Social Media in College Applications - Reflection

Below is an assigned reflection to an article regarding the use of social media to influence college admission decisions.

After reading this article, I plan to be more conscious of who I am connected to and remain more vigilant about creating regular content. Upon reflection, I realized that my online presence has been ineffective and relatively little utilized. Because of this, I understand that I need to improve my digital interactions because using social media more often could potentially help me down the road with internship, college, and job applications. Here are the steps I'll take to better my current digital presence.

First, I plan to know who I am or need to be connected to. This is important because it allows me to network with other individuals and potential employers or clients and also will help keep away individuals who could possibly damage my reputation. Second, I also plan to increase the regularity of my posts. This is important because it gets more information out, creates a sense of commitment, and effectively uses social media to my advantage.

These steps, and my digital presence, is significant because social media and online interactions now play a much larger role in the modern world. Both colleges and employers look to social media in cases where what you say online could make or break their decision to accept you. Social media is also a good way to network with many individuals and companies.

Adioso Case Study Summary

Responsifying Adioso

On our unit on case studies in my web design class, I stumbled upon this case study from Adioso. Adioso is an interaction rich web app which lets you search for and plan your flights, and decided to review their responsive capabilities after their last attempt resulted in many unhappy users. A common problem which they noted was that interactive web apps often performed quite poorly in a responsive setting. Rather than doing a complete redesign or keeping two parallel sites, however, the designers of Adioso did not want to have to develop and maintain different versions at the same time, and decided to redo their current web app and make it responsive.

To accomplish this massive task, they implemented an array of tools in order to create a site which would maintain the high quality of their desktop web app while being able to provide easy access to both tablets and mobile phones. The main tool which Adioso utilized was the Zurb Foundation framework. One of the main features that they used was the responsive grid layout, which allows developers to tell browsers how wide they want certain elements depending on specific breakpoints based on screen size. This grid doesn’t do everything, though. Using SCSS, a CSS pre-processor, Adioso managed to incorporate mixins from Ben Schwarz which allowed them to apply any CSS to each breakpoint separately. Modernizr, a feature detection library, also let the Adioso developers use JavaScript on the breakpoints. The combination of these tools solved their general layout problems and provided them with the base they needed to move on to responsive itineraries.

Despite the fact that Foundation made it possible to collapse tables into one scrolling horizontal row, Adioso needed the ability to make the entire flight itinerary visible without scrolling. In order to make use of the CSS applied to each breakpoint, they had to ditch the traditional table, tr, and td tags, replacing them with divs. Each itinerary also needed to stay within a certain “vertical budget”, requiring the designers to pinch some space from padding and margins. Some elements took up too much horizontal space and the Adioso developers used Foundation’s visibility to hide them at the smaller breakpoints.

I learned quite a bit from reading through the Adioso case study. Looking at their step-by-step reasoning process and how they managed to set and work with their parameters was an interesting experience and helped me understand what it’s like in professional design. My responsive design skills have definitely been improved, exposing me to a whole new set of web design tools and solutions to common problems with designing responsively and thinking mobile-first. Below are some of the other case studies I reviewed in our class’s unit on case studies.

Making Fonts: Novel Typeface

Visual Exploration Behind Signal vs. Noise

Rebuilding a Simplified Firefox Logo

KC Star Logo

One the local newspapers, the Kansas City Star, recently changed their logo to the one above - for better or for worse is up to you. I believe they were going for a design which is more modern; something that would speak boldly and clearly, announcing "This is Kansas City!" right off the bat. The actually design is rather trendy, especially the logotype, which takes after many local sports teams and being easily identifiable among residents in the KC Metro. The colors, however, leave something to be desired. The grey seems fine, definitive and bold, but the sickening blue-green seems a little too over-the-top, almost too bright. A darker blue would probably suit it better, like the Royals or the star on their previous logo.

My Personality Type

My personality test results.

As a class project on personality types, we took Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tests to determine our own MBTI types. Individuals are graded in four areas to determine the one of sixteen types they belong to. My personality type was INTJ. INTJs are typically analytically-minded problem solvers who always look for ways to make things better. They like to analyze the theories and ideas behind the world around them, while are usually uncomfortable around unpredictability, in the case of people and relationships. INTJs value knowledge and competency, and as a result, set high expectations for themselves and those around them, with little room for nonsense. At work, they are dedicated, efficient, and on time. A famous example of an INTJ is Stephen Hawking.

One aspect of an INTJ which describes me well is being analytically-minded. I enjoy subjects like math and science, like to learn about the world through independent learning, and can solve problems analytically using logic and technical knowledge. One INTJ characteristic which doesn't describe me as well is setting high expectations for others. While I do place trust in others to get the job done, I don't hold them to the same standards as I hold myself, and aren't as critical of their own work if they don't meet expectations.

Knowing this, my personality type still does tell me quite a bit about myself. My personality type description helps me better understand why I seem to gravitate towards certain types of work, play, and activities. In work, I excel at staying focused and efficient, submitting high-quality assignments and getting work done on time. My leisure time is spent alone or with small groups of friends, and my activities include playing computer games, browsing the web, writing, and reading books.

In a work environment, my INTJ type also helps define my role on a team. INTJs are good at working alone or in small groups of equally talented individuals. Logical, structured, analytical jobs are where INTJs excel the most, like the computer and IT industry. While not top-notch leaders, INTJs are willing to step up when nobody else is there to fill the leadership role. In a family, INTJs are devoted but independent, more focused on intellectual stimulation than building relationships. Outside of their comfort zone, INTJs may become stressed or drained more easily.

Socially, there can be misunderstandings among different personality types. In the past, I have had a few experiences with people misunderstanding me due to my personality types. For instance, some of my more extroverted friends ask me to go hang out at some larger social event, and a lot of the times I end up having to say no simply because I feel like I've had enough social exposure for the time being. Certain types of people also don't get along with me based on personality type. I tend to avoid people who are fueled mostly by emotions, act on impulse, or lack some sense of logic and order in their thinking.

Learning and experimenting with different personality types has proved to be an insightful class project that helps me understand myself - and others - better than before. Knowing how my brain works gives me a push in the right direction, allowing me to be more productive and happier in both work and life. The things I've learned from my personality type helps me find my place in life, among friends, family, and co-workers. Overall, I enjoyed this assignment and would recommend learning about your own personality types to give you a way to better yourself.

Logo Tutorial

This logo was the result of a logo design tutorial I recently did as a web and graphic design class assignment. You can find the video tutorial here. While it was mostly a review for me, I learned how to use the text mask tool, went over layer styles and overlays, and got to mess with some lighting and shadows.

Douglas C. Engelbart Tribute

Douglas C. Engelbart (1925-2013) was an American inventor, engineer, and early computer pioneer. His work led to the world of computing as we know it. Far ahead of his time, the NLS computer system he developed was released in 1968 and revealed it at what is now known as "The Mother of All Demos". People were amazed at what they saw. Systems we take for granted, like computer mice, graphical user interfaces, and networked computers, didn't exist until Engelbart's development of the NLS. IBM, Apple, and Microsoft wouldn't make any tangible progress in the computer industry for at least another decade, making Engelbart one of the first and most innovative computer engineers in the world. The scientific community will surely miss him, and remember, the next time you use a computer, almost everything you do on a computer wouldn't be possible without Engelbart's dedication to making the world a better place.

The Easy Way to Blog

Blogger makes everything easier when it comes to blogging. The process of creating your blog is much more streamlined - anyone can do it with a few clicks - and has a clean, easy-to-use interface, along with a sleek default template and many others to supplement your blogging needs. Following Google Sites, a somewhat clumsy, finicky platform for creating any website or blog without even looking good, Blogger is a great relief. For any first-time or returning blogger, I would recommend using Blogger for creating a blog, alongside other more complex programs like Wordpress.