I really enjoyed the web design class. Although I will never be a web site designer, I now know basics of web page design and how to apply the CRAP design principals. Many of the concepts and tools that we used in the class will really help be both personally and professionally. Personally, I hope to work with my wife to create a better site with more content. Professionally, it will help me give constructive criticism to our Tech Specialists – the people responsible for designing our individual school web sites. I found the Photoshop exercises and Photoshop book very helpful. I am certain that I will be able to apply the skills that I learned from both home and work.
Compare and contrast both sites:
I built my Frontpage 2003 site first, and I must say that it took much longer than the site that I built using webnode. If you really know what you are doing in Frontpage, or Dreamweaver for that matter, and you have artistic talents, then this is the way to go. Using an HTML editor really gives the designer the flexibility to fine-tune the web site’s design. An HTML editor allows the designer to build exactly what they want by using frames, tables, cell padding, cell spacing, custom colors, and custom fonts. The ability to cut, paste, and import HTML code is very helpful when using an HTML editor.
A con using an HTML editor is that it can be very time consuming creating a site if you are unfamiliar with the application. Another con is that may need to purchase the editor if a free apps don’t meet your needs. Another disadvantage over a Web 2.0 app, is that you must have the application loaded on computer to effectively manage your site (unless of course you are well versed in HTML).
I found webnode very easy to use, because of the drag-and-drop interface and the nice text editing tools. It also was easy to import pictures and it gave the ability to adjust the images after they were imported. Webnode has many attractive templates, which is important if you have no artistic talents – like me. A big advantage of using Webnode, is that you can modify and update your site from just about any Internet browser from anywhere in the world. Another advantage of webnode is that it gives you the ability to create an online store.
The only disadvantage that I see with webnode is that it doesn’t allow you to tweak the layout like an HTML editor. You can add and remove gadgets, but you are limited on how it’s applied to the overall layout; there are no padding or spacing options. I also didn’t like that webnode made all of the menu buttons in all caps. Don’t they know the basics of web design?
The two sites are very different in design and look. The content is pretty much the same, but that’s about it. Webnode didn’t have a template that matched the color scheme that use in FP 2003, so I had to go with another color and totally different theme. Thus I couldn’t use the Laminated Love logo.
I made several minor changes to my storyboard in the process of creating my sites. Overall, it was pretty similar; the design was pretty much the same, I just changed how the content was being organized – which changed all of the menu bars.
HTML site: I zip’ed my website and will send you the link to download it.
Webnode site: lamintedlove.webnode.com
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