Introducing iPad

When hearing that Apple were about to released the new iPad in America, I was extremely excited about the prospect of exactly what Apple claim it could do. Being an iPhone owner myself I was very impressed with it’s features and capabilities. I was curious to see exactly how Apple could make anything superior to this.

I decided to investigate the claims further by watching the review and hearing about its specifications it was clear that Apple had spent a lot of time trying to make something easy to use, cost effective and being able to do everything a user requires.

The design of the iPad is 9.56 inch’s tall, 7.47 inch’s wide, 0.5 inch’s thick, has built in speakers, features a Led backlit screen and comes in a variety of size capacities 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

The iPad features a brand new 1GHz chip called the A4 which was specifically designed for the iPad to enable it to run everything smoothly and efficiently.

With its weight being just 1.5 pounds it means it can be carried anywhere with ease.

The iPad features a full touch screen facility with no buttons at all, as well as automatic orientation meaning it should be very simple and easy to use.

Apple claim that it has a battery life of up to 10 hours but with constant use I’m sure that the battery life would be considerably less.

A price for the purchase of the iPad in the Uk has yet to be released. While a price of $499 for the cheapest iPad in the United States means they are far from cheap. But with all it’s features and functions I have to wonder if it is going to dominate the market and eradicate all other notebooks.

The iPad is mainly designed for accessing the web but has many of the same features as the iPhone such as email, photos, music, video and the newest release with the iPad is iBooks.

iBooks is a service a lot like iTunes where users can buy and download books online and read them directly on the iPad with it holding large amounts of books on one piece of hardware.

With all these features being promised by Apple I have to wonder if it will meet up to all the hype and my high expectations. I think only time will tell if it will.

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I’m officially a geek.

Over the last month I have started to doubt my abilities and wonder if I will find anything within the course I am good at. This personal self doubt came due to the fact that I have failed my presentation and recently found I was the only person within my course to fail the Typography exam. This made me feel quite embarrassed as well as disappointed as I have put in the time and effort and studied so hard.

I am currently learning XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language )with Jonny Haynes, I was excited at the start of this as I am finally getting to learn how to code web pages. I was impressed at how quickly I have grasped the concept of XHTML coding and the amount of new information I had learned in only one day.

I have learned how to look at a web page and decide how I would write this page in code by breaking it down into different sections. After doing that I then went onto making the site itself.

My XHTML coding.

The next stage was to validate the site. To do this I went onto the W3C web site, which identifies any errors in the code and explains how to correct them to make sure it meets W3C standards. Receiving the message in response to my input saying that the code has passed the first time is a great feeling.

Creating web pages in code and watching the site take form with the input of each line of new code I entered is a great feeling and something I thoroughly enjoyed doing.

My first XHTML coded page.

As my confidence grew in my ability in coding in XHTML, I was able to offer guidance to people within the group to fix errors they were experiencing and explaining where they had gone wrong and how to eradicate this in future.

Being able to succeed in learning how to use XHTML coding and being able to offer help to others who were finding it difficult to grasp the concept XHTML has given me a bit of a confidence boost. I feel now like I may have found something on the course that I can excel in and who knows I may find I have a talent in this field.

Aims for the future:

• Improve my knowledge of XHTML.
• Learn CSS.

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Semester one as a web design Student.

Well that’s it, the first semester has gone and I can’t believe how fast it went. When I look back at all the things I have learned and the amount of topics that have been covered, I have done a lot more than I ever expected.

The first assignment given, was to interview local web designers and write a 1,500 word essay, now I have to say I was petrified at the thought of this and knew it would be quite a challenge for me.

For this assignment I carried out 3 interviews in total. I have never interviewed anyone before so I have to say I was very nervous, however once I got talking to the designers and found my nerves starting to dissipate.

By doing this assignment and various other presentations my confidence has improved quite a lot, I probably would still be nervous if I did it again, but not as nervous because I’d know what to expect.

Now the writing of this assignment I spent a lot of time on, English has never been my strong point so writing a 1,500 word essay was always going to be a challenge for me. But putting all the time and effort in was definitely worth while, in the end as I passed!.

Now one of the things I have enjoyed on the course is using WordPress to write online Journal entries, I like the way you can write a post about your thoughts and feelings within minutes and post it online for the whole world to read.

This came as quite a surprise to me as usually anything that involves writing I hate with a passion, but for some reason I found this quite easy to do and actually enjoyed doing it.

When I signed up to the course I never thought I’d be studying Typography, but it turns out its a very important part of web design and one of the things I enjoyed doing most.

During the course I was required to do various typography tasks, creating different pieces of work to meet certain requirements just using Typefaces. At times this proved very challenging to do, but seeing the finished piece of design made it all worth it while.

“My Type Trump Design”

As part of the Typography unit I was required to do an exam that involved being able to recognise various typefaces as well as know the vast amounts of terminology that goes with it.

The terminology I seemed to find quite easy and straight forward but being able to recognise all the different typefaces just by looking at them I have to say isn’t my strongest point.

Throughout the course I had to do various presentations on different subjects, getting up in front of people and presenting is something I have always struggled with, I get very nervous and tend to stutter if I make a slight mistake.

From doing the presentations on the course I feel that my confidence has grown and they have started to improve but its still something that I would like to work on in the future until I get it perfect.

The final part of the first semester was to design a web site in InDesign which I would then create the second semester.

This has to be the task that I enjoyed the most throughout the whole course as I actually got to do some design work and put all the principles we had learned into use.

Originally I thought this would be easy but it was a lot more in depth than I could have imagined. As it takes quite a lot of time and effort to get every little detail perfect.

The designs I did went through various stages of development, I’d create a design and then get feedback from other designers and improve on the points they recommended until I was happy with the finished product.

Well that’s the first semester done, I cant believe how fast its gone and how much I have learned in such a short space of time.

Things to improve on for semester two:

• Presentation skills – Keep practicing my presentations and make sure I am as prepared as possible. Knowing exactly what to say and when. While trying to stay as calm as possible.
• My English Skills – My English skills have already improved from this course but I would like to continue to improve them making sure my spelling and grammar is perfect.

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Where I am going.

I have many ambitions for where I would like to be in the near future. Some are more important to me than others but my aim would be to achieve them all in the near future.

The main goal I am aiming to achieve at the moment is to pass the FdA Web Design course. Although I would be happy to just pass, ideally I would like a merit or distinction and have been working very hard to try and achieve this. Completing the course should give me the basic skills required,  making me more employable within the web design industry.

After completing the course I would like to top up my FdA to a full degree at Wakefield University Centre. If the course is not available there, then I will look into other local universities to see who provides the best course to meet my requirements.

By doing the top up to a degree level I am hoping it will provide me with more  in depth skills and that will improve my chances of gaining employment into the web design industry.

Once I have completed the top up to a degree level I would like to gain employment into the web design industry preferably for a company working with a large portfolio of well known clients.

Job & client satisfaction is something that is extremely important to me. I would like to think that I give 100% in all my work. If a client is happy with the end product they are more likely to use you again in the future. By producing excellent designs for them they will recommend you to other clients. For this reason I would like to work for a company who has the same values as I think job satisfaction plays a very important role as if you don’t enjoy what your doing you wont produce your best work.

Whilst I am in employment my aim is to learn new skills such as Java and Flash to widen my employability.

After gaining good recommendations from clients and acquiring all the skills I need I would like to setup my own company within the web design industry, building the company up and eventually employing a skilled workforce.

I have a lot of targets for the next few years, so here is a list of what I aim to achieve:

• Complete the FdA web design course.
• Gain a degree to improve employability.
• Seek employment within the web design industry.
• Learn new skills and develop existing ones.

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Where am I now.

I started web design in September 09.

Since starting the course I feel that my confidence has grown. Were as in the past I was afraid to voice my ideas in case they where wrong. I am now more proactive in group discussions. This is largely due to the number of group presentations which involved me presenting to the group on a specific topic. When I found out that I would be expected to do a presentation in front of the group I was very nervous. Now I find that the more presentations I do the more confident I get. I still wouldn’t say I enjoy standing up in front of people and presenting but at least now its less terrifying.

I recently completed the Honey & Mumford learning questionnaire where I found my learning style was an Activist. From reading the description of what an Activist is I thought that it described me well, but didn’t agree with everything it stated. As the questionnaire states, I learn best when:
I’m involved with other people (sharing Ideas).
There is excitement/drama/crisis.
I’m dropped in the deep end with a difficult/challenging task.

All of these I do agree with and feel it describes me well.
However a few of the points saying I find it difficult to learn when:
You have a lot of limelight.
You have precise instructions to follow with little room to maneuver.

I strongly disagree with. I prefer to receive precise instructions so I know exactly what is expected of me.

Academically since starting the course I feel that I have learned many new skills that are important and will help me progress to a career in the web design industry and these skills are also recognised by practicing web designers such as Andy Rutledge.

I have just received the result for my first assignment which I am ecstatic to say that I passed. I had been extremely nervous throughout the day as I knew we would be receiving the results from our assignment. Report writing isn’t my strong point so was worried I would fail. I was second to last in the group to receive my results, this didn’t help.  People were coming back elated with their results. I became increasingly anxious that I would be one of the only ones or the only one to fail. However putting all the extra time and effort paid off.

So far I have learned how to use InDesign which has enabled me to use a much wider range of tools such as grids to create a better quality of document than I was able to do before in other software’s. This means the documents I am creating are a lot better looking and more professional.

We recently learned the PARC principles (Proximity, Alignment, Repetition, Contrast) which I can clearly see how using these principles will help me to create effective designs in the future.

Currently I am learning Typography which I have to say I was surprised at how big a topic Typography is. Originally I thought it was just about what basic typeface to use where. But I have learned there is so much more to it than that, each typeface has a history, its own defining characteristics, each typeface comes in different weights, Kerning and Leading just to name a few. Currently I am trying to learn 54 typefaces by sight for an exam so that if a word is written in this typeface I can identify which typeface it is. As well as trying to learn the typefaces by name I am also trying to learn all the features and terms related to it in typography. I have to say I am struggling with this I can recognize the typefaces but just can’t remember the names of them.

The biggest surprise I found when doing the course was how important good English skills are and the importance of spelling and grammar. From reading an article by a company who rejected a number of applicants due to poor English and grammar really highlighted to me exactly how important it is.
Because of this I have spent a lot more time trying to ensure my spelling and grammar is correct.

Overall I think my skills as a web designer have improved but I would say that I am at beginners level due to me knowing a few aspects of web design but not being skilled enough to go into industry.

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Where I have come from.

From a very young age I was very curious about computers and what they did. So much so I managed to stick my uncle’s keyboard up with my hands caked in jam after eating a jam sandwich. I was only at crawling stage at the time so didn’t know any better. Throughout my childhood I could always be found at a computer.

I left school at 16 with little to show for it as my grades were poor even though I passed my GCSE exams it wasn’t with flying colours. The one thing that I did enjoy and appeared to have a talent for is computers. This prompted me to sign on to further education at RCAT (Rotherham College of Arts and Technology) where I studied three different courses to do with computers. The highest being a HND in business IT.

After leaving RCAT I had various jobs but none that tested my computer skills, this was until I started working for First Data International. For the first two years I was happy there until my life started to fall apart. My girlfriend and I split up. A new job I was due to start fell through the day before I was due to start it. Needless to say I was gutted, I had to go to my employer and ask them for my job back. They couldn’t accommodate in my old department and said I would have to work in sales. I was suffering from OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), but on top of that I started to get severely depressed, I was being sick, crying and constant trembling. I was at breaking point and was considering ending my life as I couldn’t take anymore.

My mum made me go to the doctors, who were very worried and sent me straight to the hospital and if it wasn’t for my mum saying I could go home with her they would have admitted me. I received visits at home from the councillors who along with my mum and doctor were very supportive.

First Data International offered voluntary redundancy to staff so I took it.

I started working as a lift engineer with my dad but hated it. Due to the recession the work dried up and I was forced to sign on the dole.

I had talked about going back to college and my girlfriend and family encouraged this. I’d done web design as part of my IT course and thoroughly enjoyed it. So I looked into different courses which would develop my skills in Web Design. I applied to Wakefield College to study FdA Web Design. I was excited but nervous on discovering I had an interview. When I was accepted I was over the moon. This leaves me to where I am today. I just hope I’ve made the right choice.

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