Sarah's Digital Media

An acronym for Hypertext Markup Language, HTML is a language for creating color, sound, graphics, and font on web pages.  It is the building blocks for web pages.  Without HTML, webpages would not exist.  HTML, which is essentially just text files, is constantly evolving as a language. An HTML document contains three sections: declarations, head, and body.  The declaration sits at the top of the page and contains a 'doctype' declaration.  This helps the browser interpret the page accurately by showing if it is HTML5 (the latest version) or an older version of HTML.  Sometimes people also add a second declaration that communicates to the browser what character set the server is using for storing and transmitting one's web pages information.  The Head of the document controls what the body does.  The user doesn't view the head as it sits at the top of the page between the head tags.  The Body contains most of the information that the user see...

Usability       Usability measures how well a person can experience an interface.  This includes organization and having the necessary help menus.  Usability is essential to a persons experience simply because if a website or system is unusable, then the consumers will be unable to use it, which makes the website or system rather pointless, ineffective, and useless. Learnability Learnability determines how quickly a user can perform simple things on the interface during their first experience with it.  This ®refers to when the design is predictable and consistent throughout the website.   Efficiency  Efficiency encompasses how rapidly a user performs tasks on an interface after they have learned.  While this may sound ridiculously similar to learnability, it differs in that learnability refers to a user's original interactions with the interface while efficiency is about the effort required throughout multiple visits to the interfa...

User-Centered Design is creating for the specific benefit of users based on their needs.  It is essential to design because if a user finds the design difficult to understand/learn/use, then they will choose to not avoid using it if possible.  User-Centered Design ensures that not only is the design usable and understandable, but also that it relates to you.  This is prevalent on social media apps (such as how Facebook advertisements almost always are something you've been wanting or how Pinterest's feed adds in pins you might also enjoy) and music listening apps (for example, Spotify suggests music based on what you have been listening to). The Four Types of User Interfaces are: Graphical User Interfaces This interface is the visual aspect of a consumer interacting through graphic icons and visual aids - not just text.  This includes windows, icons, menus, etc. Voice Interfaces This interface is controlled by a person's v...

The following are examples of three of the most common navigation styles. vertical dropdown menu (the book shows it as the top two images but everything on the internet says that vertical dropdown menus look more similar to the below image) horizontal dropdown menu accordion menu

This is the grid system of one of my favorite websites, Zoe Sugg's Blog . I like this website because not only is it clear and easy to use but also it is an adorable website.  

A page consisting of simply one huge column of uniform and equally spaced text fails to interest and entertain the viewer as successfully as a page with visual hierarchy does.  Visual hierarchy is essentially the order that the viewer processes the content on a page.  It sets apart words, phrases, and paragraphs so that the content can be easily processed by its viewers.  Alignment, color, images, headers, etc. add emphasis to visual hierarchy, making the important information more clear and obvious while the less essential information becomes smaller and less impactful. USA Today's website contains interesting visual hierarchy.  This makes it a joy to use because not only is it aesthetically pleasing but also the content flows easily and clearly.

Unity   Overall Unity (defined as when the viewer can"grasp the essence of the 'big picture' without being distracted by the individual elements of design") Proximity ("objects that are more likely to be perceived as related when they are positioned close together") Alignment Similarity Repetition Emphasis Contrast  Color Depth Proportion Perceptual Forces  Symmetrical Balance Asymmetrical Balance Continuation Figure Ground Psychological Closure

Space - a digital 'canvas' Dot - this image, composed of many black and gray dots, is a halftone image Curved Line Straight Line  Shape Form - utilizes lighting to produce the shadow of the woman Texture Pattern Color

Both the Rule of Thirds and the Golden Ration are extremely impactful to design and visual communication.  Not only are they essential to quality photography, but also to art and architecture. The Golden Ratio represents a common mathematical ratio that is found in nature.  When used in art, it helps to create a pleasing, natural looking design.  It is approximately a 1:1.61 ratio.  It essentially is a large rectangle consisting of a square (which has sides that are equal in length to the shortest side of the rectangle) and a smaller rectangle.  Then, if the square is removed from the original rectangle, one is left with the smaller rectangle.  This rectangle could also be divided using the Golden Ratio.  This can continue on infinitely by dividing the rectangle and removing the square over and over again. Greek architecture represents the use of the Golden Ratio. The Rule of Thirds divides an image into thirds both horizontally and vertically, l...

1.  What company is hiring? Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale Arizona 2. What is the job title? Multimedia Designer 3. What are the job responsibilities? The multimedia designer will design, schedule, deploy, and support the organization for every multimedia application deployed including internet, intranet, digital signage, and video editing.  The job will include lots of interaction with customers in order to help provide them with strategic and tactical graphical content for each communication channel.   Responsibilities include the planning, development, deployment, testing, documentation, training, evaluation, and on-going support of in-house Internet, Intranet and digital signage systems. The Multimedia Designer will be required to work with a 3rd party vendor to design and develop user interface features, such as site animation, graphics, and special-effects with the incorporation of Casino Arizona’s design standards.   4. What are the requirements nee...

1.  What is the mission and purpose of the organization/charity funding the project?   The mission of the Maddie Potts Foundation is simply to h onor Maddie Potts.  Reaching people with her legacy is the purpose of the foundation. The website states that " The Maddie Potts Foundation was started in order to carry on the legacy and memory of a healthy, young, female athlete, taken acutely from this world at the age of 17.  " This sweet young woman is a legend.  Her loving and encouraging nature touched everyone around her and inspires people to be more like her.   2. Who are they trying to reach and why? (target audience, demographics)  The Maddie Potts Foundation is really just trying to reach anyone they can with her legacy.  All ages are already being influenced by it.   3. What is the primary purpose of the project? To educate? To train? Persuade? Inform? Raise money? Something else? (you can make this up - maybe your charity...