5 Site Research…

As examples go for forums I really like the World of Warcraft site. This one here at Games Forum is close to the look and feel I’m going for and here is the forum of a related site to the game itself for Classic Battletech, but it doesn’t have that eye catching look I would like to accomplish. I think I can find a lot of examples of forums, I mean, I have found a lot. However, it’s more of how to create the forum that I’m really curious about.

Once again, I think my ideas are much more extensive than my actual abilities. I’m having a hard enough time fully understanding the full concept of CSS at the moment so nothing short of learning new kinds of scripting (which I’m sure will be coming in the not to distant future) like php, Mysql and the like, it would seem that downloading an open source forum, like the bbpress.org or ForuMotion is another option. More-so, the one I keep coming across and reading about at places like
Sitepoint is called phpBB and apparently they are the most widely used open source forum solution.

But I want to know how to make one!!! Though, I suppose…like Mr. Batchelder said, if it’s already been done, go with that as an easier solution. Yeah, ok…I can go with that for now, but eventually I’ll want to really know how to do it. On top of that, if I do go with these open source…how do I modify it with CSS to make it look like the way I want it too? Ahhhh!!!

It seems like such a pain in the ass you know? I don’t understand why I always have to make things so damn hard sometimes. Apparently, there are actually a lot of questions in my head, but I have a hard time getting them out. I really don’t like reading very much (but I like writing…go figure) as I am very much a visual and auditory learner. I get it better when I’m doing it…I’m a “scanner” so having to read about it gets on my nerves for some reason, especially if it’s long, and I seem to just block bits of stuff out.

I’m just not sure where to concentrate my design problem. Okay, not true…I want to do the community forum thing, it’s just that I have way to many other options that want to come out. I just don’t feel like I have any direction. I know what I want to do, but I am very unclear on how to get there.

Any suggestions or comments are gladly accepted and welcome.

Final Design Idea…

Alright, so while reading a lot of the other blogs, apparently we were suppose to post about our final design ideas. So, here is mine…

My design idea is nothing new. I will be continuing  a site that I started in my User Centered Design class last quarter. The site is for a gaming community called VG Corps. They are a community of gamers that play/pilot the Firestorm, Battletech, and Red Planet games in the old Vitrual World pods. Some of you may remember them. Before my UCD class, I didn’t have much knowledge of this community. I knew about the games because I use to play in the them at a gaming center that use to be located just across the street from the Art Institute, but somehow I managed to totally miss the community aspect of it all. Which, by the way, is my design problem.

I would love to know how to take my previous design elements and really place them within my page effectively. The problem would be how to build a stronger community for the user within the site. With that, I believe it is within this, that I would really like to know how to build a forum and how to allow a user to build personal profiles (like MySpace or Facebook) for/within the site so that the user has their own identity within the online community of VG Corps.

So there it is. Now, I’m going to bed.

Reaction to “A Design Process Revealed”…

I would have to totally agree with Douglas Bowman’s “A Design Process Revealed” article from the very start at the first paragraph. I love the magic references in that it is so true about the non-designer/artist vs. designers and artists- that designers and artist seem to use a lot of smoke and mirrors when creating things. Hell, to be honest even I have been guilty of using my “creative talents” at times, or whatever you want to call them, to create some spectacular thing out of nowhere. I have no idea where it came from, it just happened and it really does look great. I mean, if you are like me and tend to be your own worse critic, then you know something has to be wrong it when you yourself are impressed and actually like it. Sometimes there is a big drawback to going about that process in the fact that there really isn’t a ‘logical’ process and thus you may be wasting valuable time that could otherwise be put to use elsewhere. This has been learned the hard way and I’m sure that I am not alone. Show of hands?

I still rather much agree with Bowman in  design process itself. Even though I have been down this path before (when I was at the Art Institute of Dallas from 1997-1999, studying Computer Animation) I had no solid use for it once I got out into the real world. Mostly because the things I were working on were generally already thought out in a design process before they made it to me or my team for creation and rendering. However, once I started designing web sites I noticed that I needed those particular design skills back, but they were a bit rusty and I had developed some bad habits. Coming back to the Art Institute (now to study Interactive Media Design) I have started to learn these process all over again. By observation I have noticed that those processes have also changed a bit in their approach to the final outcome, or at least so it seems. Either way I think it has so far been awesome!

The design process is not really anything new to me, but at the same time it kind of is, if you know what I mean. I have always known it, but I have never actually implemented or effectively used it in it’s entirety. Take for instance a time when I created a logo for a company. When looking ideas I did initiate a word research (something recently I have come to revisit in my Ideation & Rapid Visualization class). I needed to know the sum of the parts of the logo in which I was creating and the word research helped with that a great deal. After I found imagery that corresponded to the effective words, I made thumbnails. Then, after the thumbnails were finished I took it all to my computer and started the design in Photoshop. Voila!

Funny enough, it wasn’t even that particular finished piece that I had used. I wasn’t even satisfied with it for that matter and knew that my client may not like it much as well. It probably wasn’t all that great because I kind of sped through the design process, wanting to get it done as soon as possible and not mapping out all of my options and thoughts. What ended up being the final was an idea (of many) that I had sketched out onto a napkin one very late evening at a coffee bistro. So apparently I still had more in me to get this project done.

On the whole, I guess what I’m getting at is that, as much of a pain-in-the-ass it can certainly be, there is this design process that we (especially as Interactive Media Designers, Web Developers, Graphic Designers and such) must go through at some point to really get the full of what we want to accomplish. Yes, there will be the occasional last minute changes that could totally turn the initial process or idea upside-down, but none so many that we should stop with the process all together. Hey, I’m not just preaching to the quire here. Even as I write this, by introspect, I realize that in some cases I was totally not factoring in all of my options which could have saved me a lot of headache and anxiety.  Hey, go figure…we’re actually learning something with sustenance that is useful and productive at this school. Now there’s a concept for ya!

Hey, Welcome to My New Blog Everyone…

Hello, my name is Jedidiah Esparza. People call me Jedi (yes…as in Star Wars).

This blog was started for my Intermediate Scripting class at the Art Institute of Dallas and I’m hoping to really get a lot out of this class.

I have had past experience building websites. Started out as designing logos for a friend of mine, then finding out what I could do with those things once I got them online. From there it kind of took off. I was new and I used what was available to me, so I used Frontpage for a while creating websites for people. I dabbled mostly in the HTML of it all to figure out why things were not in the right places. Come later to find out that CSS had a lot more to do with that. So of course I got interested in that too.

After my first intro to scripting class, I was completely immersed with CSS, well as much as you can when just starting out. I’m still quite new to the CSS side of things, and quite honestly I didn’t even know it got so complicated and thus I’m not really sure what exactly my objectives are in learning it. There are however things that I have questions about that I suppose could be considered for accomplishing or learning about.

1. I would really like to the the grasp on just what is “Web Standard” in the design of a web page. I have never quite understood it. What standards of dimensions do I build or design a site to ie. 640 x 480, 800 x 600, or 1024 x 768 and so on? (I’ve spent countless hours trying to position stuff just right when building sites and have wondered if there was an easier way than trial and error for such.
2. I think I would really like to know how to position things correctly too. Again, are there standards to a layout of where things go? If there are open possibilities to designing a site the way I would like it to look, how do I accomplish that and stay within the “standards” of layout if there are any or apply? How do I get all of my hundreds of elements to position and perform where I want them to or can CSS do some of that for me without having to make a separate picture for it and so on?
3. I would like to learn and know how to create a forum area for a site.
4. I would like to get a better understanding of how CSS relates or talks to other scripting.
5. I don’t know if it has anything to do with CSS, but I would also like to be able to create a web store and shopping cart.

So, those are my objectives thus far. I’m sure that once we get going and I learn more about what it is that we are doing exactly, then I’m sure I will have more. Rest assured, I will always have questions.
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A quick bit about the blog name…

The title of my blog, Esparza Entertainments (Ee), is my personal business that I started that encompasses my involvement with the entertainment businesses. Ee personally deals with my workings in art such as painting, drawing, graphic design, photography, and web design/development.

A sub company/structure of that is Adrian Castle Productions, which deals with the productions of Stage, Television, and Film. Mostly in the form of stage and screen combat choreography a.k.a. Fight/Combat/Stunt Coordination, but not limited to.

Anyhow, in a nut shell…or ummm…web shell? That’s my introduction and first post. I do hope that my questions help spark new ones in you as well as answer some that you might have wanted to know.

Please feel free to comment as all criticisms, help, and the like are welcome (just no spam).

~Jedi