Project Two Reflections

Panel One

In Panel One, I learned how to incorporate Bootstrap component into HTML to create a more sophisticated-looking webpage. I used a navbar, accordion, and three carousel components. I didn't particularly have any major issues with this panel, but I wish I would have spent more time fixing the kerning of some of the headers using the pixelated font. It's a very minor detail in the typeface that personally bothers me, but I wanted to focus more on getting all the content arranged correctly. I particularly enjoy the accordion in the Artistic Process section, because it allowed me to condense a lot of information into one column. Also, I think that my page resizes well the different viewports, but I would to learn more about responsive design in the future. Finally, I thought the names of the links in my navbar were funny, because hopefully my webpage will just continue to improve with each new panel!

Panel Two

In Panel Two, I learned how to shop for and download a Bootstrap theme, upload it, and slightly modify the HTML with my content. This part of the project was a lot of fun, but a little overwhelming at first. I really appreciate how my theme's code included comments labeling sections, or else I would have gotten very lost. I liked being able to just easily plug in my content, but I had a hard time restraining myself and not making a custom CSS stylesheet. However, my main challenge was with the CSS that came with theme. It must have been an outdated version of Bootstrap CSS, because many class elements for the accordion component were missing, causing it to not work properly. I did not realize this until majority of the panel was done, so instead I just removed that component for now and created three columns for my content.

Panel Three

In Panel Three, I learned how to customize a Bootstrap theme with an external CSS stylesheet. This panel was enjoyable, but also a bit challenging. First off, I was able to add in the missing Bootstrap CSS elements that I had to omit from Panel 2, which was really exciting to see. This helped my webpage look more sophisticated-looking and less like a generic Bootstrap theme. I learned how to Inspect my webpage to find certain CSS elements and customize them to my liking using '!important'. This process actually ended being a little more difficult than anticipated, just because of the vast number of elements included in the theme's original stylesheet. I often found myself going back and forth between inspecting and simply using Command-F on the whole 'style.css' sheet, because it was hard figuring out what specific classes and ids customized. However, I think Panel Three turned out really well and that everything ties together with the whole Minecraft concept: pixelated font, Minecraft colors, and the pixel paint brush logo, which I made myself with an online platform and Photoshop. I definitely think that I could have spent more time cutomizing the theme to make it my own, however my main goal with this part of the project was making it look similar to Panel One. For the future, I would like to spend more time learning the Bootstrap grid system and responsive web design, because I know that will be beneficial for future assignments and projects.