The difference between my original site and final site is enormous. My original page was completely off center, with no noticeable theme whatsoever. I drew inspiration from several sources. One of which, Ten Unusual Places to Get Design Inspiration, gave me the idea to use the city of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge as my splash page. It mentions that interesting buildings can represent a city, and that is exactly what I was trying to do. So, naturally the Golden Gate Bridge is the best representation of the city of San Francisco. Also, 25 Excellent Typography Tools, showed me what an interesting font can do for a page. An unusual font can give the webpage a personality or a theme. I used the font-making tool for my titles on most of my pages, except for three because their background colors are custom so there was no way to get the font to match it. So, unfortunately, those pages look a little plain, but they have other things to brighten up the page. For example, the background includes the logo of the 49ers. I did this with all of my pages. It makes the page look interesting and bright. Originally, none of my pages had this, and they looked very monotonous and boring. I got this idea from 20 Fresh and New Web Design Galleries. Finally, The Newbie Web Author Checklist, saved me because it pointed out the fundamental flaws in my webpage. Spacing was a huge flaw. Originally everything was very spread out, but now that it’s all condensed, so it’s easier to look at and use. Also, I had forgotten to “put” my page. This site reminded me to check on another computer which really ended up saving me.

Image borrowed from marcbousquet.net