Project Goals.

Validate to XHTML 1.0 Transitional, CSS 2.1, ActionScript 3 standards.

Producing a website that will have valid code will make sure the website is aesthetically consistant throughout cross-platforms and browsers. Also reducing the usablity errors that are already an issue with Flash. Using W3C's online validation service to constantly check and resure that I have valid code.

Creating a portfolio to professional standards.

Making sure that if my portfolio would not look out of place if it was put on a page with other experienced website designers. Meeting the standards set out in my first goal to ensure this will be the case with my final design. A website that lets the work do the talking, rather than trying to be all singing and dancing itself.

Top 3 placement in search enginges.

Because there is already some famous Andrew Whelan's such as the comedy writer, it will be productive for me to get as high as possible so I'm not just lost in the search and relegated to the latter pages. This will require some research into SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to enable me to put in the right processes to project me to the higher figures.

Flexible and Easily Accessible Website.

I will create a sitemap to make sure no information is more than 2 clicks away from each other, hopefully helping me through the presentation process having all the information on hand to me quickly. The flexibility means that updating it with new work will be a quick and simple job.

Last Semester.

The last semester is here and it’s come around quite quick, only yesterday it seems like we were doing team building tasks and dropping eggs from windows. It’s really dawning on me that soon we are going to projected out into the big wide world of discovery to find out how our talents actually rank in the industry amongst professionals and possible employers. Will what we have been taught be enough to secure jobs? Will the experience some people in the class have been gaining throughout the course with side-jobs and projects help towards the final goal of actually working for a professional design company. I’ve thought along the course that many people would not be able to find an industry job, but the people are really starting to show what they are made of. Though before I was really looking at the visual side of it, a lot of members are becoming very good coders and are hungry to learn more of that site; hopefully this will put them forward to where they want to be.

Looking at the last few assignments I’m concentrating on the ones now and leaving the thinking about the final major project some what out of my head. I think my motivation is been something that has consistently come into question with the assignments and hopefully I will be able to show a different side now we’re coming to the close of the course. Never mind proving other members of my class wrong, I think I need to prove to my self that I can actually do great things when I put my mind to it, instead of really resting on my laurels and thinking it will be okay to do this to get through. The Self Managed Learning Plan will be the main way to show this, showing that I can be self motivated with the creation of short term goals and keeping on top of deadlines and to a good quality.

The portfolio assignment is quite interesting, for as long as I can remember I’ve always been messing around with possible portfolios; doing designs and re-doing them 2 days later. In some ways I’m really my own worst critic and find it hard to constantly like the work I produce, forever changing and adding bits to suit my ever evolving outset. Now I know focus is needed to produce something that will not only please me, but the target audience too and the marker. To qualities that they haven’t seen me work before, I’ve always felt this was an assignment I’d really be able to shine in and hopefully this will be the case now we’re finally getting down to doing it. The structuring it to a presentational basis will be a nice mini-challenge also, knowing how it looks on a smart board and making sure all the information will be easy to access and succinct. But I feel I’m up to this task and have a thorough grasp of presentational techniques to compliment the graphical side of the portfolio task.

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10 Resources

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/flash/index.htm
This website has hundreds of tutorials, ranging from basic flash tuts to dealing with the server-side of flash.

http://www.gotoandlearn.com/
There is a lot of video tutorials on here and deals with the actionscript side of things as well as flash work.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/
A community to get tips and feedback on your work, has loads of tutorials for every problem you could find using flash.

http://www.flashkit.com/
Also a community with hundreds of resources and people willing to help out when you need it. Great tutorials and fast advice.

http://www.actionscript.org
Dealing with the actionscript side mainly, it shows you how to streamline your work and gives you tips and hints for your building process.

http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/adobe_flash/
Probably the site that has the most amount of resources, literally anything you want can be found here, with multiple ways to do it.

http://www.flashperfection.com/
Bringing tutorials from various sites to put together a staggering range and depth of tricks, tips and hints for flash users.

http://as3.metah.ch/
I think the most module and class structured resource I've found, it really breaks everything down for you and puts it in an easily readable language.

http://tutorialoutpost.com/tutorials/flash/actionscript
Hundreds of tutorials dedicated to flash users and really focusing on the input of actionscript alongside.

http://flashspeaksactionscript.com/begin-learning-flash-in-a-flash/
Probably the place I'm going to look at first when it comes to the assignment, it's very easily usable for the novice user.