What steps I took

First I started by creating the layout of my website, so for example making the Home page static and removing the default that dictated all posts went to the Home page. Then all the individual pages were made, e.g. the reviews and about page. The layout was then completed by making subpages under the review page so each review had their own page. Then I wrote all the reviews added them, and then proceeded to improve the visual aspects of my website, for example adding images. I also added extra aspects to the reviews like adding hyperlinks and embedding a users guide PowerPoint that I made. Finally I added my report and added any finishing touches after going through my website as if I was a stranger to it.

What was easiest

The easiest part I found was writing the reports, because this did not include as much technical knowledge. I also found this easier to complete because this is very similar to tasks I have had to do in the past, unlike the other aspects like creating the website which is fairly unfamiliar to me. I also found that tasks such as embedding links and adding media was fairly easy to do because I have done this in PowerPoint, which involves similar steps to complete this task.

Issues Encountered

Most of the issues I encountered were because it was unfamiliar territory that I was entering. The biggest issue I encountered was that I was missing part of my tool bar when I was editing the page. This meant that I was only able to easily change aspects such as adding bullet points and inserting hyperlinks (see fig. below). I however was missing the part of the tool bar however that lets one easily edit aspects such as font color and size. I overcame this however by looking at people on my course’s reviews in text format so it showed some of the html coding used to create the review. I then used this code to edit aspects of my own website that I wanted to change, in particular font size, type and color. In order to change the color I also had to look up online the HTML code for the certain colors I wanted.

Another issue I had was small aspects such as making the home page a static page and no longer a posts page. I fixed this by taking a break from working on the website, and just taking time to just explore wordpress so I could get a feel for how it works. This help in two ways, firstly it helped me find a section that helped me format the layout of the website, and it also help give me ideas on how I could add to my website. For example this is how I got the idea to embed a user guide PowerPoint that I had made.

Overall I really enjoyed this project because I learn some valuable skills, and due to the troubles I faced I also learnt a bit of HTML coding, which I found very interesting.