Hey, I'm Alexandra White.
Let's build a better digital experience.

Blog posts on Web Development

June 21, 2012

Hack’n Jill

On Saturday, I participated in my second hackathon: Hack’n Jill. Hack’n Jill was created due to a gender imbalance often present at hackathons, inviting 50 men and 50 women developers and designers to join together and develop apps with the theme of Hack Your Summer.

My team was fortunate enough to have three developers and three designers. We designed Why Don’t We, a fully functioning iPhone app designed to highlight events nearby to cure summer boredom. Every member of the team was essential to creating and promoting a fully functioning product. It was an absolute pleasure to meet them and hopefully we will be able to collaborate in the future.Read More

October 01, 2011

Once Upon a Splash Page

I’ve been building this portfolio since January 2011, but I’ve been thinking about it for a very long time. As soon as I entered professional writing, I was told of the requirements. We all must graduate with a web site that will say who we are and make us marketable for jobs. I knew I wanted to build something on my own, not to use someone else’s template. I know that this was limiting at first, having little experience with HTML prior to sophomore year of college. Through web authoring courses and my own personal time dedication, I’ve really come to make this my own.

It’s gone through a lot of changes since I initially came up with my design. For a long time, I was interested in a splash page with either clouds or some other form of interesting navigation. I built it several different times, modifying it slightly in order to serve a better purpose. The final splash page included javascript animations, to which I am very proud.

In the end, it wasn’t saying what I needed it to say. As “cool” as I thought it was to have a splash page, there was no sense of my interests or what I do. I had to take it off the main site.

I couldn’t bare to remove it completely, after all of the work I had put into it. Feel free to check it out here in the most recently updated format.

September 21, 2011

CSS Fixes

For the past two weeks, my website has had a severe design malfunction. The navigation on the front page was awkwardly off center. I spent days trying to fix it, adjusting the names of the divs and re-styling them in order to try and make it cooperate. I knew it would be something simple that I just couldn’t see to fix. Upon one more look this afternoon, I figured out it was because I was missing a letter. The width was set as “width=1000x” and upon first glace, you may not see anything wrong. It should say: “width=1000px”

That silly mistake caused  a lot of mental strain, if only because of my frustration in not being able to fix it.

Lesson learned: always, always, always double check even the littlest details. A missing semi-colon or letter can completely alter the work that you’ve put into your creation. Now, I won’t feel embarrassed sending my portfolio off to potential employers across the world. Furthermore, I can continue to focus on cultivating my portfolio pieces and worry less about the site design. The stress level may be high, but at least that piece is fixed.

June 02, 2011

jQuery

I decided to re-vamp the entire web design for Tom & Joanne The Wedding website. I experimented with different CMS’s (WordPress and Staceyapp), as well as the idea of a static web page. I wasn’t happy with the work that I had created. You know what they say, if you’re not happy, then fix it. I wanted it to be more dynamic and exciting.

That’s where jQuery came to the rescue. I have had little experience with jQuery in the past, but I made it my goal to learn how to use a couple different features before the end of the summer. I used two different jQuery attatchments: one to move between the navigation, and one to create a slideshow of the wedding party.

So here it is. Presenting Tom & Joanne The Wedding (website). Enjoy!

May 12, 2011

Tom & Joanne Meet Custom Content Types

We meet again, Custom Content Types. I know you thought we were finished when WRA410 Advanced Web Authoring was completed, but little did you know I would need to use you again. Please try to cooperate and function appropriately.

Today’s Goal: Complete a custom content type that successfully organizing different members of the wedding party for Thomas Czech and Joanne Tanase. Why, you ask? I am in charge of creating the wedding website for this wonderful couple, and the goal is to complete it by May 30th.

Here’s a little background information: I’ve known Joanne since January of 2003. We both enrolled in French, and immediately associated each other (and our newest found friend, Freda Zhuo) as the “smart” kids. There were 10 people in the first semester of our French career, and believe me when I say, no one else actually cared to learn the language. Our trio became a team for every project and group assignment, with the exception of French games in class. We were separated, and told to lead three different teams. Otherwise, we were inseperable.

Eight and a half years later, our trio is now in very different places. Freda attends the University of Pennsylvania for a business degree. I am enrolled in Professional Writing, actively seeking out web design work and social media. Joanne is receiving a degree in Human Biology, also at Michigan State, marrying the man who she’s been inseparable from since 2007. It’s incredible what time does to people. It feels like just yesterday, the three of us were making ridiculous French videos about the weather, with bloopers we intentionally filmed after the fact (causing video projects to be removed as a project option). I am now a member of her bridal party and was asked in March to create a wedding website (coming soon). With school, work, and a million side projects,it became the last thing that I cared about. Now, I realize, it’s time to get going.

I purchased the domain and hosting (a lovely wedding present) and installed WordPress. The bride has made one request: create a database where people can make song requests. Hopefully, what I create will be aesthetically pleasing as well as fully functional. Updates coming as soon as there is something to update about.