Math and Science

Science and Math Report: MAST Photojournalism Website
This project is to design and make a website showing all aspects, photographically, of the Marine Academy of Science and Technology for public view. This school is very unique and has no form of publication to show anyone what it’s all about. People such as incoming freshman, current students, alumni, faculty, family and friends would all benefit from being able to view a site that shows what it is all about here at MAST and what life is like on a daily basis. The website will be a photojournal, complete with slideshows of all the pictures. The site has been redesigned many times to portray the school better, to be better organized, and to be aesthetically better. The idea of the final website is shown in the developmental work.
Engineering and Manufacturing
This project originally did not fit into Systems Engineering II at all, but was changed to at least somewhat fit in. It is still not a standard Systems project but because of it’s technological side, does partially fit in. This project is a photojournal website and therefore is an innovation. Both photojournals and websites exist but not for MAST. It is an open system because the website is editable, it is able to be changed if needed and is informational because it provides anyone who views it with information about MAST. The only type of engineering used to create this project is infotech (information technology). It is a technological view of information. The website is a custom design, all HTML written by hand and all photos taken by the website’s designer. No other type of manufacturing is used for it. No manufacturing categories are involved in this design.
Science Concepts
The website is artistic, and therefore the concepts used for it are design principles and color effects. The elements of design include line, color, shape, form, value, size, texture, illusion of motion and illusion of space. The principles of design include unity, balance, harmony, contrast, repetition, variety and emphasis. Color effects deals with the effects that colors can have on a person, whether it calms them or excites them or if the color scheme is harmonious. My website is mainly for photographs, and because I want them to be the focus of my site, I have decided to keep the rest of the pages simple besides the photos that I include on them, in order to keep them from distracting from the photos. Color effects deal with how a color make you feel when viewing it, for my website this was important. MAST is a strong and unique school, because of this a color such as pink or yellow would be inappropriate for the color scheme. Instead of using a solid color, an opaque photo relating to the page will be used as a background with navy blue font and links. Navy blue is appropriate not only because it is one of our school colors but also because it appeals to both men and women, and is associated with importance, confidence, power and authority. All these traits relate to MAST and therefore navy blue was the font color chosen. The principles of design are much more involved with this project. The website must have unity, if each page looks like a separate item from the others it will look dissonant. In this website each page is balanced, symmetrical, so that they do not give a feeling of being confused or scattered. In the photos there is not a set balance that is attempted.

[1-1]
Symmetrically Balanced


[1-2]
Asymmetrically Balanaced

When a photo is cropped a symmetry is not usually created, such as in figure 1-2 because much of the time the focal point does not belong in the center, this becomes boring and monotonous to view. If every photo was symmetrical like figure 1-1 the slideshows would have no variety. Harmony is important to a website, each page shares similarities with every other page, therefore they are more appealing as a whole and look like they do belong together.

[1-3]
Color Contrast

In the photos contrast is a main element. Color wise it is what gives the photo depth and clarity between elements. In figure 1-3 the bright colors of the trees contrast the light blue sky and dark colors of the people, therefore they pop out creating a striking image. The textures in the photos are also contrasting which makes them much more interesting. Because each photograph is very different and each shows different people in different situations, no two are alike, there is a great variety. In no slideshow is there any bit of monotony.


[1-4]
Focal Point Off Center


[1-5]
Focal Point Off Center

One of the main things to decide or figure out in a photo is the focal point. This is the point of the photo where a viewers eyes land. For instance, in figure 1-5 the viewers eyes go directly to his face, making it the focal point. Inexperienced photographers usually believe that the focal point must be in the middle or must be what would be assumed (such as a face). Straying away from this belief makes your photos much more fascinating and edgy, if the focal point of figure 1-4 was in the center the photo would lose some interest that having it to the right gives it.
Technology

[2-1]
Photoshop

Creating this website requires the use of HTML coding and Photoshop (CS4). Each page was written in Notepad using HTML. The HTML for the slideshows were created using SimpleViewer (http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/) which is uploaded to Photoshop and from there will automate the script for the slideshows. Photoshop is used for that as well as editing each photo that is being used (ex. increasing contrast, cropping, fixing colors and dodging/burning).


Math

[3-1, 3-2]
Original Photo and Faded for Background Image

The only mathematical computation involved in this project is changing the opacity of a photo for the background of the category pages. The opacity of the photo above was changed from 100% to 50% in order to create a faded image that the words and links will be visible on top of. It had to be faded 50% so that the colors are not bright enough to distract from the photos placed on top.

Conclusion
This project, although not engineering based, does involve science and math. It is an innovation, an open system and uses infotech engineering. This MAST website will provide information and photos to viewers in the following format. The design principles and color theory are important concepts involved in this project, determining which photos will be used and how they will be edited, as well as how the website is designed. This website will exhibit a side of MAST that is not shown by other Systems projects.