In this blog post, I will be discussing a web development project I had this year. The project, entitled “Favorite Animal Website”, was one of the first projects I had.
The objective of this project was to reinforce our (students’) understanding of HTML and CSS. We were made to choose our favorite animals and create a website about the chosen animal. It had to be at least a 4-page website with the following webpages: Home, Anatomy, Habitat, and Conservation. We were allowed to add more pages if we wanted. I wanted the first large project to not be too stressful, so I stuck with just the four pages.
In this blog post, I will be discussing the strengths, and weaknesses of the project. I will share the challenges that I faced and the key lessons that I learned.
Strengths
Although, while doing the project I was a beginner in coding (I still am), I did possess a few strengths. I was quick with the website structure. HTML codes for the structure of the website, and this was the first thing I properly learned when it came to coding. We had to organize what text came first, and where images were imbedded. Therefore, HTML was a strength of mine. I quickly put down the information that was needed. I did not experience troubles in this case.
Weaknesses
Due to the “Favorite Animal Website” being one of our very first coding projects, I had many weaknesses. One of the weaknesses I had was with CSS. I had trouble memorizing the CSS to style particular things in the code. I also didn’t know how to apply an image to the background. I struggled with styling “divs”, “ids”, and “classes” quite a bit. Overall, I struggled with CSS in general.
Challenges, and How I Overcame Them
My weakness at the time, CSS, was definitely a challenge. I really struggled to style things like “divs” and “ids”, as well as the background. I didn’t understand how to do much with CSS. I had trouble with code bugs. When I would code, and the desired result would not show, I would know that there were bugs in the code. I found it extremely difficult to point out the bug and resolve them.
To overcome this challenge, I made good use of w3schools. This is a website that helps with coding, whether it be HTML or CSS. I also asked my peers and my teacher for help, and utilized Google to get information to get rid of bugs in my code.
Key Lessons I Learned From The Project
As Billy Crystal quotes, “If you do something for the first time, you will always remember it.” This project was my first large coding project. I definitely remember many things from this project, especially the lessons I learned.
One of the first things I learned was to try. Even though, I didn’t know how to code everything, I still tried. I started. That’s what mattered. Then, along the way, I figured things out.
The second thing I learned was problem-solving. I learned how to fix bugs, even though I had a really hard time with it. It is a lesson that will forever help me in every field. The process of solving issues is stressful, but it does get you through the problem eventually.
The third thing that I learned was to not give up. Even one issue in the code could mess the entire thing up in some cases. Whenever a bug would come up, I would have to look through the code carefully. I would have to look at each line and each character. This definitely enhanced my concentration skills. This taught me perseverance because eventually you will find things out. This perseverance keeps you going for not only web-realted projects, but in life (in general).
To Sum Things Up
Any project we do, it is crucial to look for our mistakes. We need constructive criticism to come from ourselves. We must know our strengths and weaknesses. We have to be able to overcome challenges that are faced, and learn from those challenges.
This will not only help us do well in projects, but any tests or assignments that come our way. The lessons that are learned from challenges like these, help us overall in life as well.
Therefore, it is extremely important to be aware of our good skills and the skills that we need to work on. I plan to use this knowledge for future projects by trying, solving problems, and by not giving up.