Production Project Rationale!
MY WEBSITE LINK:
http://bostonbombings.tumblr.com/
For my network media production project assignment I created a ‘tumblr’ website. The reason why I chose to make another Tumblr website is because I enjoy designing web sites and customising them using my basic knowledge of CSS and HTML. As part of this project I wanted to further enhance my knowledge of CSS and HTML and learn more about how to structure websites that people will enjoy looking at. Before creating this website I researched many other website layouts and analysed what colours worked together and what did not.
The website I have createdis called BNN which stands for Boston News Now. It is a news website for all people to visit and keep up to date with the latest news on the Boston Marathon Bombings. I was really interested in learning more about the Boston marathon bombings and this assignment is what motivated me to research more about it as well as learning how to make a website using HTML and CSS.
On my main website page I posted photos from this tragic event that witnesses and photographers captured on that day. I also added a brief description underneath of what is happening in the photo and cited where these photos came from. I posted links to articles as well as newspaper articles from all over the world about this event and I also included facebook pages people have made.
The theme I used is the same one on I used on my first Tumblr blog. I used this one because it is a very simple structure and easy to use. I used CSS styling to made the background layout of my website a photo I got from Google images that says ‘pray for Boston’.
I created a website page called BNN videos attached to the Tumblr page which is located on the right. This website took lots of hours trying to develop such a simple structure because I did have some difficulties figuring out where to place the CSS styling codes. After many attempts I was finally able to create a simple website layout. On this website I included YouTube videos from the top news shows around the world. These videos are there to keep all people up to date with recent news on the Boston marathon bombings. The basic structure of my website included a masthead, the main title, a sub-title ‘videos’, boarders, sub-headings that are centred and videos on the left of the page. I wanted to make my website simple for viewers to look at and to easily watch videos or find information. I chose the background colour of light grey so the black writing and the blue masthead could stand out. On the bottom of my page I used a html link to make it easy for viewers back to go back to the main home page.
The widgets I have included on the right side of my page are Boston news sites which contain the latest breaking news in Boston so people are well aware of what is happening with particular issues. There are many incredible widgets that are used on professional websites and I was very happy and lucky to find a few that matched the theme of mine.
This production assignment has helped me to gain a better understanding of how websites are constructed and how much time and effort that is needed to put into making them look presentable for a broad audience. To help be make these websites I watched many CSS and HTML online tutorials which helped me gain a better understanding of web design. I struggled to understand the coding however after many hours of practice I was able to develop simple and effective website layouts. The websites that helped me to structure and style my websites were YouTube tutorials and HTML Dog http://www.htmldog.com/.
I believe my layout designs on both the Tumblr website and the BNN video website is different from other news websites for the following reasons. My websites use a variety of colours that work together and capture people’s attention. When viewers come across a website with dull colours, they may never return to that page or read anything on it because it has a negative and boring feel to it. Research says that when people are browsing through websites, they only spend roughly a few seconds browsing through them. The reason for this is because if the web sites are not presentable or easy to read, the viewer instantly becomes bored and moves on to another site. This is why I chose a simple layout, interesting content and bright colours that capture people’s attention.