Course News
Web 2.0whatever
Wednesday 3/14/2007 6:34 PM
This is Awesome
Wednesday 3/7/2007 7:16 PM
Critiquing and User-Testing Tutorials: Some Questions
Wednesday 3/7/2007 6:54 PM
- What does the tutorial feature to encourage or motivate a user to work with it? Are those features effective?
- Are there features that might discourage users?
- Are there any points over the course of the tutorial that might lose a user's understanding or attention?
- What seems like a likely course of action if a user gets lost or needs help? Is that course something that seems designed by the tutorial's team?
- In what ways does the tutorial's visual design and behavior support the activity a user is guided through in the tutorial? In what ways does it detract?
- Were you able to accomplish and understand what the tutorial asked you to do?
- List three ways that you would improve the tutorial.
A Hold-over from the First Project...
Wednesday 2/21/2007 5:57 PM
...but worth the read. Jeffrey Zeldman, Web standards guru, talks about the redesign of the Web site for his firm, Happy Cog. What he says is also interesting in light of the group effort of our final project.
Course/Site Updates
Wednesday 2/7/2007 5:07 PM
- All of the readings for the rest of quarter are now live and linked off of the course calendar, which has been updated somewhat.
- Project 2 is up and available; we'll define/refine some aspects of it during class tonight (2/7).
Mac OS X Screen Captures
Wednesday 1/31/2007 5:39 PM
Here's all the information you need.
We All Need Validation...
Wednesday 1/24/2007 6:56 PM
Having CSS layout problems? Be sure your XHTML is valid; upload the file (or copy and paste an http:// URL) in at http://validator.w3.org/
Additional Help Resources
Monday 1/15/2007 5:52 PM
Never underestimate the power of Google for solving Web design and language problems you might encounter. Just keep that in mind.
At the same time, here are some resources in addition to Sustainable Web Design that may help you along:
First, Mark checks in with this brief article from About.com on "The Three Layers of Web Design" (structure, presentation, style). A good conceptual summary of what we've been talking about in class.
You'll find a ton of references and tutorials at W3Schools.com (no relation to the World Wide Web Consortium, W3C). Of particular interest is their XHTML tutorial area and a table listing available tags alphabetically or by function, plus their CSS tutorial and list of CSS properties with links to live, basic examples.
Webstandards.org also has a nice portal for helping people learn standards-compliant Web design languages and methods.
For treatments of more specific (and often advanced) technical issues plus broader design and writing concerns, you can't beat the online Web design magazine A List Apart.
Some Portfolio Sites
Monday 1/15/2007 5:38 PM
Here are links to some portfolio sites that some of you submitted. If anyone has any others, please email them to me and they'll be posted here, too.
Lalo
I like these sites for their design styles and ease of use (the first two more than the third):
- http://www.newberryphotography.com/
- http://www.jamesfrankdean.com/
- http://www.stencilrevolution.com/
Mark
- Jack Rolfe - clean site
- Pixel - simple flash animation, really like the "stacking" look
- Ruth Gwily - there is no way to hate this splash page
- roxbydesign.com
Laurie
- http://www.adigitalvision.com I did the Flash programming for this site, but the design was mostly theirs. I did, however, suggest the "frame" setup for the video montage.
- http://www.spotthemonkey.com This is ADV's sister company, and they do strictly video production. I did the site design and the programming.
Colleen
Jackie
Karl
- http://www.ericsal.com/ - interesting CSS-based layout
- http://www.powazek.com/ - would you call this a "minimalist" interface? it's neat
- http://www.zeldman.com/ - portfolio site of Jeff Zeldman, a key figure in the Web standards movement
Helpful Links
Wednesday 1/10/2007 5:30 PM
Some of these resources from Sustainable Web Design may be of use to you tonight as you work on your portfolio's structural pages in XHTML, and begin to control CSS: