Design Report

This website was created using HTML and CSS to be a professional online portfolio for me, Elizabeth Conklin. It was created in WRT 331 – Writing for Web, a class at Grand Valley State University, and is hosted on GVSU webspace.

Purpose

The purpose of this site was to showcase my abilities with creating websites in a way that also demonstrates my other abilities through the inclusion of my resume and portfolio. I am currently seeking a job in the publishing industry, so it should be appealing to potential employers.

Audience

Anyone that is interested in learning more about me would be part of the audience for this site, but my main focus was on potential employers that are interested in learning a little more about me and my skills.

Design Strategies

I intended this website to look clean and professional, and utilized the following strategies for color, typeface, and structure to create this look.

Color

The colors, blues and grays, were chosen because of the professional appeal of the navy and light gray and the youthfulness of the light blue. This design helps to demonstrate who I am as a person: professional and responsible, but still young and fresh. I designed the background image to look textured to add some visual interest without being distracting.

Typeface

I chose to use sans serif typefaces on my site, because they provide better readability on the web. My headings are Impact, which is noticeable and makes a bold statement. The rest of the text is Helvetica, a simple, easy to read sans serif.

Structure

This site is hierarchally structured in that different pages (particularly the portfolio page) are linked to from the home page and provide further links to other areas of the site.

In the layout, I chose to make the header an image (created using Fireworks). This image is also a link to make navigation more simple.

I placed the navigation bar at the left side of the screen, because this is its traditional location and therefore users will be able to find it easily.

The website is not too wide to accommodate for different sized screens.

Content Strategies

There are several types of content on this page, all of which serve to create a well-rounded image of myself.

About Me

This content includes the home page and the biography page. It gives basic information about myself, as well as more personal facts to display my personality and hobbies.

Professional Documents

These documents include my resume and portfolio, which are included to show my abilities and skills to potential employers. Beyond employers, these documents help create ethos for me as a worker and as a designer.

Why I Write

This essay was originally written for another class at Grand Valley State University, but I included it here as well because it gives insight into my personality and goals. It explains who I am as a writer and why I write.

Design Report

This report is intended to show my understanding of my own work. It explains the choices made in creating this website and grants me ethos as a designer.

Production Costs

Because this website is hosted on the Grand Valley State University webspace available to each student, there were no costs associated with it.

Key Concepts

In creating this website, I learned a lot about how the Internet works. I learned how to write HTML and CSS, which will be very useful to me in my future as a writer and web designer.