Class Website Project 

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It's time to begin thinking about the design for our class website.  

The first step is to find at least 3 webpages that exemplify particularly stylish elements, and post the URLs on the New URL Addlinks Page.  In the summary section, explain what you like about the page.  You need at least 1 good example of a logo; the rest can pertain to color scheme, layout, header, &c.  In addition, note the pages' weaknesses - was it slow to load?  Did some of the fancy design elements fail to work properly?  &c.  In order to find sites that exemplify superlative design, I would recommend that you search the web extensively in areas loosely related to our field (feminism, the 19c, Victorians, women's issues, &c).    Commercial sites will have fancier design, so also  look to museums, lobbying groups, universities, and the like.

 

Here are some sites that I found, to give you an idea of what we are looking for.  It doesn't absolutely have to pertain to feminism, but that is preferable.

 

Once you have found a good selection of pages, think about how you want our site to look.  You don't have to base your ideas on the sites your found; they are just there to help you brainstorm.  Answer the following questions:

  1. Describe an overall style for the page.  (Bold, jazzy, contemporary, elegant, girlie, historical, romantic, trendy, business-like...)

  2. Do you want a background, or just a color?

  3. If you want a background, what style are you going for?  Any particular pictures?  How will you ensure legibility?  What colors or kinds of colors will you coordinate with it (for links and accent colors)?

  4. If you want a color, what kind of color?  What other colors will you coordinate with it (for links and accent colors)?

  5. We must have a navigation bar on every page - do you want it at the top, bottom, or left?  What sort of images do you think should be in it?

  6. We must identify who we are/have a logo sort of thing on every page (in essence, a masthead or banner).  Do you want to incorporate this into the navigation bar, or should it be separate?  Where should it be located?

  7. What do you want the logo to convey?

  8. For fonts, you can choose between Courier New, Arial, or Times New Roman, and also between ital, bold, single, double, or 1.5 spacing - what do you like best?

To specify line spacing, you will use an embedded cascading style sheet in the <HEAD>.  It will look like this for 1.5 spaced Arial:  

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE> whatever </TITLE>

<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
<!--

P {font-family: arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0;
margin-bottom: 10px;}

-->

</HEAD>

  1. You can also choose a fancy font for use in the masthead as a graphic - what do you suggest (either a specific typeface name, or else a description, like "informal cursive" or "techno sanserif")

  2. Mention any other design elements you would like to include (unfortunately, I can't do motion or dynamic graphics)

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