Design and Code

To me, this class has been challenging for two reasons
1. I love design, but do not have a lot of experience with designing web pages
2. My knowledge of HTML comes from the web essentials class, and even then I struggled.

So I really like the principles of design, and feel like I can make something look visually interesting, but a website has its own issues to deal with. Information flow, how to navigate, user perception/expectations, etc... I felt that my biggest strength is the look of the site. But because I do not know code very well, I didn't design my pages with the forethought that I had to figure out how to make the HTML and CSS work together to create my look. I strictly wanted it to look good. Because I chose to go this direction, making these different fields work together has required a lot of studying and research on my part. Mostly this has been a good experience. Some of it, however, has been frustrating to no end.

Working on the PeopleFace site was very difficult to me. I had to research just about everything that I did in CSS, and probably more than half of the HTML came from reading some books and websites I found. I found that creating a clean, easy to read/user interface requires a lot of forethought. Although I probably missed the mark, I think that working on PeopleFace has given me a better understanding about how simply code something that has a nice look, without it being to heavy or light. Im also trying to emulate sites that I think work well, and try to use some of their tactics and strategies when planning out code.

Though I will probably not do web coding/web design for a career, I think these principles and techniques I've learned will suit me well in any other field I choose to pursue, because the internet is involved in almost everything anymore. The more you understand it, the better off you will be in other pursuits.