Side projects...

Okay, so by now you all know that I'm feeling much more confident about the skills I've developed in this class than I ever thought possible--if you're not aware of that, keep reading...I'm thrilled. Anyway, I think I mentioned in an earlier post how I've become the resident web guru at the NYU College Learning Center. As a result of much bureaucracy and slo-o-o-w motion in the Center, I've been awarded the responsibility of maintaining the online schedule system. Well from the time I started this project until now I've played around with the schedules, trying new things and practicing little tricks. Initially the schedule was just copied and pasted from the word format that we use for the hard copy schedules, tweaked a little, and uploaded to the web. Piece of cake. Then I realized that I could create a table and have the students select a subject and the subject link would directly lead them to that academic subject's available tutoring schedule. Well today, I was creating the finals week schedule and I realized that I didn't have time to revise each subject's page individually (it took forever last time), so instead I created anchor links that students can click on at the top of the page to be taken directly to the subject that they're interested in. It seems simple, but it's so much more user-friendly than the plain schedule list, and so much more designer-friendly than creating the individual pages for each topic. I was tickled with my discovery.

So why am I telling you this? I think it's just another example of how we can apply what we're learning in class. I've commented on some of my classmates blogs about how this course has instilled in us the confidence to play around and try new things, and I feel that my latest mini-accomplishment proves just that. It's very exciting if you ask me.

Oh, and by the way, I went to an NYU website today and paid attention to the buttons/links. It was crazy when I caught myself analyzing the way the page moved and figuring out how the style was created to make the images appear the way they did. At the risk of sounding like a big nerd, I was totally into it. Who'd have guessed?!