Final Website

For our final website in website design we got to choose any subject we wanted whether it be fictional or not. I chose to do my final site over a fictional catering company call ARJ catering. I used several special features in my site including a large image background, email link, twitter link, and rollover images.

Take a look here:

 http://www.psuwebdesigners.com/fall_2010/johnson_andrea/arjcatering/index.html 

If you want to check out more of my work go here.

Group Site

We had another assignment where we were put into group and had to design a website in Dreamweaver. Each of us in the group took on a different role. Each of us made a different page and someone also made a blog. All group projects are learning experiences! I had a really good time with this project and my group!
Here is a link to our site http://www.psuwebdesigners.com/fall_2010/visitthewild/ Check it out!

WordPress Site

We had an assignment where we were supposed to create a wordpress site.
I designed my wordpress site to be a portfolio site. Here is a little preview!

Here is the link to check it out! http://arjohnsondesign.wordpress.com/

Some of My Work

Social Media is getting stronger

At the Four States Regional Technology Conference, Joe Grisby the emerging media director of VML, came and spoke about the impact of emerging media. VML is a full service digital marketing agency in Kansas City and Joe Grisby is in charge of just a part of what this company does. VML is using education and technology to connect to an audience with an intent of making an impact. Technology is the platform for how we make things happen. Grisby said that emerging media is consumer trends that transform how they connect to content, each other, and broader society. Social and Mobile are the two most popular used ways consumers use to connect with one another.

In 2010 66% of all media was digital and it is estimated that 80% of all media with be digital in 2020. Media consumption trends continue to shift to digital and those participating in social media increases with each generation. It seems that from birth children can be involved with social media when their parent post a picture of them on facebook or on their blog. Facebook is such a highly popular product that there are over 500 million users and if facebook was a country is would be the 3rd largest in the world. Social media is a way to influence consumers. Most consumers have more trust in other consumers than in what the company is advertising about its product.

Mobile phones are everywhere. You see people walking on the street and almost everyone has a phone in their hand either texting or on the phone. Grisby was at a conference in New York and wanted some pictures of people using cell phones so he stepped out side and within a few minutes had over ten pictures of people using their phones and most were texting. Texting has surpassed email, phone, and face to face for girls from ages 12-17. Consumers can do everything from their phones today. They can shop online, check their facebook, have a gps, order food, and many more things.

Companies and business need to keep social media in mind when it comes to marketing their products but it has such a large impact on todays consumers.

custom blogs

If you don't have a knack for design or don't have the time for the set up of a blog you can always find someone who does. There are some people out there that will design your blog for you, but its for a price. The Design Girl Studio will customize a blogger site for $75 dollars and this includes a custom template, custom header, recoloring of text and links and a custom blog template. She also has many other services available like logo design, stationary, and print.
http://thedesigngirlstudio.blogspot.com/ Check out her stuff here.

Types of blogs

A business blog is very professional looking it usually contains the color scheme of the business so that it ties in with everything else.

A portfolio blog includes examples and images of what the person has created or done. It also tells what they can do and a little about themselves

Five tutorial blogs

• WpRecipes.com
• www.vectordiarys.com
• Indesignsecrets.com
• http://premiere-pro-tutorials.blogspot.com/
• http://webtutorialtool.blogspot.com/

free vs paid blogs

The advantages of a paid blog are:

• control of domain name
• control over design
• unlimited amount of space
• can different tools to site

The disadvantages of a paid blog are:

• you have to pay for the service
• more complicated to set up

The advantages of a free blog are:

• its free
• not much set up time
• easy to manage
• hosting is on the server not on you

The disadvantages of a free blog are:

• limited amount of templates
• tools are limited
• don't own the blog space
• limited space

image source| stock image PSU

Blogger vs Wordpress

• Wordpress has more storage than blogger does. 
• In Blogger you can edit the templates but can make limited changes while with wordpress you can make as many changes as you want or you can choose form 100+ themes.
• In wordpress you are able to upgrade and get more storage and editing capabilities.
• You don't need to find a host for blogger but you do for wordpress.

Why we Blog...

I think that blogging is extremely beneficial not only for students but for businesses and freelancers. It keeps people updated with the work we do almost daily or however often people update.  It also allows each individual a chance to express their own personality in their blog. Blogging is just a great way to get your name out there and displays your work in a creative way so that anyone and everyone and see.

Class Home Page and Personal Home page

First Assigment is Multimedia Authoring

Go to youtube and check out my video on Halloween Safety.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXEJkysc-_o