lewro’s blog - 2.1 - web designer beginner

I have been studding CIW course for the past 14 months. I would like to analyse the course in this article and perhaps to get some for your ideas, opinions about these type of courses in general.

CIW web and e-commerce designer course phases

The course consist of these 3 parts

• foundation
• web designer
• e-commerce

I am currently at the end of the 2nd part.

Foundation - first part of the course

The first part concentrate on the basic knowledge of IT industry. You can find here details about hardware, software, internet services, internet protocols, official internet bodies, security issues etc. In my opinion it gives you solid basic overview about most important IT stuff you need to know. It is very useful and it has already helped me in many occasions . Someone might say that this part of the course goes to deep into general IT stuff for a web designer needs but I do not think so. You can not really do IT related job without necessary background.

Web designer - 2nd part of the course

This part of the course teaches you how to write html, CSS code, how to use Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash and how to code Java-script

In my opinion the study materials for this part are too old and should be replaced with actual web designers techniques. It does not mean that there is nothing you can learn. It gives you the basic knowledge and understanding but I think if you want to survive in the real world you have to learn from other books, internet, magazines how to write proper html, css code which validates, what tools are really used in web designers profusions etc.

Old techniques cheaper…

I Currently study java-script and I know the some of the stuff like scrolling text in status bar or pop-up alert messages are very old techniques but this course teaches you just that. It should be probably more oriented on DOM-Scripting but in this fast developing industry the study material for these type of courses would have to be update every year. But what would be the cost? Probably lot, lot more. The questions is: Is it better to learn old stuff to get the understanding of the whole process and later try to change the bad old habits or is it better to pay lot more for course which teaches you the actual stuff? For some of us it is not the question when we do not have the funds…

Is it worth?

Another question is: Is this course accepted by web designers companies or agencies?

If you have any idea please let me know.

I started to take pictures with my digital camera about a year ago. I was always wondering why are my photos not as colourful and sharp as photos of some others. I was thinking that it is because of the quality of my camera. (Sony Cybershot 5mgpx, 3x optical zoom).

But when I started to learn Photoshop I have realized that most of the photos I like must have been touched by some kind of image-editing program like Photoshop.

Before and After

I have developed some kind of editing routine before I post my photos on flickr. It consist of simple 3 steps.

• Adjusting the Levels
• Adjusting of Colours Balance
• Adjusting of Brightness and Contrast

Obviously there must be lost of other preferences which professional photographers use but for us beginners this is pretty much enough.

So here are the pictures - the original and after adjustments

You will find the Adjustment Menu inside of Image Menu

Adjustment of levels

Adjustment of colour balance

Adjustment of brightness and contrast

You can find the final picture here.

The only problem of this technique is that when you save the file there is no way how to get to original version of your shot unless you have created a copy before. But there are some other ways how to get the same effect and keep the original file. You have to use the Photoshop layers for each of the adjustments. This way you can always switch any of them whenever you want.

You might say…

You might say that photography is not about technology and I would agree with you 100 percent. I personally think that it is more about the way you can see thinks around you, about your imagination, it is game with a light, colour, view from different angles. But if the software helps you at the end to get from the photo the atmosphere you wanted at the first place then I think is worth trying.

Inspiration

If you are interested about professional photography check this address out Artfoto - Lubo Spirko. It is a photo studio of one of the best Slovak professional photograph who gave me few lessons couple of years ago.

Do you guys know about any other ways how tolet me kn make photos look better then ow. Thxs

Today is the big day for me. I have finished my 1st blog with all the features and functions as it should have. The previous version was simple website which has only simulated real blog functions but from now on you can enjoy commenting all my articles in the real time. As you can see the blog has completely new design (if you use text browser or mobile device for accessing this site then you can not see the design yet but do not worry I will get there…keep reading, more in section “To do”.

How have I done it?

Simple, with a little knowledge and a big expectations. The blog is powered by Wordpress engine. By the way I wrote in the past that I will use Expression Engine but at that time I did not know it is not free service. So that is why I went for Wordpress. I was told I will need some programming knowledge to get it up and running but the true is I managed to do it even without it. Xhtml and CSS was pretty much enough. Only in some cases I had to touch the PHP code such were: defining of displaying the upcoming tasks in the side bar or adding ID attribute in body tag and few others. All of it was done very simple straight-forward way. So if you are considering what blog engine to chose, even if you are beginner like me go for Wordpress. It is easy and free. If you will need a help there is plenty of information on the Wordpress site or you can find lot of useful information in the book Blog design solutions.

Complains?

There is only one think I would change if there was the possibility. In some cases there is no way how to structure the code which is generated by wordpress tags and plug-ins. As I am a big fan of semantic code I would really appreciate if the code was generated that way. The code itself is generated correctly and it is valid but when it is not align as it should be then it is hard to read. There is nothing you can do about it as long as you do not want to touch the Wordpress code itself. It is only minor issue for majority of the readers because most of them do not go true your xhtml code anyway. So enough for complains.

Wordpress is amazing product!

Generally I think Wordpress is an amazing product and I really enjoy working with it and I am sure I will like it even more when I will fully discover all the possibilities and interesting. For you guys who are interested what am I currently using here is the list:

• Author Highlight
• BlogStats PCC
• BDP Referral Tracker
• bdp-comments
• BDP Referral Tracker bar chart add-on
• SRG Clean Archives
• Gravatar
• WP-OnlineCounter
• WordPress Database Backup
• Weighted Categories
• Contact Form

Categories

As you can see I have changed the categories. I have decided to do a blog more IT & Web design related and all the other stuff like cooking, gardening, culture, will go to personal category.

Focus

I will try to keep an eye on the newest web design technologies and techniques and IT industry generally. I will bring all this information to you as quick as can. The main focus will be on

• XHTML
• CSS
• DOM-Scripting
• PHP
• MySql
• Flash
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Typography
• Iconography
• Colour management
• Photography
• Cameras
• Education
• Hardware and software in general
• Internet, internet applications and web browsers

Access Keys

I have implemented the access keys for Navigation menu. The highlighted letter should be used with ALT on Windows and CRL on MACs .Example - Home ALT/CRTL+”H”. Unfortunately it does not work in all browsers and their versions but most of the standard new browsers support it.

To do:

What is coming next?

Be aware that this is only beta version. There is plenty things I want to implement but I have decided to go ahead and publish this version because it is functional so all the spice will follow soon later. I plan to create special style sheet for handheld devices because this is the fastest growing web market. At the moment the content of this blog is accessible by mobile devices but the presentation will be done more interesting way so stay tuned. I plan to implement some DOM scripting. For example the statistics section on the top right corner will not be displayed by default but will be accessible by hover effect. Alternative CSS with the light background will be used for people who find hard to read text on the dark backgrounds. Text size adjusting will be implemented for better readability for people with high-resolution monitors or readers with eye problems. I plan to support older browsers. I have tested the blog in IE6.0, Firefox 1.5.0.7, Netscape 8.1, Opera 9.0.1. I will test the blog and include necessary hacks and filters for older browsers asap.

I am looking forward to see you again!

Hope you like the new version and you will come often to “talk to me” on this my little playground.