When it comes to any project, one of the most important things that needs to be remembered is to keep records. Everyone can sketch something out and almost anyone can design a somewhat good website, but something that can set someone apart is their ability to keep records and stay organized. This Case Study will talk about a project I did explaining JPEG compression using Photoshop and all the challenges that come with.
Goals:
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Explain exporting off Photoshop and the challenges with the process.
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Describe how to write a technical paper and why it is important to keep records
Audience:
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Recently engaged couples looking for a wedding photographer or videographer.
First Thing First: Content
Before you can document anything you need something to document. For this paper, that included looking into how someone might compress a JPEG using Adobe Photoshop, so I did it! I learned a lot too! Understanding JPEG compression can be very confusing especially when each way to do it is done differently, even on the same platform. Should you “export as”, “save as”, or “save as a Copy”? How do you get the best quality? Each one has different menus, steps, and quality scales making saving and exporting off Photoshop confusing.
The first thing that pops up when you try to “Save As” is a pop-up menu that has you choose the name of the file, and where to save it, and the file format you want to save it in. The big problem with “Save As” is the fact that you can’t save it as a jpeg. You are able to use “Save a Copy” and “Export As” to get a jpeg file.
The pop-up options for “Save a Copy” and “Export As” are different in so many ways. They are different sizes, have different features, and save to different quality scales. Making them completely different. In fact, the “Save a Copy” option had me name the file and pick the saving destination first while the “Export As” option had it second. Not only does that confuse a user it is a change that doesn’t seem to have a point! They seem to be planned out by completely different groups of people that don’t communicate at any part of the process. This whole process really shows why consistency is so important.
Now, Document the Work
Now that I was able to do some research and better understand the process myself, I went back and took pictures of the process to include in the documentation. Then I put it on a figma file where I explained what I did! I made sure to get a detailed explanation of all the problems that came with the process so that I could remember and share it with others that might need the information.
The next thing to do was make sure that the information was easy to understand and that it wasn’t too long and boring. This is important because no one wants to read long boring papers.
The next thing to do was make sure that the information was easy to understand and that it wasn’t too long and boring. This is important because who wants to read long boring papers?
Reflection
I was able to learn a lot through this process. I learned that it is important to write things down. If I hadn't documented the work that I had learned, and the process to compress JPEG files on Photoshop, I would not be able to share my work with others. I also learned that the process to compress JPEG files on Photoshop really needs to be fixed since every way to do it is different.