Self Evaluation

Peer review for Melanie: Overall, this was very well done. The image was cut up nicely to highlight specific ideas in certain areas. The content was very good; a nice analysis of the meanings behind not only the entire image, but also the individual pieces. Analysis flows nicely from the overall images to the separate pieces. The markup is clean and efficient. However, Netscape doesn't seem to like the markup on the first page for some reason. There are some nice HTML tricks in here. I especially like the navigation table and the arrow that reminds you what section you are in. The site is almost completely cross-browser compatible, the only problem being the first page. To sum up, this was a very well-designed site with very strong content explaining the image in great detail.
~Trevor

Response to Melanie: The author illustrates that she understands the images, and is interested in sharing her thoughts with others. Content is written personally, and does not sound "detached." Writing is generally eloquent, and flows well. The site as a whole is very dark, and may benefit from "brighter" colors, if this can be accomplished and still maintain the purpose of the site. Markup looks clean, much of the design seems to be done in the external css. Most of the site works in Netscape, though there are a few glitches as of yet. Site looks good so far, much more complete than most others at this time. Work on finalizing content and/or revising existing content. Images look good, perhaps make sight a little easier to look at by using brighter colors. Other than that, looks good so far.
~Ian

What are the strengths of the explication?

Markup-wise, I liked the image map and I really liked the "You are Here" arrow. I thought that the image I chose was intriguing, and I thought I gave a pretty good background on the author. I thought the sections were well-chosen as well.

What are the weaknesses?

My pages are graphic intensive. Now obviously this is an image explication and so it must be image intense, but some of the images are rather large. It's good for seeing detail but kind of a pain for loading, so I hope that anyone who meanders onto my page has a fast connection.

I don't think I incorporated our readings as explicitly as perhaps the assignment called for. I was trying to incorporate their ideas without directly quoting them to make the content flow a little better and seem more original. I'm not sure if I was successful.

What I liked about the assignment?

I have always loved this picture, although I've never given myself time to delve more deeply into why I enjoyed it so much. This assignment was an excellent opportunity to concentrate on something that I loved without worrying that I was "wasting" time. Overall, I had a blast thinking about this image and trying to come up with something cognizant to say. I felt a lot of pride when I browsed through the finished project, I was amazed that something I made could look so nice =)

What was challenging and difficult?

I found it pretty challenging trying to get the pages to work in both Netscape and Internet Explorer. It was also harder than I expected to create the image map, but it was fun too, and I think it looks pretty cool =)

Another thing I found challenging was putting into words all of the feelings and emotions the picture elicited from me. I had a lot going on in my head, but translating it into coherent words was surprisingly difficult. Thus, it took more time than I had expected and I had a thumping headache afterwards from trying to squeeze all of the stuff out of my brain.

What I revised following the peer critique and why?

I made the body text's font slightly brighter, although I was kind of loathe to do so, since I liked the darkness of the site. I thought it added to the dark atmosphere the picture emanated, but for the sake of the reader, I (hopefully) made it easier to read.

I also fixed the problems Netscape was having with my pages and had my boyfriend dig out Netscape to make sure all of the pages were compatible with both browsers. I was unable to make the image map cleaner in Netscape without breaking it up in Internet Explorer, so I just left it be, because it had taken me forever to make the image map anyway, as the only image manipulator I have is MS Paint, which is extremely rudimentary.

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