Sunday, January 4, 2009

World Wide Web Consortium

Having completed my webpage i attempted to test its validation using . I was feeling extremely proud of my production until I tested it and found I had 3 warnings and 8 errors. Most of the errors related to the document type not supporting the element I used on specific lines, whilst the warnings related to the document type either not being found or not relating. The validator seems to indicate that the problems relate to display and accessibility.

I have tried to access the information in relation to copyright from the Curtin website today but unfortunately the site is undergoing maintenance, but i believe as a student were are able to use the Curtin logo for an assignment - I will check that though when the system is operating

Writing for the Web

Nielson's article whilst containing excellent pointers that are still valid in today's society failed to meet the main criteria in writing a web page. That is to keep it simple and not have a large text as readers will lose interest, which is what I found myself doing halfway through reading it.
When writing a web page I believe the following points should be followed to ensure readers interest
- Understand your target audience and their habits ( ensure the language, look and feel of the website will meet your audiences requirements)
- Make sure the text is clear and concise ( no long paragraphs)
- Highlight your key points ( this way the reader can browse over the text to find the required field they are looking for)
- Have an information list( so the reader can hyperlink to points of interest)
- Keep it simple ( society today is time poor, so they don't wont to sit their looking at gimmicks, they want to retrieve their required information as quickly as possible).

By following these points I believe you will be able to create a webpage that is both appealing and useful to your target audience.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

HTML

I have just followed the 26 steps to create a HTML webpage and I have got to say I found the whole task thoroughly enjoyable until I uploaded it to webct. The whole tutorial was really easy to follow and was explained in a way that made it enjoyable to do, who would have thought I could create my own web page albeit as basic as it is. I have somehow managed to lose my .gif image in the upload process and am not quite sure how I have manage it. I have left a post on the discussion board so hopefully someone will enlighten me to my error. I must say I had always feared the technical side of the internet somewhat, but the more I do in this course the less daunting I find it.

ICQ Vs IRS

Downloading ICQ was a seamless exercise taking only a matter of minutes. Having always seen computers as a tool for work and not socialising, I quite enjoyed my online chat with Clogwog and was able to find out quite a bit about him during our chat. I still feel a would much rather enjoyed the actual voice or visual contact that the general chatting we had, but found the whole experience enjoyable. IRC on the other hand was disaster after disaster, from having issues downloading the programme to actually connecting to a chat. In the end I just gave up, with the
impression it was just too hard. I think I will stick to ICQ or messenger for any future online chat.