Week 1- Biography, Major Project Proposals & Five Inspiring Websites.

Biography
How to write my own Biography. Firstly I looked at other websites. Kev Adamson a web designer in Gwynedd has been in the industry for more than seven years, has as he says "built up a massive reputation."

Another Designer Colin Miller a designer since 1983 has also done well for himself. His website is simplistic yet professional at the same time.

Both of these websites pointed me in the right direction of creating my own Pen Portrait, which was to talk about what I've done, how long I've been doing it and what I inspire to do in the future.

Biography
Declan became a web designer and CMS administrator for a school in Newry for his placement. Now he is aiming to develop his abilities in multimedia design. In his free time Declan experiments in some freelance web design for some small companies in his area strengthening his previous skills so far.


Three Possible Projects

The Unilink Commuter Website- Going through hundreds of web pages and endless phone calls to different transport services could become a little easier.The Unilinker Web/App would store all of the Rail/Coach operators that journey to the University of Ulster either on a daily or weekly basis. There would also be a visual aid such as "Google Maps" allowing the student pinpoint their pickup area.

Pros - It simply identifies the services available. It would be easier to find a service closer to the individual. I will be able to try out new programming skills. I have a strong interest in this matter. This will inform people of all of the various operators and services on the one site. 

Cons - A major con is that I would consider myself more of a designer than a programmer so this may cause some problems. I haven't tried incorporating Google Maps APIs with this feature before and so this may be a holdback.


UUStudentGuide - For a student, money isn't always handy to get, as they say "it doesn't grow on trees!" So the Student Guide NI would be there to help them get the best deals for their money and would let them select and check out what stores did student discount/offers.

Pros - It would be a great asset to the student audience. I would be able to further develop my SQL skills.

Cons - MySQL skills are slightly limited so I may have some problems when I am developing them.

OnlineGym - The thought of going to the gym for some people is a headache and embarrassing. So from the comfort of your own home you can go online and watch tutorials on workouts with and without equipment. It will also help you depending on your weight what dieting/building plans you can do. There would be a forum on it that would allow people to talk about their experiences of use of the website.

Pros - It would be like a virtual gym, where you would get the same enjoyment and fitness. I feel that it would have great potential and it would promote fitness to those who fear it most.

Cons - I haven't created forums before and don't know what to expect. I would need to read up a little more on databases(MySQL) with regards weight loss/ muscle gain plans.


Five Inspiring Websites

Tutvid

Not only does it inspire me but is a great site for online tutorials and enhancing my skills in many different fields of design.
A well designed website that has an ease in functionality really has changed the way I design websites.

Facebook

Facebook, possibly the best website ever! People use facebook on a daily, if not hourly basis. It has over 500million active users, with more than 150million mobile users. It is a great inspiration to a lot of users and is shown from its statistics telling us how users spend a total of over 700billion minutes on Facebook.

The Web Squeeze

This website for me was one of the best websites for "A fresh blast of web design and development".
It is very easy with regards to visual and navigational appeal and has the reader always coming back for more.

Google

What can I say! I need it, Google will look for it. Without Google I would not have been able to find some of these websites. It will find anything you want with ease. With its use of primary colours and plain white background it's not too sharp on the eye.

Design Shack

Another awesome inspiring website in my opinion. With many great articles showing the designer what approach to take and how to make a really good website.The site is simple and easy to use with features such as galleries, tutorials and news for all members it's quite useful.