Introducing my first Learning Journal entry! So far in this class I’ve reviewed HTML tags and basic code structure for HTML pages. Luckily, while not practicing much over the summer and having taken AAD 85 three years ago, I still feel a familiarity with HTML and Visual Studio thanks to the Interaction Design class I took last semester.
As for specific things I’ve learned, it has mainly been deepening my understanding of semantic HTML. I had never considered how the organization of your code can actually benefit accessibility and screen readers, nor did I realize there were so many tags available to improve SEO. I learned to put the height and width of my images in the code so content won’t jump around the page. I learned more about the <pre> tag that allows you to render spacing on the site the way you have it in the code editor.
I think CSS is where I will have the most catching up to do, review-wise. Despite reading about it on Interneting is Hard not too long ago, I still feel like my CSS tends to be a bit jury rigged. But that’s why I’m in this class!
One last thing I learned these first two weeks is that twelve units is a lot of units, especially when you have classes such as this one (and my Portfolio Development class) that require creative energy and ample time to develop concepts. While I might be able to cobble something together and get a good grade, I’m looking to make portfolio-worthy pieces, and I feared that my current course load would not allow for that, or just end up being too stressful as I try to balance everything. I’ve decided to drop one of my classes so I can give the others the time and energy they deserve.
Now that that’s taken care of, I’m excited for next week! I hope I can finally learn to keep track of padding versus margins. And floats… and flexbox…