Website Development: Reflection

I'm fairly happy with my website in that it successfully brings together all of the work I have done throughout the course, and helps me to realise just how much content i have produced, as well as how much I have learnt. While there are still a lot of ways in which I could improve my website and opportunities to continue developing it, when I put it in the perspective of what I would have been able to create before doing this course (probably nothing) I'm fairly satisfied with what I have achieved.

There is, however, a lot of room for improvement. With more time and a bit more knowledge I probably would have liked to develop this from scratch using HTML, as I sometimes had trouble with the placement of text and images in Google Sites. While some of this could be fixed by editing the HTML it didn't always work, as I discovered when trying to put in the background (I discovered way too late that there was a way of doing this, but it would have been incredibly difficult to place images over the top where I wanted them). I would have also liked to make it a bit neater, a bit more interesting visually, and it would have been better if I had found ways to continue the desktop theme throughout. I did attempt to create some visuals in Illustrator to enhance the look of my site, but was unable to finish these due to time constraints.
I think that Google Sites did make it difficult in some ways to achieve the aesthetic that i wanted, as many things functions like including background colours and images were not made available when editing a page. I found these functions today when doing the finishing touches on my site, and I think that this is a flaw in Google Sites' design which should be resolved to make it more user friendly.
To further improve the site I would also try to develop my own images to accompany the links and information, so that there would not be any copyright concerns. I don't think that the website particularly constructs an online identity, but does work as a central place to store my work and give basic information about myself.

I didn't develop my Facebook page in the way that I planned, as I found it difficult to construct a purely professional identity through it. Instead I kept it quit plain, and just provided my work history and basic details. I don't think it really adds anything to my project, except fpr the few links in my profile HTML, as any information on it could be found on my Myspace and website, but it was useful throughout the course as a tool of communication and collaboration, as well as a medium through which I could develop my HTML skills.

I used my Myspace as an interactive outlet to show my favourite bands, films, television shows, and a couple of videos. I was going to post the same videos that are on my website as they were more relevant, but felt that there was no need to double up and the personalised nature of my Myspace meant that any videos I wanted to put on there were relevant to what I was trying to achieve.
In order to improve my Myspace, I would change the background image and text colour into a scheme that was clear and easy to read. As it is, it is possible to read everything on the page, but the background needs to be lined up with the text in the right places in order to do so. I would probably like to make my background an image that I had created as well.

Overall, i'm satisfied with what I have produced, but think it would benefit greatly from continued development and improvement