GDT 150 Design for the Internet: Fall 2001

Class Information

Prerequisites

Contact Information/ Class Website

Since this is a web design class, all class information will be posted on the class website, http://www.chriscassell.net/classes/2001/fall/gdt150/. You can access it from the web when needed, or you can print it out. You can contact me via the contact page.

Course Objectives

Students will:

  1. Understand how basic design principles apply to websites
  2. Understand the process of designing and developing a website
  3. Understand how to lay out web pages in a flexible and media-appropriate way
  4. Understand the basics of structuring site architecture and content
  5. Understand the optimization of graphics
  6. Understand the structure and syntax of HTML and be able to compose and troubleshoot simple pages
  7. Understand how to use Photoshop and Dreamweaver effectively

Course Focus

  1. Graphic design applied to the web
  2. Technical skills
  3. Software skills

Student Web space

You will be required to post all your classwork and homework online. You should use your WCC student webspace. It is connected to your WCC email account.If you don’t have an account, point your browser to http://stu.wccnet.org and sign up for a student email account. This will create an email account, as well as a folder on the student server for you to use. Your URL will be http://stu.wccnet.org/~username

Record your username and password in a secure place, so that you don’t lose or forget them.

If you don’t have internet access or appropriate software at home, plan on spending a good deal of time in the campus computing labs. Open lab hours will be posted outside of the computer labs. I will post them on the class site once they are available.

Homework, Projects and Exercises

You can expect to spend several hours each week outside of class working on class projects, including reading and computer time. Additionally, there will be several short written homework assignments.

Projects will consist of designing and building websites. Subject matter is up to you, within certain boundaries. You may not build sites that are pornographic, racist, or in any other way discriminitory or offensive, nor may your sites violate the College’s User Rights and Responsibilities Policy.

Exercises will consist of in-class projects that teach technical skills. They should be turned in the day that they are covered.

All assignments should be posted to your webspace, with a link added to your homepage. One of the first assignments will be to create your homepage in your homespace on the WCC student server.

Supplies and Textbooks

Required Text

Taking Your Talent to the Web, Jeffrey Zeldman, New Riders Press

Optional Texts

Dreamweaver 4 Visual Quickstart Guide, Peachpit Press

HTML 4 Visual Quickstart Guide, Peachpit Press

Photoshop 6 Visual Quickstart Guide, Weinmann and Lourekas, Peachpit Press

Attendance

Students are required to attend class. Attendence will count for 10% of your final grade. If you accumulate more than 3 unexcused absences, your grade will be adversely affected. If you are more than 10 minutes late to class, you will be considered tardy. Three tardies will be recorded as an unexcused absence. Classes will start with lecture and demonstrations-it is important to be on time.

If you know you will miss class, please email me ahead of time and check the class site for any updates.

You are expected to be on time and stay for the entire class. There will be a 10 minute break in the middle of class. During classtime, you must participate in discussions and class . You may not work on projects for another class, check email, or surf the internet unless given explicit permission.

While in class, please turn off all cell phones and pagers. Interruptions by these devices distract the entire class and will not be tolerated. Also, please do not eat or drink in class. Not only is it distracting, it could destroy a computer.

Plagiarism and Piracy

All projects must be your original work. This means that you may not directly copy images,content, or substantial code from another website, book, student, or designer. Plagiarism and software piracy will not be permitted. Both are illegal and will be reported to the administration. This is not flexible.

Naming Files

All files that you create require file extensions in order to be recognized by web servers and browsers. Appropriate file extensions include the following: .html (or .htm—be consistent) .gif .jpg .png

We are posting our work to the web and and since most servers are case-sensitive, always use all lower-case filenames and avoid nonalphanumeric characters except dashes (-) and underscores(_).

Grading

Final grades will be assigned based on the following scale:

Part %
Attendance 10%
Class Participation 10%
Exercises 10%
Quizzes and Homework 10%
Projects 30%
Final Project 30%

Exercises will be graded on the following criteria: following instructions, technical accuracy, craftsmanship, demonstration of understanding of material, and completion of project on time.

Projects will be graded on the same criteria, as well as the following: creative and appropriate use of subject matter and skills; effective use of skills developed in exercises; fulfillment of the assignment objectives; use of basic design skills in a web-appropriate manner; cross browser/ platform compatibility/ standards compliance.

Projects must be turned in at the beginning of class the day they are due. A late project will drop one full letter grade for each class that it is late. In other words, an A quality project would drop to a B if it’s one class late and to a C if it’s one week late.

Participation in critiques and discussions is required; participation is 10% of your final grade.

Incompletes will only be given in appropriate situations, such as an extended illness with a doctor’s note.

Cross Platform Issues

All documents that we’ll be working with are cross-platform. That’s one great thing about the web — everything is platform independent. Even Photoshop documents are cross-platform, although they’re not web documents.

One catch: make sure you use PC formatted media (zip disks, floppy disks, etc.). Macs can read PC formatted data, but Windows can’t read mac formatted data, without buying extra software.