Tackling the creation of a whole website using CSS and XHTML was probably the most stressful but enjoyable task of this website project. Designing a website is not the easiest task ever but it is a process of being patient and creating each page under the pretense that it has to be consistent with web writing and the norms of communicating on the web.

I used Dreamweaver 8 to construct my website. So, the first tidbit of advice I would give to any designer is use a web design application that you can easily familiarize yourself with and go from there. I hadn’t used Dreamweaver 8 before but I have used an updated version to create a less complex website of only text and images.

My learning of new styles and language helped me a lot in creating this website project. Before taking this class, I never really paid attention to learning the ins and outs of HTML, I just wanted to throw a website together in the least amount of time possible just so I could say I had a website. Fortunately, this class really gave me a different outlook on how to communicate on the web and construct pages based on the content I wanted to put on my website.
I used a 2-column format of CSS to build my website. It is very easy to work with and simple to use if you know what you’re doing. It made it easier to make each page consistent with each other in the long run because each text format was a style that could be highlighted and selected from a dropdown box in Dreamweaver 8. Even creating pages from pages that I already made was easier since the text was the only thing that needed to match up in order to make each page usable and viewable.

The graphics part of the website became an afterthought. Thinking like a designer, I felt that the graphics of this page did not have to be complex or self-made because from a writing standpoint, I want my writing to standout, not my graphics. If I used graphics more, it could have potentially taken from the purpose of creating an opinion website based on my blog.

All in all, the ultimate creation of this website came from learning more about things like CSS, linking, and having a consistent style to fall back on to. The color scheme and layout worked out more than I thought it would simply because I started from scratch and knew how each page should look it in its final version. In the past, websites I created were more or less done with a beginner’s mindset. Let’s make a homepage, now some links, then throw some cool graphics/buttons in to make it look professional and it didn’t turn out too well.

With this project, I took my time, sat down, wrote material I felt would fit the topic, then sorted each piece out to the necessary page it belonged to. It sounds easy but some things are easier said than done. So with each work I produced, I made each page layout different. For Miscellaneous, I went with an “article” type format, for NCAA, I went with a more “excerpt” look since the NCAA is definitely a tougher topic to write about than professional sports. Essentially, I gave each page a different look in order to not only create consistently but to create separation from each sports genre.