I think the ‘big reveal’ of the semester, where it all came together for me was just in the last two weeks or so. I came into the course with experience forging through code and editing templates in WordPress before, but it really wasn’t until recently that I really began to understand with a certain level of ease how all of the working parts create the whole page. I also really enjoyed and appreciated the module on image optimization, because even with the amount of photo work do, I’ve never been in a position where it was important to go through the process.
I appreciated that all of the HTML was split up into digestible pieces across the weeks, even if at first I thought that the beginning was a bit rudimentary. Having a bit of a refresher is always a good thing and something I think I eventually valued.
The final template was the most challenging. What started as some simple changes quickly became a playground of experimentation on my page. I decided to change the page name to ‘Exercises’ because it felt like it was no longer fulfilling the assignment objective. It was a good experience though because while playing with all of the code, something finally clicked in my head and the editing process became much less complicated to discern as I continued.
My proper final page named ‘Template’ came together in a very short amount of time. I took photos from an event that I had worked recently and information from my freelance page and plugged everything into where it needed to be. I had a bit of trouble with the Google Map, but fortunately, I was able to work that out with little issue. I’m pretty happy with the end result.
One thing that is minor, is that I wish that there had been a textbook for the class…or maybe just some suggested reading for all of the coding assignments. W3 is a great resource, but I’m a book person…and I need to see things spelled out a few different ways sometimes in order to understand it completely. I think I’ll be looking for some reading on some more advanced techniques in the near future.
Going forward, I really feel like I have a better grasp to be able to design something from scratch and wouldn’t feel shy about speaking up and offering help if a friend needed some website work done. I’m much more comfortable talking about and describing how different elements work together and how to apply it all to a finished product. Before this class, I really wouldn’t have been comfortable doing anything like that for anyone but myself. CSS still baffles me a bit but I think I’m closer to making my own personal breakthrough with it. I can work with it, but I don’t understand it the same way I do HTML.
all in all, I really enjoyed this class and I’m looking forward to growing these skills through other classes in this program.