4. MOD 5 You might want to pull this up on the website– most of the info will be verbatim. As we have looked at various websites this semester, we have noted that some of the best designs are either partnered with or the result of careful, calculated branding. This could be as simple as what I’ve used for the course syllabus/website: a shared layout, shared colors, shared fonts, but it will often include specific logos, specific stylistic treatments, etc.
5. MOD 5 Your fifth module assignment is to craft a sort of identity template (a sort of “not actually a CSS stylesheet style sheet) for your final project website. This will start with a 1-2 page written description of what your website is meant to do, who the audience is, what the page will need (in terms of resources, what you need to know how to create or where to access, etc.).
6. MOD 5 You will then generate a set of color samples (I will provide an example of what these should look like), a series of potential banner images, and a series of small icon-images.
7. MOD 5 Your final product, then, will be: 1) your 1-2 page explanation of what your site will do/will need2) at least 3 color pallete samples3) at least 2 banner images4) at least 2 smaller icon images5) brief, but informed (from previous work in the semester, readings, etc.) explanations of why the proposed colors and images would work well for your site.
8. MOD 5 This will be due to your web folder by 1pm on April 5th via upload to my drop box from the class site. You will be graded on the following criteria: 1) Does your explanation set the stage for a successful site? (50 points) 2) Are all the samples there? (50 points) 3) Do the samples and the justification indicate that these are good options for the final project? (100 points)
11. SKED Make sure to look closely at the schedule over the next few weeks. I will be populating the lesser-filled days with activities you requested via Twitter and those mid-term reflections on Tumblr. The first one will be on next Tuesday. I will be giving you a web task to complete in pairs– it’s a full site (the skeleton of it, anyway) and all you get as an explanation is a one page PDF with a logo and some description.
12. READINGS You’ve read several chapters in the Zeldman book that we haven’t gone over yet. Here is how I’d like you to spend the rest of class. Team up with one or two other students, and from the prompts (I will show them to you on the powerpoint, but they are all also posted to my Tumblr for easy access) I want you to pick ONE in each group to respond to.Choose a group recorder, and record your response to the questions on his/her Tumblr.
13. READINGS You’ve read several chapters in the Zeldman book that we haven’t gone over yet. Here is how I’d like you to spend the rest of class. Team up with one or two other students, and from the prompts (I will show them to you on the powerpoint, but they are all also posted to my Tumblr for easy access) I want you to pick ONE in each group to respond to.Choose a group recorder, and record your response to the questions on his/her Tumblr.
14. ZELDMAN 5 Q1: What is PHP, and why is it important to understanding how to write for the web? Q2: What is bad URL syndrome? How do we prevent it? How often have you seen it in practice? Q3: on page 109 Zeldman gives 5 reasons to stick with HTML. Pick one and explain why that one of the five is important to your understanding of how you will code/design in the future.
15. ZELDMAN 6 Q1: What is Doctype, and why is it essential to XHTML but rarely present in HTML? Q2: What is Tidy? How’s that work? Q3: There are a number of small things that must be changed from HTML to XHTML. List a few of them and talk about how they function/why they must be done.
16. ZELDMAN 7 Q1: Why is HTML5 “The New Hope” (shameless Star Wars reference by Z3P0)? What is different about how it came to exist? Q2: What does HTML5 add that isn’t present in old school HTML (HTML4, if you will)? Why are these changes important for us to understand? Q3: What does Zeldman (and do coders) mean by “semantics?”
17. ZELDMAN 8 Q1: What is a div? Why is it so important? Q2: What is outline structure, and why does it matter? Q3: What is a cookie? No, not the baked kind, the web kind. And what do they enable coders to do?
18. HOMEWORK Read for class: Audience (for composition), Understanding Your Web Audience , Design Decisions vs. Audience Consideration, and Online Technical Writing: Audience Analysis In class we will talk about “Audience.” Crazy, right? Your Twitter question: Would you like more involvement with the Zeldman readings, less, or is it juuuuust right?
