ICT Blogs

Unit 9: Project Planning

I am currently adjusting having to change the dates on my Gantt Chart due to the previous unsuccessful client consultation on 20^th November; where I have been given a date for the first draft of the Gantt chart, which will be in for next week, where I am hoping to have the client consultation soon as I want to start designing for the website as soon as possible.

posted by Selina @ Wednesday, November 29, 2006 0 comments

Unit 14: Developing and creating websites

Today, we got introduced to JavaScript, where we looked at scripts used for background music, where music will play when the webpage loads, the format of the background music is usually in midi format.

Here are the midi music players/jukeboxes I found:

http://www.acejs.com/scriptsfolder/110001/110001.html
http://www.acejs.com/scriptsfolder/110003/110003.html

Even though these scripts of music players will work fine with what I am looking for; however they are midi formats, where I found that they do not produce good sound qualities and the graphics of the music players/jukeboxes are not very appealing.

Therefore I researched on the internet and found that there are many softwares, which generate music players for mp3. I am currently looking for an mp3 jukebox, where the user would be able to choose which track they would like to listen to, as well as having the option to press play and stop; which will be very useful for the website I will be doing, as I would want this type of facility on a music bands website.

I have found a very good website with creating flash mp3 music players, where I like the design of the music player and they also provide a number of different options of these players: http://www.premiumbeat.com/flash_resources/free_flash_music_player/ .

I like the “Multiple Tracks Flash Mp3 Player” as I can input many music tracks the band has done also it is very easy to use. However the instructions of creating this multiple track flash mp3 player looks very complicated: http://www.premiumbeat.com/flash_resources/free_flash_music_player/multiple_tracks_mp3_player.php

I will still attempt to create this music player for my client as this is the only player I could find that was modern, had a good design to it and was easy to use.

posted by Selina @ Tuesday, November 28, 2006 0 comments

Unit 9: Project Planning

In blog “Friday, November 10, 2006”, it was stated that I was to have my first client consultation with my client today; however once again she couldn’t make it to the consultation; therefore it was postponed till further notice.

posted by Selina @ Monday, November 20, 2006 0 comments

Unit 9: Project Planning

I have contacted my client again about the first client consultation appointment, as previously in blog “Friday, November 10, 2006”, we were meant to have our consultation then; however my client has couldn’t make it, therefore it was postponed to further notice. I have now contacted her again and she has agreed to have the consultation on Monday 20^th November 2006. I will need to adjust the dates of the first client consultation from 10^th November to 20^th November on the Gantt Chart; this means I will need to adjust all the dates of the Gantt chart to an extra of 10 days.

posted by Selina @ Thursday, November 16, 2006 0 comments

Unit 9: Project Planning

After working together with Shahzadi and Narani with researching the current working practices, where we have discussed the topics of “Perfect Blue” web design company together, as well as looking at “Level Ten Design” on my own; with all the other requirements of this report of "[AO2] A preparatory report into current working practice". I have now finished the first draft of this report, and have given it in to the teacher, where I will receive feedback once it has been marked.

posted by Selina @ Wednesday, November 15, 2006 0 comments

Unit 14: Developing and creating websites

Today, I looked at the website "Response O' Matic" http://www.response-o-matic.com that was suggested by the teacher, as "Response O'Matic" is a website that provides online contact forms.

My objective was to find out how to insert a form into a website and how it works. "Response O'Matic" provides a number of different online form packages: these vary from free online contact forms to business contact forms. I will be using free online contact form for my website, as I only need to use one contact form, therefore the free package is more suitable for my need; as the business package is mainly aimed at clients who want up to 50 online contact forms on their websites. The features that the free package has are:

• 1 online contact form for every account
• The online contact forms can ask unlimited questions
• Creating the forms on Response O'Matic is very easy as they have a wizard to guide us, and also to an advantage there is no need for HTML knowledge to create one of these online contact forms; other than know how to copy and paste the HTML code from the website into the code window of Macromedia Dreamweaver
• There are no hidden costs, no setup fees and no long-term contract
  
• The contact form is hosted onto 4 servers to prevent from hardware failures
• Response O'Matic keeps the form-based spam out of my inbox
• All data is automatically backed up
• There is no need to change the web host, as their service will work on my website
• It can direct back visitors to the home page of my website after their submission of the form

This website is very useful and suitable for what I would think will be suitable for my client's website, this is because the HTML has all been generated for you via the form wizard, therefore all I will need to do is just copy and paste it into the code window of my website, so that I can a form is avaliable for visitors can use; also I like how after the submission of the form, they will direct the visitors back to the home page of my client's website and not direct them back to "Response O'Matic".

posted by Selina @ Tuesday, November 14, 2006 0 comments

Unit 9: Project Planning

In the blog for Tuesday, November 07, 2006; it is stated that I will be having my first consultation with my client today, where I have already prepared all the interview resources for the consultation. However, due to my client not being able to come to this first consultation, it has been postponed to further notice.

posted by Selina @ Friday, November 10, 2006 0 comments

Unit 9: Project Planning

My Gantt Chart of my client’s website is now ready and complete for it to be shown in tomorrow’s first client consultation; also the client questionnaire has been finalised and completed too.

Unit 14: Developing and creating websites

I have now started to look at another website for Flash and Dreamweaver tutorials: http://www.tutorialized.com/ . From this website I found some interesting effects for navigation menus, where on in particular was the Flash Navigation Menu Bar tutorial, which involved with the use of rollover buttons. From the outcome shown on the website, it looks very professional and modern; where I think would be effective if used on my website. The feature I liked about this menu was when the mouse hovers across a button, the button will light up and display the title of the page it is linked to; this feature will need to be created in Macromedia Flash, where I believe I wouldn’t have any problems in creating this as the tutorial for this navigation menu is very well explained and is said to only take 10 minutes to create on button; in addition I have previously done some rollover buttons before in Macromedia Flash for Unit 11- Multimedia; therefore I am quite familiar with the process in create rollover buttons and its terminology. Also from reading the tutorial, it shows that none of the buttons will be created beforehand in Adobe Photoshop, where everything will be done in Macromedia Flash.

posted by Selina @ Thursday, November 09, 2006 0 comments

Unit 9: Project Planning:

I am currently still doing my Gantt Chart on GanttProject; where I am just finishing on some of the dates; where I would need to finish this Gantt Chart before the first client consultation.

Unit 14: Developing and creating websites

After handing in my final draft of "AO4: an evaluation of commercial websites that have been downloaded", I have received feedback about my final draft, where I do not need to do anymore improvements as it is in Mark Band 3 with the mark of 6/6

posted by Selina @ Wednesday, November 08, 2006 0 comments

Unit 9: Project Planning:

I have started to create my Gantt chart using GanttProject software. I will be planning out what I will be doing from the start of the project to the end of the project, i.e. consulting with the client of what they want, till the end of the making, which will be evaluating the website with the client. The Gantt chart is for me to have an idea of what to except in a band’s website like the pages it will need to have such as Profiles, Discography etc. The Gantt chart is for me to have a rough idea of how to plan out the project before having my first consultation with my client. I will also need to create a Critical Path Analysis based on the Gantt chart, where I would need to calculate roughly the earliest time and the latest time of completion of each of the tasks in the Gantt chart; the Critical Path Analysis will be created once the Gantt chart has been finalised. I found the GanttProject software easy to use and straightforward; however the disadvantage of this software is that it doesn’t let me set the dates on the weekends.

Currently, I am preparing for my consultation with my client, this is by creating a questionnaire for my client Sally Ly; where they can fill in and tell me what their requirements are with the website that they want. My consultation with my client is planned to be on 10th November 2006, according to the Gantt chart shown.

posted by Selina @ Tuesday, November 07, 2006 0 comments