Schedule | Spring 2012

calendar
January


Homework To Complete In Class

WEEK 1
W 1/18

 

 

  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

action project
Introduce first project, the Action Project arrow

"Next, we're going to take two-and-a-half weeks to learn the mechanics of web design with Dreamweaver and Photoshop...."

F 1/20

 

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) arrow
WEEK 2
M 1/23
action project
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

moodle 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. arrow

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

moodle Posting the Chapter04 folder to the Web

Exercise: Marking Up HTML
whale
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

moodle 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.)
moodle Exercise: Beginning Banner Techniques
(Photoshop). arrow
- 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
action project
moodle 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"

moodle Exercise: Intermediate Banner Techniques

Resource: "Classic 45's CSS Zen Garden" from CSS Zen Garden)


February
  Homework In Class
W 2/1 moodle 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.

moodle
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 moodle 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 arrow

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 moodle 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. moodle 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
moodle 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


 

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)

moodle 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

moodle 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.


Group Work: Personas Activity arrow

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 arrow

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

moodle 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. moodle 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.

2. Complete and printout the Weinberger Reading Guide

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.

2. Complete and printout the Anderson Reading Guide

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"

4. Complete the Keen Reading Guide by copying and pasting the following questions into a file you can save, edit, and print:

1. What is the "cult of the amateur," according to Keen (include page numbers for quoted/cited words and phrases)?

2. Summarize the main points of Keen's critique of the "cult of the amateur" (include page numbers for these points)

3. Compare and contrast Keen's ideas and attitudes to Anderson and The Long Tail. Point to specific passages and page numbers.

4. In your opinion, what is the best point Keen makes (with page number and key phrasing indicated)?

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


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
   
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

Return of Action Projects (at the end)

  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 arrow

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.

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

scene to scheme project

Introduce Scene to Scheme Project arrow

Discuss "Remember Earth Clearly" and its relevance to the S2S Project.

moodle Do the group exercise "A Design Scheme from a 'Memory of Earth'"arrow

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 in MonH 209:
Design Schemes from "Memories..."


Resources:- Yellowtree Theatre

- Design Themes and Schemes: Three Dimensions (using "Make Em' Proud!" from CSS Zen Garden)

F 3/30 Come in with two possible passages for the Scene to Scheme (online or on paper)
Slicing Images into Web Pages
(Visual Web Design with Photoshop)

Discuss
Scenes

Exercise Slicing Images into Web Pages:
I will give you a copy of the handout, "Slicing Images into Web Pages."

We will use the page at Yellowtree Theatre as a model

You will save the exercise in a folder called "slice" inside of "exercises" (that is, www/4230/exercises/slice).

moodle After you have completed and uploaded the "slice" folder, send a clickable URL to the forum "Slicing Images into Web Pages"


April
  Homework In Class
WEEK 11
M 4/2

Decide on one scene to use for the Scene to Scheme project.

 

Visual Page Design in Dreamweaver

Comment:
"Social-Media Blasphemy"(Facebook)

Exercise:
complete the "Slicing Images into Web Pages." including a banner, additional image or media, and additional text

You will save the exercise in a folder called "slice" inside of "exercises" (that is, www/4230/exercises/slice).

moodle After you have completed and uploaded the "slice" folder, send a clickable URL to the forum "Slicing Images into Web Pages"

Resource:
Code for link state formatting: "a:link, a:hover, a:visited, a:active"


W 4/4 1.moodle Model Visual Pages
We've made the distinction between "verbal page design" (words marked up with images added) and "visual page design" (images with words added).

In the Moodle forum "Visual Page Design Models," post URLs and screen shots inserted as visible Moodle images (no more than 400 pxels wide) of two sample pages from the web that you think are examples (good, bad, or in between) of visual page design.

Below each example, write a paragraph critiquing both what you think is effective (and worth imitating) about the page design and what is ineffective (and to avoid).

Visual-Design Page Models

Discuss Model Visual-Design Pages
Our question: what challenges or problems are posed by this kind of page design? What opportunities are posed over text-based page design?

Image Map Exercise

We will use the page we created in the "Slicing Image into Web Pages" Exercise for this tutorial.
F 4/6 Bring all materials to class to work on your Scene to Scheme Project in class.

Studio Session: Scene to Scheme Project
WEEK 12
M 4/9

Scene to Scheme Project due by 9 a.m. today.

moodle The page should be posted to the web, and the URL sent as a clickable link to the forum, "Scene to Scheme URLs"

Scene-to-Scheme Due 9 a.m.
Introduce Glocalization Project

Comment: Scene to Scheme Commentary

glocalization project
Introduce Glocalization
(universal and local)
See the Glocalization Project Assignment Page

Resources- "Comments on the 'Global Triad' and 'Glocalization' (Roland Robertson)
- Tour of Carthage, IL Jail
- The Story of I-35 and Duluth
- Breadth vs. Depth
(examples: English department home-page menus)

W 4/11 1. Write a commentary on your Scene to Scheme Project to turn in at the beginning of class today. In addition to the general guideliens for commentaries, this commentary...

* include a printed copy of scene (1-3 pages)

* should explain how you used the scene to invent an original design scheme.

* should refer to specific features and aspects of your design and point both
- to particular details and quotations from the original scene and

- to the feelings and ideas you wanted to convey to the audience, whether explicitly or by implication

2. Come in with three possible topics for the Glocalizaiton Project. Each topic may be either something local, or a global/universal interest that may have some local instance)

Glocalization Topics

Turn in:
Scene to Scheme Commentaries

Discussion and Activity: Topics and Angles for the Glocalization Project

Resources:
Random Word Generator
The Story of I-35 and Duluth
"Comments on the 'Global Triad' and 'Glocalization
Excerpts from John Updikes "Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Masters"
F 4/13 1. By 8 a.m. today, use this form to send me a "topic/angle" for a potential Glocalization Project. This may or may not be the topic/angle you ultimately use.

The topic/angle may be in the form of an "as" phrase ("The Masters as a Rite of Spring"), or as a declarative sentence ("The Masters is a Fashion Show") or a description of purpose ("I will look at The Masters to show how..."). The topic/angle might be as short as a sentence fragment or as long as two sentences.

I you have previously sent me a topic/angle by email, you don't need to send it again via this form.

Glocalization Topics and Angles

Comment: "Facebook Returns to Campus Roots..."

Activity: Sharpening Topics/Angles for the Glocalizaiton Project arrow

I will ask you to open a Word file called "Topics/Angles for the Glocalizaiton Project Spring '12." We will work with this document in class.

Sample Topic/Angle: Beer Pong
WEEK 13
M 4/16

1. moodle As a follow-up to our in-class discussion about "Sharpening Topics/Angles for the Glocalizaiton Project," please post at least three of your (most helpful) revisions and suggestions of these topics/angles.

In the forum, "Sharpening Glocalizaiton Topics/Angles," do one of the following with your 3 topic/angle revisions:

1. If there already exists a discussion about the particular topic/angle that you revised and are submitting, please post your revision as a reply in that existing discussion

2. If there is not already a discussion with the topic as a title, choose to create a new discussion and then submit your revision as the first post.

See the sample discussion ("Beer Pong") below for the format.

2. moodle 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
Site Design

1. Troubleshoot: Templates Tutorial (McFarland's C19)

2. moodle Group Work: The Problems and Solutions of Site Design (using The Story of I-35 and Duluth page).

I will ask you to break into groups of 3 and work together on a posting to the Moodle forum "Site Design Problems and Solutions."

In this posting, make a list of 5 challenges and problems raised by taking the body of ideas in the The Story of I-35 and Duluth and realizing it in the form of a successful "Glocalization" web site. Consider issues of
- rewriting the material,
- designing the pages (home page, back pages)
- conceiving of a site organization scheme,
- combining words and images
- generally producing the site.

For each of the five problems/challenges, try to come up with at least one answer.
W 4/18 Picking up on our dicussion of last time, try writing a potential list of "link anchors" (the words that appear in a menu of links) for a web site based on the page The Story of I-35 and Duluth.

moodle In a reply to the Moodle forum "Site Design Problems and Solutions," post your list of link anchors as well as a brief commentary on the problems and challenges of chunking and labeling the parts of a complex argument or story.

In a sentence of two, describe what would be seen and read on the home page of a site organized in this way.

Site Structure; Hybrid Design; Roll-Over Menus

Discussion: Site Design Problems and Solutions (menus)

moodle Exercise: Roll-Over Menus in Photoshop
We will complete this exercise using the page we created in www/4230/exercises/slice. Send a clickable URL to your page as a reply to the Moodle forum "Roll-Over Menus"

Resource:
- Breadth vs. Depth
(examples: English department home-page menus)
F 4/20 Gather materials for and work on your Glocalization Project.

Working in your Design Teams, come up with a plan for
Hybrid Design, Design Teams; Tiling Backgrounds

moodle Complete Exercise:
Roll-Over Menus in Photoshop
We will complete this exercise using the page we created in www/4230/exercises/slice. Send a clickable URL to your page as a reply to the Moodle forum "Roll-Over Menus"


Introduce:
Design Teams arrow

moodle Exercise:
Tiling Background Images
Set 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"
WEEK 14
M 4/23


  Design Teams; Tiling Backgrounds

Introduce: Design Teams arrow
Today in your teams, sketch out a page layout and then define two problems of design or production.

moodle Exercise:
Tiling Background Images
Set 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"

Resource:
Yellowtree Theatre

W 4/25 1. Work on your individual Glocalization Projects.

2. Design teams should find some possible solutions to the design problems you defined in class. Each member of your team should send at least one URL of online tutorials to your team's discussion blog
Design Teams

moodle Complete Exercise: Tiling Background Images
Set 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"

moodle Design Teams: By the end of class today, I will ask you to post to your group's discussion in the Moodle forum "Design Teams" a URL to a draft of your design for an inner page to match the sliced home page from the "Slicing Images into Web Pages."

To show your page design's capacity to accomodate lots of content, I will ask you to paste in the text (and insert the images) from the main content area of this McFarland page from Chapter 9.

On Monday, each group will give an informal presentation of your work. In this presentation, you will

1. walk the class through the throught process you followed to conceive and excute the design, and

2. show a tool or technique in Dreamweaver, Photoshop, or some online app/service which has not previously been covered in class, complete with the URL to a online direrctions or a tutorial (YouTube videos okay).

F 4/27 1. Work on your individual Glocalization Projects.

2. Each member of the design team should post a paragraph long critique of your group's current design for a verbal-style inner page for the "Slice" site.

Then each member should reply to one of these critiques with suggestions and ideas for revision, including a URL to an online tutorial, technique, or example.

Design Team Work
Today, I want your design teams to try follow up on your discussions in the moodleoodle forum.

What technical issues do you still have to work out? What design issues would you like to resolve?
WEEK 15
M 4/30

Prepare for your presentations Design Team Presentations



May
  Homework In Class
W 5/2 Work on Glocalization Projects No Class Meeting

LAST CLASS
F 5/4
Bring all materials to work on your Glocalization Project

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.
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.

3. Return of Scene to Scheme Projects

WEEK 16
FINALS WEEK:

By our scheduled final exam time of 5/9 at 10 a.m., post the URL of the Glocalization Project to the forum "Glocal URLs."

The 500-word commentary should be submitted to my mailbox in H420 before the same time. No electronic copies accepted. Please turn in the commentary early if you need to.

Glocalizaiton Project and Commentary due by Wednesday, May 9 at 10 a.m.