Evidence / Research FMP

Before I could undertake this project I needed to teach myself to code in CSS, to do this I first borrowed the lynda DVD tutorials from the library





Using the lynda DVD's gave me a better understanding of what it is possible to achieve with CSS

I next need to put in to practice what I had learned in the lynda DVD's. Having never wrote any CSS before, I looked for some templates where I would be able to edit lines of code, to enable to learn, what the various parts of the code control.

I found a brilliant CSS layout template website named csseasy.com Using this website allowed be to configure certain design element of the code with out having to learn to script every thing





As I started editing code to change design elements it quickly became clear how a CSS website is structured.

From learning this I was able to put together some simple websites



By this point I was confident enough to try to skin a blog, after a failed attempt with both wordpress and tumblr, I decided to use blogger, as I have used this platform before.

Blog Analytics

Just thought I would post up some analytics of my two blogs

Blogger Analytics


Tumblr Analytics



Both these results are over a period of one month

I have generated these views by being an active member of various social media websites. On most social media website there is a space to add the web communities you belong to. This is how I have generated some of the views on both my blogs

At easter I will have been actively blogging for a year. If I maintain 50 views on my blog each month I would find that to be an acceptable achievement.

Another tweak to my blog

I have been editing the design of this blog again and have now added a fav icon

I have added it as another useful way to build my blog brand.

I am hoping if my blog has lots of recognizable features, that people are able to easily recognize and relate to it will keep them coming back

I came across THIS website that details the benefits of using fav icons on your websites

I made this fav icon using an online editor, so at some point (in the near future) i am hoping to use Photoshop to create somthing a little more profesional

Editing Blogger

Yesterday i experimented with editing the look of my blog using these tools

Mac Digital Colour Meter

Adobe Kuler

colorschemer.com

I used Adobe kuler to find colour schemes, then using the Apple Mac utility Digital Colour Meter I measured the RGB values. I then feed the RGB values in to colorschemer.com to get the hex value of the colour. Once i had the hex value of the colour, I then placed it into the HTML template of blogger.

This is probably the most convoluted way to this but it is the only way i know how to get my colour from kuler to hex value.

Getting to look at the HTML in the template has really helped me understand what all the elements in the template do. At some point i am wishing to edit the template (maybe adding an extra column, exclusively for links of tech websites and blogs that i enjoy reading)

Here are some of the colours I experimented with



Above is a picture of the blog with the original colours, i picked this template as i really liked the two column layout, but i was never a big fan of the colours



I then experimented with making things a bit brighter (more friendly and web 2.0-ish) I though i liked the brighter feel, i didn't think the colours suited each other, so i decided not to stick with this.



I next used Adobe Kuler and found a NES related colour scheme, (red, white, black and grey) at the time this colour scheme didn't appeal to me i thought i was a bit boring and not very exciting. Looking back now, i quite like it the colours they seem to fit well together and all though they are dark, i feel they lend a professional feel to the blog



I final choose to use the colour scheme shown in the picture above, again i feel it has a slightly web 2.0 feel, and the colours seem to compliment each other quite well


I would encourage anyone reading this post to comment it and let me know which colour scheme they thinks works best