Dreamweaving a Homepage

I am in the final semester of the MATC program, which means that I am going to be out in the job market very soon. So, what other opportune moment could I possibly wait for to build myself a webpage? None, perhaps. This is my moment. However, dream weaving an elegant webpage is one level of interaction (with your imagination, of course…Meadows would probably refer to it as “inside- the- skull interactivity”) and translating that dream into reality is another (“outside- the- skull interactivity”). In the latter case, I would have to interact with the Dreamweaver, er…a software I know nothing about. In short, I would have to start from the scratch. The reality checks (or “peripeteia,” if you will) in my personal narrative are too compelling to be ignored. So, I dare not disregard them. I already catch myself longing wistfully for a denouement –“And they (meaning me and my homepage) lived happily ever after.”

On a more serious note, I am indeed confronted with an intimidating list of tasks. The first of these is acquainting myself with the power of Dreamweaver. Thanks to Peachpit’s Classroom in a Book series. Slowly but steadily, I am beginning to feel more oriented. However, the fact remains that my web designing skills are yet to assume a concrete shape. And, my bond with Dreamweaver is, at best, still tenuous. So, after taking my (non existent) web designing skills into account, I have decided to settle for relatively less this semester. My immediate plan of action is to come up with a decent (read no frills, no thrills) design for a professional webpage- a page that will be aesthetically appealing and, more importantly, robustly functional. And if Darwin’s theory still holds true, my skills will hopefully evolve over time and so will my homepage. Said another way, more ambitious projects will have to wait for the future.

Now within the framework of these constraints, it is challenging to consider how I could incorporate communication, transparency, and participation into my webpage. Whatever solution I come up with, it should not only be compatible with my current skillsets but also executable within the timeframe of the semester. I should dream weave discreetly …overreachers rarely live happily ever after (have been reading Marlowe lately). The easiest way of starting to answer the blog prompt for this week (or penetrating what almost seems like a riddle to me) is to “begin at the beginning” i.e. consider my audience. Who are likely to take an interest in my webpage? With the primary (potential employers, colleagues) and secondary audiences (friends, family members and occasional stray visitors) of a webpage figured out, the next step (I am guessing) would be to match content to the targeted audience . And, once the content has been defined, it’s becomes so much easier to plan the implementation of other finer nuances of a webpage. Since I am (thankfully) less of a public figure than Obama , here’s how I envision the role of this trio in my homepage:

Communication: I agree with the White House definition of “communication” as making in-depth content available to your audience in a timely manner.

Transparency: For me this would mean being honest about my professional expertise and sharing specimens of my work so that readers can form an objective evaluation about them.

Participation: The easiest way of inviting reader participation would be to integrate a blog with my webpage. Another possible approach could be to weave an interactive narrative into the webpage that will prompt the visitors to do something (click, solve a question, choose a path, make a decision, rate an artifact, leave suggestions etc).

Question for this week: For a novice like me, what is the best first step in building a web page? Simply put, where should I begin from?