Reflection

 The end of a term came and went and now we are nearly at the beginning of a new one!  I will remind myself where I started which was with Kimiko Yoshida, her haunting images of marriage and identity have really stuck with me this term and in response to her work and others that I explored, I became more and also less. 

Kimiko Yoshida — KyotoKimiko (Genji/Warhol)

I was everywhere and nowhere.  I placed myself over and over again in the domestic environment where I am.  I also in The Quietus was working on the beginning of my disappearance, through Amande (Almond in French), and the mysterious events that will lead to a rather interesting story.  I only had the opportunity to write three chapters due to time constraints however this is a story I really do want to continue to write.  Something I plan on doing once I have effected my own disappearance!  The other project I worked on this term was The Twilight House, I actually enjoyed this immensely, it was an interior design project for a house in France for Gen X who were working on hybrid work.  The house had many faults it was too large, the layout needed work, as although the floorplan and zoning worked in theory the sheer scale would perhaps have made this house have vast unused spaces for the people it was meant for.  If I as doing this again I would have reduced the size significantly and changed the layout to make it flow not just from front to back as my plan but throughout so that there was better connections between rooms. I would also have changed some of the colour scheme and perhaps made more individualised rooms that reflected the target customer further. 

Overall, I was pleased with the work, as a start, on all projects but all projects needed more development and I do think they were just the start of my ideas.  I am going to before the beginning of next term update my website as there were a few issues with the about and the book was not showing correctly.  I am hoping that with a few tweaks, this can also be improved.

Looking forward to next term, I wonder what new ideas this will bring...

Website Feedback & UX Testing

 This week we did Feedback and UX Testing on our Wix Websites.  We created a google form with testing questing and then embedded this into the navigation bar.  We then published our websites and shared the website links so we could all test each others site and get feedback.  

My live site address is now Zoe Van-de-Velde | architecture (zvdv747.wixsite.com)

please click here to view live site.

These are the questions and the responses I received, I will just go through these and make comments and I will update and republish accordingly.

I only received one response however this is still feedback and on the first question the tester thought that my homepage was 'good' so there is clearly room for improvement on this page. I will check this on the mobile view as well as I think there may be an issue on this view. 

The about page again was just 'good'  I do think this page could be designed slightly better and perhaps have more impact when the viewer opens the page and this is something I will look at changing this.  

I decided to remove just the image and I changed the entire background to my about page to my image and then I changed the text to Rohza One and white and placed it to the left hand side of my image I also changed the font of the title and moved this to right side for balance I then saved and republished this.  I then checked my mobile view as well. I just moved the section downwards to ensure the menu was noyt covered and the page was aligned correctly.

Next I looked at my contact page and social links and again this was 'good' so everything is functional but I will just check the mobile view again. I actually quite like my contact page and so I will not make any changes here and everything is working well on both desktop and mobile views. 

I am now going to my portfolio pages.  Again this was still 'good' and I still have more to add here so I rechecked the front portfolio page and I though t the button text and buttons too large on the mobile so I reduced the size if these just by clicking on and using the A- button and then using the move/transform controls to reduce the size of the button. 

I then checked the navigation - this is all good and I do think this works well s no changes here for the moment. 

I then looked at the feedback for the design boards for Twilight house and again just have 'good' which is quite disappointing as I was hoping that these worked well, they still need a few outcomes adding but overall I thought that this was a good design project that I have presented well. 

I checked the project again and the only changes I made were to the size of the text and buttons as I still think that this works well and I also checked on my actual mobile again once I had republished to ensure that everything was live and working correctly. 

My last two questions were would you recommend to a friend and which device are you using. Again there was just good - which I am hoping through the changes I have made that this would move to a more positive response.  The device was desktop.  

My last questions were with comments and these are shown below..

I have now fixed mobile view issues and changed pages, I am pleased everything is consistent and I am hoping that now my site is much improved with these updates.  

Website Gallery: Book Project

 Today we are uploading our book onto Wix and I will be embedding a flipbook

I went Wix and clicked and Pages and Menu and then clicked on 'Add Menu Item' and then 'New Page'.  I think clicked on the three dots on the tab and rename and then typed in the name of my book 'The Quietus. I then dragged the tab down underneath my portfolio to make it a subpage.

I then went to my front portfolio page and clicked on the Add tool in the menu and the I chose 'button' I then chose the button I wanted and dragged it onto the page.  I then clicked on the button and renamed the name of my book and then chose the link for the page I have just made.  I then saved and previewed and checked that it worked.  I customised the button to be consistent with the font type and size of other buttons and I used the Wix gridlines to line up the button.

I then went to my page for my book.  I added a title in Palatino Linotype font at 53pts and then I added text to introduce my book, again in the same font at 24pts.  I then aligned the introduction to the left hand side.  I may adjust my introduction later but this is a start.  I then added a back to portfolio button using the same method as on the front portfolio page.  I also embedded by book using the Add tool and then embed, my own on Blurb should embed as a website however in the classroom it was having trouble with internet connection so I will add this later. 

I also have checked on my mobile itself and made further tweaks with the size of titles and buttons and have republished.  I will check this all again later.

Website Gallery: Photographic Gallery

 Firstly before beginning to add my new gallery I check my copyright and made sure it was up-to-date and was 2024

I then went to my page and menu in the left hand side tools menu and went to the three dots at the end of 'Feedback and Testing' - I then chose the 'Hide from menu' from the pop up box as this was just UX Testing from last term.

I then wanted to add a new page so I went to my pages and menu tool on the left hand side of the screen and I went to the bottom of the pop up box and chose 'New Page' then I chose 'blank page ' in the dialog box and then I renamed my page 'Everywhere and Nowhere' and I made it a subpage by dragging the tab underneath my portfolio page. 

I then added a heading using the add button on the left hand side and then I dragged the heading onto the page.  I then changed the font to Palatino Linotype at 44 pts and then I typed in the title of my project.  I then went back to the add button and added a paragraph which I dragged onto the page.  Again I changed the font to Palatino Linotype at 20pts.  I then aligned both the title and the paragraph introduction using the gridlines in Wix. 

I then added a button by clicking on the 'Add' tool and choosing 'button'  I then dragged the button I had chosen onto the space I made on the page.  I then clicked on the button and renamed it 'back to portfolio' and then I chose a link to portfolio.  I then went to the design box and changed the font to Palatino Linotype 26pts and I then adjusted the position using the move tool to and gridlines on Wix.  I then previewed the page and clicked on the button to check that it linked to my portfolio page. 

I then went to my portfolio page by clicking on the pages and menu, I then added a new button and changed the font and size as above and then clicked on preview to check that it worked.

O then added a gallery by clicking on the 'Add' button in the left hand menu and choosing a suitable gallery.  I then dragged this onto my page and I opened the manage media box and selected all the Wix images and deleted these.  I then added my own images and previewed to check this worked. 

I then went back to manage media in the gallery and added titles and description for each image. 

I then checked my mobile view, I needed to adjust the gallery section and remove black space at the bottom and also using text adjustment I changed the size of the text in titles and buttons as these were too large. I previewed and published and then checked on my phone to ensure everything was working correctly.

Website Creation: Gallery Portfolio

 In this post, I will be creating my portfolio and website gallery on my Wix website.  I will be adding my finalised Interior Design Project onto the gallery. 

The first element I changed was the colour of my portfolio page to match the rest of my site, I right clicked on the mouse and clicked on change background and then I chose the colour as per my other pages. 

I added an image to the page by clicking on the Add button on my left hand tools menu on Wix and then I clicked on image, the upload image.  I then chose an image from my project from my desktop file.  I then added this to the page and used the transform tools to change the size and position of the image. 

My next step was to go to the pages and menu and create a new page for project.  I went to the bottom of the pop up menu and clicked on 'New Page' and then I changed the name to the name to the name of my project.  I then clicked on the three dots at on the menu page and on that pop up menu I clicked on subpage.  The new page now appears underneath my portfolio  page on the navigation menu.

I then changed the background colour to the same colour as my other pages, now my page is ready for my portfolio work for this term.  I then added my Title of my project by clicked on the add button and then text and 'heading'  I changed the font to be consistent with the rest of the website to Rozha One I changed the size to 42pts and then I used the move and transform controls to put this in place and I used Wix gridlines to line this up. I then went back to the add tool in the left hand menu and chose 'Gallery' and then I chose a suitable landscape orientation gallery for my interior design project. 

I then added a button for navigation.  I did this by clicking on the add in the left hand menu and then clicking on button.  I then chose a button design and dragged this onto my page.  I then clicked on the button and changed the text to 'Back to Portfolio' and then I linked this to my portfolio page.  I then went to the design button on the button and I changed the shape of the button and then customised my designed changing the font to Rohza One to match the font choice of the website and then I used the move and transform tools and Wix gridlines to line the button up on the page. 

I then went back to my pages and menu and added a button in the same manner as on the project page.  I ensured consistency and chose the same size and background colour and font.  I then linked this to my project page and then I went into the preview button the top right hand corner and checked that both buttons worked correctly. 

I then uploaded all my images to my gallery.  I did this by clicking on 'manage media' and then uploading

from my desktop and external hard drive.  I then organised the gallery as per below by just dragging and dropping my boards into position.

I then went to the page and checked all the boards had uploaded correctly and expanded to full size.  I did this by clicking on preview and making sure this worked correctly.  All of the boards worked and were in correct order.

I clicked on 'save' to ensure all my changes were saved.  I then just made some minor adjustments to my front page to ensure everything was consistent.  I have a couple of final outcomes to still upload however everything looks good and is ready for publishing.

I then check my mobile view and I changed the size of the title and removed blank Space that was unnecessary by using the arrow button the section. 

I then checked my gallery page on the mobile view and adjusted the size of the font on the button just by clicking on the A- sign and then I changed the size of the font of the title again just by using the A- icon to reduce the size.  Again I removed unwanted blank space  using the arrows on the page.  I then previewed and checked that all buttons and the gallery sliders were working and would come up full size once published. 

Website Gallery: Creative Media

 I have now completed all the elements of my projects and I can now add these to galleries on my website I will begin with the photographic gallery.  I began by clicking on the menu button on the left-hand side of Wix and adding a new blank page. I then added the title 'Everywhere & Nowhere' using the same font as the rest of the site Palentino Linotype, I changed this to 50pts and aligned this to centre the text.

I then added the images I had created and the cubes of the images to the page.  I did this by clicking on the add button and then images and upload images.  I uploaded the jpegs and the cube gif from my desktop.  I then just adjusted the page and aligned these using gridlines on Wix.

I then added a short introduction by clicking on add and then adding a paragraph, again in the same font and I also added a pack to portfolio button and set this link up.

I then went to the front portfolio page and added another button and created a link and I updated my copyright to 2024. 

I will also be updating my Homepage and embedding my book project this week.  However the photo project I will now consider whether this looks okay, and I can reflect on this and change this if necessary this week if I think there is a better way to present this work. 

Final Development: Everywhere and Nowhere

 After taking the images I put the mages that I wanted to use on Photoshop. The idea was to place all the images together to create a composite image.  In each image I wanted to disappear as I discussed as my theme for this project so the first thing I needed to do was set the background image, this was just the image of the room itself.

I then opened each image I intended to use (5 in each case) as the brief was for 10 images and then I used the quick selection tool on the left-hand side menus and selected the subject (myself).  I used the + and - tools to adjust the selection in the top menu bar and then I clicked on Edit and Copy and went back to my back ground image and clicked on paste. 

I then once I had the new layer used the move and transform tool to place the image in the correct position as in the original image 

I then lowered the opacity so that I was faintly visible. I repeated this same process for each image.

Once completed with all the images that I wanted in the final piece I saved as psd and jpeg ready for my gallery.

I also created a cube to go with this on the site.

Everywhere and Nowhere: Second Shoot

 My first images for 'disappearance' were all about the light, the light of the morning sun in my flat and myself becoming overexposed through a flare and then not being there at all.  I made these images into a cube that I have had sat on my desk for a few weeks now and I quite like these images and the physicality of the cube. Here is the digital version..

However, for these second images linking the idea of twilight and disappearance, I took these in the dusk light.  In the later images, I had to switch on the house lights as it had moved from dusk to darkness.  I used my camera by braille for the shoot.  For the images here I wanted the camera static so I had the same shot over and over and only I moved within the frame. 

These are the contacts and in these shots, I used aperture priority, F.3.5, ISO 400, and exp compensation +1.  I shot in monochrome and in RAW and high-quality jpeg.  Also, I did a few shots in the middle using a fixed 25mm lens as I had some other thoughts which involved redaction. 

The images on their own are not that interesting as that is not their point to be alone.. However here are a couple of the shots and EXIF details 

This shot is well balanced with a good rule of thirds and the pose and the domestic bedroom setup works for this particular project as I stated earlier the camera is static and there was no variation in focal length.

As stated there is no real variation in settings the shutter is slow making these quite soft images but this was useful to the final result I am aiming for.

The image above is the centrepiece of the final image and I wanted this looking to the viewer as all the other images are more passive and this is the direct connection. 

In my next post, I will show the development of the final pieces for the website.