I honestly think I hated the news site more than the e-commerce site. The e-commerce site at least was more straightforward and was a little easier with widgets, but the news site was not. The only easy part was the copying and pasting info from the The Red and Black and some of the articles and photos that I did. That was the only "easy" part. The home page refused to work with me regardless of anything I did. It wouldn't delete the "first" home which was imported from the template, and then the homepage I made was duplicated onto the first page. I don't really know how that happened but it did. I didn't even manually duplicate anything. So that part was where mainly the frustration stemmed from. However, I was able to fix it and make it look the way I wanted. I also used GoDaddy studio to make a personal logo alike to the e-commerce site. In regards to plugins, I didn't add many just the google fonts and and plugin for widgets. Adding too many would confuse me and mess up the project further. I think it's best to keep it on the simpler side until I am comfortable with WordPress. The css mostly just style the background and some of the other parts of text. Nothing too serious since most of the work is done in WordPress. I am proud however in being able to display some of my work and while also showcasing some of my friends at The Red and Black. Most of the widgets if not all, should be interactive and have links if applicable. The calendar widget links to posts made that day, which is super cool and also great to look at if you need reference to what day of the week it is! That's even the Spotify emblem as well! It was fun doing the gallery and pictures. I added a Walter Cronkite quote and YouTube video since he was one of the most influential broadcasters in history. At the bottom of the homepage I added links to The Red and Black and also a small table of menu item of the week and the picture with it. I do think it's slightly more chaotic visually than the e-Commerce site but in my opinion news sites are. Most just throw information at you with stuff in the center and on the sites so it's a lot to take in. That's why mine is sorta chaotic but to a minimal so the reader doesn't get a headache trying to read everything at once. I hope to get more comfortable with WordPress since I felt so uncomfortable working with it. I think that's mostly have to be fixed through practice to get to that point. I think overall, it came out well especially after having to restart a bunch of times and even delete pages I worked on. I even had to uninstall and install cause it kept messing up. So after all the work I put into it. It came out really well.
Hi! Here's my reflection on working on the eCommerce site for Project 3. I honestly think this was my least favorite project to work on. It took the longest and was more complicated with all the buttons and parts to add to the site. It took forever for me to figure out how to do the CSS coding for it and it just made it harder for me to do it. I also had a hard time adding newsletters and those things for when or if someone signup up, I used mail poet for a plugin for if someones were on the site and abandoned their cart after 30 minutes it'd send a newsletter. It's not really visible to you now but could be if you were actually shopping. I also added the google fonts plugin which allowed me to change the font of the site which made it a lot easier on me than trying to figure out the HTML and CSS importing, Which I could not figure out so I resorted to the plugin. The CSS was fairly easy once I figured out how to find it and then I mostly changed the background, the color of headings/titles/other things, and just some other styling. Nothing major since most work is done with the WordPress portion. The project for this part wasn't super difficult but just really roundabout and honestly took much longer to do everything versus just handwritten coding. Most of the widgets if not all should either link or be interactive. The Spotify even links to a. playlist! It was kinda fun going over the types of widgets you can add and I can admit it got a little tacky towards the end so I had to review them and get rid of some, but the YouTube song was definitely a must. It made it seem fun and encouraging. Overall, I am fairly proud of how it came out since it has the basic parts of the theme like in project 2's template, but it came out looking really different and separate and you can see I put work into it. The white tank top, journey shirt, and sports bra all have been fleshed out, but with different aspects added to it. I am especially proud of the colors and fonts used. It makes it look like an actual home business. I also added a logo at the top like other websites and the logo I used I made through GoDaddy studio. I even added pictures to the categories to make it seem more professional. And for the customer reviews/ testimonies, I made them all and thought it'd be easier and cooler to do it as on posts on the homepage where you could get updates like if you were letting them know when fall or winter season drop for clothing was coming and get a timestamp. It also is great for customers to comment on what they thought and get responses from the admin. It also can be used for "need help" which I included in the posts! So I am super happy how it turned out and I hope you are too! I hope to learn more ways to include sizes or certain buttons like in etsy where you can add elements to personalize gifts or clothing. I think it reduces complexity for the layout of developing a website but at the same time doesn't. In. coding, I think it is relatively easier to make color, fonts, and more look the way you want. With WordPress, its more static and creative freedom isn't really its thing. I know its for beginners and those who don't know coding, but it just felt wrong. Leave a comment, let's see if admin responds!