I TEACH THE WEB CLASS!!
A website I visit often is www.slate.com.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Welcome for 2012, and the first assignment
Welcome to the blog for the web design class.
You have a two-part assignment to complete before next class, on Thursday.
PART ONE
Make a post on this blog. You should: a) write a short paragraph about yourself, b) include a picture of yourself, and c) provide a link to a website that you like or visit often.
PART TWO
Be prepared, next class, to talk about why you like the website for a presentation of five to ten minutes. Write and print out an outline, which you will hand in on Thursday's class (this is not a full paper, but an outline you can refer to in your presentation). Talk about:
1. The design of the site
You should be able to describe the use of:
a) color
b) fonts
c) images
d) the general layout
How do each of these elements serve (or undermine) the purpose and content of the website? What is the emotional or design quality of each of these elements? For instance, a site designed for children might use colors that are bright, vivid, and friendly -- with a font that appears playful or toy-like.
2. The navigation of the site
How it the site organized? How do you get from place to place? Is the content on the site easily accessible? Are there different navigation schemes on different parts of the site, or is it consistent across the site?
3. The functionality of the site -- what the site "does."
Also, if you have a website of you own, post a link to that as well.
And don't forget -- I highly recommend you order the book "Visual Quickstart Guide to Dreamweaver CS5," online.
Finally -- if you'd like to download a copy of the syllabus, it's here:
http://www.box.com/s/zj6724id9p6uaol37emk
You have a two-part assignment to complete before next class, on Thursday.
PART ONE
Make a post on this blog. You should: a) write a short paragraph about yourself, b) include a picture of yourself, and c) provide a link to a website that you like or visit often.
PART TWO
Be prepared, next class, to talk about why you like the website for a presentation of five to ten minutes. Write and print out an outline, which you will hand in on Thursday's class (this is not a full paper, but an outline you can refer to in your presentation). Talk about:
1. The design of the site
You should be able to describe the use of:
a) color
b) fonts
c) images
d) the general layout
How do each of these elements serve (or undermine) the purpose and content of the website? What is the emotional or design quality of each of these elements? For instance, a site designed for children might use colors that are bright, vivid, and friendly -- with a font that appears playful or toy-like.
2. The navigation of the site
How it the site organized? How do you get from place to place? Is the content on the site easily accessible? Are there different navigation schemes on different parts of the site, or is it consistent across the site?
3. The functionality of the site -- what the site "does."
Also, if you have a website of you own, post a link to that as well.
And don't forget -- I highly recommend you order the book "Visual Quickstart Guide to Dreamweaver CS5," online.
Finally -- if you'd like to download a copy of the syllabus, it's here:
http://www.box.com/s/zj6724id9p6uaol37emk
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Flash references for today
The "web banner" you'll be creating today should be at this size:
720 pixels by 300 pixels
There is a list of standard web banner sizes here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_banner#Standard_sizes
And I'll be going over this in class, but the actionscript for your button link (Actionscript v. 2) should be:
on (release) {
getURL("http://www.slate.com");
}
720 pixels by 300 pixels
There is a list of standard web banner sizes here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_banner#Standard_sizes
And I'll be going over this in class, but the actionscript for your button link (Actionscript v. 2) should be:
on (release) {
getURL("http://www.slate.com");
}
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Problem-solving: An Assignment
This week you'll continue to push forward on your websites. We'll start a short Flash project next week -- as well as taking some time for you to show your current designs and get feedback.
Also next week -- due Thursday the 14th -- I want the first draft of a document that lists out the problems you have encountered and solved in the course of your website project. I'm not looking for a full academic paper, with full sentences, and so on -- but I do want you to make a list of the technical and design issues that have presented themselves to you, and the solutions you found for them. Start your document with an opening paragraph explaining what your site is, who the intended audience is, and then list out the various problems you have encountered and solved.
For instance, I know when Ethan was first using Wix, there was a white halo around some of the graphics he uploaded to his site -- and I believe fixing it was a matter of saving his images in the PNG 24 format. And another issue was the long load-time for his shopping gallery -- fixing that meant finding out what the maximum display size was for the gallery pics, and scaling his images down to that size before uploading them, drastically reducing their file sizes. So a "Problem-Solving" list could simply go:
If there are helpful links for any of your solutions, include them as well. For instance, I know Nick Cahill looked at a few options for javascript slideshows -- a list item with a link could go:
I'm interested in having you go through this process for a number of reasons -- one, to develop some documentation on your own problem-solving process, and two, to build up a sort of database of helpful hints that can be posted to the blog -- and which you (and other students) can refer to if you encounter any similar web design problems.
Also next week -- due Thursday the 14th -- I want the first draft of a document that lists out the problems you have encountered and solved in the course of your website project. I'm not looking for a full academic paper, with full sentences, and so on -- but I do want you to make a list of the technical and design issues that have presented themselves to you, and the solutions you found for them. Start your document with an opening paragraph explaining what your site is, who the intended audience is, and then list out the various problems you have encountered and solved.
For instance, I know when Ethan was first using Wix, there was a white halo around some of the graphics he uploaded to his site -- and I believe fixing it was a matter of saving his images in the PNG 24 format. And another issue was the long load-time for his shopping gallery -- fixing that meant finding out what the maximum display size was for the gallery pics, and scaling his images down to that size before uploading them, drastically reducing their file sizes. So a "Problem-Solving" list could simply go:
Problem: uploaded graphics have white halo.
Solution: Used PNG 24 format with transparency for images with a transparent background.
Problem: Long load-time for shopping gallery.
Solution: Found out pixel dimensions of the gallery windows, and downsized gallery pictures to that size before uploading.
If there are helpful links for any of your solutions, include them as well. For instance, I know Nick Cahill looked at a few options for javascript slideshows -- a list item with a link could go:
Problem: Wanted a slideshow with thumbnails, not flash-driven, so it would show on iPads.
Solution: galleria slideshow: http://galleria.aino.se/; found out it can be modified by changing options in the code (see this page: http://galleria.aino.se/docs/1.2/options/); if there is more than one option used, use a comma between options to separate them.
I'm interested in having you go through this process for a number of reasons -- one, to develop some documentation on your own problem-solving process, and two, to build up a sort of database of helpful hints that can be posted to the blog -- and which you (and other students) can refer to if you encounter any similar web design problems.
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