable job where I can express my creativity and explorer new boundaries.

Reason for question: A lot of employers are looking for commitment to their business. If I’m tied down with a mortgage, children and loan for a car I’m not really going anywhere for a while.

Word count: 500

A Quick Insight

Marking this assignment has been one of the most demanding things I have done on this course to date. It’s not the marking as such but being able to decipher the critical thinking behind my decisions.

One aspect that has made this abundantly easier was to keep a weekly blog stating the outcomes of my learning, which was one of the learning objectives in my Self Managed Learning Plan (SMLP).

These ‘mini blogs’ pretty much wrote there own evaluation for me at the end of this assignment and all I really needed to do was to re-word them into a final summary.

This has helped with my overall marking which is broken down as followed:

Pass Criteria

• Demonstrate personal management skills in learning activities.

This goal is measured by the weekly blog entries that I have kept; the production schedule that was created; and the SMLP that was formulated.

• Develop and follow self-managed learning plans.

This was achieved with the creation of the SMLP.

• Review learning processes and synthesise appropriate methods of feedback.

Again, the goal was achieved through my blog assessing my progress on a weekly basis with summative goals at the end of each week.

• Communicate and apply learning skills to a professional context.

To achieve this goal I created a skill bank of my learning which can be found at http://www.samcrawshaw.co.uk/new_skills

• Evaluate and communicate learning outcomes.

I met this goal with an evaluation that was submitted on the hand in date.

Merit Criteria

• Relevant theories and techniques have been applied.

My work at http://www.samcrawshaw.co.uk/new_skills has a library of techniques I have developed. This along with my commenting on my coding is the evidence supplied.

• The appropriate structure and approach has been used.

This goal is met with a number of devices. http://www.samcrawshaw.co.uk/new_skills shows the skills I have leant and clicking on each gives a description of the script and is commented line by line. The other place my learning goals have been recorded is on my blog that I kept. This weekly blog was broken down with summative goals that helped me plan my work load.

• Complex problems with more than one variable have been explored.

Evidence can be found at http://www.samcrawshaw.co.uk/new_skills. It can also be found within my sketch book as I recorded what skills would be relevant to carry out my work. These were then amalgamated into layout plans to develop a website.

Distinction Criteria

• Use critical reflection to evaluate own work and justify valid conclusions.

My evaluation here speaks for itself. It can be found with the submitted work I handed in. This evaluation pointed out both strengths and weaknesses and provided a summary as to how to avoid problems in future assignments.

• Take responsibility for managing and organising activities.

My SMLP determined that my own learning would help me to achieve the goals I set out. This can be found in the work I submitted. I recorded the progress with my online evaluation.

• Demonstrate convergent/lateral/creative thinking.

This is where my grading criteria failed. Because of time restrictions I had very little time to create a truly original website. I know I could have greatly improved the look of my site with more time but as it stands now I feel it does not meet this goal.

Grade

From the evidence that I have marked against I will be awarding myself merit as I have met the criteria for both pass and merit but not fully distinction.

Summary

It’s clear to see from the grading here where I need to project myself to be able to achieve a better grade. As stated in my evaluation I need to apply realistic goals for myself to achieve so I can spend the required amount of time in each field of my production schedule.

Evaluation

After a frantic week of trying to get the last threads of this assignment into something that resembles a website I have learnt a few valuable lessons along the way.

A problem I have had since the off set is the lack of ability to manage my time. The planning of the assignment seemed relatively easy but sticking to the actual schedule proved to be extremely difficult. There were times when certain aspects of my planned time over lapped or were missed and as a result everything snowballed at the last minute.

Learning a new technology has also proved quite stressful and I am only now beginning to understand how to use it to its full potential now that the assignment has passed.

I will be continuing to research and utilise PHP as much a possible for three reasons: it’s automated and takes some of the repetitiveness out of building; it communicates extremely well with MySQL, they seemed to have been designed with each other in mind; and the syntax, although at first daunting, is quite easy to pick up.

I think I will stray away from learning through book and stick to tutorials online. At least this way there is a possibility of an infinite source for any area of PHP. One thing I found extremely difficult to follow in my reading material was that there was no one to turn to when things went wrong.

Spending nearly four hours one day trying to figure out why I couldn’t connect to a database proved to be quite frustrating. After much angst I had to turn to the internet to get a better picture of what was happening with the mechanics of the process because I could actually see where my mistake was in using the book.

I found the best method for my learning was taking an already created script an breaking it down, or just breaking it, to see how the processes worked in the background. I know I’ve only just scratched the surface of the language but I feel confident in being able to apply scripts to my site and adapting them.

On the website http://www.samcrawshaw.co.uk/a8 I have created an image upload for and was able to implement a loop to display the contents of the directory from scratch. Through this I was able to change values and create another upload form for processing text and displaying the contents to another section of the site.

I’m still not comfortable with using functions such as stripslashes and explodes. I think it’s just because my brain isn’t tuned into the descriptive side of PHP yet. But as time has passed I have become more accustom and gained greater understanding.

I initially only knew how to include scripts into a site using the include function and if it didn’t work that was the end of that. I can now look at a piece of code and have a rough idea of the actions it’s performing and in some cases, manipulate to suit my needs.

One thing that really dragged it’s heels on my SMLP was the statement I included that said I would write down each new script I learnt, create a working example and provide the code for it to the user. This was a grievous on my part. I literally added another half an assignment into an already busy schedule.

I spent more time colour coding pre tagged HTML code than I did learning PHP and building the final site. And I still didn’t finish it all in time. I managed to get halfway through my new_skills section of the site before it became mundane and more of a chore than a learning exercise.

Colour co-ordinating code cost considerable time in all other aspects of my assignment. This is the one thing I would change in my SMLP if I could go back and re-plan. All the other problems that occurred were related to this fact.

I must have spent all of half a day using Photoshop through out this assignment which was a learning out come I had mentioned previously and stated I would spend more time developing these skills.

There are still a few things I would have liked to include in my site as well which I did create in my ‘skills bank’ but just didn’t have the time to implement into the final build.

A new problem that occurred towards the end of the assignment was with my web host. I was supposed to post my evidence in blogs on my site but as of yesterday I have lost my WordPress installation.

I took an event like this in to consideration and backed up blogs from day one. The only thing that it has cost me is convenience. I had to upload the blogs to a directory on my site and code a page for them to be viewed. This doesn’t technically meet my SMLP plan but at least the evidence is there.

I’m pleased that what I have built, in the little time that was left, required little to no validation mark up. This is showing me that my XHTML and CSS coding skills are starting to become second nature and over time, hopefully, I will be able to code blindfolded.

With all these new experiences I can reflect on the fact that my planning of time needs to be looked at in future assignments. I need to know realistic time frames and to be able to accurately predict project lengths.

To summarise, the skills I need to develop are as follows:

• Plan my time more efficiently;
• Make sure my knowledge of PHP doesn’t dwindle by keeping in practice;
• Create realistic goal for myself.

Develop more complex scripts to interact with MySQL.

These skills are realistic and achievable and if I am able to achieve these goals through the run up of the next assignment I will be one step closer to being a better web developer and ready for employment at the end of this academic year.

Word Count: 1012