Finished product

Well, I am about finished and I must say it has been a very interesting, informative, if brutal, experience. The first time I ever turned on a computer was CLIO I and the second time was this class. It will probably also be the last. Despite my struggles, however, I have managed to put together a completed web site.
The one area I fell short on, from my original
scope and design was not getting the
podcast plug-in working. Other than that, I actually, well, with a lot of help from
Professor Boggs, got the site where I had planned it. I managed to get the plug-in
for the footer, ‘leave a comment’ working.
After all, I am the man. And there’s 82 pages of content linked up (this catastrophe was
not from lack of time spent on it, that is
for sure). I have taken another week off of
work and have worked on it non-stop this week.
I have mainly been on word press forums
all week, all day, trying to get answers.
That was much less helpful than I had
hoped. Precious little help. I’ve been to web designers, wordpress people, etc. I was
surprised how little they could help. The site is churchesandthedepression.com/wordpress/wp-admin. You’ll have to go there to view it
for now, if you wish. If you wish to do so,
the username is nails63, password is Hondo123.
It is not showing on the web right now thanks to go daddy. It was perfectly fine viewing it off of wordpress but the web site itself kept
saying ‘under construction, or coming soon or something like that. I called Go Daddy and said it is supposed to be on the web. They
said sorry about that we’ll fix it, and they
crashed the site completely and lost it. ‘
They transferred the wordpress files to a root file, they said, and they lost the whole thing.
Couldn’t access it from wordpress, anything,
yes, I was pissed. A 7 hour phone call, 7
consecutive hours with a manager and
their advanced team failed to find the
site. The next day, it took three hours with
the advanced team, and a few not so
gentle notices that I was a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney who actually liked
litigating, they found it. but all they
could do was put it back the way it
was. So I could work on it, but I need to do
a redirect to put it on the web. I am
loathe to do that with their instructions,
however, until after Monday. While one
may not threaten bodily harm over the
web, I leave it to your imagination what
I would have done to those people had
they not been able to put my files back.
At any rate, now if I just get this last link
and plug-in set just right, I will be done.
What I am convinced of now, is that my
dissertation, which is on this subject,
should have a website or a similar digital
project. I don’t think I will be doing the
nuts and bolts code writing, however.
Yes, that’s a shock. But I will be having
a site with it. Although I am disappointed in
my site in some ways, I did learn a
tremendous, tremendous amount and I thank everyone in the class who are so
knowledgeable and also very helpful.

Assignment

There are 8 things I haven’t been able to do that I need to accomplish. I’ve lost the footer, I have to put it back, put the search box to the right and make the footer line a link. I need to make the images show. I need to change the spacing of the header letters. I need to get the sidebar off of the secondary pages. I need to put the sidebar on the left and make it bigger, put the words in boxes and make them links. And make a podcast plug in. But at this point, I can make no progress towards that. But I”m having fun, lots and lots of fun.

Assignment

Well, I tried, but I just couldn’t get it. Can’t get what I think is the sidebar to move at all. had my footer done, but then I lost it and I don’t know how to get it back. So, so far I have not been able to successfully do either HTML or CSS (not sure when I should be using whichever) to make my site. My secondary pages are done, although the sidebar stays with them and I’m trying to get that off but haven’t been able to do it. So I still need to get the images on the header, get the left sidebar to the right size, get the footer back, and make links. And, so far, can’t get that done.

working on web site

Help! I need somebody. Help! Not just anybody. Help! You know I need someone. Help! LENNON-MCCARTNEY

The suggestions last week were right on target. I expanded the main box on the left and took the pictures down, made them into a little montage thing that I will put on all of the secondary pages. Thanks.Of course, the suggestions would all have been better had anybody actually told me how to go about accomplishing the suggestions.

Design mockup

mockup5   warrenton-presbyterian-churchgrove-baptist-church    Here is the mockup of my site. This site is designed primarily as an archive. Its main purpose is to preserve old church records. Although I learned from CLIO I that digitization is not necessarily preferable to paper for preserving (think of all the documents written in works, etc. that are now gone or useless forever), in this instance I think digitization will work well for preserving records that are currently in old books in church attics, in shoeboxes, or in people’s heads. While I must concede that it may be that no one besides myself thinks preserving these records is worthwhile, I would like to preserve them for posterity before they are lost for good. Thus, the primary purpose of this site is one of a preservation archive. A secondary purpose is to place all of these records, along with oral histories of the time, and other relevant research and data, all in one place for future researchers. The final purpose is to provide a place where hopefully people will add their story before it is too late.
These purposes then have a great impact on the design of the site. This site is not meant to be terribly interactive, nor does it have a great pedagogical function. It is not really designed to entice thousands of new users from the general public. I believe in this instance usability is the most important criteria. The site needs to be interesting and pleasant, of course, or it won’t be utilized. I do not think, however, it has a need to be as eye-catching as many other web sites with a different purpose. It is by its nature a simple site. Usability and simplicity are also important given the fact it is hoped many senior citizens would be utilizing this website and adding their, or their parents’, stories. It can be assumed, I believe, that they may be less likely to be familiar or comfortable with the web than those of a younger age (not that I have any standing to talk about anyone’s lack of technological prowess.)
This is why I have chosen a rather simple grid pattern for the site. Utilizing some of Wrobleski’s teaching on visual weight and hierarchy, the site is split into three main rectangles. I think this makes it easy on the eyes, and causes the user to right to the main objects of his/her attention. It also makes it fairly easy to recognize what they are looking for or looking at. There isn’t much that is distracting or dazzling on the home page. The title and the section directly underneath the title/header set the tone that I am trying to accomplish. The thumbnail sketches, the photographs of old churches, gives the user something to attract this attention but not enough hopefully to divert him or her from the text. The picture of the woman is slightly larger so that her quote will hopefully put a face on the oral histories, and make them more real to the user, perhaps entice the user to read or listen to them. I thought a human face was needed, for interest, and to set the mood.
The about paragraph I consider critical. In many websites, from what we have read and seen, an about statement on the home page is a bit of a waste. I think in this instance, though, it is important as the site is really mainly an information storage spot, an archive, and people are not coming there with foreknowledge of what they want to buy and see. Thus, I think explaining the tags and their purpose is really necessary. I think there is room for it. The left rectangle contains the meat of the site, in all of the links to all of the subordinate pages containing the archived information. I tried to set it up so that neither spot, the left box or the about box, overshadowed the other. That gets accomplished with only two areas of interest, as that is easy for the user to keep in his or her head and sight, and one doesn’t take away from the other. Finally, the footer that allows for new stories to be placed is obviously important and needs to be seen. With just these limited areas of importance, I tried to highlight and contrast them in a way that made them equal, yet instantly visible. I’m living the rule of three.
The words I felt that most conveyed the atmosphere I was looking to create were dignified, informative, and nostalgic. The Depression is not a frivolous subject and I wanted to create something that mirrored that. I was hoping to create a mood that if not necessarily somber, at least reflects the mood of the Depression. The churches offer a hopeful aspect so I don’t want to depress anyone. Yet the dustbowl, soup kitchen type of image of the Depression that I think most people have is what I am trying to capture in the overall theme.
That is why I chose gray as the overall background color. I went back and forth with brown but I think gray works best with the black and white photos. I think such a neutral and muted color is best for this site. After reading some of the theories in our readings about color scheme, it seemed the less contrast in the left rectangle was what I wanted in order to show that things were not unrelated. I chose #5F9EAD as my color as it is different enough to be set apart, so that one is drawn to the section pleasantly, but a nice muted complement that doesn’t set itself apart too far and keeps the mood of the site.
Although it is and upward trend to use of symbols, and a downward tend to reading everything, I still wanted to highlight the about paragraph. So #FFDEAD to offset the black type I think just works. This subjective, black on white might be better to some, but that can also be boring. The only real problem I have with it is it’s Pittsburgh Steelers colors, perhaps I should put burgundy over gold there. I decided to put the footer in #FF0000. I didn’t really want a bold color, or many colors splashing all over the page, but it’s an important link that needs to stand out as a different link. Red on gray is a nice complement, and since it’s a small line in its own rectangle, it appears subjectively to me to be noticeable but not annoying.
I chose Copperplate Gothic as the title font because I wanted something dignified, and perhaps traditional or old looking, without gaudiness. I think the font works there, I made the size of the font bigger because it is, after all, the title. I think the same font but a smaller size for the left rectangle and footer keeps a symmetry that’s not too busy but not so uniform so as to be boring. I thought a simple text, normal blakc, etc. was best for the about paragraph. Ease of reading was most important there. The cloud tags are obvious references to churches. It’s an understated way to have a tag. The title may be uninteresting, and not all that informative as to the nature of the site. I had some other jazzier titles. But from our readings I became convinced the point of the title is to score on Google Search so that’s the reason for the title. I have a logo of a cross but I am not sure it adds anything to the site. The secondary and tertiary pages are mainly text, like almost all of the other pages, and are accordingly simple, with the title header and then black text on white. I put everything into lists where possible for easier reading.
That is the mockup of the site. Turning that into an actual web site is not something that I can probably accomplish in my lifetime but considering that it took two days to figure out how to turn it into a PDF file (whatever that is) and another two to get it to post here, (and I’m not sure that will work) I am so happy to get to this point I don’t know whether to s*** or wind my watch. Guess I’ll s*** on my watch.
Color scheme:
Header: 808080
Left Box: 00FFFF
Middle Box: FFDEAD
Footer: 808080
Footer Link: FF0000

mockup3.pdf

Photoshop

The wicked worn look was cool and it might come in handy for me as that look may be part of what I am trying to get in the Depression website. I don’t know if I want the images aged, but the grungy, old look is what I am after so I may find it useful. It was very straightforward, utilizing just the three tools, brush, burn and eraser. A great tip was to remember to use old fonts, (reminds me of Rathergate). The brush was tricky, but on the whole it didn’t seem hard. The ease in which you can create the coolest logo, like his authentic surfboard company, which looks so real, was great.
Although I wasn’t (and still am not) familiar with all of the Photoshop tools, Eisman’s book was still not difficult for a beginner. The digital retouch.org site was great. The restoring I guess is the opposite of the worn look, but both can be great tools. I like the fact the book also discusses the whys and theories of changes and adjustments, a lot of really good information.

Modifying CMS

I managed to do a wireframe and a sitemap. Both were actually very helpful. I’m glad I did them, I see the project clearly. However, as fara as building the web site on wordpress, I am stumped. I have nothing.

Site Map

 I, of course, have been unable to get my site map to appear on this blog (no surprise there) and thus, you will not get the benefit of seeing it ( I know you are crushed.)   However, it actually was very useful and helpful to construct a site map, to give me some idea of the total number of pages, how they all fit together, even if I still have no idea how to construct and link them on wordpress.  My site map starts at the top with home page, of course. The home page has some images on it, just for viewing pleasure purposes, (they don’t link to any other page) so I put those on a block titled individual images and lined it up with the home page. I don’t know if that is really accurate, though. I guess I probably should not have listed them at all. Underneath the home page, and all on the same level, are 7 other pages. When one clicks on the buttons of the home page, they get these pages first. Clicking on the Oral histories-read button, one gets a list of the written oral histories. The page on the map directly under that page is a content page of one of the histories and all of the other content pages of written oral stories follows from that.  The same with recorded oral histories. Directly below home page is the recorded oral history list page, and directly below that is a content page.  Many content pages, which I guess, are all on their same level, directly below the recorded oral history list. 3 of the other pages directly below the home page are what you get when you click on the tabs for church records. These third pages are their own contents page.  The ‘other data’ tag on the home page leads to one page which has various data types listed on it, the pages below that carry the content of whatever data type was clicked.  Finally, I had an about page on that site map but in doing the wireframe it occurred to me an about paragraph on the home page is enough, so no about page. There are two other secondary pages which follow from links on the home page.  Other recent scholarship, whose first page is again a list, and secondary to that pages of content.  And a link to add one’s own oral history. 

      The wireframe was even more useful, and I learned a lot doing that once I realized what the setup through the site map was.  I now have what I think is a good looking, and reasonably useful, home page. It’s a shame I have no idea how to make it a reality.  I really changed the look of the website once I had done the wireframe. It forced me to finally see just what the end result would be. So I changed my mind and decided to box everything in, have 3 sections. I think it works all right. At least on paper.  There are small pictures of churches across the top, for scenery’s sake.  On the left, in the left column, so to speak, although it’s wide, half the screen,are the oral histories, a read and listen drop-down button, and a church records tag cloud, an image of a church, with categories of data that can be clicked on and linked to the next page. A cloud tag for the ‘other data’ category. And a link button to relevant scholarship.   In a box in the upper right half of the screen, the right half is split in two, upper and lower, is a picture of a woman with a quote from one of the oral histories underneath. The lower box is the about the site paragraph.  Finally, under it all is a link to leave your own story.  I now know what I want to do.

   The problem is I have gotten nowhere with wordpress. I simply don’t know how to create pages, do a plug-in, or otherwise get started. I thought I could change the theme, change the code to put my content on the dashboard and it would change on my site, but that is not the case.  I have not been able to go to the wp-admin/content files and change anything.  I don’t know where to begin. Changing the code will be hard enough, but I could trial and error that, but I don’t know the process of what I should be doing.    

Frankly, I would rather go the dentist, watch Designing Women or put my *** in a meatgrinder for an hour than look at wordpress again.