About this website
This website was created to fulfill the capstone course assignment for Web Design for Everybody specialization from Coursera. The instructor for this five-course specialization is Professor Colleen van Lent, Ph.D. from the University of Michigan School of Information. I have enjoyed these courses greatly and recommend them to anyone interested in learning Web design.
Overall, the design of this website is relatively simple: Most of the content is text with supplemental video clips. Creating a suitable CSS file was time consuming. In particular, it took me a while to figure out the appropriate break points with respect to screen size and modifying key elements accordingly - column size, font size, structure and positioning of the navigation bar, to be responsive to the size of the browser window/computer screen. I learned a lot about the appropriate use of absolute versus relative measurements by trial and error....... The quick quiz questions were created using JavaScript. Because I designed from scratch, I deliberately avoided using plug-ins and Bootstrap (for better or for worse).
I filmed the backyard birds using equipment already at hand: the video feature on an HP Photosmart M425 digital camera , which I had mounted to a tripod. I also used the video feature on my Samsung Galaxy Tab3 Lite tablet. I saved the video files to my HP 2000 laptop and edited the files using Movavi Screen Capture Studio version 7. Truly, this is the equipment of an amateur bird lover rather than a professional ornithologist.
Apart from my basic knowledge of the behaviours of local birds acquired from many years of observation during the spring and summer months, I relied on several reputable sources on ornithology. In particular, I consulted The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds. As well, I obtained information from Ontario Field Ornithologists, which has an extensive photo gallery and the photography section of the National Geographic website. As well, I viewed the individual bird pages on Wikipedia.
With respect to sources of information about HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and responsive design, I relied heavily on the course content. But I also consulted several well-known online sources, including: w3schools; CSS Tricks; Stack Overflow; Project Seven Development and YouTube API Reference. Additionally, I found the postings on the Discussion Section of the Capstone course very helpful. You can always count on the teaching assistant and student body to help out.
Bird Photos
Here are some of my favourite bird photos. Actually, they are screen captures of the video clips. To magnify the size of an individual photo, simply hold your mouse over the top left corner of the photo. Enjoy!
