Eden Web Solutions
Eve Fisher, Instructor, efisher@westwood.edu
GD104 - History of the Internet & (Intermediate) Website Design - Syllabus
Week 1 - January 11: Phase 1 - Defining the Project
  • Class Readings: Assigned from online sources
  • Lecture: Project Management (Basecamp) Audience and Purpose, Client Interview
  • Readings:
  • Project Assignment: Review of KGA (Research paper and 10 - 15 page site for actual company)
  • Fill out the Client Survey (Adobe). Set up an interview with the client and ask them the questions listed and do Internet research to find out the answers. Record the answers in a Word document. Do additional online research to write up a competitive analysis of 2-3 other sites. Follow the guidelines from the What to Analyze section on the IBM site. Finally, include a summary of the purpose (goals) and audience analysis of the site design/redesign.
  • Deliverables:
    • Client survey (all questions answered by client or by doing Internet research)
    • Competitive analysis of 2-3 other sites
    • Summary of goals/objectives and audience analysis for site. Be specific!
    • Please refer to the class readings when appropriate.
Week 2 - Holiday - No Class: Complete the deliverables from Week 1
Week 3 - Jan. 25: Phase 2 - Developing Site Structure
  • Lecture: Information Architecture, Site structure, Gathering requirements (Task analysis)
  • Readings:
  • Project Assignment:
    • Set up free hosting for the development of the new site (development server)
    • Have your client select and purchase a domain name and hosting (if desired)
    • Develop a content delivery plan with your client. Will you be editing content from an existing site, helping to write content (& gather images/videos) or will you be editing content from your client?
    • Create a flowchart showing the pages of the site with the labels to be used for the navigation (add Links page for SEO).
    • Create one set of wireframes to illustrate the primary task a user will take through the site.
Week 4 - Feb. 1: Phase 3 - Develop Visual Interface
Week 5 - Feb. 8: Phase 4 - Build the Site Using CSS (Dreamweaver)
Week 6 - Feb. 15: Design & Test for Usability
  • Lecture: Usability Methods, Tools and Testing
  • Readings:
  • Project Assignment: Perform a usability test with 3-5 typical users of your website. Write a 2-3 page concise summary report of the test.
    • Find volunteers in your target audience (as close as possible).
    • Write down the name and description of each user.
    • List the 3-5 tasks that you had them perform on the site.
    • Make sure they understand you’re evaluating the site not them.
    • Have them think out loud, noting the places where they have trouble understanding or performing a task.
    • Take notes on their performance (things that worked and things that didn't).
    • Describe the test findings and the changes you made to your site as a result.
Week 7 - Feb. 22: Design & Test for Accessibility
  • Lecture: Understanding and testing for accessibility
  • Readings:
  • Project Assignment: Write a 2-3 page concise summary report of the site assessment.
    • List each of the five pages you chose for the preliminary design.
    • What is the estimated load time in seconds at 56k modem speeds? If it’s over 10 seconds, can you shrink or optimize the graphics, or simplify the design?
    • Does every image that needs one have a descriptive alt tag per the formula?
    • Preview each page of your site in Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Does the page display the same, or are the differences at least acceptable?
    • View each page in your site without the style sheet (the easiest way is to temporarily rename the style sheet). Does the design break? This is how your page will look on browsers that don’t support style sheets.
    • Does the entire page fit into a 1027x768 browser window? If you expect people to print the page, will it fit on 8.5x11?
    • Are there any noticeable contrast problems between text and background colors or patterns?
    • Is the page content broken up by clear links, headings, short phrases and sentences, and short paragraphs, so that scanning is encouraged?
    • Use the accessibility tools to test the colors, readability, and validate the code on the pages.
Week 8 - March 1: Search Engine Optimization and Online Marketing
Week 9 - March 8: Final Site Testing & Launch
  • Lecture: Site testing, launch, training and maintainence
  • Readings:
  • Project Assignment:
    • Key Graded Assignment (3-page summary and 10 - 15 page site) completed and presented to instructor
    • Client testing and review of site links, features and functionality
    • Add Google Analytics code to each of the pages for tracking users
    • Put the site live on the Internet at the correct URL (with client approval)
    • Submit the site to search engines (Week 8)
Resources