CHRISTOPHER DRESSER
Having looked at my original schedule and compared it to the end result the following changes have occurred.
I have changed the title of my project about Christopher Dresser. My first thought was to call it The dead designer, or possibly Truth, Beauty and Power which was his motto, but now I have decided that CHRISTOPHER DRESSER - A DESIGNER FOR TODAY? is a more appropriate title.
There have been some changes in the content. I have included the pages I planned on his work and writings but not separate ones about the Japanese influences on his work or about the Alessi design studio. I did not have sufficient time to research these latter topics, however, while searching the Internet I found a suitable page on Alessi. I also found appropriate links which enabled me to provide a historical context for Dresser and relevant information about his contemporaries.
I intended my project to be accessible by any adult and therefore when I wrote it I assumed no prior knowledge by the reader. I think it would also be suitable for senior high school students beginning a study of 19th century design. As each section is discrete I have included only two navigational buttons - one to the top of the page and the other to the home page. This is the most suitable option for this particular project.
I thought I had set myself an achievable task and that I would not have to leave out any of the proposed contents but I had not anticipated the amount of time I would need to come to grips with the technology required for this project. For me, this was the most challenging and time-consuming aspect and I found myself having much less time than I had anticipated for spending on my research and writing.
I have seldom used a camera, automatic or otherwise, to take photographs of people or places. I found the lighting conditions in ADHope 123 unhelpful. If the lights were left on, there was a glare on the pages. If the lights were switched off, it was too dark. I thought it was my inexperience that caused my photographs to be so out of focus and/or dark that they were not useable even though I had tried to improve them using photoshop. By the time it was discovered that there was something wrong with the camera and I was able to redo my pictures, I had used much precious time trying to fix them up. I would have appreciated a set of clear, step-by-step instructions and diagrams for beginners on how to use the digitising camera.
I had never used a unix machine before, having had access only to Macintoshes. This meant learning new commands and handling files in a very different way. In addition, there were the demands of learning html language, coming to grips with jpeg and gif images, constructing Web pages, dealing with graphic design as well as writing 5,000 words of original text - all this in the space of 14 weeks!
I think there is too much material in this unit to be covered in a one semester course. My suggestion would be to make it two semesters - the first for a sequence of detailed learning experiences covering the technology and the second for research on the chosen topic, using what was learned in the first semester to put it in a form suitable for mounting on the Web.
