Visit my new website, Gingers Against Humanity (opens in a new tab), where you can learn all about this mysterious organization!
Sites v. DoOO
If I had to describe the difference between these two, I would say that Sites@UMW is a slightly more restricted version of Domain of One’s Own. While you can still customize part of a URL, and make some choices about how you want your site to look, you don’t have as much freedom as you do with DoOO. There aren’t as many themes or plugins to choose from, and you are limited to one application (WordPress). However, that means there are fewer potential issues and challenges, since everything is pretty controlled and regularly updated for you, and you can still create as many subsites as you want, and make them look however you want.
“Welcome to Walking Thoughts with Katy.” *chime sound effect*
*the sound of wooden construction*
“Who put these benches here? Why are there so many? Did Mary Washington like benches? Is that why they’re here?”
*the sounds of keyboards typing*
“It’s the HCC! I Work There!”
*the sound of birds chirping*
“What a funny little guy. He’s got no head, and a big belly.”
“Big tree.”
This has been Walking Thoughts with Katy. Keep wandering. *chime sound effect*
Media
I got all my sound effects, including the “magic wand sparkle”, “birds chirping near the river”, “chatting with a laptop”, and “cutting trees with chainsaw ambiance and axe hits” from unknown creators on MixKit.
The background music is a track called “Valley Sunset” by Alejandro Magaña on MixKit.
Canva
I like Canva because of its simplicity. It’s easy to learn and has quite a few resources, like animations, graphics, and fun templates. However, it is frustrating to see all of the premium elements that I, a lowly freeloader, don’t have access to, and sometimes I feel limited in how much editing I can do.
Bonus Tools
For this project, I went to the HCC front desk to check out some audio equipment. I’ve had a little experience with the audio recorder before and I think the nice sound makes the video feel a little higher quality. I just filmed my video with my phone’s camera. I also used SoundTrap to edit my audio.
The Journey
I started by planning out my transcript, and the shots I wanted to get. I like to write things out so I can make sure that I have a nice variety and so that I can film as efficiently as possible. Then I went outside and filmed as I walked around. I got shy though, so I changed a couple of shots so I could hide and film away from judging eyes and potential sneak attacks. After I got my shots, I uploaded them to Canva and began editing. Then I added in my audios from SoundTrap. I made two separate tracks: one for the voiceover, and one for the music and sound effects.
Wow, that accessibility page was a wild ride! There were lots of weird things going on, but I think it looks better now. I added the page to my top menu for future reference. I learned that it’s good practice to make a note if a link will take the user to a new tab, and that typography is important! Something that I like about this theme is the font, because I think it’s simple and easy to read.
Accessibility Plugin
I decided to install the Accessibility Checker plugin by Equalize Digital. I love being able to see the details about what needs to be changed to make my posts and pages more accessible. It’s really helpful in pointing out things that I wouldn’t have normally spotted! Another thing I learned is that the heading structure order is important. I used to use smaller headers just because I liked how they looked better, but the plugin I installed flagged my headings, so I changed them.
Checking my Website
Being able to use the Accessibility Checker to look through my website is certainly helpful, but I feel like the defaults of this theme often need to be changed. For example, the default “black” text is actually a dark grey, and the accessibility summary keeps telling me that the color contrast isn’t high enough. There’s something that keeps popping up saying “ARIA hidden”. I’m not sure what that means. Something else that bothers me is that WordPress tells me that the blue highlighted link text is too low contrast, but I can’t figure out how to change it!
My theme doesn’t really have sidebars aside from the menu at the top of the screen. I customized that with my about, contact, blog, events, and welcome pages. I also added a button that takes you from my about page to my contact page.
Plugins!
I chose to install a few different plugins. I added Akismet and Jetpack, because I’ve seen a lot of consultants here using those (and they seem to know what they’re doing), and because they help with the security of the site. You can’t see them from the front end, but they’ve already come in use by showing me how to make my site more secure. I also added a plugin called The Events Calendar, which is pretty much what it sounds like. You can post upcoming events and related information, and visitors to the site can browse past and upcoming events. This feature can be found on my events page!
Appointments!
I think in general, I am most excited to train people on spaces, especially the 3D print lab and video production studio! I went through my first year at Mary Wash without any idea what cool resources I had access to, and I want to spread the word about all the things we have the ability to create through these spaces.
Yarn Fact!
“Yarn technology is old; evidence of twisted fibers has been found at many prehistoric sites, including one from 40,000 years ago.”
Michael Schirber, How Cotton Fibers Become Yarn,Physics 15,27
To the left is a screen capture of my home page. For this page, I experimented with the column and quote blocks, which I had never used before. I included a description of the site and its purpose.
I also customized the background color and played around with some other features, like the buttons and social media icons. In the image below you can see the different pages I created. A button at the bottom of the about page takes you over to the contact page.
What have I learned?
I learned a lot of new things! In my introductory digital studies course, I only really scratched the surface of Word Press features. I didn’t realize how much freedom I really had when it came to organizing my website with things like patterns and columns, and how many different things can be embedded using blocks. It’s so cool!
YouTube!!
Crochet Flower Coaster & Pot by Lacie Bloom on YouTube.
This is the project I’m working on right now! This was a suggestion from my roommate. We already have two sets of coasters I’ve crocheted in the past, but she wanted something cuter I guess. This video tutorial is super clear and easy to follow! But I’m so sick of making all the little flowers. Ugh. They’re cute but time consuming.
