Taylor Hughes

For my final project I have a few ideas.

My first idea is to coordinate with the Adventure Trip Program here at Texas State and make a website for them. It would include an About page, a Contact Page, a Trip Page with probably a dropdown that has all the different trips including current and past. Then another page for the schedule of trips or maybe past students experiences.

Another idea is someone in my family is needing a website for her pottery. I am thinking about making a Home page, an About Page, a Contact/where to find the pottery page, a page that includes all of the different things she has made and sells. I think another cool page could be the process of making the pottery.

So far these are my two ideas. I am not sure which one I will choose because I would like to work out the bugs for both of them, and make a pro-con list, before making a final decision.

For our next assignment I would like to make a website on an organization I am involved in called Saint Paul’s Outreach. They currently already have a website, but I would like to focus more on the Texas Chapter.

The five pages would consist of a Home page talking about a general overview of what the organization is.

The next will be a Mission page talking about what the goal and ideals of the organization are.

Next a page for the Texas chapter to show more about the organization and some of the things Texas has and does that.

Next there will be a page dedicated to Events. Showing all of the different events we have had, and that we do have. There could be a calendar of sorts that shows this.

Finally a contact page. Where to find people involved and how to get involved.

I would like the site to be fairly simple. We have have a great photographer, so I think the pictures will be colorful enough and make the page pop. There are two sites I would like my website to look like. This is the first and this is the second. It may be a bit ambitious, but I think I could make something like this work, or at least I would like to try.

One of my favorite websites is a cooking site I discovered a few months back called The Curvy Carrot. Not only is the name really fun, but the site is very well made. The creators definitely have a user friendly approach in their design, and their content of course is what makes me come back for more.

For starters the site is self-explanatory. Upon visiting The Curvy Carrot, you can clearly see it is a website full of cooking recipes. There are very few “question marks” if any that Vitaly Friedman talks about in the article “10 Principles of Effective Web Design.” The user can easily navigate the page, and there is a clear path from one point to the next whether the user is searching for a certain recipe, or just wanting to browse through the site.

The creator of the site, Shannon, does a good job at focusing the users attention. She posts photos that are well-composed, and just the right size that captures the users attention but are not too distracting. When a user gets to the homepage they are greeted with a slideshow of some of her recipes. The pictures as I have stated are appealing, but also when the user sees something that catches their eye, they can click the picture, taking them directly to the recipe. She does a very good job at capturing the user’s attention, then delivering them exactly what they are looking for.

Next I would say Shannon does a good job at using writing effectively. While the writing is slightly different because it is recipes, she does break down in an easy to understand way. Her posts also consist of a bit of blogging about herself and daily life which I think is a pretty cool twist. But mostly her recipes are what I tend to focus on, and they are concise. Both in wordage, and in style.

Simplicity is something the creator does well too. Her site is neutral, but bold enough that it captures the users eye. I like how on each of her category pages there are simply pictures, and when you scroll over you can see what the dish is. That to me is simple and easy to follow. Though there are a few ads on the homepage which is not the most appealing, they are not intensely distracting. Her logo is cute and effective. I think the site strives in simplicity and does not let design get in the way of content at all.

Finally I will say I think The Curvy Carrot is quite a conventional site. It is very easy to navigate. The user can clearly see where they need to go if they are looking for certain recipes. Also she makes her social media available throughout the site which is helpful. There is nothing extremely innovative about the website, yet this is a great thing because it is pretty easy to navigate and figure out.

Overall, The Curvy Carrot is a site I continual use. Whether I am cooking dinner for my roommates, or making banana bread. I have relied on this website for a lot of my cooking for a few months, and I think it does a great job at being a well functioning, easy to use site.