Reflection

I am currently employed as a technical writer, but the Tamarack Tee site marks my initial entry into the blogosphere. I didn’t have a problem developing the written content for the posts up to this point, but the HTML/CSS aspects were another story. Although I am familiar with HTML, I do not consistently create/maintain Web sites at my job so my design skills needed hands-on practice. Luckily, the recent re-design of my blog provided plenty of it. The Tamarack Tee blog initially employed a standard Blogger template. As the weeks progressed, I added several widgits and modified the default color scheme. Several weeks ago, I completely overhauled the design of the blog. I included a unique background pattern (downloaded from the Internet), adjusted the background colors, embedded a personalized banner and a personalized movie (currently hosted on Google videos). I also tweaked the column widths to enhance readability and use more white space. I did experiment with a newspaper-style, 3 column layout, but abandoned the change when I became bogged down in HTML that was over my head. I think the contents of each post meets the stated goal of the blog, to provide information and track my comprehension of various visual design elements. The posts are well-written and comprised of original thoughts without relying too much on canned content. I probably should have included more links to outside references throughout the posts, but I think any technical writer/visual designers who my stumble on to the Tamarack Tee blog will recognize the validity behind the posts.

As I continue with the blog, I will continually overhaul the layout and color scheme. I may also modify the goals of the blog, moving more towards technical writing instead of visual design. I'm hoping to report on my current goals of learning XML, XSLT and perhaps some scripting work (FrameScript, JavaScript etc.).