DesignsMP

For my Web Fundamentals class we were tasked with creating a webpage from scratch using HTML and CSS. I decided to use this as an opportunity to help out my girlfriend's mom who is a Veterinarian in Kingman, KS. Knowing she did not have a website I offered to make her one and use it as my final. Although it was not fully completed to her standards it did meet the expectations for the class. Some of the challenges I encountered with this project would include inexperience with HTML and CSS coding formats and Programmer/Client interactions. It helped a little knowing my client personally for being able to contact them but I am not experienced enough in knowing what questions to ask and what the client really needs rather than what they are wanting. I have since then continued to work on this website trying to meet my clients needs. It provides an example of both my HTMl/CSS skills along with my ability to listen to a clients needs and implement it into usable code.

For my Computer Systems Studio III course we were tasked with creating an online application for registering students for their STEM classes. The program was supposed to assign presenters rooms that met their occupation requirements and assign students sessions based on their top 5 topic choices. These sessions would then be provided into a printable schedule to guide the students to their correct classroom. The program also tracked how many students came from each school, that way the Leaders of Twist would know which schools to contact for future events. The challenges for this project came with inexperience using Github. On numerous occasions up to date code would be erased or replaced with outdated code by accident. My group was able to overcome these issues with the version control built into Github. From this project I have learned time management skills, the basic skills needed to cooperate within a team, how to research a project before starting any other kind of work, and continued to develop my programming skills. For this project specifically I used node.js, express, and Heroku. This project serves as an example of my teamwork and project management skills.

For my Web Development Project course we were tasked with creating a web application to simplify the registration process and to automate their records and reports. Our class was split into two groups, Purple team was to work on the back-end, and the Silver team was to work on the front-end. I was assigned to the Silver team and nominated myself to be the group’s communications leader. Along with establishing communications both between group members and with the other group, I created the Github repository for the front-end, the staff contact page, and the reports page which would be used to generate a report monthly. Through this project I was able to refine my skills with using HTML and CSS. I was also introduced to handlebars which I still need some work with. Some tools used for this project that I had no prior experience with includes Basecamp, Visual Studio Code, and Firebase. This project serves as a larger example of team working skills and project management. It also serves as an example of my application skills by starting at the beginning of the design process and carrying through to the implementation and testing phases by establishing a connection between our front-end code with our back-end code. Along with this it serves as an example of lifelong learning by having to study Firebase in order to implement user authentication to maintain security within the organization. From this research I had learned the basics on how Firebase operates and the applications it provides.

For my Visual Literacy course our final was to do a complete redesign for a selected company. I chose to use American Airlines as my company. We were assigned to create a homepage for a website; both desktop and mobile, three different sizes of banners, and a billboard. This piece is my desktop homepage redesign. Through this project I found that color schemes are critical to creating or maintaining a company’s image. In this example, American Airlines uses the colors of the American flag red, white, and blue. These colors established a color scheme and any other colors I used would have to compliment the big three. This project serves as an example of my technical skills with using Adobe Illustrator. The major challenge I overcame in this project was creating nearly all of the assets from scratch. With the few exceptions of images the majority of the design was created using Adobe Illustrator.

For my Technical Writing course we were tasked with writing a white paper of a subject of our interests. I decided upon writing about the horrors that are puppy mills. Along with this paper we were also tasked with creating an infographic using the information we found in our research for the white paper. This infographic serves as a perfect example of my technical skills along with design skills. Through this project I learned how to take in large amounts of information and simplify it to a point that it can easily be understood without having to read paragraphs of text. The biggest challenge I encountered with this project was deciding which pieces of information were the most important and needed to be present in the infographic.

For my Visual Literacy course we were tasked redesigning McDonald’s mobile app for a better user experience. Before I started the design process I looked at their current app. The first thing I noticed about their app was how many elements would change over a short period of time. The second thing I noticed the how some things would be repeated numerous times such as their current deal of the day was posted at least three times all on the same screen. For my design I wanted something simple and only had the necessary elements that a customer would expect to see on a restaurant’s mobile app. The major challenge I overcame in this project was managing numerous layers and created believable imagery all within Adobe Illustrator. This project serves as an example of my technical skills with using Adobe Illustrator and some application skills but analyzing what a customer needs out of a mobile app.