Online Meetings

  1. Limit the number of participants in the virtual meeting.
  2. Before the meeting test technology.
  3. Meeting should be quick and to the point.
  4. Insure all individuals in the meeting are encouraged to participate.
  5. Avoid talking without keeping the person online in the conversation.
  6. Speak up!
  7. If you can’t hear speak up and tell the other individual.
  8. Make sure you are in a quite room.
  9. Keep time zones in mine.
  10. Email notes/documents to each individual before the meeting.
  11. Have one note taker.

Marshmallow Tower Exercise

  • Was there a leader in your group? Who was it and who decided who the leader would be?
    • The leadership was shared though out the group. Everyone had great input.
  • If you had no leader, do you think having designated someone a leader would have helped?
    • In this situation I don’t feel it would have helped. We were able to easily agree on our methods and communicated well. I feel a leader would have overshadowed some peoples ideas.
  • How helpful was everyone on your team in the process of building the tallest structure? How helpful was the five minute design process? Did anyone appear to be an expert?
    • No one was an expert on the topic. The five minute design process did not help as we had no experience. Everyone contributed to the creation and structure of the project.
  • Did any team members tune out the activity–out of frustration with other members or for some other reason? What could you have done to keep all members of the group fully engaged?
    • All members remained fully engaged.
  • Did you feel everyone’s ideas were well received during the activity?
    • Everyone’s ideas where deeply discuses when presented.
  • How did you feel as the time limit was approaching? Did pressure increase? If yes, was that helpful or not?
    • We finished well before the time limit. I do feel the time limit limited our ability to think clearly as we were rushed.
  • In retrospect, what could you have done differently throughout this process?
    • In retrospect I would have built the tower differently. Communication wise I would not change anything.
12″ 3rd Place

Progressive Enhancement

“Inclusive Web Design For the Future”

Shopify Article

The Graceful Degradation Perspective focuses on building websites for the most advanced/capable browsers and does not worry much on less capable browsers. Older browsers just need to work not look pretty.

The Progressive Enhancement Perspective focuses on the content. Work flow: Content > Presentation > Client-Side Scripting. You start with the HTML, then the CSS style, finally the Script (Javascript, Jquery, extra.)

Progressive Enhancement ensures that a website is functional and presentable on all browsers and devices. It also does not show favoritism to one system or browser improving availability to viewers. MDN Web Docs have a great article on Progressive Enhancement. In general, MDN is a great source for web development information. “Progressive enhancement is a design philosophy that centers around providing a baseline of essential content and functionality to as many users as possible, while at the same time going further and delivering the best possible experience only to users of the most modern browsers that can run all the required code.” (MDN Web Docs)

Site Feedback

https://megan-barnett-it-citrine.meganbarnett.repl.co/segway/index.html

Feedback

  • Maybe change up the banner pictures that break up the sections.
  • I didn’t get much feedback :/

Implemented Improvements

  • Changed banner images between sections rather than having the same image each time.
  • I went in and added a fade in/out to my images.
  • Who was your partner and what was their project?
    • Zack
  • Did you feel that having the sandwich template helped your critiquing efforts?
    • Honestly no. It tended to mess up my train of thought.
  • In which role did you feel the most/least comfortable; being evaluated or in the role of the evaluator?
    • I was fine with both roles.
  • What did you learn from interacting with your partner?
    • We are all on different levels when it comes to web development.
  • What do you feel were your strengths/weaknesses as an evaluator?
    • I was able to help him improve on things he did not understand. Though I am not the best.
  • What would you do differently next time you found yourself in an ethical constructive feedback situation?
    • Ask for a more in-depth analysis of my site.
  • Add in overall reflections you may have of your feedback situation.
    • The feedback for my site was lacking. The sandwich method limited my ability to critic all that needed to be fixed.

Leadership

Two Types of leadership

Designated – An individual is appoint/assigned leader

Emergent – An individual step up to the position, they just fit the role. Referent power, people with build in leadership ability’s and characteristics.

Game Appointed Leader: Billionaire though he is not a friendly guy he commands attention and is good at directing individuals.

Game Emergent Leader: Factory Worker, she has a variety of experience, is kind, and knows how to take charge.

Image Optimization

Images account for the majority of data attached to websites. The less a computer has to load the quicker the website will load. It is important to understand what type of image to use and when to use images.

  • Eliminate unnecessary image resources
  • Leverage CSS3 effects where possible
  • Use web fonts instead of encoding text in images
  • CSS effects (gradients, shadows, etc.) and CSS animations can be used to produce resolution-independent assets that always look sharp at every resolution and zoom level, often at a fraction of the bytes required by an image file.
  • Web fonts enable use of beautiful typefaces while preserving the ability to select, search, and resize text – a significant improvement in usability.
  • Vector graphics use lines, points, and polygons to represent an image.
  • Raster graphics represent an image by encoding the individual values of each pixel within a rectangular grid.
  • Prefer vector formats: vector images are resolution and scale independent, which makes them a perfect fit for the multi-device and high-resolution world.
  • Minify and compress SVG assets: XML markup produced by most drawing applications often contains unnecessary metadata which can be removed; ensure that your servers are configured to apply GZIP compression for SVG assets.
  • Pick best raster image format: determine your functional requirements and select the one that suits each particular asset.
  • Experiment with optimal quality settings for raster formats: don’t be afraid to dial down the “quality” settings, the results are often very good and byte savings are significant.
  • Remove unnecessary image metadata: many raster images contain unnecessary metadata about the asset: geo information, camera information, and so on. Use appropriate tools to strip this data.
  • Serve scaled images: resize images on the server and ensure that the “display” size is as close as possible to the “natural” size of the image. Pay close attention to large images in particular, as they account for largest overhead when resized!
  • Automate, automate, automate: invest into automated tools and infrastructure that will ensure that all of your image assets are always optimized.

Communication Skills (Climate & Process)

  • A group must feel comfortable with one another.
  • Communicate emotions and frustrations.
  • It is important to pay attention to your group members moods both in verbal and nonverbal communication.
  • Nonverbal communication is key to understanding group members.
  • Conflicts must be address promptly and thoroughly.
  • Encourage one another.
  • Summarize what was discussed.

Climate

  • Openness
  • Trust/Self-disclosure
  • Support
  • Respect

Process

  • Accountability
  • Constructive Feedback
  • Problem Solve
  • Knowledge of Roles