Katrina's LSC 548 Final Project

Katrina's Labwork for LSC 548: Overview

Lab assignments were an opportunity to practice the information architecture and coding skills that we gained through our lessons. Through our labs, we were able to demonstrate our understanding of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I found that HTML and CSS were easier for me than JavaScript; I suspect that is because they are Markup languages while JavaScript is a Coding language. I think with continued practice, I will develop more proficiency with all three languages.

One of the most important things that I learned was how to troubleshoot my code when it didn’t render properly. I learned to only change one line at a time, and to hold the prior iteration in my clipboard while I checked the page in my browser, so I could see if my change had broken my site and could replace the line that I had made the mistake on with the original one. That was a great way to really understand what each line of code did: by seeing what broke when it was removed or written improperly. I also learned how to use Atom, which is a text editor that is very user-friendly; and how to securely upload my files to the hosting site, using Secure File Transfer Protocol, with the program FireZilla.

Our first labs concentrated on information architecture basics and building the framework of our sites in HTML. We accomplished this through comparing a library website over a ten-year span, designing and carrying out a usability test on the website we were studying, creating external CSS stylesheets, and treemapping our subject sites. We continued to build our sites by adding navigation bars, using CSS to control our layout, and learning how to use JavaScript to make our pages interactive. We also learned how to use JavaScript and block coding to create simple Apps using App Lab at Code.org. I believe that this final task will be especially useful to me in the future because I hope to have the opportunity to run programs for patrons of all ages to teach them confidence in computer science, using block coding at Code.org, Scratch, and similar beginner-friendly sites.

Please use the links below, or the dropdown menu above, to explore the results of these labs.

This is a Link to Comparison of Clark Library over One Decade

This is a Link to Usability Test of Current Clark Library Website

This is a Link to Treemap Analysis of Clark Library Content

This is a link to one App that I created.

This is a link to another App that I created.

The button displayed below is a simple JavaScript program that I created for one of our labs.

INSTRUCTIONS: Click the button to reveal the site owner!