When I first heard that I had to make a webpage for my writing technology class, my first response was that I already had one created. What could I learn from creating another website? The answer, of course, is that I could learn a lot. I had already learned a lot from the mistakes that I made in the past. When I created my first website in 1997, I wanted to use all of the gadgets that were available to me. I had just learned about hypertext mark-up language, html for short. I incorporated everything that I learned in my initial website; and yes, it was awful. I had words blinking, images floating, and links everywhere.

My current personal page still has what sucky to savvy would call link lunacy. I have toned in down a little since reading web design guides like The Web Style Guide, Sucky to Savvy, Spiderpro's 100 do's and don't's, and Dianna Boohers, E-Writing: 21^st-Century Tools for Effective Communication. These are all style guides based on electronic communication. I have applied some of the suggestions in each of these guides to the website designed for my Writing Technology Class. This means that the website designed for my Technology class provided my a change to enhance my writing skills for the electronic medium.

The two most important things that I learned while creating this website is: to keep it simple, and to have some kind of spatial organization. The first rule can apply to just about type of writing, whether it be electronic or handwritten. When we try to put too much into too little of a space, it becomes cluttered. All of the blinking texts and flying objects made my first website cluttered, and easily misunderstood. There was no general theme to the site, hence there was no real use for it. My original personal site may still not have much meaning to those who don't care to know about me, but it does have meaning for potential employers.

I have learned that in order to make something useful, you have to give it meaning. This may seem like common sense, but trust me, it's not. Before reading the style guides for my technology class, I tried to cram everything onto the front page because I didn't know what the most important thing about my page was. As I began to organize my site, I began to realize that I wanted others to know about my experiences, and how they shaped my professional development. Once I got a theme to my personal page, I was better able to organize the rest of my site. I didn't need to try to cram everything onto the main page.

Knowing what my website was about, I was able to cut out most of the clutter, and begin to create some spatial organization. I decided that creating tables with links to the rest of my site was the best was to organize the layout. Because I already had a good understanding of html, I was able to create tables relatively easy. I added some pictures to help add visual stimulation to the link.

After organizing my own personal page, my website for my technology class went quickly and easily. There aren't as many graphics on my english website. I opted for simplicity for two reasons, the first is because it is easer, the second is because simple can be attractive. I probably don't have the most creative website, or the best looking, but I do have a website that is functional for its purpose. Viewers no longer have to wait for extensive images to load onto a massive webpage when the visit me, and they no longer have to restructure their spatial perception when reading about my experiences. What I learned in this class is how to be more appealing through the use of simplicity. While I am sure that the style manuals I read to reorganize my website, and my English instructor would have problems with some of the things that I have done, I do believe that they would, overall, be proud of the developments that I have made within this short amount of time.