Ahhh... feels good to be sitting on the other side of the room this time! Like we emphasized in the Second-Timer Panel, it's a whole 'nother ball game sitting on the second-timer side of the room. I don't feel nearly as stressed or overwhelmed as I did this time last semester. At this point, I'm just hoping somebody liked me enough to want me as a mentor! :)
For this week, we read the Kapor article about software design. I was especially struck by the quote on the first page, "The most important social evolution within the computing professions would be to create a role for the software designer as a champion of the user experience...What is design?...It's where you stand with a foot in two worlds- the world of technology and the world of people and human purposes-and you try to bring the two together" (Kapor, pg.1 [emphasis added]). I love that phrase "a champion of the user experience" because I feel it explains perfectly how I see my career goal of becoming an LSTC, as well as my thinking for my project. As an LSTC, my job will be to become a champion of the user experience; how can I instruct teachers in tech tools in such a way that they feel confident in their own experience with the product?
For my project, though, I must think along similar lines. I have decided that, this semester, I will be creating a website for my neighbor who has recently gotten into the photography business. She currently runs her business off a blog, and while she desperately wants a website for her business, she considered it to be too expensive.... until I came along! This semester, my thinking about the project was a bit flipped: while last semester I knew I wanted to do a project that could help me in my future goals, this semester I am more focused on the tools that I know I will need as an LSTC. My LSTC emphasized that I need to know Dreamweaver and Photoshop. Since I am quite novice at both of those tools, I knew my project this semester must focus on them. I couldn't think of any projects LSTC-related that would incorporate those tools, so I decided to work backwards and find a project that COULD use those tools. That's when I thought of my neighbor! So, I will be creating her website and making it live before November.
When considering how to design her layout, I truly had to focus on the user and be a champion of the user experience. I've had to think about layouts that would be most intuitive, a design that would allow people to easily find the content they are searching for. And the Dreamweaver tutorials I watched on Adobe TV emphasized "no more than 3 clicks"- that a user must be able to get to their content in no more than 3 clicks. So I have been focusing on how to get all of the content she wants on her site (galleries, photo proofing, her blog, her facebook, pricing information, session information, about her, etc.) organized in such a way that the user will easily be able to navigate the site. So far, I'm having a lot of fun learning about Dreamweaver and setting up the "bones" of the site, and I'm looking forward to challenging myself in my learning a bit more this semester!
