Adding more content

I have started adding more content to my site now. I have added a sign up form in php so people can add their names and email addresses and sign up for updates and special offers to be sent to them via email. I have also added my video I did in the 1st year of me training and running the London Marathon on the VLM page. On the home page I've also added an image of the front cover of the magazine I am going to produce to go with the website. I have also created a facebook page for Roadrunneronline and added a facebook like plugin on my site so people can click to like my site. I have also began adding content to the other pages.

Below are screenshots of just some of the things I've added

Feedback on website

After showing Sally the changes I made she said she liked them especially the sliders with the text added in them. Sally liked the way I'd done the text in the Events sliders with Bold Larger text describing the event with smaller plain text underneath describing the date of the event. Sally suggested I make the sliders on the home page the same style and make part of the fact in Bold Larger text with the rest of the fact in smaller plain text. I also added an opacity to the black box the text is in of 90% so you can see the image through the box. So this is what I did and you can see the result below in the screenshots I've took it looks more effective.

Adding Content

I began adding content to the pages and I added the article I had wrote on Beverley AC to the Clubs page. I added images I had found on google images of the running club, the Westwood and a picture of me running the Humber Bridge Half Marathon for the club to the article.

I also added training runs I had been doing to prepare for the marathon on the VLM Diary page with the dates I'd ran them and where I'd ran and how far each run was.

Made the changes

Following on from Sally's feedback I went away and made the changes she had suggested the week before. I found a tarmac background so I replaced the red background with this. I also added the countdown timer to the header and made the logo smaller so it fit alongside it. I then found facts online about the marathon which I added in black boxes in white text inside the sliders on the Home page. I also did the same on the Events page however I had the title of the event in Bold text and the date of the event underneath in smaller text.

Below are screenshots to show the changes I made:

Feedback on website

After showing Sally my tutor what I had done so far on my website she suggested I made a couple of amendments to it. Her first suggestion was that I got rid of the red background and added a textured tarmac background instead. She also suggested I made the logo smaller in the header and add the flash countdown I had created to the header. She also suggested I should look for facts about the marathon and running that I could add inside the sliders as text. Sally showed me the Channel 4 website because they use text inside sliders on their site. After Sally's feedback I will go away and make the necessary changes to my site.

Website Design

I then started to build my website I added a header which was my Road Runner Logo with online.co.uk added instead of magazine. I then added my navigation titles these being Home, Clubs, Events, Top Tips, Routes, Music, Shops and VLM Diary. Underneath the navigation I added a JQuery slider in which I would display images relating to each page topic. So the Home page slider would display images of runners and runners legs, feet whereas the Clubs page would display images of some of the running clubs that are operating in our region. Underneath the slider would be the main content for each page in two columns. For the background I chose to have a plain red background to match the red text I was going to use as my headings on each page.

Below is a screenshot of my first design:

Domain Name

Also over reading week I decided to purchase the domain name roadrunneronline.co.uk because road runner magazine wasn't available so I went with roadrunneronline.co.uk. I purchased this domain from Go Daddy.com and then went to Bluehost and transferred my domain to my Bluehost account.

So my website would now be called Road Runner online

Creating a countdown to the marathon in Flash

During reading week I looked for tutorials online on how to create a countdown timer in flash. I came across this site http://www.republicofcode.com/tutorials/flash/video/countdown.php

which was easy to follow. So I followed this tutorial then created a countdown for the London Marathon in flash. Below is the code I added in the Actions layer in Action Script:

this.onEnterFrame = function() {

var today:Date = new Date();

var currentYear = today.getFullYear();

var currentTime = today.getTime();

var targetDate:Date = new Date(currentYear,3,19);

var targetTime = targetDate.getTime();

var timeLeft = targetTime - currentTime;

var sec = Math.floor(timeLeft/1000);

var min = Math.floor(sec/60);

var hrs = Math.floor(min/60);

var days = Math.floor(hrs/24);

sec = string(sec % 60);

if (sec.length <>

sec = "0" + sec;

}

min = string(min % 60);

if (min.length <>

min = "0" + min;

}

hrs = string(hrs % 24);

if (hrs.length <>

hrs = "0" + hrs;

}

days = string(days);

var counter:String = days + ":" + hrs + ":" + min + ":" + sec;

time_txt.text = counter;

}

This is what the finished countdown timer I created looks like below. I added the Official London Marathon Logo and text countdown to the marathon apart from that everything else was done by following the tutorial.

Presentation

On Fri 11th of February we all had to present our proposals and what we had done so far to Sally and Tom our tutors. I did a powerpoint presentation of my proposal screenshots of which are below:

Feedback I got from my presentation was that it was a good idea and that I should incorporate a countdown to the London Marathon on the website. Also that I should change the colour of the logo. So I will take this on board and look at creating a countdown to the marathon over reading week.

Logo Ideas

After deciding on the name I began to draw up ideas for the logo. Below are my ideas and the one I have chosen.

This is the Logo I have chose to use with a female and male runner running between the words Road and Runner.

Research continued

After looking at the magazine’s already available on the high street I have noticed there isn’t any aimed at local runner’s they are all national magazines. So there is a gap in the market for a magazine aimed at local runners and people interested in running in general.

So now I have researched what’s out there I will look at a name for my magazine and website.

Idea for the name of the magazine

• Run
• Jog
• Road Running
• Train
• Marathon
• 10K
• Race
• Fast
• Sprint
• Leisure
• Fitness
• Runner
• Pace
• Cross Country
• Runners
• Distance
• Track
• Field
• Athletics
• Stride
• Speed

Name I have chosen

After looking at the things I listed associated with running I have come up with the name Road Runner for my magazine name. I chose this name because a lot of runner’s run on the path or road when they are running a race or training. I always run on the path or road because I prefer it to cross country running.

I have looked to see if there are any other running magazines/websites using that name and at present there are not.

There is a Road Runner magazine but it’s for motorbike’s and not runners.

Research

I have researched the running magazine's and their websites that are already available in the UK these are as follows:

• Runners World Magazine
• Running Fitness Magazine
• Running Free Magazine
• Men’s and Women’s Running Magazine’s
• Trail Running Magazine
  

Below are screenshots of the magazine covers and websites:

Tutor Feedback

After discussing my ideas with my tutors I chose to go with the online running magazine idea. So this is the one I have chose to work on. I will research running magazine's already on the market and their websites to see how they fill their pages and websites.

Self Initiated Project

My Ideas

My ideas for my self initiated project were as follows:

Idea One = I would like to create a online running magazine with a printed version to run along side it. It would be targeted at local runners in Hull and the East Riding Riding of Yorkshire. It would have features on running clubs in the region, local races to enter, running tips, local routes to run, London Marathon diary, music to run to and guides to where the local running shops are and the brands they sell. This would be created using html, css, php and Jquery. I want to try and improve in php or at least have ago.

Idea Two = Revamp the B Dunn Foundation website I created in the first year adding my new skills and adding more content to the site.

Idea Three = A online Hull City Football Club magazine for fans. This would include news, player stats, fixtures and other related Hull City topics.