STA Blog

Week 7

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Project: PSY MUNA LAB
Client /Prof: Professor Alexandra Clark
completion status: started last week and expected to be done by Nov 8
staff guidance: Estella
STA team members: Angie
description/plans: Create a lab website for Prof. Clark on Grav/Gantry using the Duarte lab templates

 

I made some small styling changes:

 

The main title was off-centered and when the page screen was minimized it would shift to the left. The horizontal menu on the top would also bleed over to the bottom when the page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the new look with the title positioned in a better place and the menu spacing fixed.


I was playing around with how to have this section styled on the page since it was kind of awkward being aligned to the left in comparison with the other sections. I created a new particle block to have this section separated from the rest. Not sure if this is the final look but it’s there for now. 

I also updated the profile block from Estella’s Duarte Lab template to have the text wrap and include spaced out sections for Twitter username’s and fun facts since Prof. Clark provided more info to go along with this section than the Duarte lab.

Duarte Lab profile blocks

 

The new MUNA lab profile blocks

I also had quite a bit of trouble with adding my changes to github which took up some time on Wednesday (Estella helped me out on Thursday).

For now, I’m done with the MUNA lab project and am switching back to Blanton until I have to add in the final changes to the homepage and other css changes.

 

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COLA Web Refresh Project

Work has continued on this project. I’ve been continuing client communication, specifically for the Academic Enrichment sites. All the CM STAs submitted the checks for understanding Google Form, so I’ll be calling Suloni today on Slack to discuss next steps.

Also, Crystal granted me access to UT’s Image Relay, a repository of UT photography used by University Communications for me to use for certain pages that need an image refresh (which is many pages).

Also, I created new buttons for the Maymester and Faculty Led Pages, as the program offerings have changed:

I also created a new banner for ASL on the Languages set of pages, trying to mimic the style of the original designer as much as possible

Before:

After:

HIS 314K PPTs

I reformatted another HIS315K ppt.

The Devil/Pirate Wears Prada

https://sta.laits.utexas.edu/blog/2021/10/11/pirate-wears-prada/

Week VII

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Week VII: Pages, Graphics, and Indesign

This week felt slow, but there’s a lot to cover!

 

CoLA Web Refresh Project

Early this week, a client mentioned a potential graphic of a thermometer for displaying project status. With permission, I jumped the gun a bit and sketched a sample for her.

(This isn’t the latest version, but at the time of writing, I’m having some trouble accessing my Box)

Our other big Refresh task was a new batch of pages to migrate, this time for every language offered.

The orange buttons are a placeholder.

 

Training: Type Hierarchy in InDesign

One reason I was so eager to draw a graphic we may not end up using was because I was currently doing a design training: my first foray into Indesign. The instructions and resource for this were sort of… jumbled to nonexistent, so with Maddy’s help, I wrote up a new assignment, then followed it myself.

This was my final product:

Indesign has a lot of things that feel not very intuitive (don’t get me started on image resizing) and I have a feeling it will take a while for me to get the hang of it, so I’m glad to be starting early. It seems like a very useful program, especially as someone interested in publication. Fun fact: I learned of Indesign’s existence pretty recently, because my roommate and his friend (who works here) were using it to put together a flashy information page for a grant application, and I was impressed!

 

I also spent several 15 minute breaks editing something for a personal project, with Valerie’s permission: the cover for a print-on-demand copy of a story. A few friends wanted hard copies, and I wanted to format it really fancy to look like a real book, which involved a lot of precise margins. Though I ended up using Photoshop, not Indesign, a lot of the same principles carried over.

Lastly, for Ingrid’s prior editing knowledge survey, I whipped up a timeline infographic.

I also started the HTML/CSS training which I’m excited for, though I only put about 15 minutes in, so I don’t have much to report yet.

 

A lot of graphics and a lot of learning this week. I hope to have more like it!

 

x – 90

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90 more exhibitions to go.

More people will be working on the site with me!

Thank you Angie, Rahul, and Abriella. They will be working on the Art section, while Asmita and I will be finishing the exhibitions.

Teaching is a bit hard, especially over zoom.

I think my exam on Friday went alright.

InDesign Training

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Design Training p2

 

I worked on the training called: Typography | Type Hierarchy in InDesign written by Megan. The point of the poster is to practice hierarchy of elements in a poster and knowing what information is most important to highlight.

I went a little playful with mine such as cropping the image into the shape of a basket. I also did the title in a cascading justification to mimic the swaying movement of water. On the bottom are my “hand-drawn” elements to bring out the idea of being underwater some more.

We also have to use a special glyph at least once in the poster. I used the lower “K”. My font is impact and the lowercase “k” is taller than all the other lowercase letters. I switched it out for a special shorter “k”.

Currently feedback is still pending from Megan on anything to edit further but this was what I made. I really enjoyed this poster and tried to do something more dynamic and playful from what I usually do and hopefully it is successful.