Reflection report

I have produced a reflection report to track my progress over the unit, this helps close the unit and allows me to assess my strenghts and weaknesses which can help me in future units. I think I have produced a good level of work and the feedback I got on my website supports this. I have learned how to use Dreamweaver and how to use Photoshop to edit images for the web. I have gained an understanding of html and XHTML and know the advantages and disadvantages of each. I found the work on Legal and Ethical considerations and constraints useful and it made me realise how much background work goes into a website. Semiotics, visual cues and colour theory are visual elements that have an effect on the user.
I have learned a lot during this course and feel that the skills I have improved will come in handy for other units.

Alpha and Beta tests

Our websites are now all complete and we have now moved on to the Alpha and Beta testing stages, this is where I check that my entire website works correctly, including links, spelling, grammar and content. After going through all of my web pages I found there were no errors to amend and that the site was ready to be tested by someone else. The beta test went well and only one error was picked up, I had missed out a word on one of the pages, I'm glad this was only a small error and did not require a lot of work to alter it. Other than that all of my links were fine and the website did everything it should had done.

Web accessibility and considerations.

Web Accessibility

Web accessibility

Web accessibility is all about making the Internet as available as possible to all types of people, including the disabled and elderly. There are a number of techniques that web designers can include in their website to help people who might have difficulties. Web accessibility is aimed at helping people who:

·         Are physically disabled

·         Have impaired vision or are blind

·         Are deaf

·         Suffer from dyslexia

·         Are not familiar with using the Internet

“Refers to the inclusive practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality”

(Ref: Wikipedia)

It is important to make sure that as many people as possible have access to the Internet as the Internet has become a huge resource to people’s everyday lives. Tailoring websites to make sure they are compatible with people’s disabilities helps make people who might not be able to use the Internet feel more independent and gives them the chance to contribute to the Internet. Many websites have what are known as accessibility barriers which is the term used to describe a website that is difficult or impossible for disabled people to access. Web accessibility is not exclusively to help disabled people; it is also aimed at the elderly and people who might have temporary disabilities such as a broken arm for example. Features such as including the option to make the text bigger on a web page can help people with poor eye sight or dyslexia. Refreshable braille tablets allow blind or visually impaired people to read websites. Products such as Type Talk make writing easier for people who are unable to type by allowing them to talk into a microphone and the Software will type what they are saying.

An example of how a company has made changes to its environment in order to comply with the needs of someone with a disability is; Ms.Laitinen who works for an insurance company; she is blind and requires to use a computer at work. To help with her disability she uses a screen reader, which reads out what is written on screen, her screen reader also has the ability to be linked with a refreshable braille tab. Without this additional help Ms.Laitinen would not be able to do her job.

Disability Discrimination Act

The Disability Discrimination act was passed in 1995, since October of 2010 the legislation has since been updated with the Equality act; however the DDA is still in effect. The act ensures that it is unlawful for employers to directly or indirectly to discriminate against a person who is disabled in anyway. It also means that employers need to make reasonable adjustments to their work environment to make sure that disabled people have access to equipment that is necessary, for example including ramps and lifts for people in wheelchairs.

“The Disability Discrimination Act which makes it unlawful to discriminate against people in respect of their disabilities in relation to employment, the provision of goods and services, education and transport”

(Ref: www.wordiq.com)

This act is a very important piece of legislation and is a huge step towards making a fairer working environment for people with disabilities, it is not exclusively aimed at the physically disabled though, it is also to ensure that people who are blind or deaf also are treated equally and are provided with necessary features or software they might require. Included in the legislation is the right of an employer to have “reasonable medical criteria for employment” which I think is fair on behalf of the employer.  I think however that the legislation could be made more beneficial by including clearer guidelines for employers to follow. In regards to the Internet, if I did not include additional features to make my web page accessible to people with disabilities I would be in breach of this act and could face having my website shut down, this is something I am going to have to take into account and is also a legal and ethical consideration. I would not want to make my website in any way offensive or discriminatory against any group of people so it is of great importance that I take this act into consideration.

An example of direct Disability Discrimination is; a pub allows a family with a child who has cerebral palsy to drink in their beer garden but not in their family room. The family with the disabled child is not given the same choices that other families have.                                   

An example of indirect Disability Discrimination would be; a local authority produces an information leaflet about its services for local people. It does not produce an easy-to-read version of the leaflet in order to save money. This would make it more difficult for someone with a learning disability to access the services and could amount to indirect discrimination.

(ref: www.adviceguide.org)

Data protection act

The Data Protection Act was passed in 1998 which governs the processing and keeping of data held on living people by all organisations. It was mainly designed to restrict how companies handle peoples data and protect it from falling into the wrong hands. Private data includes peoples: address, phone number, bank details etc. The person who has data held on them has the right to view and correct any of their data held.  It is the responsibility of the company to not use the data for any malicious purpose and to not lose their data.

“The Data Protection Act 1998 is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament which defines UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. It is the main piece of legislation that governs the protection of personal data in the UK”

(Ref: Wikipedia)

One example of a company breaching this act would be Virgin Media, who lost over 3000 of their customers personal details by losing an unprotected disc with the data on it. Although the company seemingly accidently lost the disc on accident, they are still liable for prosecution as it is the responsibility of the company to keep the data safe. Most companies avoid putting people at risk by encrypting any personal data they hold. 

(Ref: contractoruk.com)

Computer misuse act

The computer misuse act was set up in 1990 and is for the prevention of improper use of computers and their software. This includes, hacking, logging on to someone’s account, copying or editing software. This act applies to all people and is punishable by imprisonment or fine. There are three main principals of this act which are:

• Unauthorised access to computer material.
• Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences.
• Unauthorised modification of computer material.

“Is designed to prevent unauthorised access to computer systems, and the use of such access to facilitate serious crime.”

(Ref: Norman Creaney – computer misuse act)

Before this act was introduced, in 1984 two men managed to gain access to content that they were not authorised to look at. This was done in a very simplistic way, one of the men looked over the shoulder of a man working for BT when he was accessing their database. This then allowed the two men to log into BT’s database giving them access to many people’s personal data, including that of Prince Phillip. This highlighted the need for a law to govern people from doing this again. Because of this BT were in breach of the Data Protection Act as they reportedly had their password set as 1234.

Obscene publication act

The obscene publication act was introduced in 1959 and is a method of restricting what kind of content can be allowed to be publicised. There are exceptions to this law, if the explicit content is justifiable in regards to its purpose. Organisations such as W3 check and enforce this law with websites based in the UK. The legislation behind the act specifies that if obscene content with the sole purpose of causing offense is made public and is likely to be seen by people who may be offended by it. The persons who publish the content are held responsible for breaching this act.

“An Act to amend the law relating to the publication of obscene matter; to provide for the protection of literature; and to strengthen the law concerning pornography.”

(Ref: swarb.co.uk)

This act is not very specific in regards to what is acceptable and what is not. In regards to my website I can take this act into account and relate it to my own work, this means I will not intentionally include offensive or upsetting material. Because the website I am creating might indirectly include images of peoples bodies (with the intent of showing their tattoo) I will have to be cautious and consider including some sort of warning to people who might consider the content upsetting. 



Final screen shots - Index, home, news, gallery and contact page.

This is the index page which leads to the rest of the website.



This is the home page which acts as an introduction to the website and includes a brief description of the company.




This is the gallery page where viewers can look through the work of the company.




This is the news page where users can sign up for the news letter.




This is the contact page which includes the details and location of the company.



Deadline!

Today is the final day to complete our websites, I have completed my website and only have minor finishing touches to finish such as testing my links and spell checking my content. Tomorrow we will be alpha and beta testing our websites which will also provide an opportunity to gain feedback from the rest of the group I will also be able to see what websites the others have created and see how they have adapted their website to their specific purpose. I will also be using this last session as a chance to review my written work for this assignment and make any amendments.

Final week

The deadline for this piece of work is nearing and the website is almost complete, by next Monday everything needs to be submitted. I don't feel like I have any problem with meeting this deadline and I have the next few lessons to add the finishing touches to the site. Once I have done this I will be testing my website, including links, hyperlinks, alt fields and widgets. I also plan on loading all of the images again as they are of a low quality and don't do the shops work justice. I will do this by loading the images into Photoshop and saving them for web and devices but instead of saving them as Gifs I will save them as JPEGs to improve quality. I will then run a final check of the additional features such as the News letter widget to make sure the site is fully functioning.

Liam.

Easter update.

Over the Easter holidays I have been working on the site as much as possible. This included going through to Anatomy's studio to take photos of their shop and disgussing content with John (the owner). Talks went well and he seems very positive about the website. Content still needs to be finalised and this will possibly be the one of the final steps towards completing the website. Images of the companys work have been included on the gallery page and useful features such as news letters and maps have been added. The site is of a professional standard and I am confident that the company will be happy with the final outcome.

-Liam-

Web Design update

Production has begun of the websites we will be soon submitting. A lot of work has gone into Photoshop to ensure that all the images and icons used are of a good quality. After completing all of the perproduction work I have been able to put what I have learned into effect and as a result the website is turning out very well. Below I have included a screenshot of what I have created so far.

Web Design

In the recent weeks we have begun designing our own websites. I decided to make mine for the tattoo company Anatomy. Before begining the production of the site we first had to familiarize ourselves with the software we would be using. We are using Adobe Dreamweave CS5 to do all the designing and coding. We first had to go through lots of web protocols and considerations to make sure that we would not be in breach of any online limitations, this include;

• The data protection act
• The obscene publications act
• The computer misuse act

We also had to take into consideration people who might not be accustom to using the internet and so there will be additional options to aid people. I am making my Website in the Design view of Dreamweaver, this is beacuse I find it easier to visually design my website instead of input XHTML. The buttons and banners I am using have been made in Photoshop and then uploaded into Dreamweaver. Included below is a screen shot of the initial idea I have produced.

Production Diary - Entry 1.

I am now about 2 weeks in to units 59 60 and 61. Since starting the units I have already learned a lot in regards to how a website should function and I have a much better understanding of how people with disabilities access the internet. I found the work we did on Web principals was interesting as I now have a better appreciation of what web designers consider when creating a web site [See Web Principals and Protocols]. I was also surprised at the number of techniques that have been developed to allow people with special needs to use the internet [See Web Accessibility]. I have made good progress already and I am looking forward to working on the rest of the units.

                                                          - Liam-

Web principals and protocols report

The website I have chosen to analyse is ultimate-guitar.com. This is a free online resource aimed predominantly at guitarists. Its main purpose is to allow guitarists to learn how to play songs and upload their own tablatures for others to use, however as the website has grown in popularity content aimed at bassists and drummers has also been added to increase the target audience. Ultimate Guitar has become a vast website and now features items such as news in the music world, video tutorials on how to play songs, reviews on musical equipment, the option to sign up for newsletters and even contains a customisable home page option for its members. There are many purposes to Ultimate Guitar, to inform, educate, entertain and instruct.

Looking at the assets of the website you can see that images, text and videos are included there are also numerous graphics and logos. I think the creators of this website chose to leave things such as background music and sound out as many people find this distracting and it doesn’t compliment a website and tends to be considered a tacky technique. There are also no animations on the website, I think this is because animations are more commonly used on websites aimed at a younger audience, where as Ultimate Guitar is aimed at people of all ages.

 When first opening up the homepage of the website, you are presented with a modern, informative and welcoming design. As you can see, each topic is categorised with the most recent items displayed alongside pictures, nothing is too attention grabbing but on the other hand the homepage does look a little bit cluttered and a new user might be a little confused as to where to go if they were unfamiliar on how to navigate the website. Another criticism I would pick out about the homepage is that the colour of the text is not consistent, as you can see most hyperlinks are yellow but some are green or red and at first look there is no justifiable reason for this. 

Looking at the tabs bar along the top of the website (included left), you can see a number of options for the user to select from, this is useful for people who know what they are looking for and know where to go. To help new users there is also a search bar, clicking the “advanced” link there is also the option to refine a search for more relevant results. I think this would be useful to a lot of users as there is a very large library of content and manually searching could take a while, which also might not comply with the average of three clicks before a user tries a different website. A closer look at the tool bar (above) shows in greater detail which options are available, hovering over a link in the tool bar will turn the font of the option grey, this is a visual cue and informs the user that the tab is an active hyperlink. The change of colour attracts the users attention and prompts them to open the link. This is a universal technique used amongst most websites.

Looking at the overall design of the website, the background is a slick black and grey, these are gender neutral colours and I think it gives the website a modern look. The background also makes the yellow text stand out which gives the text a sense of importance. I like the use of images on the website as they are all relevant to what they are used alongside, the images are all of a very high quality, but at the same time they do not make the page slow to load. The black background stays the same on every page except for tab pages which are white with black text; I think this is to make it easier to read for players and less strenuous on the eyes. I noticed a lack of semiotics on this website, all of the colours seem to be calming colours and there are no really strong visual cues, although many people would consider this as a bad design point I think this has been done on purpose as many people dislike using websites that are always prompting them to do different things. I did however notice that the Community section on the homepage is written in green text, this is perhaps to attract users to sign up to the website as green is an action colour.

The main features of Ultimate guitar are;

• Guitar, Bass and Drum tabs
• Video lessons on how to play songs (tailored to the individuals playing skill)
• Interviews with musicians
• Music related news
• Competitions
• Reviews on music equipment
• Community features that allow users to message, blog and write their own tabs

I will now take a closer look at the logo for Ultimate Guitar. A logo is often a major part of any website as it needs to be instantly recognisable and at the same time needs to be appropriate for the website and also be aesthetically pleasing to the websites target audience. I like the logo the Ultimate Guitar have created, the main colour is a calming blue and the use of a gradient over the blue creates a more modern look. The ‘G’ in the middle is in bold yellow and stands out from the rest of the design, it has also been modified to give it horns, in my opinion this is to appeal to rock fans with which the “devil horns” are very popular amongst. Doing this shows that Ultimate Guitar is aware of the likes and dislikes of their target audience and it is easy to see how they have incorporated their understanding into their logo. Another interesting feature of the logo is that the background colour changes in relation to the section of the website. All of the colours used in the different variations of the logo are gender neutral and are also soothing colours to look at, this is because if a logo is too attention grabbing it can distract the users attention. I also think this is why Ultimate Guitar decided not to have an animated logo. When looking at the different pages on the website, the logo stays in the same place the whole time this is to familiarise users with the website. The logo is also hyperlinked to the homepage, I think this is a very useful feature as it provides users a quick way to go to the start of the website and is a good example of helpful navigation.

A sign of good navigation in a website is that a user can find what they are looking for in a maximum of three clicks, this is the average amount of time a person will spend on a website before going elsewhere to find what they are looking for, it is very important that a website is easy to navigate and that hyperlinks are working properly. To test how good Ultimate guitar is for navigation I decided to do a test on how many clicks it would take to find information. I will see how many clicks it takes to find tabs for the song “Knee deep” by Job For A Cowboy.

Click one: although it did not show up in the print screen, the search bar presents a list of songs that you might be searching for by looking at what you have typed so far, similar to what Google does, I find this a good time saving feature.

Click two: After searching the name of the song I am presented with a number of songs by different artists, they are categorised by artist to avoid confusion, there is also a number of links for related searches. Each of the tabs has been rated by users so that people will know how accurate the tab is.

Click three: I have reached the tab I was looking for, as you can see there are a number of helpful interactive assets, such as the “Auto Scroll” bar, this is for users who want to play the song without having to scroll down the page manually, Auto Scroll allows a user to set how fast it will move down the page. 

Overall I have found Ultimate Guitar to be a competent and cohesive website that is very easy to navigate, even to users who are new to the website. I like the fact that there are no attention grabbing features and that the website is not weighed down by unnecessary assets such as animations or sounds. I find using the website pleasant and informative. The topics featured are relevant and interesting and looking at assets such as the logo and “Auto Scroll” it is obvious that Ultimate Guitar pay close attention to their audience. The website is a good resource for players at all levels and all ages, the range of songs is huge which covers many different genres.