AN INTERACTIVE GAME
Our class were to construct a simple flash game.Flash was at first a little daunting but once the action scripts were understood, to a point, constructing a simple shooter game was easy. I started using Action script 3 and the whole class had no end of trouble, so we used Action script 2 which was a lot easier and more stable to use.
I constructed 2 shooter games both with a slight variation. The first one has the user simply aim a cross hair onto a dogs mess and click, the image would then disappear while making a farting sound. The process then repeats. The second variation replaced the dogs mess with an image of Justine Beiber. The process is exactly the same as the first game.

Click on the image to have some fun….

WEBSITE DESIGN
Having only had experience with Microsoft Front Page through a correspondence course, I found learning in the classroom more stimulating and rewarding while creating websites from brief to wire frame to the finished product that others can enjoy. Now I am starting to understand from a designers point of view just how much goes into the process of creating a site.

During 2010 I was  asked to redesign 2 web sites of my choice and create 3 designs starting with a brief then 3 wire frames and then 3 mock ups.

I chose the Little Yarra Steiner School and Marie Lumsden-Keys an Artist. I used Adobe Illustrator for the wire frames and for the mock ups. I also used Adobe Kuler to obtain swatches  to work out what was complimentary to an overall theme to the websites.

Click here for the Little Yarra Steiner School brief with 3 sample sites

Click here for Marie Lumsden-Keys brief with 2 website samples

I have also made a mock Jethro Tull website using Dreamweaver which I had a small amount of trouble with at first because I hadn’t setup a proper site root folder after which everything worked as per normal…. Click here for the Jethro Tull website links.

I enjoy creating websites as they can be a challenge. There may be variations on themes but no two sites are the same and with the construction of a website also comes trial and errors. Even the most experienced of designers can have problems even with a simple update.

Just click on the link to download a PDF version.

Design Brief for LYSS Website

Below are 5 original sites cut into wire frames.

1 – Archives.org This site has a simple but complex home page layout.

2 -Bounce Interactive has a very basic layout with various text areas.

3 – I originally designed this site for my wife, Marie Lumsden-Keys, who is an acrylic artist. She wanted something simple to use, navigate and easy to update. This site was designed from an online template.

4 – Simple sites mean what it says on the home page but when you navigate to following pages their wire framing can become more intricate.

5 – The A Team movie web site splashscreen/home page is a very simple design.

1 – The Australian flag was designed in 1901 from a design competition comprising of 30,000 entries

2 – Lord Kitchener was famous for being the first person to be appointed Secretary of war and his famous mustache.

3 – The Simpsons first appeared on US television as a short animated segment on the Tracy Ullman show in 19/4/1987

4 – Christopher Walken’s photos can be found anywhere even on FanPix.net

5 – Playstation 2  is the biggest selling video console of all time with sales exceeding  140 million units.

6 – Karl Hofner’s violin bass was made famous by Paul McCartney while he was a member of the Beatles.

Winston S. Churchill

7 -
(a) – “My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best.”
(b) – “Lady Astor to Winston Churchill— “Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink.”
His reply— “Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it.”

8 – Avatar is the most expensive motion picture ever made costing $500 million.

9 – Robert Moog created the Moog Synthesizer.

10 – There are 19 billion Lego elements produced each year.

There are numerous language translators online to help with any language barrier. Google translate and Yahoo’s Babel fish are quite simple to use.
Many Thesaurus sites are also available such as Thesaurus.com and MSN Encarta – thesaurus.
People with vision impairment are also catered for with various sites providing translators from standard word publications to braille and spoken word.
Duxbury products provide translation products from braille to speech although some of these products can be very expensive. But due to the sales of their major products they are able to provide freeware products to download such as Perky duck , a simple braille editor.

Web designer tools on the Internet are readily available from various sites and usually are free to download.

Hyper Guru , Chami.com , have great tutorials as well as free tool library from beginners to experienced designers.
Other sites offer tools only without the tutorials such as The Web Deign Group .

One of the best sites so far is Web Designer Magazine. Although this is a UK based magazine/website the information is quite informative with video tutorials on all aspects of web design complete with tool and program downloads to suit all designers needs.
Most Inspired is a design gallery that showcases some of the best designs currently on the web.

Star Trek fan forums are an informative way to research about the series.

Here are just a few… Star Trek fan forum , Star Trek.com , Star Trek online forums , Star Trek forum , Star Trek Voyager.com

Font.com , Font shop , Font Squirrel , Font Pool , Dafont

Online gaming utilises the Internets capacity to communicate by bringing the world closer than before.

Here are 2 such sites that are aimed at various age, genre and game types.

Star Trek online and Pogo.com