SMLP Learning PHP: Week 3

Evaluating ideas and creating a simple interactive media product that utilises PHP5

This week was all about reflecting on design and realising I could do a better job. I looked into many ways of integrating a PHP slideshow that used arrays to rotate a new image every time the site was visited however, after showing this to my parents they explained they would prefer it to display images as a slideshow like their LCD frame.

Unfortunately trying to use arrays without an automatic refresh of the page seemed impossible with my limited knowledge of PHP. This would have been a problem, but because I have a feedback form on the same page, every time someone would start to complete it the page would refresh and everything they imputed would disappear. To solve the issue, I felt it necessary to use JavaScript but then couldn’t adjust the positioning of the images. Thankfully after posting my problems on a forum a nice chap from the Netherlands assisted me and all my problems were solved, I just wished I had visited a forum earlier than I would not have been frustrated for several hours. (M3) (Steve: see actual printouts in sketchbook)

Despite my initial design being a success, I felt it was too dark and only when my parents saw the new curved design did they agree. Although I was happy with the design, I still felt it could be improved. With a name that suggests people wandering aimlessly about the countryside what better image than to use footprints walking in many directions as a background. Excited at the prospect of designing a better looking website, I altered the logo back to the original footprint idea, as I felt it had a better relationship with the background. (D3)

18^th Feb
Investigated ways of uploading images and saving them as a gallery, looked on zigzag

20^th Feb