INLS 080 Final Project

Morrison Engineers, PLLC Company Website

 

I began working at Morison Engineers, PLLC. in the middle of December 2001.  Even now, I hold a position there.  My first and main project for the time I was there was to design an entire website from scratch showing a number of things:

 

In order to accomplish this seemingly daunting task, I first went to the public library to check out books on Web Authoring, HTML, Flash, Java, Dreamweaver, and other pertinent subjects.  I had to do comparisons on web authoring kits, with my decision affecting the rest of the engineering firm for the future of this website.  I also had to become very familiar with the use of Nikon’s Coolpix 885 digital camera and it’s software including Adobe Photoshop 6.01 to edit pictures of sites that I had taken to appear on the web.

 

Once the pictures for the sites were gathered, either from the corporate LAN, or by my on-site visit, each job’s general description and job specifics had to be looked up in files also located across the LAN.  It was from this information that I entered in the HTML code for it to appear in an aesthetically pleasing way in a document.

 

Besides having Microsoft FrontPage and Dreamweaver MX to help with DHTML and general web-page authoring, I learned JAVA and Flash 5 from scratch.  Never before had I dealt with these web media formats.  I created cascading menus in Java and also an intro flash movie to the site with sound.  Also, interactive graphics were created as well in Flash 5.

 

As a final source, I consulted the ABCD’s of website design as studied from INLS 60.  This included an assessment of making sure the site is viewable in both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.  Even more complicating was the use of collapsing frames so that no matter what resolution the viewer’s window was set on, the page would center itself nicely.  I also learned some of the in and outs of hosting a web site on a server.  I have learned to use the server’s site visit statistics to help me see what pages are viewed the most often.  Most importantly though, I learned that the process of web authoring is an ever continuing process: one that must be continually evaluated and changed.  I know my job designing and up keeping this site is never done.

 

The final site turned out to be over 100 pages of HTML documents, with more than 300 files. The Morrison Engineers PLLC website can be reached at: http://www.morrisonengineers.com.

 

Site Map:

The main weaknesses of my site are that it doesn’t currently implement CSS or frames.  When I fist started working to develop the site, the main obstacle was the JavaScript navigation menu.  I worked for hours trying to get the settings, colors, and aesthetic appeal correct.  I originally had a framed site set up, but the JavaScript menu I had selected didn’t work with it.  Therefore, I selected a non-framed page setup with tabular sections.  These sections can expand and contract based on the size of the viewer’s window and automatically centers its contents.  The JavaScript menu is actually a layer placed on top of two gradient filled red blocks placed on top of each other.  This was an aestically pleasing design created by myself in Photoshop.

 

In the future, I’d like to completely redesign the site to incorporate a Flash navigation menu, using CSS and frames if possible.  I feel as though this is a terrific start, and feel privileged at the opportunity I’ve had to learn so much with an applicable project.