This was a really fun project to work on! I love being able to directly see changes I make and to create a platform that is interactive. Something that I really struggled with is getting text and images to be centered. I also struggled with getting started. It took me a while to actually come up with an idea and envision how I wanted to organize it on my site. However, once I got started, the ideas started flowing. I am happy with my color scheme and how everything looks cohesive aesthetically. One particular thing that I think is fun is how the color of my links change when you hover over it. Through doing this project, I have also grown to have a better understanding the difference between classes and IDs. For the future, I would like to learn how to make my site look less boxy...if that makes sense. I want to learn how to make the site easier to use and just have a simple aesthetic overall.
I used the Twenty Word Press theme for my content site. For this site, I was inspired by the UGA Fresh Express organization. When you Google “UGA Fresh Express,” the site link name is associated with the Professional Clothing Closet. I felt this may get confusing and mislead students searching for the Fresh Express site. Therefore, I decided to redesign the site. Using WordPress had its ups and downs. It took some time to adjust to WordPress after I had become so accustomed to using HTML. One of the biggest struggles I experienced was being able to customize every aspect of the page. There were many times I could not find a way to edit something, like the color of a title, because it was a part of the theme. As time went on, I got more used to differentiating between posts and pages. I am actually pretty happy with how the site turned out. I think it is functional, organized, and easy for users to navigate.
Continuing on with my produce-inspired content site, I decided to make a fresh produce grocery shop as my commerce site. I definitely struggled more with the commerce site than I did with my content site. The biggest issue I struggled with is using WooCommerce. While installing it was fine, it was more so difficult unjumbling things in a way that I could see how things connected…if that makes sense. For example, there was a pre-made Shop Page once I selected a theme and installed the plug-in. However, anytime I would click the actually “shop” link in my site header, it took me nowhere. Due to this issue, I had to change my theme to Classic WooCommerce. This theme also gave me trouble with changing the CSS because of a lot of the original code that comes with the theme was made “important.” I tried changing colors to the best of my ability due to this hindrance. I am fond of how a majority of my products look cohesive. In the manner that it is the produce and then a light colored background. I am also somewhat proud of my homepage considering I had to create it all from scratch instead of using a default template. I particularly like how my media are fixed background so it moves as you scroll.
For my final project, I chose to redesign the SGA Fresh Express website. Although I had previously redesigned the website for another project, I wanted to take even more time to redesign and make it better. This website will potentially be used in the future so I wanted to redesign it to the best of my abilities. My goal for the new website was to make it more visually appealing but still keep it simple and easy to navigate. I chose the theme “Variations” because of its simplistic look. I think having played around with WordPress and running into troubles then helped me to navigate through the application easier this time. One challenge I ran into was making the background of the header white. Before, there was no header background, so the site name and content links were difficult to see. However, every time I tried making the header background white, it never worked. After playing around and going through different theme editor sections, I was able to make the header background white. The second challenge, and probably my most concerning challenge, I ran into was finding a way for all of my posts to go to a designated posts page. Initially, when I would create and launch a post, it was not visible anywhere on the site. After some tinkering, I was able to create a page called “Posts” where users pick between two categories of what they would like to read about. The biggest changes, and things I am most proud of, between this site and my previous site were that this one has a site icon, more pictures, and in my opinion, is more visually appealing. I think I did a good job of picking bright, simple, clean pictures. My favorite part of the site is the non-static pictures on the homepage. I think this adds a fun feature to the site. The content from the original SGA Fresh Express website stayed the same. However, I decided to put the content, like volunteering and donation information, into their own designated pages. This way users can go directly to the page that pertains to them the most without having to read and sift through other information. My biggest takeaway from this project is that WordPress is not as daunting as it first seemed. I have become quite familiar with WordPress after doing this project and have grown to be a bit fonded of it. Overall, I am really happy with how this site turned out.