Module Summary

When we were first given this task to complete l was daunted by the fact we needed to code an entire website and I'd never done any coding prior to this course but overall l felt it went well but l did run into some problems as I've mentioned in time management posts previously. So after I'd completed my design in photoshop l started to code on Dreamweaver. To remind myself of the basics of coding l looked at previous sites I'd completed in class to get a rough idea of what l wanted to do.

I started by coding my homepage, using multiple divs to replicate the boxes I'd marked out on photoshop, however one thing l wish I'd down now looking back is making divs for each individual picture instead of exporting the pictures in groups as l think l could of gotten more precision and made it look more professional.

Also to get the placement of my navigation bar exactly how l wanted it, l used a coding frame from the website w3schools.com  which helped me to change the elements of code such as the line height and font size because when l coded it myself it wasn't working because of the order I'd coded it in.

That was the first issue I'd come across but it was resolved quite quickly. Most of my coding was relatively simple but l did find l needed to code things such as background pictures into CSS rather then HTML in order for me to code text into another div to overlay the picture and as l said before by grouping my pictures together and importing them meant l had to be very precise with coding my text, using margins/padding to place it exactly where it needed to be. So sometimes the text didn't fit exactly like how it does in photoshop because there were discrepancies in the distance between some of the boxes in my photoshop design. 

Once a few of these issues were resolved and l got used to problem solving, for example in order to have two divs directly next to each other you need to float them and make sure the the pixels of the divs add up to make the width/height of the page. After learning these through trial and error l was able to code the other pages easily by using the same code for the navigation bar and just changing the content inside the wrapper div. I found the most complex page to code was the 'What's New' page as in my design I'd placed text close to each other, so l had to make several divs to achieve the look l wanted.  

Overall, I'm happy with how the module has gone and feel as though l have developed some key knowledge about the basics of coding and how to form a website as well as understand what consumers look for in a website and how the design is one of the key elements in a websites and business' success. The only major setback l found was losing my CSS file and having to re-code the whole of it again, this set me back as it was days before the deadline, however despite this being one of the major negatives l found of this project, it did make me re-think some of the features on my website and add more professional features such as videos. 

Time Management

I'd finished my photoshop designs and went onto coding, I'd coded about three pages of HTML and the corresponding CSS for it. However, when l went onto finish the coding and complete the website my CSS file had been corrupted and I'd lost all of the coding. So l spent the entire day re-coding my website, the upside of this was that l took the chance to make my website even better. Despite this meaning l couldn't update my blog with my progress on coding as how l intended, it did mean l got to a new level of understanding CSS and HTML and feel as if l would be able to code another website quicker.