Wednesday 10 December 2008

New skill

The new skill I would like to learn is Flash with action script. The only experience I have had using Flash is on my previous course, I tried to use Flash to make a presentation for some images.

I didn’t get long on the project so I didn’t get much done with the presentation, as it wasn’t an important part of my project and I was learning it my self and in a rush so I did learn anything really. What I did learn I can’t remember and I doubt I was doing it right anyway.

I am not really into the coding part of web design, so I wanted to learn a skill that could include a bit of design work. I know the action script is coding but Flash isn’t all about writing coding.

The only other skill I was considering learning was PHP, but I thought if I didn’t find CSS interesting, so what is the point in doing something similar. It will be good to learn how to make an interactive document using flash. In previous years I think they did games and clickable image. I’d like to know how to make an animation or a little simple game.

When I was looking at the job adverts for the I Me assignment I saw a lot of the job I choose asked for flash as a skill they were looking for. So today I have found some recent job adverts and again they all say flash is required for web designer. Most of the skills on the job adverts we have covered in detail with our assignments but there are a few that I don’t know and flash is one of them.

Flash is a skill I want to learn and with wanting to learning it, it will make it a more enjoyable assignment.

Advert 1, Advert 2, Advert 3

Wednesday 3 December 2008

Reflection of the second year so far

Start of the year
I didn’t really start this year that good because I knew that I wasn’t going to pass the summer assignment. The week before the summer assignment hand in date I hoped to get all the assignment finished within good time, but loads of things seem to happen that week, which didn’t make it easy for me to do that. For example my friend’s house flooded so I had to help trying to stop more water getting in her house, so that lost me at least a days worth of work.

With us starting later this year it means we have assignment work to be done in the holidays. I did prefer it when we got a break from the coursework and a week off to get ready for the next new assignment. I feel like it’s just course work all the time and it would be great to have a break and not have to worry about it.

Summer assignment
I liked doing the summer assignment, but if I was ask again to choose whether to do a summer assignment, I wouldn’t want to. If I have things I need to do I like to get them done and out of the way or they are always on my mind. So the summer assignment seemed to be always in the back of my mind. I think it was because I had loads of time to get the assignment completed, so I didn’t make aims to get tasks done for certain amounts time, I just did bits when ever I had time. At least I know were I went wrong and I can do it differently if I ever have to do anything like this again.

CSS assignment
I had a few problems with the CSS assignment, mainly because I didn’t understand how to edit the HTML properly. The websites I have built before have all been done using the design view so I haven’t had a lot of experience with HTML coding and coding doesn’t really interest me. Once I had sorted out the problems I was having with HTML coding, CSS seemed easier to understand.

Team assignment
The team assignment as been a lot different to the other assignments, mainly because I am not working by self, I have to consider everyone else in the team. In a way that adds quiet a bit of pressure as I don’t want to let my team down. It’s been good to get the experience working as a team and working with clients. One of the main things that I have found useful about this assignment is learning how to handle clients, some are more difficult than others and how to act to forwards them can depend how fast the progress of the project can go.

Assignment 12
I like doing creative tasks so I am really enjoying doing this assignment. It’s good to have a change from sat at a computer all the time.