Yukiko Jones Studio

OK. I completed my task #6. Of course, it doesn’t mean that my website is done. It’s an ongoing project anyway. But it’s done to some extent.

I still have so many things to learn, but this project was certainly a good start. Even after the semester, I hope I will get some visitors. I will continue to post blogs.

Here is the link to my website (www.snowjones.com).

My “Get in Touch” page is completed. I used Fast and Secure Contact Form for my contact form. I wanted to replace the regular Captcha Code with Sweet Captcha, but unfortunately this contact form is not supported by Sweet Captcha at this time. So, I will go with it for now.

I also set up a RSS feed and email subscription to my blog.

Here is the link to “Get in Touch” page.

Update!

Well, I swear! I  have completed this page once. But then I started to tweak it again. =) The contents are almost the same, but I’m now trying out the tabs and tables. Table does not work as simple as I thought, so I’m struggling.

The mini workshop by Stephen Anderson was really interesting. In fact, since I’ve attended his workshop before and I have his book “Seductive Interaction Design“, I already had a basic knowledge about it. So I should probably say that it was a great refresher for me. It was especially interesting to realize many of the psychology terms he used were learned in my psychology class this semester, I feel as if I can now apply them easier than before.

The most amazing thing about his workshop is that it made us realize anyone can come up with a better idea when we follow his approach step by step. It is usually not easy, for example, to design a way to make boring task more interesting, but once we start applying the keys provided (such as Delighter, Curiosity, or Scarcity), all of a sudden, some idea pops up in the head. It is just fantastic, and most importantly, fun!

His examples of good design practice such as on LinkedIn or MilChimp were good for us to study and understand why these are indeed effective. As he explained, we do have an urge to complete the task if it’s visually shown in a certain way. In case of LinkedIn’s profile completion indicator, an image of the bar shows the user’s level of completion by percentage, as well as the solution (tips) to complete the tasks. Many users are encouraged to work on it because they can see what needs to be done to complete it and how to do.

Fun and laughter always attract people and give some ease even for a tedious or frustrating task. The humorous approach that MailChimp uses is an effective way to have a good relationship with the users. For my website, I immediately looked for an alternative plug-in for the annoying regular Captcha code, and I installed Sweet Captcha instead. Unfortunately I found this plug-in doesn’t support my Contact form, but it’s now up and running in the blog comments section. It is very cute. It does look childish, but it’s fun to have something like this. When the visitor comments on my blog, I believe it’s much more pleasing for them to use it. So hopefully, it will encourage more people to comment on my blog posts; which is one of my objectives for the website ­— to share ideas and experiences with visitors.

I have completed my portfolio page. After adding some photos and videos, I categorized them into several sections. But, this is of course an ongoing task, so I will add more later on.

One thing I don’t like about is the “Go Back” button that automatically shows up on the each page such as this page. And, it can be a bit confusing. If someone first selected a category,  let’s say s/he clicked the Photo button, before coming to this page, s/he will assume the “Go Back” button is for returning to the Photo page (which is the previous page), but it actually goes back to the main Portfolio page instead. So, I might have to tweak it later.

I’ve been trying out some plugins last couple of weeks. Here is the list of plugins I decided to use so far.

I’m still working on and figuring out the functionality of my theme (it’s quite complicated!), but I have finished the task #3 “About” page. It consists with three separated pages; me, experience, involvement, and it took much longer to write the pieces than I expected. I believe the “About” page is very important for my website since it should work similar to resume, I know I have to improve the contents later. If you have any suggestions or English corrections, please let me know.

Here is the link to my “About” page.

Problem! (at 2:44 pm, Monday, Apr 9)

Aptana Studio PHP editor all of a sudden failed while I was changing the color! I don’t have time to figure out how to re-connect to the server now, so the light blue color is not what I meant to set. I’ll fix it later.

Problem solved!

I finally did the color modification. I might be changing it later though… =)

As I explained in the previous post (Task#1- Update) , I had to restart the project with another theme AGAIN! So, I needed to change the task #2 to recreation of the website. It was no way to finish the task as I planned.

Even so, it didn’t go as smooth as I expected. I was totally stuck when the theme didn’t function as it supposed to (again!) I deleted all the theme file from the server and re-install it (again!). However, it still didn’t work and gave me an error, possibly because of the cash. I did so many things (deleting and re-posting), and I was about to cry. But, all of a sudden, for no reason, it started to work again. I still have a lot of questions, but somehow I finally manage to create a framework.  I’m so glad!

I haven’t got to the point to customize the style/CSS (fonts, color, size, etc.) yet, the theme design is already close to what I like. So, hopefully, I don’t have to do too much work on it. My main concern is that the photo slider (and the text right below it) in the home page seems to be too big on my computer screen. I wonder what you guys think.

I also created my logo on the top-left of the page. I didn’t spend enough time for designing it this time, but I hope it looks ok.

Hey, seriously I need your critique! I won’t be offended, so please give me your honest opinion. Thank you in advance!

Here is the link to my website.

Here is another update!

After using the theme for hours and hours, I got so frustrated because the theme did not function well as I expected. Plus, the video tutorials they offer are not good since these are not specific to one theme but only general guidance to all of their themes. It was a total mess! Therefore, I decided to restart my project. I bought another theme from a more trustable website (ThemeForest) , and I’m now trying to figure it out. It came with better documentation, so it’s going ok so far.

Here is the link to my site with PHP file.

Unfortunately, my css does not seem to be working. I’m sure I did something wrong, but I can’t figure it out. I’m waiting for Randy’s response, but I decided to up this post for now.

Update!

I just realized that CSS is actually working when I view it on FireFox, but not on Safari. I haven’t done the style correctly, but at least, my PHP assignment is successful. I’l so glad.

I’ve been trying a several different themes but none of them worked as I wanted to. So far, I set up my pages over a theme called Foto Folio (this one is a free theme), but it doesn’t show the images correctly. The same thing happened with other theme, so I must be doing something wrong. Another thing is that it doesn’t recognize a video from Vimeo, which I successfully linked on my another WordPress.com blog. I’m so confused. I will need some help in the next class.

Here is my website.

Update!

I installed another theme, and now I’m reorganizing it. This one seems to be better.

I’ve already attended some of the DFW WordPress Meetup meetings in the past years, so I was more than happy to go there for our bonus assignment. I believe it is one of the biggest and successful Meetup groups of this kind. They charge $10 at the door (usually including drinks, pizza, and some snacks), but a season pass (annual membership) for $60 is also available. Wifi is ready to use at the venue (Richardson Civic Center) for the group with a password, so bringing a laptop is encouraged. There are a variety of people attending, and it’s a very good place for networking too. It’s really amazing and nice to “feel” how popular the WordPress is. Besides the monthly meetings, they occasionally have seminars and workshops that are related to WordPress or website development. These are bit more expensive, but it is worth checking out.

Tony Cecala, the organizer of this group, was the speaker for this meetup. He is very knowledgeable and a great speaker. He talked about 10 Essential WordPress Plugins, including how to install and how to pick quality plugins. Details and the list of those plugins are also shown in their website.

Some of the plugins that I particularly liked are;

• Social Log-in (Visitors can login with their SNS accounts to interact with the site, such as leaving a comment.)
• NextGEN Gallery (Image gallery plugin with dozens of options and features.)
• Related Posts Thumbnails (displays related sots thumbnails under the post.)
• Widget Logic (Control the widgets to appears on certain pages)

I will definitely consider using some of those on my website later. The NextGEN Gallery looks really nice, but I’m not sure if it will work with video too. Plugins are so awesome and useful in many cases, but I’ve never had a chance to use them since I had only WordPress.com (free version) blogs before this course. So, now I’m very excited. I’m going to study more about them to enhance my website.