What the heck is an "include" and why do I want one?

Today we learned a new trick, how to add includes into your website using PHP. With includes you can add content to your website on multiple pages by only creating it once. You create one file and include it into multiple web pages. Some uses could be for a footer on the bottom of you web page or a navigation bar. I created my sample to include a nav bar, click on the link to go to the actual page. http://fall09-1.graphicinterfacedesign.com/mmalo/misc/phpdemo/giants.php

Website update

Here is a look at a sample page for the giant creatures page. Two slightly different versions, the top one has a white background on the submenu. The bottom one uses a blue color for the submenu.

Tutorial

Our assignment was to create a tutorial that would teach someone how to do a specific task in html or CSS. I chose to do something that I would need to do for my website. The topic is how to add a background image in CSS. The difference between adding a background image in css and html is that you can apply this style to all of your pages on the site at once, where in html you would need to add and change each page individually.

http://fall09-1.graphicinterfacedesign.com/mmalo/tutorial/

Digital proofs part 2

After looking at my three samples I wanted to try a fourth one without the depth finder on the left side of the screen.

Digital roughs

Here are three versions of my website in digital form. Version 01 is the first one that I came up with and 03 is the most recent. I think it has the look of a discovery channel program.


Version 01 (above): The web page has most of the elements that I wanted to add to the website from my rough sketches. I don't like the bright color of the depth finder.


Version 02 (middle): I added a water texture, tried a different main image, darkened the background, added a little golden yellow to the subhead and made the depth finder blue so it doesn't jump out so much.

Version 03 (bottom): I like this version the best, I centered the logo and lined up the text along the left side og the "I". I also moved the octopus to the left hand side under the depth finder.

HTML website project | Rough Sketches

My idea for the first webste is "Giants of the Deep". This website will show some examples of animals that grow to extremely large sizes in the depths of the ocean. The website will also feature information about the animals and give the viewer further insight into the world that lies deep under the waves.

The main pages of the site will be the "Creatures" page with links to each individual animal. There will be images, descriptions, and possibly even video clips of each web page. The "Technology" page will show the various types of deep sea submersibles and other technology that is being used to go to these great depths. The "Habitat" page will describe the conditions and environment where these animals live. The "Depth Finder" will demonstrate graphically the depths where each animal lives. This will have links to the individual creature pages. And the "Research" page will have information about the current research that is going on in the deep sea. This page will also feature links to other websites for further information on this topic.

The page design will feature a gradient background from blue to dark blue to black, the navigation bars will be located at the top of the page for easy browsing. On the animal pages, there will be a large image of the animal on the right with the description next to the image. I'll decide on colors and a few other surprises in the next week.

Demo/tutorial 1

Here is a link to the first demo webpage that I created yesterday in class. It's pretty basic for now, see ya next week.

http://fall09-1.graphicinterfacedesign.com/mmalo/tutorial/demo1/