Gallup Strengths Finder

Gallup Strengths Test

I recently took the Gallup Strength Finder test in my Web Design class. Below are the results:

• Significance

• The "significance" strength gives me the desire to be successful and the want for my job to be my way of life rather than a job.

• Deliberative

• This strength makes me a private person. It allows me to see the risks of a situation. It makes me a fairly serious person, and allows me to walk with care.

• Futuristic

• I love to peer over the horizon, I can energize people with my visions of the future.

• Strategic

• I am able to weigh the pros and cons of a decision, I create strategies to conquer tasks

• Input

• I collect things. my "input" strength allows me to collect lots of random information. Perhaps, someday I might find a use for all the random information that i may collect.

We also had a woman visit with us and tell us about what our strengths might bring to a group. My favorite part of the visit was when she was describing what our strengths might mean for us.

My "Aha!" moment during our activity was when I was reading my results and I realized how accurate they where to not only my personality at school, but my personality at home and with my friends.

Now that I know my strengths more, when approaching group projects I think that i will quickly take the position as leader of the group and use my strategic thinking to set goals and determine the path to go on a project.

Texture in Web Design

The following answers come from tutorial on this site
a. Why have the benefits of texture sometimes been overlooked?
--texture is commonly seen as "busy" and not needed

b. What is the usual difference between a texture and a pattern?
--a pattern is repeated, a texture is usually not repeated.

c. What are 2 ways to focus peoples’ attention using texture?
-- A textured logo on a regular background, and a regular logo on a textured background.

d. How can texture enhance the structure of your information?
--can be used to guide the eye.

e. How does texture enhance the identity or atmosphere of a site?
--texture can be used to help a user identify a site.

f. Describe in your own words what is meant by the following tips:
-i. Maintain Legibility

--don't let the texture make the text too hard to read

-ii. Don’t Beat a Dead Horse.
--don't use too much texture.

-iii. Practice Means Improvement.
--experiment with designs and textures.

-iv. If It Serves No Purpose, Take it Out.
--if something is not needed, do not have it in your site.

-v. Consider the Effect You Are Trying to Achieve.
--use texture to help you make the site better and what you want the site to do.

-vi. Collect Resources so you Don’t Have to Search Later
--download and archive resources when you find them.

-vii. Learn Masks
--learn how to use photoshop masks

-viii. Don’t Sacrifice Quality for Loading Time
--don't have a high quality if it takes ages to load the page.

-ix. Choose Textures Logically
--don't use bad textures for what your doing

g. What are 3 different ways you can come up with your own original texture images?

--1. take your own pictures

--2. scan pages

--3. use noise

CSS Zen Jabberwocky

Recently we have been doing a project based not on html, but css. Our job was to take a html page and make it what we want it to look like by using css.

My sketch

The page I made

The page I made differed from the sketch so much because I did not account for the position of the items in the code.
The website is here

UX eBay.com

eBay home page

Recently I did a usability/readability/utility test for ebay.com. Out of 50 points, eBay received 49 from me. I believe that eBay is an easy to use site that is clear on what to do on the webpage. The only points they missed were from having tabs that weren't super clear that they were tabs. Other than that one blemish, I really believe that eBay is a really good site, and can be used as an example for other sites.

A view of the product listings of eBay

Dont make me think - Ch. 2-3

This website shows:

• Excessive busy-ness
• a site not split into defined areas

This website shows:

• links that are not obvious

This website shows:

• clearly defined areas
• visual hierarchies
• obvious links

This website shows:

• Little competing noise
• Good use of conventions