January
| Homework To Complete | In Class | |
WEEK 1
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Introduce Class and the Action Project Syllabus Three Projects: Action, Identity, Community One Theme: the Physical and the Digital What is Web Design? Meaning and Presentation: CSS Zen Garden Introduce first project, the Action Project  "Next, we're going to take two-and-a-half weeks to learn the mechanics of web design with Dreamweaver and Photoshop...." |
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1. Obtain all books and the USB drive 2. On your USB drive, create the following set of nested folders (with all lower-case letters!): webdesign www 4230 exercises action assets scene assets glocal assets 3. Read the beginning of McFarland's Chapter 1, pages 19-38. Mark passages and details you don't understand and would like to discuss in class. 4. Bring the McFarland book to class 5. Read over syllabus and bring in additional questions |
Files and Folders Missing CDs Getting Started with Dreamweaver Design Schemes 1. Questions on the syllabus? 2. Dimensions of the Class 3. "Design Schemes" (part of the idiom of web-page design) as in the CSS Zen Garden examples 4. Questions on McFarland's pages 19-38 5. Set Up for McFarland's Chapter 1 "Test Drive" Tutorial (pages 38 - 63, due next time) |
| WEEK 2 M 1/23  |
2. Complete McFarland's Chapter 1: Dreamweaver Test Drive tutorial, pages 38-63. You will need to complete this chapter sitting at a computer with Photoshop installed. See - Computer Labs ("Full Service" including Dreamweaver and Photoshop) - Computer Lab Schedules (UMD) - Abobe Dreamweaver Trial Version of CS5! (30 days only) |
Test Drive (C1) Setting Up "www" Sites and Posting to the Web McFarland Help Session McFarland C1  In class, we will follow the steps on the page Setting up a "www" site to introduce our "www" folders to Dreamweaver, post the 4230 folder to the web, and visit that folder to copy the URL of the "about.html" page from McFarland's Chapter 1 to a Moodle forum. We will also export your "www" Site Info onto your USB ("www.ste" file) so you won't need to go through the process of setting up this site again and again. |
| W 1/25 | 3. Read Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of McFarland, and complete the tutorial in Chapter 4 "Introducing Cascading Style Sheets" |
Cascading Style Sheets (C4) McFarland Help Session McFarland C4 Posting the Chapter04 folder to the WebExercise: Marking Up HTML  For this exercise, we'll use the program "TextEdit" (use your computer's "Spotlight" search to find it). Right-click on the whale image above, and save it into the "assets" folder: that is, in "4230/exercises/markup/assets." When we complete the exercise, we'll save the result as "index.html" in the "markup" folder and upload that folder to the web. Visit the page with your browser and send the URL to the Moodle forum "Mark-Up HTML Pages" Open the page in Dreamweaver (tag inspector, lower left) |
| F 1/27 | Read McFarland's Chapter 5 and complete the Links Tutorial at the end | Links (C5) Banners in Photoshop Help Session McFarland C5 Posting the Chapter05 folder to the Web, and submitting the URL to the Moodle forum "McFarland C5" (Note that for the next tutorial, I will ask you to upload the exercise and post the URL before class begins.) Exercise: Beginning Banner Techniques (Photoshop). - Save the working .psd file to your "webdesign" folder - Save the finished product (.jpg file) to a folder called "www/4230/exercises/banner" - send the URL to the Moodle forum "Banners" |
| WEEK 3 M 1/30 |
Read McFarland's Chapter 6, "Images," complete the tutorial, post it to the web, and send the URL to the "McFarland C6" Moodle forum. |
Images (Chapter 6) Banners in Photoshop Help Session McFarland C6 "Images" Exercise: Intermediate Banner TechniquesResource: "Classic 45's CSS Zen Garden" from CSS Zen Garden) |
February
| Homework | In Class | |
| W 2/1 | Read McFarland's Chapter 7 "Tables" and Chapter 8 "Advanced CSS" and complete the "Tables Tutorial" starting on page 270, post it to the web, and send the URL to the "McFarland C7" Moodle forum. Example of action-focused web sites. In the Moodle forum "Action-Focused Web Sites,"" provide the URL of a web site that is primarily intended to persuade and enable an audience to do some physical or social action. What "means of persuasion" can you observe Aristotle: "Rhetoric is the faculty of observing, in any given case, the available means of persuasion." |
Tables (Chapter 7) Help Session McFarland C7 "Tables" Problem/Solution: the disappearing style sheet Discuss the Action-Focused Web Sites: The "means of persuasion" realized in oppositions (dialogics) and narrative. |
| F 2/3 | Read McFarland, Chapter 9 "Page Layout." and complete the tutorial "CSS Page Design," post it to the web, and send the URL to the "McFarland C9" Moodle forum. In the Moodle forum "Action-Focused Web Sites," look over the postings from last time and reply to one (not your own) with a paragraph analysis of how rhetoric of that site attempts to prompt an action through oppositions (dialogics) and narratives--as we discussed in class last time. |
Page Layout (Chapter 9); Visual Hierarchy and Screen Real Estate Help Session McFarland C9 "Page Layout" How To: Your own pages from DW's "CSS Layouts" (see McFarland 324). Lecture: Visual hierarchy and screen real estate Your Examples: Action-Focused Web Sites (oppositions and narratives) |
| WEEK 4 M 2/6 |
Analyze and Rate the following pages from CSS Zen Garden (1-5 with 5 being best) for - use of visual hierarchy, - use of screen real estate, - expression of theme(s) - readability/usability - CSS Co., Ltd. - Retro Theater - Pretty in Pink - One more of your own choice In the Moodle Forum, "Visual Hierarchy and Screen Real Estate," provide the titles and clickable links to the pages listed in rank order. Be prepared to discuss the best and worst of what you analyzed. |
CSS Layout Pages (DW) Exercise: CSS Layout Pages Using what we've learned
in McFarland's "CSS Page Layout" Chapter (9), we'll create a new page based on one of Dreamweaver's prefab CSS Layouts. We'll save the page as "index.html" into the folder "www/4230/exercises/banner--where you previously saved the result of the Banner Techniques exercise. Then we'll insert the banner into the page. You'll then send the clickable URL of the page (with the banner showing) to the forum, "New CSS Layout Page." Discussion: Your analyses of the visual hierarchy and screen real estate in 4 pages from CSS Zen Garden. |
| W 2/8 | 1. Nielsen and Tahir 1. Read "Preface:" (1), "Homepage Guidelines" (7-35). In this chapter, the authors identify 113 numbered guidelines for making pages more usable. 2. Write down the item numbers of 20 of the guidelines that you think are valuable, surprising, wrong, or most characteristic of Nielsen's and Tahir's approach. 3. On a large sheet of paper, create a cluster or cloud of these twenty items, each identified by Nielsen and Tahir's item number and a two- or three-word tag. As you write items in the cluster, see if you can indicate your emerging sense of patterns and connections by where you position each term. 4. Draw connecting lines among the items in your cluster to show relationships and groupings. The more significant, useful, or surprising the connection, the darker and heavier the connecting line. 5. Draw circles (or darker circles) around terms/items that seem most important, central, or "weighted" 6. Add your own words to the cluster to name these connections and the authors' larger principles. You can use your own terminology. 7. On the bottom of the page (or the back if you need room), make a list of three or four principles that you discovered through your clustering that epitomize Nielsen's and Tahir's approach and philosophy. 8. Post the three or four "larger principles" from your 20-item cluster in a reply to the forum "Nielsen and Tahir's Big Picture"
including relevant guideline numbers from Homepage Usability. For one of your principles, provide a URL to an example online, and write a brief explanation of what specifically we should look for on that page. Note that you can also provide a negative example of a page that doesn't follow a principle. Post them as screen shots inserted as visible images in the Moodle messages, with a URL to the page itself, and a brief explanation. Make the image no wider than 600 pixels. Directions for taking a "screen shot" Directions for inserting visible images in a Moodle forum |
Usability: Nielsen and Tahir Guidelines Forms Sample of Next Homework: example of larger principle illustrated by a feature on a site pictured in Nielsen and Tahir's pages 55-87. Comments: The Action Project's mediating Role between the physical and digital worlds; tag lines: rhetoric uses of ethos and pathos Protesters Look for Ways to Feed the Web (NYT) Implementation example Discussion: Nielsen and Tahir's Big Picture (home work for today) Example: tag lines (#2, pg. 10) Bad Boys Bail Bonds Collect: Guideline Clusters Exercise: Forms I will give you a copy of the handout, "Forms."We will use an existing page to add a form. Upload the completed page with your form to where it was saved online previously, and send the URL to the Moodle forum, "Forms." Resources: Directions for taking a "screen shot" Directions for inserting visible images in a Moodle forum
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| F 2/10 | In Nielsen and Tahir's Homepage Usability, read Homepage Design Statistics" (37-53) and "Introduction to the Home Pages" (55), and commentarites on the homepages through BBC Online (87) Find three examples from the new readings that express any of the larger principles you (or someone else) posted in the forum "Nielsen and Tahir's Big Picture." Examples might include a detail of a particular web page shown, an observation the authors make on such a page/detail in a commentary, etc. Post the examples in replies to the original message identifying the principle in the Moodle forum with the page and comment number and a brief explanation. 2. Read: Getting the most out of personas |
Forms Getting Ready: 1. In Dreamweaver, open the page you used last time to begin your forms exercise Comment: Tag lines (pg. 10, #2 ) Bad Boys Bail Bonds We will continue the exercise with the handout, "Forms."We will upload the completed page containing your form to where it was saved online previously, and send the URL to the Moodle forum, "Forms." Example: UX Design is "User Experience Design." Find the final exam schedule from UMD's home page. After discussing the homework, we will work in groups to create personas for a ficticious "Action Project": a web site for a campus club.
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| WEEK 5 M 2/13 |
1. Read: Step by step guide to scenario mapping 2. Bring your Nielsen and Tahir book |
Usability Principles, Personas and Scenarios Comments: Usability Touchstone Criteria for Action Project Assignment Group Work: Personas and Scenarios Activity |
| W 2/15 | 1. Follow-up to our Persona and Scenario day: In a reply to the Moodle forum, Persona/Scenario Follow-Up, describe A. One way that differences among potential users of your imagined club's web site influenced 2. Come in with all materials needed to work in class on your Action Project |
Studio Session for Action Project Though you are working individually, please plan on staying and being productive until the usual ending time of class. Also be open to answering and asking questions of your classmates. Handout for Next Meeting: the first page from Lev Manovich's "Poetics of Augmented Space") |
| Thursday 2/16 |
By noon, post your Action Project to the web and send a clickable link in a message to the forum "Action Project URLs" |
no class meetings on Thursdays |
| F 2/17 | Change of Location: We will meet in MonH 206 for the next few class meetings Write, Print, and Bring In: your Action Project commentary, which should fulfilll the guidelines of excellent commentaries. Read Accidental Billionaires, 3-84 and the first page of Lev Manovich's "Poetics of Augmented Space" Write, Print, and Bring In: Reading Guide 1 due by the beginning of class. Please open the Word file available via this link, type in your responses, then delete the original questions to save space. Print out the Reading Guide and bring it to class. |
In MonH 206: Virtuality and Physicality Mezrich: Accidental Billionaires, 3-84 Collect: Action Project Commentary Comment: The Digital Culture and Theory Unit, the Midterm Exam, and the Scene to Scheme Project (Character Home Page from Telling Scene) Handout: Format of a sample midterm exam Comment: Why this book? Discussion: Virtuality and Physicality (including Lev Manovich's "Poetics of Augmented Space") Discussion: Insides/Outsides/Nosides (Harvard as a "geography of power") Collect: Reading Guide 1 |
| WEEK 6 M 2/20 |
Read Accidental Billionaires, 85-159 Write, Print, and Bring In: Reading Guide 2 due by the beginning of class |
In MonH 206: Mezrich: Accidental Billionaires, 85-159 Handout: Format of a sample midterm exam Harvard constructed as a symbol of the geography of power Winklevosses constructed as a symbol of physicality (Harvard physicality) Virtuality ahd Physicality (Lev Manovich's "Poetics of Augmented Space") Close reading of a passage (groups) Resources: Board of themes from last time Kinneavy's Four Aims of Discourse Mark Zuckerberg's Home Page |
| W 2/26 | 1. Read Accidental Billionaires, 160-252 2. Find: As a "geography of power," how does Palo Alto different from Harvard as Mezrich represents it in Accidental Billioinaires? Come in with two quotations chosen (with page numbers) that suggest or dramatize the power structures of the digital economy of Palo Alto as opposed to the physical (represented by Harvard). 3. By 8 a.m., Post an open-ended question about the book to the forum "Accidental Billioinaires," which asks us to explore the treatment of some theme or issue Your question should point to a particular passage, with a page number, as a starting point for answering it. The question might concern a theme or issue we've discussed previously, or be a new one. Your question should ask us to find additional passages in the book--with page numbers--that support a fuller understanding of the answer. Come in with at least two such passages noted down. |
In MonH 206: Open Forum: Mezrich: Accidental Billionaires, 160-252 2. Comment: Silicon Valley Map (Harvard as geography of power vs. La Jennifer Way, Palo Alto) 1. Your open-ended questions |
| F 2/24 | 1. Download, printout and read David Weinberger's Everything is Miscellaneous. Prologue, Chapter 1 and Chapter 3, all available from the "Readings" section of Moodle. |
In MonH 206: David Weinberger: Everything is Miscellaneous Believing and Doubting Games Discussion: Miscellaneousness vs. Geography Resources Trojan Horse Semiotic Map: Intended/Unintended/Social/Individual |
| WEEK 7 M 2/27 |
1. Download, printout and read Chris Anderson's Long Tail. Intro and Chapter 2, both available from the "Readings" section of Moodle. |
In MonH 206: Chris Anderson: The Long Tail Resources: Starlings (Unintended Consequences) Intended /Unintended, Individual/Social (Semiotic Square) Long-Tail Distribution (Mobile App Devices) |
| W 2/29 | SNOW DAY |
March
| Homework | In Class | |
| F 3/2 |
3. Download, printout and read Andrew Keen's Cult of the Amateur: Introduction and Chapter 1 available from the Moodle site under "Readings" |
In MonH 206: Andrew Keen Handout: Web 3.0 |
| WEEK 8 M 3/5 |
1. Download, printout, and read Pierre Levy, available from the "Readings" section of Moodle. 2. Complete the Levy reading guide, and print it out to turn in. |
In MonH 206: Pierre Levy Pierre Levy: Anthropoligical Space, Knowledge Space, Subjectivity Web3.0 Preparation for Reading Heim (Platonic philosophy and cyberspace): Plato's Allegory of the Cave |
| W 3/7 | 3. Download, printout, and read Michael Heim's "Erotic Onology of Cyberspace," available from the Moodle site under "Readings." 4. Complete the reading guide and print it out to turn in. |
In MonH 206: Michael Heim Video: Plato's Allegory of the Cave |
| F 3/9 | Download, print out, and read Donna Haraway's "A Manifesto for Cyborgs" available from the Moodle site under "Readings" Copy and paste the following questions into a file you can save, edit, and print. Title it, "Haraway Reading Guide": 1. What does Haraway mean by saying, "We are cyborgs" (28) 2. According to Haraway, how are we to respond or react to being cyborgs? |
In MonH 206: Donna Haraway  Resources - Biofeedback and Neurofeedback at the Vancouver Olympics 2010 (YouTube) - Ethical Implications of Technology are an Olympic Concern - Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, "Woodstock" (1970) - What the Doormouse Said (book) |
| SPRING BREAK M 3/12 |
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| W 3/14 | ||
| F 3/16 | ||
| WEEK 9 M 3/19 |
Download, print out, and read--starting with paragraph 9 that begins, "But having said, this, let me turn very briefly...."--Roland Robertson's "Comments on the 'Global Triad' and 'Glocalization' Bring the Web 3.0 handout |
In MonH 206: Roland Robertson Web 3.0 Discuss: globalization, anti-globalism, relativization, glocalization, totemic places, particular and universal. Resource: Avery Island (Tabasco Sauce) Discuss the Web 3.0 handout Review the Sample Exam Format |
| Listen to the "The Future of the Internet" and complete the online "The Future of the Internet" listening index. |
In MonH 206: The Future of the Internet "The Future of the Internet" In-Class Workshop Resource: Simon Hay 1. Once we've completed the "Future of the Internet" workshop, I will ask you to go back and listen carefully to those sections having to with the three key ideas we picked. 2. Use the Moodle forum "The Future of the Internet" to identify and learn the specific names of individuals speaking about these three topics. Try searching on the web to get some background on that person to help you better understand that person's perspecrtive and what he/she is saying. 3. Look for further connections with other ideas that help you better unpack, contextualize, and understand these three ideas. |
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| F 3/23 | Bring a blue or black pen that you trust. | In MonH 206: Midterm Exam Bring a reliable blue or black pen No blue books needed Since this is a closed-book exam, no books, printouts, or notes can be used. Receive handout: Remember Earth Clearly |
| WEEK 10 M 3/26 |
Read the handout "Remember Earth Clearly." In this passage from Douglas Coupland's 1991 novel Generation X, the characters are playing a game in which they tell "memories of earth": snapshot-like moments they remember which epitomize their individual experience of life.
What are the elements of a "memory of earth"? If we wanted to create a kind of form or format for writing a Memory of Earth or other such "telling scenes," what kinds of blanks would we give ourselves to fill in? |
Back to MonH 209: Introduce Scene to Scheme Project Introduce Scene to Scheme Project Do the group exercise "A Design Scheme from a 'Memory of Earth'" Resource: Inserting Visible Images into Moodle Forum Message |
| W 3/28 | By email and via Moodle, continue working in your groups to present and discuss your "Design Scheme from a Memory of Earth." | Back to MonH 209: Character, Scene, Themes, and Design Design Themes and Schemes: Three Dimensions (using "Make Em' Proud!" from CSS Zen Garden) |
| F 3/30 | Color Contrast Homework TBA |
Ice Design (Photoshop) Color Contrasts |
| Homework | In Class | |
| WEEK 11 M 4/2 |
1. A place to start looking for nightmare pages is the venerable web-design site, "Web Sites that Suck."
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Visual Hierarchy and Screen Real Estate 2 Cultual Codes Tracing Images 1. Complete discussion of Visual Hierarchy in the four pages from - CSS Zen Garden - Dream and Nightmare Pages 2.Cultural Codes (people, places) 3. Using code view (non-functioning .css or images). 4. Exercise: See the exercise page. Save your page in "www/4230/exercises/tracing." |
| W 4/4 | 2. Model Personal Pages In the forum, "Model Personal Pages," create a clickable URL to a page from the web that you might use as a visual model for your AIPE page. The page should model the layout style and design you're interested in achieving. In a short paragraph, describe what you like about the page and want to emulate. |
Model Personal Pages Home Page, Site Structure, the Question of Image Size Discuss Model Personal Pages dd Image Maps and Named Anchors Exercise I will ask you to download a couple of images and insert them in an .html page saved in a folder "www/4230/exercises/imagemaps." We will create links from parts of those images to different web pages, and parts of Web pages. |
| F 4/6 | Studio Session: Scene to Scheme Project |
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| WEEK 12 M 4/9 |
Scene to Scheme Project due by 9 a.m. today. The page should be posted to the web, and the URL sent as a clickable link to the forum, "Scene to Scheme URLs" |
Introduce Glocalization Project Glocalization (universal and local) - See the Glocalization Project Assignment Page - Example: Scratch Flat, MA (Ceremonial Time) Tour of Carthage, IL Jail The Story of I-35 and Duluth Breadth vs. Depth (examples: English department home-page menus) |
| W 4/11 | Write a commentary on your Scene to Scheme Project to turn in at the beginning of class today. | Balanced Design, Graphic Headings Turn in Scene to Scheme Commentaries |
| F 4/13 | Content Design |
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| WEEK 13 M 4/16 |
1. Be prepared at the beginning of class to send me a "topic/angle" for a potential Glocalization Site. This may or may not be the topic/angle you ultimately use. Bring in all materials to work on your Glocalization Project in class. Though you will be working independently, this is still a class meeting. Please attend and plan on being productive until the end of the class period. |
Topics/Angles for Glocal Project |
| W 4/18 | 2. Read McFarland's Chapter 19, "Templates," and complete the tutorial. Remember that, before you start, you will need to copy the folder "Chapter19" from "MM_DWCS3" to your "exercises" folder inside of "4230." Be sure not to skip the step on page 701 for setting up a specific site for this exercise, with the local root folder being "Chapter19" in your "exercises" folder (that is, "www/4230/exercises/Chapter19" on your USB drive). Once you have completed the tutorial, use your "www" site in Dreamweaver to upload the "Chapter19" folder to the web, visit "hydroponics.html" and "planter.html" with your browser, and copy the URLs as a clickable links into a reply to the forum, "McFarland C19" |
Templates Sharpening Topics 1. TemplatesTroubleshoot C19 Templates Tutorial 2. Glocalization Topics and Angles Sharpening Topics/Angles for the Glocalizaiton Project 3. Exercise: Tiling Background ImagesSet the tiling image as the background of a new page in Dreamweaver, post it to the web in the folder www/4230/exercises/tiling, and send the URL to the Moodle forum "Tiling Background" |
| F 4/20 | Site Structure Image Sizes Image Maps and Named Anchors |
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| WEEK 14 M 4/23 |
Tiling Backgrounds |
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| W 4/25 | ||
| F 4/27 | ||
| WEEK 15 M 4/30 |
May
| Homework | In Class | |
| W 5/2 | ||
| LAST CLASS F 5/4 |
Bring all materials to work on your Action Project | Glocalization Project Studio Session 1. Course Evaluations 2. Permission to Display your Projects in Future Classes Please complete the brief Permission Form. Students who agree to permit display of their projects in future classes become collaborative partners in the development of the course, the program, and UMD generally. Consider providing permission--with any restrictions you'd like to include--for future students to benefit from your work this semester. |
| WEEK 16 FINALS WEEK Scheduled final time: |
The final version of the Glocalization Project is due. Post a URL to the forum "Action URLs." The 500-word commentary should be submitted to my mailbox in H420 by the same time. No electronic copies accepted. Please turn in the commentary early if you need to. |