Design Report.
Since I am graduating in April, I decided to create this website as a personal portfolio of sorts - a place where potential employers and others interested in my work could come and see what I have done. This being said, the goal of this website was to keep the design simple, and let the words on the page speak for themselves. The goal of this website was to be a professional showcasing of the work I hae done thus far, with the design being a tasteful background in order to showcase that.
Since this website shows writing that I have done - both creatively and professionally during my college career, there are a lot of examples of different types of writing styles and voices within this one website. This being said, I wanted to make sure that the content of the website itself - not the work within it - was kept very simple. That is why there is limited text and wording within the different pages. Like stated above, the main focus of this site is the writing within it, and to create a young and professional persona through it. Each piece of writing and every bit of information was chosen to be on this site for a very specific reason. The professional and creative writing pages are quite obviously, work that I have done that showcase my abilities. The link to my HTML Zen Garden page, Eden, is an example of a different skill besides basic writing that I have done - web design through HTML and CSS. This is a valuable skill, especially in the workplace market of today, and I think that it is one worth showing off. I included the "favorites" page on this website to show off some of my personality. Resumes and a portfolio of work show off some of the writer's personality, but I thought that since I have the opportunity to, it would be a great idea to show more. I hope that through this page, you will see who I really am just a little bit more. Probably the most obvious page on this website is the resume. The resume is on here for a very purposeful reason - if users like what they see through this website, they can then search through my professional and personal goals and see what I have to offer as an employee and then print off my resume.
Like stated above, the design strategy of this website was simplicity and minimalism. The center allignment of this page, the main home page, as well as the favorites page allows a very clean and concise look - the professional feel that was the overall goal of this site. The professional writing page, as well as the creative writing page offer a different allignment, one that allows both the navigational menus on the side to stand out as well as the writing samples themselves. Repetition occurs in many ways throughout this site in order to create a cohesive sense while visiting. The black background on all pages allows the words and images to pop, while adding an overall repetetive nature to the design. Also, the floral images on each page creates a sense of unity as well. Each one is different, allowing separation from page to page, but they carry on the same theme - which is very important in an effective design. The floating quote by William Wordsworth can also be found on each page - only continuing the sense of unity between pages.
Good designers and writers alike give credit where credit is due, and I could by no means take credit for everything on this page. All CSS and HTML on this website was coded and completed by me, excluding the CSS for the print-out version of the resume, which was done with the assistance of my professor, Charlie Lowe.Inspiration for this page was found throughout many searches of examples of good web design as well as new and creative ways to display information. One website that I found quite helpful and inspiring was the CSS Zen Garden homepage. This website allows designers to redesign a page using only CSS, and there are many creative and innovative designs that I found quite inspiring here. All floral images on this website were found at stock exchange, a free stock photography website, and all pictures that I used were downloaded by the artist boxboy. This website was very helpful in allowing me to take beautiful images and manipulating them in Photoshop so that they would work within the confines of my own webpage. The William Wordsworth quote was gound at a basic quote website - one that is quite helpful in finding simple inspiration in words.
Through this website, my hope is that others will be able to see me as a writer, designer, and potential employee. As you enjoy looking through this site if any questions arise about me, my writing, or the design of this site, please contact me!
Meghan Farley
farleym@student.gvsu.edu