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Communications Project: Designing for the World-wide Web

A. PURPOSE:

Communications Project: Designing for the World-wide Web (6 credits, advanced)

B. LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

This contract will be guided by Frieda Mendelsohn, Mentor at Niagara Frontier Center. It is designed to integrate and extend the knowledge gained in your concentration in Communications, Culture, and Technology to the World-wide Web. An encyclopedic introduction to designing for the web is, HTML 3.2 & CGI Unleashed, John December and Mark Ginsburg, eds., c. 1997. This book introduces principles of web design, discusses the relative merits of various HTML editors, and introduces the other techniques of web design. You will read selected portions, in consultation with me, of chapters 1-18 for this contract. Using December and Ginsburg as a guide, you will acquire an HTML editor and learn to use it . The objective here is to become sufficiently familiar with your editor and the markup language to succeed in designing your web. You may find links to appropriate materials at http://www.esc.edu/personal/fmendelsohn/links.html in the section "HTML -- Write your own Web Page". At the same time, you will begin to critique websites. You should first read the relevant sections of December and Ginsburg. You should then select a variety of types, organizations, styles and critique each one in your learning journal. You should begin to build a set of criteria for evaluating websites based on your own taste and upon what you've learned about the theory of communications. I will also provide you with URLs (website addresses) which discuss web design principles (see the above URL). You will write a paper (approximately 5 pages) in which you explain to me what conclusions you've drawn about web design and the reasoning behind those conclusions.

You will then read and work through (try the examples and try your own application of the ideas) Creating Killer Websites, Second Edition, by David S. Siegel, c. 1997. You will learn both the techniques of graphics and text layout on the WWW and the author's views on style and you will be able to distinguish between them. You will write a second paper in which you compare your ideas about design with those of Siegel and the other authors whose work you've read. This paper should further develop your ideas of web design. Further, you should explicitly relate what you're learning about web design to what you've learned in your prior concentration studies.

Finally, you will complete a project, designed in consultation with Ms. Mendelsohn, in which you apply what you've learned to the design of a website. You must have approval of your project design before you start your project. You will also write a paper in which you explain the design of your website, choices you made, what you tried and didn't like, and so forth. Your application of theories of communications should be clearly shown. You will keep in touch with Ms. Mendelsohn using email and/or telephone.

C. EVALUATION:

You will be evaluated on your written work and on your finished web site. Your knowledge of the techniques of web design will be demonstrated in the design of your website. More important, the thought processes that you use to select the tools and apply them, as well as the application of good design principles, must be clearly explained in your written work. Note that your web site will be viewed by more than one type of browser via more than one type of connection.

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