Reading Week

On Monday I emailed Steve for the reading week task, I didn’t have clue what it was going to be, while I was waiting for Steve to e-mail back, I went on MSN messenger to talk to the other group members, I think its good we all have some way to communicate between each other. When we all got our e-mail from Steve telling us we were doing a presentation on a certain colour (mine is Yellow), we all told each other which colour we got and we were talking about the different colours, martin told use all a useful web site we could use to find information on the colours.

When I found out I had to presentation I was fine about it, I am not bothered about doing the presentation till the night before I have to do it and that’s when I’ll be nervous and I’ll start panicking. I am doing my presentation on Yellow, Yellows my least favourite colour, but I am getting use it after researching it for so long. I have found out some good facts about yellow and I didn’t know that different cultures had different meaning for colours which I have found interesting.

After I done quiet a bit of research I started to make a visual aid, we were told we could either use Powerpoint or PageMaker to make a presentation, has I don’t have PageMaker I have had to Powerpoint, Steve doesn’t like animation, so it just a simple presentation, I have used a few images and tried to use as few words on the slides as possibly, so the people that are going to see the presentation don’t get over loaded with text.

For the presentation we have to include a visual aid and handouts, I have started the visual aid but for the handout and sure what to include yet, I thought about using the important information I am going to talk about in the presentation and include some web sites were I got the information from. I also have to think about when I want to hand the handouts out during the presentation, at the moment I thinking near the end, but I want to use a image in the presentation and if I can’t find a bigger version of the image to use in the visual aid, I might include the image on the handout and give it out when I get to that images slide so people can view the image better.

The presentation has to last 5 minutes, the longest presentation I have done before is about 1 minute and when I did that it felt I had been doing it 10 minutes because I was so nervous, hopefully been well prepared and organised I should do ok with the presentation on Monday.

Half term

This week is half term, I have had a read thought the next assignment sheets but I am going to have another read thought and write some question down which I want to ask about the assignment. I am looking forward to the next assignments and I want to try harder than the last assignment, I know I tried to do my best for the last assignment but I am nervous about getting my results, I hope I pass but I will be upset if I don’t get a pass but all I can do is try and get my work better.

I am looking forward to reading week to see what tasks we have to do. The only thing is, I am worried it might be complicated task and I might get stuck and not know what to do, something like using photo which I don't how to use the program, but hopeful if that happens I can contact class members or Steve for help.

I have been collecting inspiration so that I can stick it in my sketch book when I get it back and I have also been researching and been having a go with different software's so I also have some notes to stick in.

The first assignment has been handed in!

On Monday I wrote my evaluation, I found it quiet easy to write after the first bit which I had to think how to start it. On Sunday I wrote a bulleted list of things I should including in the evaluation then I used the list when I wrote the evaluation on Monday it was good to have an idea of what to write about and in the end I wrote too much and ended up cutting it down, It was hard cutting it down because I thought everything I had wrote was meant to be included and taking things out was like missing parts out.

The last thing I did for my assignment was referencing, I had about 15 references and I estimated it would take a couple of hours which it did. Thought the assignment I had 2 pages in my sketchbook were I put all my references, so when I came to reference I decide were the references went in the assignment then added them, having the 2 pages of references made it easier to reference as I didn't have to search thought my sketch book to find the all.

I handed my assignment work in today at about 11 o clock, I am glad I have handed it in I am now nervous about what grade I have got, but I know I have tried my best.
Last night was the most stressful night of this assignment I knew I didn't have a lot to do it was just I knew it was going to take me along time to do it so I started wondering if I was going to get it complete in time then I started worrying the work I had already done was wrong, so at one point I had to have a break and when I went back to my work I planned what I was going to do and got on with it and finished it.

This afternoon we had a lecture on presentation, Presentation are the worst things ever for me, I aren't the loudest person every, so I hate it when i am centre of attention, I don't even like it when I have to answer questions in class, because I get nervous then i start mumbling or I can't even talk and I worry what I am going to answer is wrong. I want to improve my presentational skills and get better at speeching out loud and hopefully a bit of practice should help.

Deadline

This week I have tried to finish has much of the assignment work has possible, so that in our seminar group meetings today I could see what I could improve on my work. So for self study this week I wrote a list of all the tasks I needed to do and then crossed them out when I had done them, I felt more relived the more tasks that got crossed off. I tried to get all the tasks complete for this week but I in the end I didn't, I did as much work has I could but it took me hours to put my work into Page Maker, It took me 2 hours today to make 1 table and I had to do three. At first I found tables hard to make but the more time I have spent doing them on Page Maker the easier I found them to make and the better they looked.

The only other thing I think I might have problems with is doing my references, now I have collected a few more paper-based references and I have some electronic references, I can start putting the referencing into Page Maker but I am not sure how easy or hard its going to be or how long its going to take me so I am going to estimate a couple of hours so I have plenty of time.

When I got feed back on my work the thinks I need to improve on is:
Referencing - A good range of references (including paper based)
Goals- Check they are all measurable
Delivery Requirements - Choose whether to say the web site would be HTML or XHTML(including CSS)
-Find more references to back up what I have said in my delivery requirements
Competitive Analysis- Label screens shots and tables
Screen Designs- Change the colour names
-Add more measurements on to the designs

Evaluation- As well as making them improves on my work this week I also have to write my evaluation. It should make it easier to write by using my notes.

This year is a lot different to last year at college, last year deadlines were changed so deadlines came when ever tutors decided they wanted them, that could be 2-3 week after the actual deadline which was unfair really because it was a bit annoying when you got all your work done for the "deadline" and then other people that could be bothered going their course work got extra time, so I do think its good about the strick deadline so it makes it fair for everyone and we all know whats going to happen on the hand in day. I know I will have to have all the work done for the deadline and I haven't got that much improvements to do but I am kind of worrying if the work I have already done is good enough work, Ill be happier when its all complete and handed in.

Final week nearly!

This week I am considering has the last week of the assignment, but really the assignment deadline is 16th October. Steve recommended we finished the assignment a week easily so we could do any improvements we needed to do. I feel like I am doing OK with my work and I am on track but I still feel a bit nervous about getting all the work complete and to a good standard.

Has last week we learnt how to Pagemaker this week I have been having a go at doing some of my designs and the site structure diagram using the program, I had a few times when I didn't know how to do some thing, like I wanted the shape of the buttons on the web site design to be a box with rounded Corners, I tried looking my self for a way to do it by I couldn't find it so Gary showed me how I could round the corner and once I had been shown how to do it, it was easy. The work that I am doing in Pagemaker is just rough, but I still think it looks like a child has done it using word so I am going to think of ideas I could make the design look better, I could start with getting the sizing right, then I could try using different fonts that would be more appropriate for the topic.

There is a couple of things I have got left to start this week this includes assets table, budget statement and the evaluation, but it might be best to start the evaluation next week after I have completed all the other tasks that need doing. For the other tasks for the assignment, I have started them but I haven't finished any, I think you can always improve your work but I don't think you should spend too much time looking for mistakes or you can mess up your work.

I am find my sketch book very useful for all my notes but It's just hard trying to find the notes I have wrote, so I might start using the back couple of pages in my sketchbook as a index, I have already started numbering my pages I just need to go thought my sketchbook and write in my index which pages have what on.

Screen Designs

This week I got a comment reccommending I upload some of my web site designs on to my online learning journal so that I could get feedback on them, I thought it was an excellent idea.

My web site is about Guy Fawkes and it is being aimed at children in Primary schools aged 9-12.

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Design 4

Could People please comment on what you like and dislike about the designs and which you think would be most suitable.