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Showing posts from January, 2020

Work in the Web

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I have recently taken part in  Work in the Web  which is a 3-day workshop for students who want to work in the web industry. For myself, this is a great chance to learn more about the industry I want to work in and gain more knowledge and experience. Moreover, it helped massively with my final year project providing tools, knowledge, and advice from professionals. Day 1 A key session from day 1 of Work in the Web was on the basic principles of web design showing the importance of designing for a wide audience and how valuable our choices are in making the design. A good point I found was to avoid excessive use of ALL CAPS as it is hard for people with dyslexia to read. Finally, we ended the day with sessions on Command-Line and Github, these tools are so useful to your skillset as you can gain greater control over systems functions with the command-line and you can use it for version control with Git. Github is very useful to track changes in your code and see your history of

Prototype Process

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The next milestone in the Gantt Chart and project is the prototype, this blog post track the process and progress I have made so far with the prototype.  I have created a more detailed sitemap for the application after reviewing the original sitemap in the pitch document I found it was not detailed or showed the structure of the application clearly. Therefore, the new sitemap showcases the Codability structure and layout of the application. It outlines the key features and pages available to the users and highlights the process users will go through when using the app.  App Wireframes InVision Prototype I thought it would be useful to create a prototype on InVision to test the designs and feel of the app before I started with development. I drew out and then digitally made the new wireframes and then progressed to importing them into InVision. I was then able to export this to share and I made a screen recording to show 5 members of my target audience a

Learn Code

Godwin-Jones (2011) discusses different possibilities of creating apps, the first is a native app which is an app developed for a certain mobile device that can be downloaded from the app stores. This can be good as you can learn specific code languages if you know you only want to create an IOS application. " However, for language learning purposes, native app development may not be the best choice. Not only are the programming environments different, each also involves knowing or learning a programming language" (Godwin-Jones, 2011, p.5). This is why I have chosen not to make a native app for Codability.  A strong supporter of open software is Lawrence Lessig founder of ‘Creative Commons’ he stated, “four hundred thousand have said, we believe in a kind of freedom associated with our content that is not the extreme” (Lessig, 2004, p.11). With many free tools and resources available online it would be useful to utilise the open-source software and code. There is plenty of do

Design Analysis

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In this week's blog I thought it would be useful to look at the application designs of my competitors. This will allow me to think about my designs and analyse what already works in the market.  “Seeing a colour or thinking about colour produces certain reactions in our mind” (Dmitrieva, 2016) this is something to think about when analysing the designs of these applications.  SoloLearn SoloLearn uses a light and pastel colour scheme which implies trust and efficiency. The choice of colour gives users the feeling of calmness. The design of the app is clear and not over complicated. Users can tell what the app is about and what it aims to do from the designs alone.  However, when navigating through the app there are an overwhelming about of icons which can take away from the simplicity of the design. The designs once entering the app becoming very complex with too much on the page making it confusing to users to know where to start and what to click.     Mimo  

Understanding The Audience

Introduction  It is essential to understand the audience as much as possible as it will allow me to make informed decisions about the content and designs of the project. I found out a great deal from my survey and now I am gonna build on my understanding on my audience as well as my competitors audience.  Competitors Audience  All competitors are aimed at people who want to learn code.  SoloLearn is aimed at people learning the  fundamentals and progressing and gaining knowledge to complete further courses. Mimo is aimed at people who want to learn the basics and fundamentals and this is the app for people with no coding experience at all.  Codecademy Go is aimed at different levels beginners and more advanced coders. This app is appeals to a wide target audience as Codecademy was already a popular website which them became mobile. It is aimed at any levels from different coding backgrounds.  My Audience  My audience is going to be specifically targeted towards women to give