hotglue2

Hotglue is a website designed to help beginner programmers create their own websites without involving any type of programming language such as Html, Processing, Php or others. It also allows the users to upload pictures, videos from Youtube or Vimeo and gifs.

As simple as it may seem, once we’ve started creating our own web pages, we’ve encountered some technical problems, especially when trying to see them on different platforms:

The steps are:

1.Strategy plane (user needs and site objectives)

2.Scope plane ( functional specifications and content requirements)

3.Structure plane (interaction design and information architecture)

4.Skeleton plane (information design)

5.Surface plane (visual design)

As I previously mentioned, Hotglue is a website created and designed to help programmers build their own websites without using any programming language Therefore, the user focuses more on the design and less on the information architecture, making the usage of the website a little bit messy. Apart from that, the system doesn’t apply the changes made right away, sometimes making the user feel as though some of his work might have been lost. Linking two pages can also be tricky, as the user has to copy the page’s URL former to creating a new page or returning to the previous one, otherwise the newly created page will automatically be lost if the user doesn't know where to look for it.

When it comes to creating a web page and organizing information though, there are some aspects that need to be taken into consideration such as the necessary steps in order to create a functional web page, as well as the classification and information architecture one intends to use.

On the other hand, Hotglue provides the user with a series of tools:

The "create a new text object" button

The "embed a Youtube or Vimeo video" button

The "embed another webpage" button

When it comes to creating a new paragraph, Hotglue gives the user different choices which range from copying the paragraph (the exact characteristics are inherited by the copy of the paragraph) to changing the background and text color, size, padding. This menu also allows the user to send an object to all the pages created, pasting them in exactly the same place as the original. The downside of this feature is that if either the original or the copied objects are moved on one page, they are automatically moved in the same place on all pages, which can be confusing and may cause the loss of certain objects if one is deleted.

This menu is mainly for page management. It allows the user to change the page's URL, create another page, change the background color or background picture, delete a page or make it the home page. This is also the menu which helps the user see all the created pages, make a grid for a better design or add code to a certain page.

When we first started working with Hotglue, we were't told from the very beginning we were going to use the created pages to build our portfolios so I allowed myself to play around with different strange pictures and videos I found online. The result wasn't professional at all, the page looking like some kind of a weird joke, but the point of that exercise was for us to discover and play with the given tools.

During our second session of Hotglue, we had already started working on our portfolios, creating wireframes and designs. Being the first time building a web page, I had struggled with both tasks for a while before settling for this one.

At first, the buttons that were connecting the pages were scattered all over the homepage, the menu was only available on the first page and it was way too big, some information about some projects was missing, as well as any kind of visual representation, and the pages were't linked correctly, making even me not want to open and navigate through my portfolio.

I then realized that this website is supposed to show who I am and the progress I made and started working on it until I was pleased with the result. I had also tried to create a drop down menu but I wasn't exactly successful so I chose not to complicate myself with ideas I yet don't fully understand and keep it as simple as possible.