End of Year Reflection

"#1" Takeaway

Over the course of this year in web design, I learned more than just how to create and design websites. I learned that 1.) web design is hard, but more importantly, I learned that you shouldn't just give up if it is hard. There were many times when my website got messed up or it wasn't turning out how I had expected, but I ended up completing it, and a completed website is better than an uncompleted website. Sometimes, I didn't even want to start a project because it looked way beyond what I could achieve, but once I got started, I learned that it actually was achievable. In other words, it is much better to try than to not. I also learned how to be productive or to manage my time well. Unsurprisingly, if you are procrastinating and not working on a project, chances are that you won't complete it. In addition, I learned that it is okay to ask for help. In my case, I was asking for help quite often, and the answer tended to be "have you tried refreshing it", and that usually fixed the problem. Regardless, help really did help, and once again, it was better to ask for help than to give up. Every once and a while, people actually asked me questions, and sometimes I could answer them. It felt really good to know how to do something well enough to be able to help others. 

Strengths and Weaknesses 

I'm not going to lie: web design is difficult and confusing. I am not the most "techy" person, so I struggled with web design. I understand how to use the CSS panel because it is very user friendly and doesn't really require much understanding of code, but I'm not very good at understanding the code itself. However, at the very beginning of the year, HTML and CSS code looked like a big, ugly jumble of letters, numbers, and symbols, but now I can look at it and get a pretty good understanding of what the code is doing to a website and how it works. I would say that I have an eye for designing websites based off of the color, font, etc..., but I need to work on understanding the code better. 

Application

Now, whenever I see an attractive or cool website, I have a better appreciation of it and how it was designed. In addition, sometimes when I am typing presentations or blogging, I can adjust the HTML or CSS to make it be closer to what I am looking for. This is something that I wouldn't have been able to do prior to being enrolled in Web Design. 

Alterations

If I could change anything about this year in web design, I would have liked to have known that if you arrange you work in the sever into folders, it messes up the websites. I also would have been more careful when copying websites and CSS because sometimes the CSS is still attached and rolls over to the next website. But overall, I wouldn't change anything.

Conclusion

This year had its ups and downs. Sometimes I really disliked a project, and sometimes I really liked a project. I challenged myself by enrolling in web design, and I'm glad that I did because it made me better at pushing through the hard stuff so I could achieve it. I had a good time learning about the interesting world that is the internet and exploring how to add to it.