My name is Michelle. I created this website in order to advertise and create a community for an upcoming video game, StarDuster. Users are able to learn more about the game, contact its creators, pre-order the game, sign up for community membership, and get information about the indie game world at large.
I began this course after a year of HTML and CSS self-study. My challenges were unlearning a few bad habts as well as re-conceptualizing how to create results using markup that was unfamiliar to me. The most challenging assignment was redesigning the website by plugging it into a template. After crafting my markup and being proud of the growth of the website, there was an emotional component to letting it all go and making it work within an unfamiliar design within a short amount of time.
I have made liberal use of the W3C tools, both in my personal study and as part of this class. Previous to taking this class, I have spent many hours reading W3C tutorials and testing CSS through trial and error on their "Try It Yourself" function.
I learned new functionalities of tables and lists as well as the beginnings of how PHP and Javascript are use to create interactivity. Through the addition of a template to all my hard-won CSS, I also learned the ephemeral nature of webdesign and how not to be too precious about creating perfect markup. In the future, I would like to learn more efficiency and interactivity functions using PHP and Javascript as well as streamlined template integration. I believe that this course could be imporved by instruction regarding the nature of web accessibility and the tools made available for those who do not have the skill or time to markup a website by hand. As a student in information sciences who hopes to become a librarian, I know that these tools would be somewhat more applicable than specific markup language.
I am currently applying my newly sharpened markup skills by re-designing my personal website to have cleaner markup and have a more elegant, accessibility-friendly design. In the future, I know I will use these skills in a variety of library roles.
This particular website code will, after the course is completed, live on my personal website, alongside other such academic projects. Its forefathers include such websites as "Curious George and the Electirc Fence," which was concieved and created in a high school C++ class circa 2002.
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