I have been asked to consider and write about what I have been doing outside of my university work to develop myself as a multimedia practitioner. At first I didn't really think I had been doing that much, but when I consider some of the things I do in my spare time I suppose they do help in their own way. I have already decided that I plan to take the online environments pathway in my second year at university, to help me towards a career in web design. Some of these activities are specific to this chosen pathway and some are not.
First of all I have helped create the website for the company my boyfriend works for, which is called Per-Snickety, and can be seen
here. I created the basic layout, including the images, headings, HTML etc. and my boyfriend edited it to fit his own and his boss's needs. Personally I would've kept the actual background black rather than using the distressed green image that is currently there, but I suppose that's up to them. This website is best viewed at a fairly high resolution.
I have also just started to research and look at websites for web design companies in the Nottinghamshire area, as can be seen from my previous post. I have decided to do this through the advice of the course leader, Simon, and personally I think it is a very good idea.
I tend to watch a lot of films during my spare time, and though this is not directly related to the online environments pathway that I have chosen, it is an area of multimedia. By watching films you can gain inspiration and knowledge, and it is also an opportunity to relax the mind. I personally enjoy most genres of films, and will usually give anything a chance. Some films I have watched recently include Prince Caspian, Pineapple Express and Withnail and I, one of my favourite films. As you can see this is quite a varied selection.
I also play a lot of video games, including World of Warcraft as you can see below, though of course Daksha is not my only character. At the moment I'm also playing Fallout 3 on the Xbox 360 as well as a number of games on the Nintendo DS.
Something most people do, simply browsing the internet can also help my development as a practitioner. By doing this I can see how a website has been designed, and I quite often view the source code of a website to see how it's been done.
Using Photoshop is something I have been doing for years, but I still enjoy learning new tricks and techniques. Following tutorials is a great way to do this, and I often learn new things or better ways of doing things from websites such as
tutorialized.com.
I soon hope to buy a domain name and hosting so that I can build a website of my own, rather than just using this blog.
Looking at my previous design, I don't think it's that bad any more. This is the second mock-up for the Petal website, which is pretty similar in simplicity. The photo is just for illustration purposes as I still need to take pictures of the clients car.
Ignition Driver Training - This website isn't incredibly bad, but it has the feel of a template that someone has just slapped all their own information on. The cheesy stock images only add to this, as well as the 'sidebar' containing only one link that directs to an empty page. You can clearly tell the website has not been specifically designed for this company, and so it feels kind of disconnected. I want the website for my client to feel as if it's part of a brand, so people will see the site and immediately know it's connected to that car they see driving around.
Brakethru School of Motoring - As soon as this website loads up an annoying woman pops up in the corner congratulating you on finding them. Most people find websites that play sound at them automatically rather annoying, and this is no exception! Generally it's not a bad website, but the way they're displaying content is letting them down. The varied fonts and text colours look confusing and amateur, like someone designing a poster for a church fayre in Microsoft word. There's also a couple of flashing images, which is kind of unnecessary. 
Dr L Test School of Motoring - This is another website with an annoying person popping up to talk to you! This time it's a little man, and you get the option to play the video rather than it just starting up by itself. However, what he says is in to way specific to the company. He doesn't mention the company name, or anything about driving lessons, but tells the user to give them a call or email, without telling the number or address. It's clearly just a generic message you can buy from a company and stick on your website. I don't feel as if it adds anything to the site, and imagine that the 'play video' button doesn't even get pressed very often. The design of the website is not very attractive, and has an impersonal feel gained through the use of generic stock images and buttons.
Apple Driving School - This website is much better compared to the last one, using simplistic design with effective use of images. The information is clearly displayed on each page, and there doesn't seem to be any unnecessary elements. It could do with a bit of a revamp to meet current web trends, but overall it's clean, simple and effective, much better than most of the other sites I've looked at.
Infinitum website – This site uses minimalist design with a big emphasis on images. Using the bare minimum amount of text, just the important information is given.
Mattstuart.com
Carlwarner.com
Stevenbrooksphotographer.co.uk
This is the first wireframe I came up with. I'm quite liking the wavy navigation thing at the moment but I'm not too sure... As you can see from the picture in my last post the font used on the actual shop is quite curly, and this teamed with the bright red and white (though you can't see that in the picture) makes it quite reminiscent of the Coca Cola logo/design. Maybe this curly navigation make take that a bit too far...
