One Page Website - Practical Photography.

I created a one page website about photography and called it 'Practical Photography'. My website was designed to be aimed at aspiring photographers, or anyone who is interested in photography. As my website is not aimed at a specific gender or age group, I tried to keep a clean, professional style when designing it. I did this buy using tones of grey for the main layout, with a light blue background to add a touch of colour. I chose to use tones of grey as it isn't gender specific, and looks professional, which as I've said is the main look I was trying to achieve when making my website. I believe I have met my target audience as I feel the layout is something that everyone can appreciate, and looks professional and clean. Its also very user friendly as my website is aimed at people of every age, so I didn't want to make it too complicated and high-tech. This is why I feel I have met my target audience and its requirements.

To check that my one page website was in cross browser format, I opened it up in Dreamweaver, and then from that opened it up into Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer to check that it would open and run properly in each web browser, based on what browser the viewer was using. It opened and ran properly in all browser formats, so it was successful.

Slide show created on 'Cu3ox'

Regarding use of content I tried to have a variation of things that people could look at, and the items listed on the horizontal navigation bar above are a few of the things that people can go on and look at. As well as all of this there was a image viewer which I created using 'Cu3ox' which would - using a selection of photographs that I had chosen - create a slide show type item, which people would watch to view all the various photographs taken or entered by other people, as well as other images placed underneath this which are related to the articles beside them. As well as this my website has a box which people can use to follow Practical Photography on either Facebook or Twitter, if they want to do this they must share their information, and after doing so they will receive updates related to my one page website. There is also an area which has been given to advertisement, which features four advertisements for various other websites related to photography, for example one of the hyperlinks used is for RedBubble, which is a website in which people can sign up to, and upload their latest work and receive comments and feedback from the general public, and other RedBubble users.


My final Photoshop design for my one page website was fairly successful I feel, though I do think that there are various things I could improve on looking back at it now. My reasoning for thinking that my design for my website is successful is this; because of my target audience I didn't want my website to relate or be aimed at either males or females, I wanted it to appeal to both men and women, and I feel that I have done this well with the colour scheme and layout that I have used, the colour scheme because it isn't gender specific, as I have chosen to use a blue background which I feel doesn't link back to the male gender, and black and grey to make it appear more professional, by keeping the colours simple. I think the layout was succesful because I think it has a professional, clean feel to it - which is complimented by the colour scheme - and also as there isn't too much going on  on the page to distract the viewer, everything is carefully placed and with what I think is good spacial awareness.

When creating my one page website I used cascading style sheets (CSS), which you can see in the image to the left. CSS is used for flexible formatting of a page, which is used for various elements, such as colours, layout and fonts. I used this to select the colour I wanted for my background, and the colour, size and style of the typography used on my website.

On my website I used hyperlinks for various things such as links to other websites related to photography, and also for links to Facebook and Twitter, where users could click on and they would be taken to a page in which they can follow Practical Photography and be updated on all the latest news, competitions and more.

When creating my one page website I used a range of software, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Cu3ox and Safari. All of which had a specific purpose in relation to creating my one page website. I used Photoshop to design what I wanted my one page website to look like. I used Illustrator in order to design and create my logo which would be used throughout my website, as you can see from the image to the right I decided to create a camera, using various skills and techniques, using a range of carefully placed shapes in order to make the camera itself, I also created the 'PP' in the middle of the lense of the camera on Illustrator, again using various shapes to create it. Dreamweaver was another programme I used, and this was to start the process of turning my design I had previously created in Photoshop, into something that can be, and will be - upon completion - turned into a live site on the internet. Cu3ox was the programme I used in order to create the image rollover on the main content area of my one page website, which I have previously mentioned, I chose various images I wanted to use in said image roll over, and then chose how I wanted the transaction from image to image to happen, once this had been done it was a case of saving it and then including it into my Dreamweaver document using specific coding. Safari was simply used to test wether once my one page website was finished, that it would open successfully on a web browser, and all the content of my one page website was in working order and could be seen, and was funtioning the way it should be.

Once I had finished my one page website in DreamWeaver, I then opened it up in Safari to check it was all working as it should, and that your were able to see everything that needed to be seen, and also to ensure that all my hyperlinks were working correctly.

My final thoughts on my website are that overall it was a success, I am happy with the fact that my finished one page website is fairly similar to the way I designed it in Photoshop, with only a few changes to the design. I am very happy that my Cu3ox image rollover works and can be seen in Safari as this was an area that proved to be slightly difficult. Given the chance there aren't a lot of things that I would change, but one of the changes I would perhaps make would be to add the boarders in which were in my original design, but change them slightly, the reason I would add the boarders in would be to make it appear more professional, and to section off the different areas of my one page website. Other than this I am very happy with the overall outcome of my website.