Designing my web page
As I had to make a website like this one for my Fab Academy 2017, it wasn't completely alien to me which felt really nice. If you take a look at my Fab Academy's page, I was always saying that everything was kind of the first time to me. Still, I learned from past mistakes which I hope will help me going through this program.
There are two things about the website that I wanted to do better this time. First, I made the complete template before it begins. I remember having to prepare the weekly pages at the same time than doing the assignment and documenting the work. I seemed to me that I could focus more on the assignments. This said, the web site is a great way to document and wouldn't do it any another way but just that being more prepared will help.
Last time, at first I chose to use the main Fab Academy template to do my website as it was the first time I was doing HTML. But, at mid-program, I was very envious of those nice websites and feeling more comfortable with coding I decided to change it all the way. It put me in a bad situation and made me be very late on every assignment. I was a poor decision but my website was nice. This time, it'll be this model you'll see all along! I'm not going to make that mistake twice. And I like this one very much anyway.
So now, all the website is already prepared for the complete program. I'll just have to fill it with documentation each week. It'll be a big relief I'm pretty sure and will allow me to take on bigger experiments I guess. Here's the steps I followed to prepare that website :
- Find a good template, to begin with, so I don't start from scratch. I like HTML5 UP very much in that case. The templates are very nice, fully responsive and well made. It's very easy to understand them and make changes around it to make it more personal. They also are completely open source and free! That's awesome! Who doesn't like free !
- Just to had a little more details, I work with Atom which I like very much, and the website is build with HTML5 and CSS3.
- As I already made one, I haven't had to look at tutorials this time but still, it did not come out of nowhere so in the tutorials section, there's some tutorials I followed the first time I made a website.
- Next, I prepared and linked all the pages. This takes a lot of time. Well, maybe not a lot but enough to be annoying with the weekly assignments. Adding to that, trusting the template is very useful. Because at the and, there's normally another task that you prefer working on than your website's damn links.
- What I changed was mostly the main colors from pink to the Fabricademy blue. I did that through the CSS file finding the color's code with cmd+F and replacing it with the right one. Then, I switched some of the divisions so it was the one I wanted. I also changed the icons for the weekly assignments to have icons that were representative of the weeks. Those icons were linked to a web page in which there was many with codes for all of them. I just had to find the one and change the code. I felt a bit limited with those choices but found some good ones I think. There's some links to an HTML color's code reference page and the the icon webpage on the side section.
- I also linked my social media's link and email. I did put the main picture that I took has the main one. I guess It's pretty much it.
- Then, I prepared a template for the weekly pages, changes all the titles, put the assignments and evaluation criteria and linked them to the handbook.
- Oooo yes before I forget ! I also made my "about me" page in which I also present my lab and Communautique the organisation that takes care of the lab.
- Have fun doing it !
- Concept: Where all the information about the inspiration will be found and also the first sketches of it. The plan is to be found there too. In brief, what is expected in this week assignment is going to be found there. There's a shortcut availble down to this section.
- Notes: The notes page will be the page in which the details on materials, technics, and further planing will be found.
- Process: Finally the process page will be the real deal. Where all the steps to get to my final project will be found.
Project management
Regarding project management tools, in Fab Academy, I did explore the main tools. I finally chose Trello has my main tool which I just begin to master so I'll keep on using this one for the program. Trello is very effective and works very well for me. Here's a link to my project management's page of Fab Academy for more information about the process I've been through to choose Trello.
A little more about me
For more about me, look at the "about me" section. Everything is there, so I'm not going to repeat it! Here's a link to it.
About a potential final project
Same thing here ! I chose to separate my final project pages in the same way they suggested for Fab Academy because it worked well.