Interactive Environments - Individual Appraisal

Individual Appraisal:
This is what I have contributed to this task.

Usability for touchscreens:
I have researched the internet on the use of touchscreens and what the best kind of techniques are when starting a new project. I found two websites which in my opinion showed the best kind of information in a small way which was straight to the point.

The websites are as followed:
http://www.vissumo.com/blog/?p=266
http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/tsdesigngl/Ergo.htm

Here is some of my research for touchscreen usability:
Touchscreen should be eye level if the user is going to be using it for around 1-3 minutes.

Touchscreen below eye level is better for using in a longer period of time.

There is no mouse to move.

There are no mouse clicks - pointing and initiating are combined into one step

It is better to not have a mouse pointer on the screen as users never lose control of their fingers but may loose control of a mouse pointer.

Users cannot confuse different types of cursors.

Finger-operated touchscreen is best in speed but poor in accuracy

Stylus-operated touchscreen is better than the use of the finger as it has better speed and better accuracy.

Touchscreens can be used by everyone and the main target audience for the software tool is a novice.

Muscle strain happens if the screen is high and the user has to constantly use vertical movement.
The user has to sit/stand close to the screen.
Screen gets dirty from finger prints so cleaning regularly is essential
Pen/finger may obscure parts of the screen so it is best to have the main menu at the bottom.
As soon as the user touches the screen the software should activate.

Painting Tool:
In one of our lessons with James Field we had a tutorial on creating a paint tool, which was very useful for what we need in our flash piece. It enables the user to be able to draw effectively and also we are looking at the possibility of having a palette tool which will change the colour of the paint tool.

On-screen keyboard:
Also a tool which we planned on using is an on-screen keyboard. This function would let the user type in their name and submit it with the photo, enabling them to search on the website for their name without just adding a photo ID and making it a lot easier.

http://www.dncompute.com/blog/2006/06/21/on-screen-keyboard.html - This was the first on-screen keyboard that I found which was easy to edit but once this had edited I then realised the file was in Action Script 2 which we weren't using.

Due to this problem I then had to find another keyboard but this had to work in Action Script 3. After searching around google I found a fairly basic keyboard which had the requirements that we needed. Here is the link to our successful keyboard. http://www.actionscript.org/resources/articles/711/1/AS3-On-Screen-Keyboard/Page1.html All that keyboard would do is show the users name and then by clicking enter it would send it to the database within the website database then to be published on the website after approval. We had a final problem as the keyboard wouldn't rotate meaning we had to change this and Andrew Howard rebuilt a similar one in a rotated format.

Skin Tones:
My next task was to find a suitable set of skin tones which would be placed on our colour palette. I felt that the links below had the right sort as we had to consider every skin tone throughout the world, as anyone could be using this tool.

http://www.idigitalemotion.com/tutorials/guest/skin_tone/skintone.html
http://kuler.adobe.com/#themeID/1088316

CATs Log Book

26th January - Group Lecture
For this CATs lesson we received handouts which gave us help on Havard Referencing. This I feel will help me when needing to write an essay in the future as I feel that my Ethics essay lacked in HR which may have cost me quite a lot of marks. With these handouts though I can now work to a better standard when essay writing.

18th December
Unable to attend

8th December - Group tutorial
For this CATs lesson we had a group discussion about our ethics essays. This was helpful as we recieved a plan of how our essay showed be layed out i.e. introduction, main body, bibliography and conclusion.

1st December
HSAD closed.

24th November - Individual tutorial
For this CATs lesson we had a discussion on the progress of our individual work. I have completed my portfolio website and I am also waiting on some free samples I ordered from a mint/sweet company which has my designdave.co.uk logo on.

17th November
Tutor was ill.

10th November - Audiences and Clients
For this CATs lesson we had a presentation on Audiences and Clients. This presentation I felt was very helpful as it showed us what to expect from a target audience. We looked at age demographic which I feel will be vital for me especially when I'm working with a client in the future.

2nd November - Ethics
For this CATs lesson we had a presentation on Ethics such as things as controversial artists, photographers and any other work that has caused controversy. During this lesson we were told that we would have to write a 2,000 word essay based on our own subject with reference to an ethical background. I have thought of an idea for my essay but I need to find the artist I feel is relevant for this essay.

27th October
Unable to attend lesson due to illness.

20th October - Project Ideas
For this CATs lesson we were asked what things we would be doing during this semester of CATs, I decided to go with the idea of promoting myself via a blog and a portfolio website. I also decided that I would advertise myself by purchasing merchandise for future reference when I meet a client to give as a friendly gesture.

13th October
Unable to attend lesson due to family funeral.

6th October - Evaluating and Planning
For this CATS lesson we had to come up with a plan as to what we would do in our projects. We could do anything from promoting ourselves to writing up a blog or creating a website. This was really relevant to me as I felt that doing all these things would help get my name out in the world of today.

CATs Promotional Report

For my CATs assignments this semester I will try and promote myself as a freelance web designer. This could be such things as buying merchandise, creating business cards, buying domain and web hosting, making a logo, creating a website etc.

The first stage that I have had to do for my promotional work was to come up with a name for my website. At first I went with the idea of calling my website DJ Design but after researching this on google, ask, bing etc I felt that this wasn't the way to go. This was due to research as when searching the search engines for DJ Design a lot of the time I got things that related to musical equipment and this didn't really have any relation to web design.

When thinking of another name to promote myself I thought of Davey Jay Web Enterprises, as I felt that this name was very internet savvy for my age demographic and what I am aimed to show off. When consulting fellow students and tutors they felt that this idea showed off my personality well with the young sounding name but it wasn't very professional for the career I was trying to get into. Due to this, I once again decided to leave this name and start thinking of a more appropriate professional name.

 

Before designing my website I decided to purchase the name of http://www.designdave.co.uk/ for $29.96 in total for two years and having the domain name certified. I went with Godaddy as when browsing for domain names this had the best rate in my opinion and I was recommended to use them by a fellow student.

I then had to purchase hosting, this keeps all the work which is uploaded in a folder and then adds it to the website of http://www.designdave.co.uk/. I used a website called Bluehost as they have a lot of tools within the website itself that can help with setting up any sort of website. I was recommended by a former student to use Bluehost as he felt that this was the most easy to use and had the best results. I paid $6.95 a month for a one year subscription to use Bluehosts service which I felt was a good price for a unlimited web upload space.

Once I completed all the important things for setting up my website I then started to think of ideas of how it should look. I researched a lot of web design companies and freelance portfolio websites to give me an ideas on how I should go about creating and putting together my website.

Here are the websites that I viewed:

http://www.dselva.com/

http://www.lebloe.com/

http://www.amazeelabs.com/

http://www.ngenworks.com/

www.emotionslive.co.uk/portfolio.html

These websites I felt helped me realise that my design needed to be something that related to me. I struggled with thinking on any ideas that showed my personality off as I like bright colours and wacky designs yet I couldn't figure out any sort of colour scheme to use. I was using colours such as navy, black, dark toned colours which aren't really me so after a long look and research I chose a colour which was a bit similar to the colour scheme of Emotions Live. This colour I felt portrayed myself and my love of bright colours which is essential when having a portfolio website as it is all about you.

Once I got an idea of what kind of colour scheme I would use for my website I then had to think about a logo which would be recognisable and individual to myself. I decided to browse the free font website http://www.urbanfonts.com/ which gives you the use of an downloadable font which is either created by a user or already exists on most pieces of software. For my logo I decided to go in the retro section of Urbanfonts and chose the font Uptight. which is key to the creation of a portfolio website. This logo shows off my personality quite well as it has the retro font and a bright colourful background which I rather enjoy viewing as I'm into anything that is eye-catching which in my opinion fits the criteria.

Here is the final design logo:

After my logo was complete I then went on adding it to the design of my website. My website has a lime green block going across the top as I felt that this gave the viewer continuity and a sense of what I was about. I made the navigation on my site vertical as I never have really used this technique before but I felt that it was a bit different to what a lot of other designers are doing at present, so I felt this could give me a special edge when somebody views my website.

The navigation is shown below:

Once I was happy with the header of my website I then had to consider what the main body would look like. I went for a basic design with a white background on black text which I felt was straight to the point and didn't have any unnecessary items within. The jquery slider which was added at the top of the body made the website look very nice visually as it showcases recent work by myself. After I was happy with the outlook of the main body I then had a thought of what would make my website look appealing towards the bottom end of the site. I created a footer with a top border which signalled the end of the main body and this just displayed links to my email, facebook, twitter and blogger accounts.

Here is the final website design:

Once I completed my portfolio website I felt that another way to promote myself would be to purchase some merchandise. My first idea was to look around for merchandise companies that did free samples, unfortunately after viewing quite a lot websites none of them ever really gave you the option of a free sample without placing an order for around ten items first. After consulting my father about free samples he told me about http://www.creativepm.co.uk/ as his company has used their services before and highly recommended them. They sent me two mint cards which have my logo on them which I felt was a good start for a free sample. Due to the lack of companies who gave out free samples I then viewed a website called http://www.zazzle.com/ who specialise in merchandise but one of the main reasons I used Zazzle was because I was allowed to order one item instead of most websites which require a minimum of ten to twenty items which isn't always what is wanted. I ordered a t-shirt which has my logo on it which cost £12.50 and also twenty stickers which cost £4.95. These items are very good quality for what I paid for them and I will use Zazzle in the future for any other merchandise that is required to showcase myself to the world.

Here are photos of the merchandise:

Conclusion

My overall thoughts on promoting myself as a web designer are that I am improving every time I build a new website, and that all the merchandise that I have obtained can be used for clients in the future as giving out mint cards, stickers, key-rings etc will be a nice gesture and will surely make the client feel a bit more comfortable with my service.

I feel that I am promoting myself quite well as I have already created a website for a rock band based in Hull and currently working on a project for an freelance electrician also based in Hull. I don't think I would of obtained these clients if my website wasn't up and running and I feel word of mouth has helped as well, as I have been able to show my designs from university on my official designdave.co.uk website which has given the client a real feel for what I can offer them.

I feel that I am slowly getting my name around and this can only be a good thing for the future.