Written Reflection
Visit this link to see my final product, which is a portfolio website for my videos.
Originally I wanted to focus on Photoshop because I think it’s an important and useful tool to have in this day and age. But then I decided to focus on building a website with javascript elements because it seemed like something I could really use right now (plus, I could work on my own computer than the library’s computer). I wanted this to look professional-grade, as if I had the money to invest in a SquareSpace monthly subscription… but I can’t, so instead I’ll just make my own website for free!
Again, I wanted to make this website look professional, and a lot of the fancy effects you see are because of javascript functions, so I had to learn what the heck that’s about. But before that, I have to figure out what I want my website to look like.
I really wanted to make a single-column website through parallax elements, but not your typical parallax website you think of now. I also wanted a very simplistic/minimalistic aesthetic because I should get across my product (in this case, me) as quickly and straightforward as possible. That being said, there should only be three tabs for them to access: an “about me” where they can also find my resume linked, a “video” section (preferably in a grid fashion), and then a “contact” because obviously I want them to be able to reach out to me (AKA HIRE ME).
Javascript is kind of difficult, or at least less straightforward than learning HTML or CSS. So instead, I first scoured the internet to see if I could find a similar website with codes that are under creative commons (so, like, codepen and jqueryscript). After I found one I liked, I then downloaded Bootstrap (thanks to Ryan) so I can edit my code and see live previews (thank god this exists). I messed around a lot, which is so infuriating but also rewarding once you figure out what the heck you’re doing. Although I could have watched a bunch of videos, I think messing around and guess-and-checking are valuable because you can see first-hand what you’re doing. You can watch as many videos as you want on how to shoot a gun, but it doesn’t really mean you know how to shoot a gun (is this a weird metaphor?).
Okay, cool, so I have my baseline homepage after, like, maybe 10 hours of messing around because I am a slow learner. After that, I decided to implement an interactive grid system for the videos I’ve made (please don’t judge my videos I’m going to add more later). This in itself was super difficult, although I didn’t think so when I first started. Customizing the grid, although a bit tedious, was ultimately easy to figure out. But then once I copied and pasted that code into my master HTML, it just wouldn’t work! And I had no idea why! It was extremely frustrating, to say the least, because I didn’t want to spend a ton of time customizing this video grid if in the end I couldn’t use it. Eventually I reached out to one of my friends who is super good at coding and told me I had a bunch of bugs. Thankfully he is a smart boy and was able to help me a bunch and get my grid running.
(As a side note, coding is a collaborative effort. These codes I found from the internet are from the kind souls who want to help babies like me learn and grow. Friends help you, too, because people are kind and I, again, am a baby. I am thankful for all the resources I have.)
After the grid, I completed the “about me” section which is just a giant embedded YouTube video with a small link below which sends the user to my resume. I also added a contact form, but I still cannot figure out how to make it actually send me emails… that’s a future me problem. There’s a footer to credit all the websites I referenced, and I added a favicon to the site (and I learned the term “favicon” in the process).
In the end, did I learn javascript? Sort of… I mean, I know how to implement javascript functions into my website. Do I know how to actually code javascript? No. But I still completed all my bullet points from Post 1 and my site looks BOMB as HELL so maybe one day I will get hired, which is an A in my books.