Magdalena_FinalWebsiteProgress

=__**Website Evolution:**__= __**Alternate Website (If Images are not working):**__ http://magdalenaho.wikispaces.com/CCT460_Website


 * Original Front Page & CV Assignment:**



CV Assignment [Still Image] - The graphics in the left sidebar were placed in a slideshow to create a "blinking" effect. I used the NineSixty theme for this assignment. Issues I had included positioning restrictions due to the wireframe. This issue was solved by the help of the Firefox's Firebug plug-in and it's handy 'Layout' tool.

=Final Website:= Throughout designing my website, I switched frequently and indecisively between three themes: NineSixty, Omega, and Business. Originally, I wanted to stick with the NineSixty theme but found that its vertical layout did not fit in with the designs I had in mind for my final website. Some sample wireframes can be viewed in the .PDF below:



Eventually, I settled with the 'Business' Theme. It was an easily customizable theme concerning background colour, hover links, buttons and even came with a built in slideshow that links to pages within. I chose to continue with my pink, purple and grey colour scheme.

Some issues I had designing included positioning. This can be seen in the figures below. I could change it in Firebug, but I could not seem to change it within the .css code.



Other issues I had with coding included spelling the Canadian "colour" instead of "color."

=Some failed Modules that I tried included:= PageFlip - This module required many other Drupal module installs in order for it to work, some (ie. Node Reference) which were difficult for me to find.

Although I got it to work in Contents (as can be viewed below), I could not get the views to function correctly to show up in my Graphics page. In the end, I used[| jCarousel] instead to showcase my Comic.

Another inconvenience was the colour difference between different monitors. It was harder for me to coordinate what colours I wanted to use because they would look good on one monitor and completely different on the other monitor.

=Design Aspects:= Some design aspects I considered while designing my website included white space and simple fonts. I decided to leave my front page as just a logo, navigation and slideshow as to simulate a sort of "splash page" landing page. I liked the simplicity of it.

In my original NineSixty theme, I had altered the headings to have a dark background with white text. I tried that again for my final website. This can be seen below:

I reconsidered and decided to just change the colour of the header text instead as to have a clean, uncluttered look.

The font that I used for the headers was a serif-font while the main text I chose a sans-serif font for readability. I kept the breadcrumb option because it assists in wayfinding for the user to be able to keep track of where they are in the website. Visual cues I activated on the Business theme included the colour changing when the user hovers over the tab and coloured links so the user is aware that the text is clickable.

=Overall Thoughts:= I thought that the Business theme was very user friendly. The "Color Scheme" settings were very useful and simple to set up with a preview.

This theme had a two column layout, with the main content on the left and a right sidebar. This can be seen in the screenshot below.