Blog Post 10: Web Presentation & Design

Alex Forbes

ENGL 510

Melinda White

November 10th, 2024


These final chapters about project design and web presentation build on everything else that we have learned so far this semester because they emphasize the importance of design and appearance in order to produce a successful and effective project. One aspect that Drucker highlights in Chapter 11 is the importance of critical thinking. She emphasizes that critical thinking is essential when presenting digital projects. Drucker stresses that Digital Humanities is much more than simply using digital tools, it is also about coming up with new and creative ways to use those tools to shape the humanities. While Drucker provides many examples of different types of website platforms, she leaves it up to the reader to decide which is best for their content, “The question is whether you want to build functionality into a customized platform, whether you can use a generic one, or whether you can modify an existing tool,” (Drucker 195).

Something that I found relevant to my final web presentation is that it is important to use resources that meet professional standards if I want my website to last and if I want to return to it and further build on it in the future. As Drucker states, “If a project is going to have a long-term future, building it on resources that meet professional standards within library, museum, and archive repositories makes sense,” (Drucker 200). For my website, I will choose a CMS platform, more specifically WordPress since it is highly customizable and user friendly and is ideal for small to medium projects like mine. I will likely use Weebly to design my website since it is intuitive and easy to use. The interface of my website will be as intuitive as possible. I want a clean, modern look similar to Apple’s website, that is not busy but offers the information that users are looking for. I want to include hyperlinks that make it easy for users to navigate certain topics as well as interactive elements such as input fields and search bars. I took a class in the fall semester of my junior year where I designed a website and logo. I hope to expand upon what I learned from that experience and what I’ve learned in this class about the Digital Humanities to create a successful and effective website.

Comments

  1. Kira LNovember 11, 2024 at 11:37 AM

    You have some really amazing ideas for your final web presentation! Personally, I will be using Wix for my final web presentation as we talked about it in class, and it was mentioned in "The Digital Humanities Coursebook" by Johanna Drucker. I would also love to add hyperlinks to my website to add more of an interactive element. I also want to ensure that when you click on my hyperlinks, you can still go back to the original page easily. Ensuring my website will be sustainable is also key for it to be able to be accessed later down the line. Personally, as an English major who is also taking classes to prepare for an Education masters, I will be including a lot of essays that outline my accomplishments, and some presentations that relate to my ability to be an educator. In Chapter 11, this quote is stated, "In the analog world, this might be compared to a distinction between a service center and a warehouse. A warehouse might contain cultural materials (vinyl records, lantern slides, rare drawings, sculptures, and documents of all kinds). A service center supports access through devices for listening, projecting, viewing and accessing these materials, and information about who made them, when, where, and other crucial details of media, provenance, and intellectual property conditions for use" (Johanna, 200). I just thought this quote had some really good comparisons in it. Mostly between assessable and non-assessable materials. This quote also mentions digitalization, due to the warehouse being non-digitalized, and the service center being digitalized.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LaurenNovember 12, 2024 at 10:20 AM

    I think you had a great response to the readings this week! I really liked working with the Wix platform and think I would use that to build my platform. I really want to use hyperlinks within my website and focus on simple features that can make my work stand out over the design. I would like to think about the longevity of my website as well because I am planning to apply to graduate schools and they like to see online portfolio's which I could use this for. I think this therefore needs to be a user friendly website, so those on admissions committee's or job recruiters can find my information effectively and efficiently.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post 1: What is Digital Humanities?

       I think the most important take away from all the readings thus far is that Digital Humanities is not one thing or even a field of study. Digital Humanities is an umbrella term for a process or tool used to answer humanities research questions or present information regarding the humanities. In The Digital Humanities Coursebook the author describes the practice of digital humanities as, "...an extension of humanities methods..." (Drucker 5), as apposed to a replacement of already established methods within the field. In the first chapter of The Digital Humanities Coursebook it is also made clear that the tools of Digital Humanities are not always applicable to every research project or question because of the binary nature of the digital where something either is or isn't. In contrast humanities is a nuanced field that involves human interpretation. The first step to any Digital Humanities project is to decide if digital methods will retain, support, or aid t...
Read more

What is Digital Humanities? Post #1 (Kira Littlefield)

Digital Humanities can be looked at in many different ways it seems. Based off the readings from the textbook, manifesto and website it seems Digital Humanities can have many definitions. If I were to define Digital Humanities I would say it is a technological way to look into and understand the cultural and historical aspects of society and the world. Trying to define Digital Humanities for me was difficult, and I am not even sure I am correct in my definition, but I know this class and the following readings will help me to either correct my definition or prove it even further. The definition I provided is just a starting ground for me. Now trying to figure out what Digital Humanities isn't might be kind of difficult. Based off the readings from the textbook I can say that Digital Humanities isn't something that would purposefully include biases and or inequality. I am not saying that all Digital Humanities projects wouldn't have possibly some sort of biases or i...
Read more