LSC 532 » Homework

Kicking off the Personal Web Project: Discovery Process

Don — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:01:24 +0000

Ok, it’s discovery phase time for our personal web project, the last project of the semester. Here is what I want you to do for next Tuesday

Answer the question, what’s my dream job?
Answer the question, what can I offer an employer or client?
Draw out a sitemap for your main links and content for your site
Start creating a visual concept for your site and find some inspirational sites. Following is a listing of inspirational sites I shared today.

Remember, these sites are meant to help you generate ideas only. You do not have to mimic the design or design styles because your personal site should be a reflection of you and who you aspire to be professional.

Using Mywebspace

Don — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:19:59 +0000

Here is a tutorial for uploading files to your mywebspace. Make sure to post your site and test your site in the mywebspace account.

Sites from 03/11

Don — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:26:08 +0000

By the end of this week, you should have your interface design concepts nailed down and in electronic form so you can begin working on the XHTML/CSS and content. To help those of you who need some inspiration, here are two sites to Review for design:

Web 2.o style from Web Design from Scratch

Grunge Style Article from Smashing Magazine

As far as navigation, please review these sites to view and read about navigation trends and design styles.

Navigation Trends from Smashing Magazine

Advanced CSS Tutorial from Web Designer Wall

Notes from March 3, Client Interview Transcript

Don — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:01:07 +0000

Here is a pdf of our chat transcript today. I couldn’t get the chat text to print, so I had to take some screenshots. Hope this is clear enough.

What questions do you still have for the client?

Homework: Post your questions in the comment section here and create a sitemap for Thursday.

Design Styles, Web Roles and How to Break the Box

dtstanley — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:31:13 +0000

Reading some articles this weekend, I came across some interesting articles.

LAYOUT CONVENTIONS
The first article Killing Some Bad Layout Conventions is an interesting article about poor layout design. Not sure I agree completely, but it’s good food for thought. As you are designing your interfaces, I suggest you reread my post about web 2.0 design styles.

WEB DESIGN TEAM ROLES
Cameron Moll, a very well known web design blogger is discussing web roles on his site. The question he’s asking Designer, Coder: Separate roles or one? Should designers just design or should they be doing the HTML and CSS too? This is a great discussion for beginning web design students to pay attention to and learn from others in the industry about what they think.

HOW TO BREAK THE BOX WITH CSS
Finally, one question I often get asked is “How do you create a design that isn’t boxy”? Jina Bolton has an excellent article on Sitepoint.com entitled “Breaking the Box“. It’s a great tutorial on how to create a clean, efficient CSS design that’s unique.

Today’s Class

Don — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:01:56 +0000

Now that the client project is rolling, today we talked about the benefits and drawbacks of using CSS template sites such as Code Sucks and Free CSS Templates.

By the end of class, your team and nterface designer should have several interface designs sketched out so your XHTML/CSS team can start preparing the webpage layouts. Make sense?

Client Site Project Begins

Don — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:50:20 +0000

For our client project, we will be redesigning the Westcott Bay Institute for Art and Nature site. We will work in teams of 3-4 people and you can select your teammates. Your ideal team will include people with a mix of skills and interests including interface design, information architecture, xhtml, css and usability.

After you select your team, please do the following:

Give your team a name (you will be interacting with the client as a small web agency so choose a name that is appropriate)
Determine what roles each member of the group will primarily play
Begin assessing the Westcott site and determine what you think are the problems and strengths of the current site
Write a list of questions you will ask the client to begin working on the project.

This project currently has a due date of March 27. However, based on client availability, the day may be moved back to April 3rd.

Questions?

OUTCOME: Create a fully functional website for the client. The site must be done in XHTML and CSS and be posted on a web server.

Homework for Tuesday

dtstanley — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:53:37 +0000

Read Chapters 11-14 in the “Learning Web Design”

Learning tools

Don — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:13:07 +0000

Here is the w3schools website I mentioned today. It’s a great resource for learning HTML, XHTML and CSS.

Also, for reading please go over Chapters 11-13 in “Learning Web Design”

Redesign #2: Cat Prin

Tarah — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 04:58:20 +0000

Here’s a link to the original Cat Prin website.

My redesign: