Seeking Creative Career

Most people go through life with a monotonous job, but not me. I need something creative, innovative and exciting. 

My skills include:

• Knowledge of design  
• Organization
• Leadership

With these skills, my ideal job would be to work for a magazine or graphic design firm. I am a creative person and I really enjoy making artwork and graphics. I also work well when I am with people and can bounce ideas off of them.

Sometimes it seems as though everyone with an ounce of creativity seeks a career in graphic design so I decided to take a path that will broaden my knowledge. I am majoring in Studio Art to satisfy the creativity and New Media so that I can meet the growing demand of web professionals.

I know that understanding web design and coding will set me apart and allow me to work virtually anywhere.

I am not certain where I will be 10 years down the road, but I’m not one to settle. Wherever I end up, it will be something I am passionate about.

Appealing sites push viewers not to push the back button

Appealing Website Design

After considering the design aspects that make a good website, I found The Aesthetics Department to be exceptionally well done.  

This site very clearly states its company's purpose and also has a pleasing logo and flag.

An important aspect is the dominant image of a featured project because it invites the viewer in to the site and gives a specific point to click first. 

The site has few links so not to be distracting, but enough information to make the site useful.  Every question I would have about the company is clearly answered with a link. 

Most importantly, the design made me want to continue browsing the website.  The simplicity shows the viewer where to click first, making it very manageable and useful.  If I were the owner of this company, I would be very happy with this design. 

Unappealing Website Design

In contrast to The Aesthetics Department website, I found the Bella de Soto site at  to be unpleasing.

The content is extremely cluttered and difficult to read.  It is unclear where the eyes are intended to go first. 

There is nothing that indicates the purpose of this website.  My guess is that it is called "Think!" because that is at the top, however it is surrounded and overlapped by other information, which makes it difficult to distinguish between the flag and everything else on the page.  

 It seems like some website creators try to cram everything they want people to see on the home page.  This is very chaotic and tends to make me leave the site quickly.  

The idea may be to expose as much material as possible incase a web surfer only clicks once.  This is ineffective, however, because the clutter only confuses the eyes causing me to see nothing.  

I would not be pleased if I were the owner of this website because the message is hidden in clutter.  If I were to redesign this site, I would have one dominant image and up to five pieces of important information on the home page with organized links to other information.  I would also state the purpose and title of the website prominently.  

Before taking New Media Fundamentals, I never considered why some sites intrigued me while others made me push the back button immediately.  It is clear now that the design pushes me to keep clicking.  A good design answers questions the surfer is looking for while also guiding the viewer to explore important links to that company.   

Flickr

Flickr is a site that I found very interesting and useful. It is categorized as a social networking site that allows users to upload and share photos. People can also browse other user’s photos and make comments and suggestions to the photographer. On Flickr, users can edit photos and create cards, photo books, framed prints, and other things that can be ordered through the site. This site is intended for anyone from artists trying to get their work in the eyes of potential clients, to people who like to take photographs and need a place to edit and store them.

I think that Flickr is successful in reaching its intended audience because it is simple and easy to navigate, making it easy for potential clients to browse photos. This makes it appealing to artists who want to get their work out there. The site also provides a space for constructive criticism so artists can use the site to improve. The simplicity also reaches the intended audience of people who are not interested in the profession of photography, but use it to edit and store photos because a person doesn’t have to know a lot about editing and posting photos to be a part of it. Every step is laid out on the home page.

One issue that the site addresses is privacy. This is especially important on social networking sites because users put identifying information on them that could potentially be harmful. On Flickr in particular, the privacy issues are more concerned with original work and plagiarism. Users want to know that what they are putting up will be attributed to them. The site has privacy levels to allow users to choose who will be able to see their work. It also comes with a usage license so copyrights are protected. Finally, Flickr allows users to set a safety level so that they will not be able to see material that they are not comfortable with.

The one thing that I would add to Flickr is having other artistic medium represented. Instead of aiming the site at photographers, it should be a place for all artists to display their work. There could be separate groups and folders on a Flickr member’s account for each kind of medium.

Overall, I find Flickr to be a very useful site that I plan on joining. It is a great way to network and receive feedback. I also appreciate how easy it is to look at other artists’ photos and get inspiration from them. The photo on the home page is a great way to draw viewers in to look at other work. It gives just a glimpse of the site and makes me want to keep browsing all of the photos. I would recommend that people visit Flickr because even if one isn’t interested in making an account, the site has some beautiful and inspiring photography.

The W3C

According to its website, The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C is an association where member organizations, a full time staff, and the public work together to develop the standards for the web.  The W3C membership agreement states that “the purposes of the Consortium are to support the advancement of information technology in the field of networking, graphics and user interfaces by evolving the World Wide Web toward a true information infrastructure, and to encourage cooperation in the industry through the promotion and development of standard interfaces in the information environment known as the ‘World Wide Web.’”

The W3C was created in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Laboratory for Computer Science.  It was created in collaboration with CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research)  and with funding from DARPA (U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) and the European Commission.  

To join the W3C any type of organization or individual can apply for membership which is reviewed by the current W3C.  Members can be for-profit or non-profit and usually invest significant resources into web technologies. New members must agree to the W3C Member Contract which includes a 3 year contract beginning the first day of the calendar quarter, and a membership fee.  

The membership fee is based on the organization’s annual revenues, the type of organization, and its location of headquarters.  For example, if a for-profit organization with a annual gross revenue or $50,000,000 or more were to join this year, it would pay a membership fee of $68,500.  All other agencies such as non-profits and government agencies would pay a $7,900 membership fee to join this year. 

On the W3C website I found the technology, Amaya to be interesting.  Amaya is a web editor which allows a person to update and create documents directly on the Web.  Amaya was developed in 1996 to provide a structure that combines many W3C technologies.  A Web author can create a page and upload it through Amaya.  An author can also copy information from the web onto the site and create links to other sites.  Amaya is a simple program where each of these actions can be done in a single environment.   

Prior to visiting the W3C website, I had no idea the amount of work and people who are involved in developing standards for the World Wide Web.  Technology is constantly growing to make the Web more efficient and truthful because of the W3C.  Technologies like Amaya make it easier to create functional and multi-technological websites.  It is amazing to consider how much the World Wide Web has developed since its creation in 1989.