Week 12

Implications for open source software, potentially in future jobs

If Jason has taught us one thing, it's the value of open source (free) software.
In our future careers as digital engineers, we will no doubt at one point be the ones with the most insight into creating websites in our workplace, with this comes the knowledge of how much companies and individuals charge to 'create' websites, when chances are they have most likely made use of these open source software sites and not done a huge amount of work. Here is where I am able to step in and save the day but cutting the huge cost this usually incurs by 'doing it myself'. Aka, utilizing and fully customizing a free pre-made web design/template/page and making it seem a much bigger and more complicated job than it really is.
Ultimately saving the company time money and securing ones respect.

Week 11

This week, Jason introduced us to pre made web page templates and widgets

The page templates we looked at were on:
os-templates.com
The site had 'free response templates' which were layouts that automatically resized with different screen sizes, but were more complicated to use
The 'basic templates' were what we focused on, which give a complete webpage, minus links, images and content. The sites templates were really clean looking and simple to navigate.
+We can use these for our next assessment but must change all the content, fonts, background colours etc, to make it unrecognisable so to speak.
Although these templates have no copyright.

The widgets we explored were on codrops:
tympanus.net
They're really usefull little interactive elements to give our webpages edge. Although changing all the content of these, as they usually came with the code of an entire webpage was a little more difficult.
+These can also be used for the next webpage assessment but must be relevant to the websites purpose.

Week 10

The experience of navigation the web on mobile devices compared to laptops/ desktop computers

During my adult life, mobile devices enabled with internet browsing capabilities have absolutley boomed. In the modern day portable devices are most desirable for their convenience primarily, as well as in the moment sharing of text images and videos. Mobile devices as they are smaller and have lest content to generate seem to run faster, than traditional computers, also due to their wifi and mobile internet connection in contrast to dial up and broadband connections. Usage on mobiles devices is primarily bundled with mobile phone credit and turn out a better deal for users. While these bundles exsist too for home phone and computer internet, landlines are quickly phasing out, replaced by the innovation of the 'smart phone'.

Apps, created for the mobile device enable users to interact with the internet much quicker, easier and smoother than before. The combination of phone camera and photo sharing app means in just 5 seconds a photo can be captured and published online, where as with a computer an image is taken with an external device, imported and then uploaded onto a website. I personally feel Facebook is so dominant in it's industry because it has realised the move and has a constantly updated to improve the mobile experience, as well as optimise the experience for users who still access the site via a computer.

The rise of mobile devices and internet usage absolutley has had an impact on social situations.
It is rare for an individual to leave the house and return for any period of time without accessing the net on a mobile device, whether it be a neccesity like internet banking or email, or simply a habbit to kill time, like social networking and browsing online stores. You can literally do almost anything on mobile devices now, which is much easier then getting up, driving or walking to where things need to be done and returning.

Socially it seems like a negative turn for technology but rpactically mobile internet devices have really made life much easier.