Capstone, Summary and Conclusion

If anything, Capstone has been the ultimate learning and culmination experience. I came into the class unsure of how things would go. What project would I work on? How could I showcase my my abilities? Where would I go after my senior project was finally over? I can tell you that it was not without great effort, friendship, hard work, and rediscovering what it actually meant to be a Comm major, that I was able to create this Wordpress site for my final project. So many things happened and changed me. I am now pretty proficient in Wordpress and have now a understanding of how to use Adobe Illustrator, both of which I had no idea how to use before I started. I challenged and expanded my Photoshop skills, and I also learned so much about how the web functions not only as a hub of information but as a media tool that can have so many potentials.

My Capstone project

The project also expanded itself into more things than I ever thought, I created Shepherd University Career Services a functioning Twitter account that can be set for automatic tweets. I rediscovered video and photos for their site that added a sense of vibrancy, fun, and dynamic to their site.  I enabled them connections with useful software like Vimeo and Slideshare that allows them to create and distribute dynamic, multimedia content easily and efficiently via their website. I also integrated their site with Google apps such as calendar and docs to make it friendly to use. 

I also became more design savvy. I don't really have the best eye for design, but pushing myself through comparative analysis with so many other websites and researching their designs and their strategies, I am much more appreciative to see how design works fluidly and integrates well to contribute to the overall function of the site.

I understand now the importance of functional web navigation and how important it is to efficiently deliver content to the viewers in the fastest most intuitive way, I learned how using Wordpress's means for classification, such as  categories, tags, custom menus resolve to be not only helpful for storing content in an organized way, but are easy enough for non-developers to manage.

I am now passionate about the Career Services Center at Shepherd and everything that they can offer and do for students. It is such an important part of any students college career to stop in and participate in Career Services' events. Students do not realize at how powerful a resource they have here right on campus. Best of all, all the services that are offered are completely free.

I also learned that content management systems are one of the most intriguing and best resources to have for developing blogs and websites, even the free versions, such as what I used. I have a new confidence and a new love for developing websites.

Cultural Event: Peter Pan, the Musical

I was lucky enough over Spring Break to attend my hometown theater troupe's rendition of Peter Pan, the Musical. Having not seen Peter Pan since I was a child, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, as I realized, Peter Pan was all about rediscovering our child-like wonder and imagination. The musical aspect of the play was okay, though I'm not sure if it added anything to the story. I think the thing that I enjoyed the most was watching the younger kids in the audience. They seemed to have such a magical time, especially when the cast pulled off a very interesting version of "flying" for the fairy dust scene.

Wendy and Peter Pan, courtesy of WVTE

It started off a little slow and only got to Neverland about half-way through the play, and there were some parts in the show that I was a little unfamiliar with, but for the most part what I did recall was choreographed very smoothly, and there was a fight scene between the indians and the pirates that was pulled off very wonderfully. There was a great pirate ship set that looked very artistic and very visually stunning.

I've seen many plays and acted in many of the troupe's productions and I have to s
ay that this was one of the first times that I had really been impressed by the main characters' acting ability. For amateur theater, you come into the production knowing what to expect, and usually in the plays there are many child actors and a large cast, but Peter Pan balanced it out and actually turned out to be a great performance.

The Indians do their war dance in Peter Pan the Musical

Only slightly different from the Disney version that we all know and love, Peter Pan, the musical reminded me that I shouldn't be in such a hurry to finish growing up (though I think its a bit too late for that) but it also reminded me that it's okay to act like a little kid again sometimes.

Cultural Blog: Music of the Jazz Age: An Evening with Scott and Hemingway

For one of cultural events, I went to a Jazz presentation at the Frank Arts Center. The program, Music of the Jazz Age, literally blew me away. It featured two staff, Dr. Cook and Dr. Adams, and two Shepherd students Dan Dunn and Sawyer Gordon making up the ensemble of piano, saxophone, bass, and percussion.

Jazz, the music and the culture is very dear to me, as a musician myself, who has played jazz, I have such a great appreciation and derive much enjoyment from it. It was truly a night to be remember as this outstanding quartet took us back in time to the cafe culture, the writer's Mecca, in  20's Paris. Having taken a Parisian Modernism english class, I could easily place myself among all the sentiments and nuances of the era. In the background of it all was the birth of Jazz. Every time I hear a live performance  I fall in love with it all over again.

The performance was impeccable, there are no words to describe the talent and proficiency of those who have mastered their instruments.  Jazz was definitely an era that changed music for all of time. It introduced syncopation and swing, and led to the birth of improvisation, recreating and remastering every melody. The wonderful smattering of tunes included everything f

rom Gershwin to Duke Ellington, and a small short from the Jazz Singer. There was a lot of laughter, and a bit of history, and it all became a magical event and one of the best nights out that I have had in such a  long time.

Some of the funniest moments were when each of the soloists tried to outplay and outdo the other, but it  only added to the fun lightheartedness that is Jazz. But no less entertaining was remembering the spots of time that the music brought with it and experiencing a sort of wishful melancholy of the a time now passed. It was a wonderful evening to celebrate such an awesome and influential  time in music, art and literature.

Cultural Blog: The Rude Mechanicals Medieval Renaissance Farce and Student Play

I hadn't laughed so hard since I've went and saw the Rude Mechanicals Medieval Farces and student written play. The night that I attended, the Rudes performed Eighteen and Green, by Stephen Viau, a student play and then Confession Lessons and Monk-ey Business, two farces.

I wasn't sure what to expect at first with these plays, but the first that I saw was Eighteen and Green, an alien love story, about an alien Kirkland, who crashes his spaceship on planet Earth and falls in love with a high school teenager.  The performance was definitely the Rudes' comedy at its best, complete with funny antics and a crazy cast of characters including a pair of bumbling detectives (one that may be an alien himself! and some really well done stereotypes, the overbearing mother, the dramatic teen, the lonely neighbor) that reminds us not to take the plot so seriously. It takes an even funnier and drastic  tone when the main character gets pregnant just by kissing the alien, in which hilarity ensues, but eventually leads tot heir happy ending.  At times, I admit there was so much going on that it overwhelming at some bits, but still had me trying to catch my breath and covering my mouth from laughing so hard.


After the student production, the Rudes performed the bawdy modern translations of two medieval farces, another hysterical interpretation of old comedy. It was proof that comedy and satire and their sometimes raucous and sexual themes still appeal and entertain us. In Confession Lessons, we are able to see the satire of the corruption of the church and the treatment of women, and even though many of the themes don't directly correlate to our world today, the situations are still universal enough to an audience 500-600 years after its prime. There were many outrageous scenes that I never expected, and couple of shocking, albeit laugh out loud moments that showed the prowess of these actors.
After Confession Lessons, Monk-ey Business showed what can happen with a little spite and a whole lot of alcohol. It still proves that no matter what era it is, drunken hijinks always are a fun spectacle to watch.

Though the show was long, it was definitely worth seeing, and came just at the right time to relieve a little bit of end of the semester stress.

Cultural Event: A Celebration of Storer College

Me in the Storer Ballroom right after the film showing.

For one of my cultural events for my Capstone, I went to the celebration of Storer College in the Storer Ballroom. Program Board director Rachael Meads presented the event, which was a dedication of both a place and a people.

At the celebration, attendees were treated to a wonderful documentary film about Storer College by Jefferson Co. native Midge Yost, who wrote, directed, and produced the film.

The celebration of Storer College was more than just a program, it was an inward look at the many milestones that American history went through. It gives meaning to the name "Storer" Ballroom and reminds us that America is a country of many diversities. At times these diversities and gems are lost to other parts of history, but the film inspires us to remember and explore the rich community right in our very own surrounding area.

Storer College, which I had not heard of ( or rather knew much about) before attending the celebration is truly an achievement for the African-American culture and heritage that is such an important part of our civil rights history. The college was one of the very first colleges to educate freed black slaves, and provided one of the first state systems for the higher learning of African-Americans.

The college, which opened in the fall of 1867, set up missionary schools to over 30,000 freed slaves in the Shennadoah Valley.  These school were designed to show recently freed slaves how to manage their freedom and become self-sufficient and successful. It was at Storer and college like Storer that proved that (contrary to the popular belief at the time) that freed slaves could learn and they could be educated. They were taught valuable skills and developed a passion for self-determination that helped them give themselves respect and a greater sense of humanity.

Before the college closed in 1955, Storer had become one of the most influential and respected institutions for African Americans in the US. Storer not only enriched the lives of its student with a strong community, but also was home to an intense, diverse, and ultimately very spiritual learning environment. Student were required to go to chapel almost every day, which sometimes include the occasional visit by important African-American leaders, including George Washington Carver.

In fact many say that Storer College was one of the birthplaces of the NAACP, when it met as the Niagra Movement, their first meeting together in the United States.

People as influential as Don Redman, who was the first African American attorney in WV was a Storer College alum. Redman went on to be the first elected president of Nigeria.

After the film, we were entreated to a interesting discussion and were fortunate to have an alumni from Storer College present. She was full of spunk and kept reciting how she had a wonderful time at Storer and how important the experience was to her life.

This event truly was inspirational, and it reminded me of how much cultural and history I had missed out on, Storer was truly a legacy to be celebrated!

Creating the aesthetic for project presentation

So not only are we creating a project for Capstone, but we also have to present the project via board to the public in a "fair" setting. My board project has acquainted me more with Adobe Illustrator than I thought possible.

My idea for my board was to design something that was eye catching, but simple in design, but functional so it reflected the ideas that I put into my website.

Researching into Adobe Illustrator, I found a way to create my own paintbrushes to include my own personal color scheme into my board. It has also changed the way I feel about Photoshop and Illustrator.  Illustrator seems to have not an more expansive way of creating, but just a very different way, it seems a little more artist oriented than photoshop, which seems more business/industrial oriented.

Another way I researched for my board was look through the different capstone projects on the Facebook group to see how other students had done their project boards in the past.

After My Last Capstone Meeting, Revisions and Revelations

Knowing now what I  need to update and change going into Spring Break, I hope that I can make all my corrects and modifications before I present the site for user testing next Thursday. Some of the elements that I am researching to make better are:

-The testimonials page: I wanted to incorporate a testimonials page because it was important to Victoria (director of Career Services) to receive feedback from Shepherd students. Though with Wordpress.com, I thought it would be unfeasible to create, however I found an option that allows me to create a very basic testimonials page. The idea is that a blank page is set up, but the comments are left turned on. Then, the posted comments become the testimonials.

-The transfer of documents to posts: The posts feature of Wordpress, I realized, I was actually underusing the feature. By researching what I can do to make the most of how my posts function within my the theme I chose, I can definitely tweak and make adjustments to what I already have to make sure that the site is working as efficiently as possible

-Blog feature: I need to find someway to incorporate a separate example blog, which I have already completed in my 447 class, however, I need to find an example blog feed, or just incorporate it into my technical plan as something that I could not include in the wordpress site.

-Graphics into posts and pages: This is something I have put on the back burner, but I really need to complete and make sure that the graphics complement the pages and are not superflous.

-The technical plan: A technical plan was something that was extremely important to this project, and therefore I have been looking at formats that best presents information in quick, easy to read and digest manner, and also echoes the organization of the actual site.

My other research includes the final and most vigorous testing of the navigation to make sure that it is function and understandable.  This means  going in and checking my custom menus and making sure that I have the most efficient definition between my categories and my pages. The custom menu feature is a great one, but I do have to make sure, (by using comparative analysis) that I am using it effectively.

Ominupdate, the future of Shepherd's CMS solution, and capstone

So I just found out this week, that Wordpress is not going to be the future of Shepherd's CMS solution. And I'm okay with that. I always knew that what I was doing was laying a foundation for Shepherd Career Services. What my goal is, though is to discover how I can make my site and my content more adaptable to this new CMS solution called Ominupdate.

Omniupdate, as I have been able to figure out from their demos and website is another kind of CMS specifically used for educational institutions. The program is called OUCampus and like Wordpress, it is a browser-based CMS and features insertable modules for sidebar content and menus ( called widgets in Wordpress). It is unlike the in-depth self-hosted Wordpress, (the wordpress.com blog I'm using for my own site for SCS is also free) free.

From what I can tell with the site, is that educational institutions choose from three different customizable templates, which tells me that this kind of site is especially made for function, not necessarily aesthetics. Each instution's site is pretty much like every other site with a few customizable changes.  Examples of headers and footers show us that there are also custom options, that you don't get available with Wordpress.

OU Campus lists a variety of different benefits of using their programs including many of the same options as Wordpress, including intuitive CMS and easy editing, media addition with forms and polls, it also supports most browsers including IE, Firefox, and Chrome.

Though the OU Campus site is rather vague, so I researched some actual colleges that are using OU Campus as a CMS, University of Denver, University of Chicago, and University of Dallas, so I could get a better understanding of how the CMS functions on a real time level.

Surprisingly, my personal reaction was very positive to each of the sites, they seem well organized and feature some dynamic content, except with much more customizable ability, which actually does make it aesthetically pleasing.

I think this program works well with trying to incorporate any other kind of CMS, because it contains many of the same features, which will translate well.

I only wish that I could have been able to use the actual program, so I could better prepare Career Services for what is to come in the future, however I do plan on putting some of my research in with my technical plan so they can be more informed.

Sex appeal and feedback, capstone website

I think one of the most inspiring weeks of my Capstone has been this week. For another class that I am taking, Advanced Internet, we are also working with Wordpress, and I had to write another blog for that class analyzing another Wordpress site. I've learned so much about how to make a site dynamic, even when I can use fancy Javascripts or code. It really is a challenge to both my left logical brain and my creative right brain when it comes to figuring out how I'm going to make this site work.

A website's sex appeal, to designers and builders may not be be the number one (for me it's definitely organization) but to a standard audience, it means the difference in how long they're going to stay on a website, or how they're going to process information.  So what I plan on putting into this week, is thoughtful 'sex appeal' making sure as I start putting in visually attractive content (pictures, picture slideshows, organizing video) that I do it in a way that is not only attractive and interactive, but also smart and intuitive. I've learned that links, although not the superior form what I want to accomplish, work well if implanted constructively and seamlessly.

I have made some plans as to how I'm going to execute this idea, and I think that it is going to rely not only on my judgement, but also vigorous user testing. Though I feel like I'm in "beta" mode of my site still, I think the sooner I get people clicking and exploring, the more that I can do to make it better. Feedback is definitely going to help this part of my project. I've also begun mobile device testing, and seeing how I can customize what the mobile side of SCS site looks like and responses.

The Anti-Script Underbelly of Wordpress.com for SCS's site

So I found out today, that if you create a blog/website under Wordpress.com ( not .org) where you have a free blog/website, that you cannot embed html, javascript, or  (unapproved) iframe into these sites. It took me about an hour of searching Wordpress forums and Google until I came across this page. Which explains that external embeds are not allowed because they might contain harmful elements, so if Wordpress encounters these kind of scripts, they automatically strip them out.

So that means no Google Custom Search Engine. Which is a total and complete bummer, because I definitely think it would make such a great addition to the site. Good news though, I've already created the search engine until Shepherd Career Services' Google account, so that if one day it does become available, the search engine code is ready to be copied and pasted.

Actually the more that I delve into Wordpress.com, the more I think it would definitely be worth a company or organization's time to just spend the money and self-host with wordpress.org rather than use a free blog with wordpress. The snags that I have run into, are definitely frustrating.

Since I could not enter into custom javascript or css, and I wanted to do something a little more dynamic for Shepherd Career Services' "What Can You Do With this Major?" page, I decided that I could use Wordpress.com's gallery feature, create buttons in Photoshop and then have it display as a dynamic gallery while linking each gallery image to a link on Salary.com or other job search sites. Turns out though, you cannot link individual images to individual links inside of a gallery. Well i don't know if you can, but I've been researching it profusely for the past half hour to no avail, so if someone has done it, I would greatly appreciate it if you pass the word along.

Mainly, through my Wordpress experience, I've realized how much you can't do rather than what you can do with Wordpress.com. I guess that's an okay thing, since this site has to be integrated on a different server soon anyway, but it just makes it more difficult for me as I keep trying to find ways to make the content more dynamic without being to code in javascript or iframes.

After taking time to think about how I was going to include some of the cool elements into the site that I had originally planned to embed. I've just decided that it is easier to to just put links in to the different elements that I want to put in, especially some of the resources that I've found from Salary.com and other career service sites. Links are not the most dynamic thing, but I have been so focused on how to uniquely put them in so it seems more interesting and less static. I think it will just require more playing around with the gallery feature.


Other than that, the only real dilemma I've had to work with, it how to use posts and pages to organize content. I've found out how to use categories and a custom menu to do most of the work for me, however sometimes I've seen that's where I run into problems. Because under the navigation, the pages designated for a category show up as an index with no page content or text. It just brings up each relevant post in reverse chronological order under each category. So if I want to have an index or introductory page, I have to create it as a parent page and then make the category the child of the parent index.  This works fine, but it is a little bit clunky and not as streamlined as having a little static section on for each category page.
A little mix of each seems to be working out, but I as I work I just play with what feels right, if I add something new, or go in and change content, then I can always go back and change it so it makes more sense.

If you can sense the little bit of frustration I'm having, then you know how I'm feeling this week. I'm hoping next week that thing will be better and I can find better solutions to what I'm working on. I'm not ready to have a major breakdown yet, so that's a good thing. I think.

Starting Wordpress

Finally, the real work begins!

 These next two weeks are the going to be the bulk of my Capstone experience and I have to admit that I am a little nervous, but mostly excited to dive right into work. I definitely have so many ideas and goals running through my head still, and I hope I will be able to translate them all into the website.

I have found working with the Lynda programs makes me not so afraid of working with Wordpress. I actually think it will go very well. And I’ve come to terms that this site is going to be mostly framework, and that the organization of data is such an important factor that I have to convey in my work.

I met with Victoria again on Thursday and we talked about the additions that I needed to add onto my current client analysis and also, what features they needed as an organization. I’ve already set them up a Twitter account and linked their Facebook page to their new website, I’ve also already started dumping their written copy into posts and pages on the new site. I think that is going to be the bulk of the work is sorting and organizing the data, but I’ve also got some fun thing to put into the site as well.

Wordpress has so many great features such as polls, google analytics, a google calendar for their events and such that I’m sure those will be welcome add ons to what I already have. The only thing that I am truly concerned about is if I will have the means to insert some of the dynamic content. Hopefully most of the plugins that are available will be free and have installation that isn’t crazily complex.

I also need to go back and edit my proposal, client analysis, and previous webmap, which I am hoping to also complete this week. Website goals this week is to have all pages and copy in so I can maneuver posts around in the following week. I ‘ve got so much to do and not very much time to do it. But I'm just hoping that everything will turn out for the best. Victoria has been such an inspiration to work with and I want to give her my best, because she puts so much in Shepherd Career Services.

Learning from Lynda and Client Analysis

This week in Capstone, I feel like I have made a few big strides in my work.  I’ve drafted my client analysis and my old webmap. My meeting with Monica I think really helped me find the right direction that I was going on with this website. Also, in my 447 class, we are starting to delve more and more into Wordpress, which is helping me with my research for the Shepherd Career Services site.

In my client analysis, I tried to stay organized and streamlined with 3 main points/ goals of the new site:

-to be fun, entertaining, but informative

- to have connections to social networking and other databases

-to make the information easily accessible and user friendly to navigate

I've also been looking at other career services websites for even more research, and I've been looking at websites who have been acclaimed for their design and trying to pick out pieces of content and style that will make a seamless integration into the site. Social media such as LinkdIn really make a difference in how effective a career services site is. 

Victoria Buchbauer, head of Career Services, also gave me some content to start looking through that she had collected over the years. I found many creative and fun videos about career choices, creating a resume, interviews, and most importantly networking that I think will make excellent additions to the media on the website.

I am also starting to really try and get the hang of Wordpress and I’m ready to begin my intensive training with Lynda.com and any other tutorials that I can find. We also decided in 447 whereabouts we are going to host the site, and since I plan on using my time in 447 to work on my capstone project, I think it has been such important research in helping me determine what steps I need to take to make this successful.

Goals for this next week:

Try and absorb as much information about wordpress from tutorial sites and lynda.

Edit and do another draft of the client analysis

Fix and edit the old site's webmap

Beginning research and first CSC meeting

As my Capstone project start progressing deep into the production process, I am beginning to feel a little more optimistic about getting every thing done and completed to the best of my ability. This week, I began to familiarize myself with Wordpress and participated in a few tutorials to guide me around the site. I also began looking at themes that I thought would best suit the new Shepherd Career Services site.

Not only have I worked with Wordpress, but I thought it would also be important to look at other college’s career development sites to not only gain inspiration, but also know what I did not want in my site. Many of the college career sites are already set up close to the current Shepherd website with room for improvement. But then I saw one Career Services site that I believe was done through Wordpress and the difference was absolutely noticeable. The Wordpress site was fresh and clean cut, and also easy to navigate, which are keystone themes for Wordpress anyway. Some of the themes that I am considering are:

-Splendio

-Academica

-Oxygen

Of these, I am leaning towards Splendio, but it is still too early to make a final decision, I want to explore putting some of the content into each of the demos before I make a final say on what theme I want to use.

On Thursday, I met with Victoria Buchbauer, head of the department of Career Services at Shepherd. We hit it off right right away and from the moment I met her, I could  tell how passionate she is about her department. Her commitment and enthusiasm was immediately inspiring. She explained that she wanted a website that was not only functional, but fun. She wanted something that was going to interest all audiences, be easily accesible, and display all their information is a visually interesting and intuitive manner. At the minute, Victoria informed me that they don't have a very active social media area of their department, something that I thought that I might work on as well. I think that I can integrate the social media into the website. It was also important for Victoria and her office assistant Jamie to understand and know how to use the Wordpress system, so I want to make a big part of my project user testing and making sure that they know how to edit and update the content. Another issue that I found with the current website was the lack of intuitive navigation and content distribution and layout.  

This weekend I am working on writing up an official client analysis of a more detailed assessment of the changes and needs of the current Shepherd website, as well as mapping out the old Shepherd website, so I can see what is the depth of the navigation and why it isn't working as is, and how I can change it in the new site.

Cultural Event 1, "Motherless": A Legacy of Loss

For my first required cultural activity for my capstone class, I attended a film and discussion at the Byrd Legislative Center. The film was called "Motherless" and it was sponsored by WVFree a reproductive justice organization in West Virginia that provides services such as reproductive options and reproduction education for all women and families. 

The film "Motherless" explored the untold stories of people whose mothers had died from illegal abortions. When I first came to the Center, I had no idea what the film was going to be about and wa a little worried when I realized that abortion was the subject matter. Abortion is such a heavy topic, usually comes under rapid political fire, and so I was worried just how intense the discussion was going to be. But as the film played, I realized that the issues of the film went outside the political platform side of abortion. That there were real people with real issues with abortion that we neither black nor white. In fact, it showed just how unprepared out political system is to handle these grey area situations.

"Motherless" put faces to the countless names and issues of abortion, and added an emotional and thought provoking level to a such a topic. And regardless of which side of the abortion debate that is lesser shown and more personal than some people had ever realized, and even though I am not completely decided on this issue myself, I can say that these women did not deserve to die.  The women in the film were not irresponsible teenagers looking for a way out, neither were they women who did not want kids. They were all mothers, who had children, and loved them but felt desperate and unaware of their reproductive options. It was heart breaking to see that these women who had felt desperate enough to undergo these illegal abortions because they felt that they had no other options. Though the movie was geared toward pro-choice, I think that the underlying issue of reproductive options and education was far more significant whether or not to have an abortion.

From the movie, I did not judge the women on their actions, I only hoped that there could have been an alternative solution for these mothers that did not result in complications or death. I think that society has taken the issue of abortion and made it too political and and has taken away the intimacy from an intimate situation. There are many misconceptions that people think about when they think about women having abortions, there is so much judgment and not enough understanding.

After the film, there was a discussion in which we were asked to share our thoughts on the film, and many people felt the same way that I had, that this was bigger than an abortion issue, it was a reproductive issue. I know that now, I won't quite look at the issue in the same light. I though about it myself in a WWYD setting and I ask myself, what could have prevented this tragedy? What are the bigger issues in the abortion debate? As a woman, what options do I have for my own reproductive choices? The answer is not always clear and easy, but it is getting better and stronger for women.  

Visit WVFree for more information on their services and mission.

Shepherd Career Services and The Importance of Design

So I finally decided that to choose the Shepherd University Career Services website as my Capstone project. I think my decision stemmed from the prospect of a very professional outcome and a nice addition to my repertoire. I admit, that I am a been overwhelmed and anxious to begin, I love web design, but I am not very experienced in it. So I already feel that I am starting at a disadvantage, but I also think that this challenge is going to spark some personal growth. This is my shot to prove what I can do and I want to blow it out of the water. I can feel the pressure growing, I mean it's only the culmination of my academic experience.

As I start my research into my Capstone, I realize that this was going to be a much bigger project than I anticipated. One of the first things I learned was to keep my cool, it's difficult when I'm working with a third party, and sometimes it gets a bit frustrating trying to coordinate schedules. However, things eventually worked out and I'm hoping that every thing will sail smoothly from now on. I think it's just the nerves beginning to set in, but I am excited to finally and officially sign on to this project. I have as of right now found a sample client inquiry that I plan on taking to my meeting on Thursday, to go ahead and get some feedback and ideas for the website, directly from the source! 

This week, it already seems that I'm taking a crash course in web design theory. I'm not familiar with all of the aspects and elements of web design, so I definitely needed to learn as much as possible, as professionally as possible in a short period of time. I did not realize how essential the theory of web design is to its overall functionality and effectiveness. One source that I have found particularly helpful and informative is Graphic Design Solutions by by Robert Landa that laid out a specific plan of action for web site development.

The top three things that I noticed that were important in a functional website:

1) Usability

2) Visual interest

3) Information Distribution

Using these three things along with some of the other design principles, I hope to start gaining some credibility and be able to present some designs on my meeting. 

Though I also know that designing is only 50% of my journey and that my next step is learning how to successfully execute my design. 

Senior Capstone, the beginning

The time has now come, as it does for all Communications students at Shepherd University for my senior capstone. I must admit that throughout my student career here at Shepherd, the idea of capstone has seemed very daunting, but also very far away.

However, now capstone is upon me and though I know it will be challenging, I look forward to it being excellence self-reflective learning experience.  In capstone, I hope to accomplish a professional grade project that can leave a lasting impression to an audience. Capstone is our moment to show and use everything we have learned from our major, and I think it should have significance and an effect that is not easily forgotten. I hope to show my audience that I am an employable subject and but also that I am still malleable enough to change and grow and meet the needs of what employment awaits me after graduation. I think that it is important to “pull out all the big guns” and really create something spectacular. For me, I want my Capstone to be something that is an esteemed representation of the Communications department, and to show that we do awesome things!

My novel,
A Veil of Shattered Dreams

I have been playing around with a few ideas for my own capstone, even though I found the task almost impossible because it was so difficult to choose my area of specialization in the Communications field. I really love all aspects of the major and wish I could be proficient in all areas, but time and real constraints make it rather impossible.  Though my love of web design and the possibilities and the future of the web have always interested me.  This made me want to choose a web project for my Capstone. It just so happened that my capstone director had an opportunity to work with the Career Services at Shepherd, to help them re-work and redo their web content and management. This was an idea that appealed very greatly to me because there would be a certain prestige and professionalism that would come with working with the Shepherd community and would have a lasting effect and result. 

My second idea, if the first should cease to work, would be the idea to do a public relations campaign for my new novel, A Veil of Shattered Dreams. As this is something that I have to do any ways for my own purposes, I thought that it would be very relevant and effective to use it as my capstone. Therefore, the plan that I would make PR wise/ and capstone I could then actually use to further my novel’s endeavors. I am a huge fan of public relations and have often hoped to find a career niche that marries both public relations and web design. Whatever these projects that I choose, I am excited for the work and the outcome.