Web Design
Class Description

This class is designed to give students a solid foundation and understanding of the process and principles of good Web design, the specific design issues and considerations that arise and need to be addressed, and the opportunity to apply those principles and decision-making skills to a hands-on project.

In this class we examine all aspects of the design process including:

• Strategic planning and goal-setting
• Audience identification and profiling
• Content selection, evaluation, and development
• Site architecture and navigation
• Design specification and documentation
• Prototype creation (i.e. designing the "look and feel")
• Web graphics creation and optimization

Students form several small "teams," each working on a different hands-on project. If students do not posess proficiency in Photoshop and HTML, they will be given flipcharts and markers to draw their design ideas for presentation.

Each team selects a Web site model from a list of choices given out in the class (i.e travel, corporate, non-profit, intranet, publishing, etc.) and completes exercises that simulate the various steps of the design process, for their project site. By the end of the class, each team will have created a prototype Home page and up to three "sub-pages" for their site to illustrate the main design theme and elements, and how the design will carry through the rest of the site.

See a detailed outline of this class