"people do not like to think. if one thinks, one must reach conclusions. conclusions are not always pleasant."
-helen keller

The purpose of my site is just a simple, at-a-glace look into little parts of my life and the way I see the world and the people in it.

My overall design decisions centered around a really simple, stark look. I wanted people to come to the home page and read the whole piece of writing by Emerson, all the way through. I didn't want people to be thrown off by color or fancy extras. I liked the white background because it isn't distracting and I think it feels clean and simple. I picked the gray color because I think it compliments the blue link color and simply, I just liked the white, gray and blue together. I chose not to underline the links because I wanted them to fit right in with the text and I felt like the lines under them set them apart too much.

The titles on each of the pages are not capitalized, and the three dots follow. I did this because I wanted it to feel like the title wasn't really that important, its bigger than the rest of the text, and its at the start of the page, creating a visual hierarchy, but I didn't want the reader to settle on it for too long. The next item on the page is a quote that relates to the subject matter. This also isn't capitalized and it is a smaller font then the main part of the page for the same reason as the title. I wanted the quote on the page because I think it mixes it up a little, and I've just personally always liked quotes.

The main part of each page is a little bit bigger and a little bit lighter to set it apart from the rest. I wanted to have pictures in the text, but decided I didn't want to break up the flow and simplicity of the text, and the uniformity of the pages. So, I took advantage of learning how to do pop-ups and did the pictures in that format. I didn't do anything to set the picture links apart from the links in the text that followed to other pages. I didn't want the pictures or the text to be made more important than the other.

The voice I chose to use was mine own, and the tone that it takes I think is reflected in the way I enjoy to write on a normal basis. It's light hearted and meant to reflect how I felt at that point in my life. It's personal, in that anyone should feel comfortable reading it. My reader, I would guess, would be someone who is either interested in poetry in general, or someone who appreciates this specific poem. If they feel inspired to enter the site through the links on the homepage, and being that they enjoy and appreciate a piece of writing, they should also enjoy reading my take on things.

To read my essay, I would expect that the reader came in through the homepage. The is not a lot of text on the homepage, and I would expect that the reader would read the whole poem through. The navigation is set up so that if one was to click on the first word, "laugh", and click the "next" button through the rest of the pages, it would follow as the poem reads in order.

You can also read my essay by following the links in the text to different pages but I would prefer that the reader would follow the next/back buttons. However, I obviously have no control over that.

I had a few difficulties with the level of simplicity. I didn't what the page to be so plain that it was boring, but I also wanted the content to be more important than a fancy background. The concept of the page is simple, so is the navigation.

I would like to continue this project, in that it doesn't feel completely finished it. I am pretty sure I could development more pages off of the homepage and in doing that, find a stronger path through the essay via the in text links. I could also add more pictures. I believe that is another weakness of the site right now. I was so focused on the next/back navigation that I neglected the links in the text. I came to the conclusion, after a few weeks of work, or course, that it's not really a hypertext essay without that element of navigation.