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COM202 Assignment
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Reflection
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Throughout my first year on IMD and through the COM202 module, five of the key topic I
have learnt are:
Responsive Webpages and Media Queries
This semester we learnt about the importance of having a website that is responsive,
meaning that it can be used and will adapt to devices of different sizes. To do this we learned
that media queries needed to be used. I hadn't previously heard of media queries, so I found
this to be a challenging but interesting topic. I found it challenging because I had to rethink
the sizes of each element depending on the screen size. Also because when designing for
mobile you really have to rethink the use of sidebars and extensive navigation, and make it
much more simple to avoid cluttering a small screen.
Google Analytics
With semester two came the introduction to Google Analytics. I learnt that this is used to keep
track of who visits my website, when they visit my website, how long they've spent on it and
how they interacted with it. A feature I particularly enjoyed was the ability to track the location
of the visitors. It was interesting to learn that I had visitors from throughout Northern Ireland,
but also quite a few from America and various places in Europe. They seemed to be drawn
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into my design module pages, perhaps because there were a lot more images and therefore
alternative text associated with them which possibly could have drawn them in through
search engines. I also liked the ability to watch users' actions in real-time.
Web Forms and Tables
Another of the key topics from COM202 is the use of web forms and tables. When we were
taught how to create tables from scratch as well as forms and how to style both I realised the
importance of learning this was because information needs to be displayed in a variety of
ways depending on the situation. I especially enjoyed the designing aspect of both through
the use of CSS because I liked deciding where each element should be placed and what it
should look like.
HTML5 and Boilerplates
In semester two we progressed onto using HTML5 and were introduced to Boilerplates. Prior
to this semester I had heard of boilerplates, but wasn't familiar with using them. I found using
a boilerplate much easier than I had anticipated because it had done all of the basic coding
for me, as well as having a folder structure already sat up. All I had to do was add my own
HTML and CSS to the appropriate templates and familiarise myself with the folder structure. I
think that this is a good way to show correct coding practice, especially where commenting
is concerned because all of the code is surrounded by comments explaining what that piece
of code is for.
Code Validation
Throughout the two semesters of COM202, the importance of getting into the habit of
validating our code has been really emphasised through the tasks we have been set and
some of our lectures. I have come to realise that validation is a key topic in this module
because it teaches me good practice. I have learnt that validating code as it is edited is
important because it allows me to see where I have gone wrong and why it is incorrect which
means that I can learn from my mistakes and correct my code and habits. Throughout the
year I learned the importance of doing this regularly because at one stage I had to fix close
to 30 errors because I hadn't validated recent edits.
Areas of Focus
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Over the coming months I plan to focus on two things to improve my knowledge of HTML and
CSS:
Media Queries for Responsive Websites and Print
Over the coming months I plan on focusing my attention on media queries and how to use
them for different purposes such as responsive websites and for print. As this isn't something
I have much experience with, I feel that it is an important area to be able to do because
responsiveness is extremely important when designing websites.
Accessibility
I also want to focus my attention on creating an accessible website, meaning that it can be
used by people who may have disabilities that would prevent them from using a website in a
certain way, for example adding subtitles to videos or making sure that the alternative text
associated with links and images are descriptive and suitable for being picked up by a
screen reader. It is vital to have a website that is accessible today because of the vast
amount of internet users.
My Experience using Tobii Eye Tracker
Using the Tobii Eye Tracker was an interesting experience. I was impressed by it's accuracy
when we were reviewing the footage from when we were using it. We had to use the
timeanddate.com website and follow instructions to find the time in Orlando, Florida as well
as the local weather.
When using the website and after reviewing the footage it became clear that the navigation is
an important area on a website because it is where a person's eye would go straight to, to
see if there is a quick link that will bring them to where they need to go. It is also important to
place things where a user would typically expect them to be. From the image below we can
see that the person in our group looked straight at where she expected Florida to be on the
map, going by the size of the circle surrounding the area where Florida is. We can also see
that she looked at the navigation bar to see if there was anywhere that would bring her to
Florida, as well as the search bar which was an option as well as the map.
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When we had to search for a time zone, we can see that she expected to go straight to a
search bar to answer the query. It's important to note that the website made the search bar
and button stand out for this purpose.
From this experience I would take the navigation into consideration when designing a
website in terms of having an effective navigation bar where a user would expect it to be;
typically at the top of the page. I also would take into consideration the use of a search bar
and consider carefully it's position. This experience has helped me to understand how a user
would interact with a website that displays information and the process they go through to
locate the correct information.
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HTML5 validated webpage.
Copyright © Paige Boyd 2015
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