Website creation: Home page

 I decided to change the design of my original template, as I felt I needed to create a website that was more visually appealing and showed a bit more of my personality and passion for the multimedia design.

Hence, I began creating my website again on Wix and I opened Wix and chose the 'begin with a template' option as shown in the screenshot below, for my multimedia design website. 

Followed by this, I looked at a range of template designs and decided to go for the 'food stylist' template, as I liked the design style of the template and felt I could modify it to make it more relevant to multimedia design. I did have a look at many graphic design, photography, marketing and creative website templates but felt this one was the best one.

Once I was happy with the template selection, I decided to change the colour scheme of the website to personalise it. I chose to go with the 'mature' colour pallette by clicking on the 'choose your theme' menu. I tried different colour schemes, but felt this was ideal as it went well with the website.

Once the colour scheme was selected, I decided to rename the site to 'Milan Multimedia' using the 'text settings' menu and placed the title in the navigation bar. I changed the font to Quicksand with font size 24, as it gave the site a modern look.

I changed the colour of my text to a deeper shade of purple to go with my theme. I also chose to use a bolder font, to make the my name stand out to the user.

I then focused on editing the navigation bar design by choosing the 'menu designs' option. I selected the first option for the 'discover more menus' drop down under the themes for the horizontal menu. I chose this option, as I quite liked the design and felt it gave my website a modern look.

After I edited the navigation bar, I edited the mid section of the page. I started by adding my full name using the Quicksand font (font size 18 with the paragraph 1 text theme) to maintain consistency.

 

I then changed the word 'food' to 'multimedia' as I wanted my website to reflect on my multimedia work not on food! Again, I used the 'text settings' tool and changed the theme to 'heading 3', font 'Quicksand' with the font size 45 in capitals, as I wanted to place emphasis on the word 'multimedia'.

Once again, using the text settings I changed the word 'stylist' to 'designer' with a full stop as I wanted to place more emphasis on the word 'designer' compared to 'multimedia'. I chose to use the 'heading 2' theme as this was bigger than 'heading 3'. Again to maintain consistency, I chose to use the Quicksand font with the font size 60. I also changed the text on this row to bold.

Once I was happy with the text, I then decided to change the picture of the model to my own, to personalise the website.

I then uploaded my image using the 'choose an image' option and uploaded my own image.

Once I was happy with the image, I experimented with the position of the image using the settings and my mouse to get the following result.

I then added the 'my gallery' link using the text settings drop down menu, with the font size 23, font Quicksand to maintain consistency and encourage users to check out my work on the 'my gallery' section.

I wanted to make my image stand out more, so I decided to experiment with the image frame design settings and finally chose the polaroid frame as it went well with rest of the layout.

I then selected a copyright free image from the Unsplash website to use as a background image for my home page, instead of the current image of cookies. In my mind, I wanted to use an image that was high resolution and reflected my work space. I wanted an image that showed a desk with a laptop, possibly with other gadgets, and that somehow reflected my love for books, coding and graphics. I was fortunate enough to find the image below. I decided to use this image temporarily as my backdrop, and then will hopefully take a picture of my work space using a DSLR later on.

Once I was happy with the image, and saved it on my desktop folder, I right clicked on the mouse and the selected the 'strip background' drop down menu, which then presented me with the option to replace my background image. I then uploaded my image using the site files option as shown below.

I then found that the image clashed with my multimedia designer box, so I clicked on the image settings and experimented with the image opacity. I then settled for the image opacity at 60% as I felt that the image could be seen vividly and wouldn't clash with the text box in the centre. I wanted less attention to be drawn on the background but more on the main text box.

Once I was happy with the opacity, I clicked on the settings to change the design for the 'multimedia designer box'. I selected the 'box design' drop down menu and experimented with the range of layout and finally settled for the shape as indicated below. I then changed the box outline to a deep purple using the colour picker tool. I made sure the shade of purple matched the navigation bar to maintain consistency.

This is the how the homepage now appears in preview state.

Mobile view of homepage....

In conclusion, I am happy with the home page of the website as it reflects my sense of style. The home page took a little longer to edit in comparison to the contact me page, however the effort was worth it as I am pleased with the final result.