2.1.2021

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 We received our feedback today for the LE book review website, and to my surprised, there wasn't much to fix; compared to the last year's website in which I remember receiving quite harsh feedback. The majority of the advice that we obtained was criticism about the layout of the website, but that was an easy fix. Out of all of the points given, the one that I felt was most significant was the placement of the about us page. Before, we had an one-lined about us section in the bottom of the home page, where we placed a huge landscape photo of the team. However, now that I look back on it, I didn't think this was necessary, as Mr. Paterson even mentioned,the image itself takes up too much room, and I should have considered the overall layout and ratio of words and pictures. Therefore, we moved our introduction page to a separate "About Us", where it will allow us to ramble about ourselves more. 

Something else to take into consideration was our individual introduction pages, and especially our portraits. To be honest, I was ready to receive feedback there since when we took the photos, we noticed that we hadn't zoomed in and cropped it to create symmetry. Moreover, the lighting differed in each of our photos, as the backdrop was quite distracting. In my photo, the teacher implored how I had too much head room, where you could clearly see and understand the Japanese background signs, and in some of my other teammates', they took up a sixth or a quarter of the picture. This was a simple repair as well, since with just a double click does Google sites allow users to trim. I wonder what it was like in the past when website-making occupied a tremendous amount of time and effort, where trimming a photo would have required much practice. Nowadays, with the enhancement of technology, these editing tools have simplified and perfected into amazing precision, so these process only took me 10 or so seconds. How lucky we have become to the point where any object that is in the way of a photo, can be removed in a few clicks!

However, this may also pose a new threat as well. I watched a documentary once about the problems involving the malicious usage of photoshopping technology; more specifically, the proliferation of deep-faked videos. These may at first sound like a luxury because of its vast capabilities. However, deep-fakes have evolved into a medium that can be accessed by any one in the world. Imagine the dire situation it may bring if any person that lives on this populated Earth, is able to emulate the sound and facial features of presidents, social activists, celebrities... Although I do appreciate how time-efficient editing software have become, we will always need to adapt and figure out its moral compass.

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