Major Projects

There are a lot of different types of work in this class: an on-going journal where you apply course readings, various small projects and reports, and a large final project. The short descriptions below will have more detailed pages linked to them as the semester goes on.

For most of the projects below, I'll set up an additional page to provide more detailed information about the project (the short summaries below are just to give you an idea about what you'll be doing this semester).

Demonstration Journal (200 points)

See the Journals page for specific assignments and guidelines on setting up your Journals index page.

Early in the class, I'll help you set up a basic set of Dreamweaver pages where you'll post relatively short entries that demonstrate what you've learned from course readings. Generally, there will be one application journal entry due for each reading or related set of readings. Your journal entry for a specific day's class must be posted before class starts. The whole point of the journal assignment is to get you to work with the reading a little bit (beyond just skimming it) so that you'll be better able to ask questions about the readings in class.

The journal entries are graded pass/fail: You'll get full credit if it's apparent to me that you tried to get things to work. If you can get 90% of the assigment completed but get bogged down with a bug you can't figure out, don't spend six hours on it. You can ask questions about these types of things in class.

If you don't complete the journal entry before class, you can complete it after class, but you'll be penalized 20% for journal entries completed up to a week late and 50% for entries completed more than a week late. If you finish your journal entry late, be sure to email me to let me know it's done—I won't be making regular passes through everyone's journal just to see if there's anything new.

Quizzes (150 points)

For most assigned readings, you'll also take a short, pass/fail quiz. The quizzes are designed to test whether or not you've done the readings. Given the technical nature of some chapters, I'm not expecting you to memorize syntax. Instead, I want to see that you've gone through the chapter and understand the basic concepts. I won't, for example, ask you to tell me what the HTML entity for bold is (it's b, by the way). But I might ask you to tell me if the Bold HTML entity is a presentational or a block element (it's a presentational element), or what the difference is between a presentational and a block element. (These distinctions, in other words, should be relatively clear to you after reading WDN 10.)

In some cases (particularly with the WDN book) you'll be allowed to use the book during the quiz because it's more of a reference work than a theory work. But in order to complete the quiz in the allotted time, even with the book, you'll need to have reviewed the chapter before class so that you can find information quickly. (I'll let you know ahead of time if you need to bring your book to class for a quiz.)

Site and User Goals and Analysis (50 points)

[more detailed description now posted]

In the first of a series of short projects, you'll begin working on a "topical" website: A small (5- to 8-page) website about a specific topic that you choose. It could be a site about a type of music, a style of ethnic cooking, a resource site for visitors of a big city, a site about a genre of movie or videogame. Pick something you're interested in because you'll be working with the same topic for several later projects.

For the Site and User Goals and Analysis, you'll define who your users are and how they will use the site.

Site Blueprint (50 points)

Using Microsoft Visio, create a site map or blueprint showing the overall structure (pages and links among pages) for at least 30 nodes of a complex site. You can pick any site you want, but be sure it has enough nodes. We'll review formats for blueprints in class, but your blueprint will need to be clearly labeled, neat, and include hierarchal numbering (nodes at the first level labeled 1, 2, 3; nodes at the second level lableed 1.1, 1.2, .... 2.1, 2.2, etc.). There's an example PDF in the "Sitemap" section at this page: http://www.gdoss.com/web_info/information_architecture_deliverables.php

Note the use of the continuation point for Node 8 in order to make the blueprint fit--this is a standard way to map out a site structure when there are too many nodes to fit horizontally (or just to break up a very complex structure to make it more manageable).

Interactive Wireframe (50 points)

Using advanced features in Visio, create a series of wireframes that includes links among pages. You must include at least 8 linked pages.

2 Personas (50 points)

Create brief (one-page) narrative descriptions of users for a specific site based on research.

Usability Report (75 points, Team Project)

We'll be learning how to work in the CEC's Usability Lab this semester to test site designs and functionality. The lab runs an installation of Techsmith's Morae, a popular usability testing suite. You'll select a site to test (not your own site), come up with some goals for testing, recruit three test subjects, run tests, and then analyze and report on the results. See the Usability Report page for more info.

Topical Site (125 points)

Using the Site and User Goals Analysis done earlier, create a simple blueprint and set of wireframes for your topical site. You'll then create at least three Photoshop mockups of relatively polished pages to use in developing the full topical site.

More details at the Topical Site project page.

CSS Layout (50 points)

[12.3.08] We dropped this project due to lack of time at the end of the semester. Redesign the index page using a CSS-based (rather than tables-based) layout. Then create a template for new journal entries using the same CSS techniques. Finally, create one page using that template the analyzes the design you've created (including color, layout, typography).

Final Project (200 points)

[I've set up a separate page to cover this]

Participation (75 points)

You have to be both in class and actively participating. Watching videos on YouTube doesn't count as participating. Sleeping doesn't count as participating. Listening and responding count as participating. (Wow. I feel like I should add something like, "Don't make me stop this car.")