Site Maps

Today we looked into ways of creating a mock up websites and ways to plan out everything you want to include. there were a few websites that we looked into to create our plan and outlines. the two websites we looked into were:

www.mockflow.com
www.lucidchart.com


LucidChart

The first step was creating a plan on lucidchart which was where i could make my plan of all the stages to create my portfolio. This was a great start to give myself ideas from scratch and make out some order of how my website will start to look. LucidChart is a really great planning website thats helped me to understand my own layout. Using this planning tool helped me to start from scratch and start to see how my portfolio would flow, and can also tell whether or not it works, as in some areas after planning them out needed changing as in to where they would go. Since using it i can start to realise I want a very simple but effective portfolio. three main areas are my projects, about me and my blog. I could then put each sub category in to the right part of my site. Overall the simple drag and drop with connective arrow tools helped me to plan my portfolio and was a great way to start from scratch.

MockFlow

The next website was Mockflow, this website was to help you try to piece together your outline and plan for your website. The website was really simple to use, with drag and drop options and quite a range of outlined pieces you would want to include on your site. it gives you the start you need to try and piece together whats in your head and helps you to see whether what you've chosen is effective or not. I was able to create my simple portfolio and where i want my options or projects to be placed and so on. Since starting my piece on Mockflow i've come to  realise how each part will look and where it will be placed, i want a simple but effective 3 options, and each part will have an effective project in a large proportion with my other projects below it. Overall it was a great stepping stone and good start to picture my site, although it wasn't able to properly show me how it would look and was difficult to decide on colour etc. but was a great tool to start me off.

Overall using both websites has been a massive help to understanding formats and layouts or structures for my planning but as well as educating myself on new pieces of software online. one main factor into using this is to get everything stuck in your head onto paper or a screen. The Lucidchart was a high quality planner that has only helped me decided on all the content and specifically wehat parts they'll all be included in. And then the Mockflow was the best website i could have used to get my head around understanding what goes where and what styles I was trying to think of in my head. As i had listed all parts to include in the website and where, I also had the chance to think of quality of work and which products of my own will be inclued. I need diversity in my products to show the versatility of what i can achieve. overall with all of the above to consider, I feel my Mockflow has helped me understand web layouts and all the factors leading towards a good portfolio.