This is a page to hold my essays for the DIGIT 100 course.
Through this project I have learned various website development techniques as well as the pros and cons of different development sources. One of these websites was made using Oxygen HTML editor and Github as a publishing space, while the other operates through PSU's Wordpress site. Here I will reflect on the benefits and disadvantages of using both development options, as well as share my experience with using both programs.
As someone who has already had experience with HTML and coding, the Oxygen workspace was not all that unfamiliar to me. However, I struggled to remember a lot of the commands for styling in CSS and had to look up how to do them. On the other hand, I found Wordpress' layout to be very confusing at first; I found it difficult to edit and create pages and often found myself getting lost on the dashboard.
I would say I prefer the creativity of developing on Github; I enjoy having the ability to troubleshoot and visualize my code as well as understand whats going on under the hood of my website. I found that Wordpress was easier to customize though, as it as built in templates for users to feature on their website rather than having to do it by hand. This takes a lot of stress out of building a website, but also takes a way a bit of the fun in my opinion. I personally enjoy the hand-crafted charm of the Github websites, and I feel they can be more personalized to the individual and their interests.
One of the major struggles I had with developing in Wordpress was my images. I found it very difficult to arrange my images the way I wanted on my page with the visual view of code on Wordpress; I had to experiment with it for a while before it finally looked right. I also ran into some issues on the HTMl website when trying to write my resume. I had to troubleshoot how to use divs to align my paragraphs on the same line using the in-line style in CSS.
I definetly want to improve my styling with CSS in the future; I feel I could have done more to make my website more visually appealing like my Wordpress site if I knew more styling techniques. I also would like to work on my utilization of containers and divs, as I feel I could have used them more on this assignment. As far as Wordpress, I would like to learn how to customize more using their additional-CSS templates and how to better format my images on the page.
Overall, both methods of development have their benefits and drawbacks; Wordpress was much easier to insert my prewritten code, but I found some limitations in its creativity at times, while Github is more intimidating and laborus but offers a wider array of options for styling. In my opinion, I prefered to code my website in Github and HTML rather than Wordpress. I enjoy the trial-and-error aspect of coding in HTML; if I don't know how to do something or why something is doing a certain thing, I can go out and research on my own to find a solution. I prefer the satisfaction of struggling to find an answer and the bliss of finally getting your code to work after hours of troubleshooting. I found Wordpress to be a bit boring in my opinion, I enjoy the creativity of being able to decide exactly how my elements lay on my page using CSS commands. I also prefer the style of the Github websites rather than Wordpress' premade designs. Wordpress is much more beginner-friendly than Github though; its UI and tools are easier to interact with than HTML to most people.
Here is the direct link to my other website:
WordpressThese changes will be updated to my personal repo on : Github