course information
office hours: MW 11:00 - 12:00
office location: Parlin 6
office phone: 471-6224
email:
required materials
All texts are available at the Coop Boosktore, or, for a discounted price, from amazon.com. Links below will bring you to the book page at amazon.com.
Adobe Creative Team, Adobe Photoshop CS Classroom in a Book. Berkeley: Adobe P, 2003. Make sure CD is actually included in the back of the book.
Joe Clark, Building Accessible Websites. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2002. Make sure CD is actually included in the back of the book.
Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler, Web ReDesign: Workflow that Works. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2001.
Scott Kelby, Adobe Photoshop CS Down & Dirty Tricks. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2003.
Eric Meyer, Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2003. optional
Jakob Neilson, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2000
Jeffrey Zeldman, Designing with Web Standards. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2003
university of texas email account
microsoft Word 97 or higher (available at the campus computer store)
projects
Project I
Project 1 is a collaborative project which involves an imaginative, analytical redesign of a section of a large Web site. In groups, students will create a site inventory, an audience analysis, a prototype of the new site, and a final design for the new site. The groups will present their final sites for the class.
Project II
Project II will build upon the skills gained in web and graphic design honed in Project I, by exploring the possibilities using advanced cascading style sheet techniques offer for creating visually and aesthetically stunning web pages -- pages that look more like works of art than anything we have seen before in web design. In this project we will be working with the HTML code and style sheets provided for graphic designers at the CSS Zen Garden, a web site that is a stunning "demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS–based design." Even though the HTML and CSS backbones are provided, we will be designing our own pages and images; indeed, each of the many different designs on the page have the exact same HTML code and CSS backbones. The only difference is the attributes associated with each CSS element. This is an exiting time in web design, and in this project we will be jumping head first into the discussion.
Design Portfolio
The design portfolio is a semester-long project, in which students will create, update, and manage a portfolio of their graphic and Web page designs created in the class. These portfolios will be on the students own Web pages, and will detail the applications used, the context in which the design was placed, and the stages it went through.
attendance
After FIVE absences for any reason you will fail the course. After two absences your final grade will drop one full grade for every absence. For example, if a student has 3 absences, they will receive no higher than a B in the course; 4 absences no higher than C. A student is considered late if they arrive after the sign-up sheet has gone around the room - lateness equals .5 absences.
office hours
Office hours are designed for you, giving you a more private environment in which we may talk about your work, your performance in class, etc. If you are unable to see me during my office hours, do not hesitate to make an appointment to see me at a different time. My schedule is flexible to fit yours.
students with disabilities
The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4641 TTY or go to http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/ssd/.
grading
Grades in this course are determined on the basis of a Learning Record Online, which accompanies a portfolio of work presented both at the midterm and at end of term. These portfolios present a selection of your work, both formal and informal, plus ongoing observations about your learning, plus an analysis of your work development across five dimensions of learning: confidence and independence, knowledge and understanding, skills and strategies, use of prior and emerging experience, and reflectiveness. This development centers on the major strands of work in the course: rhetoric and composition, research, technology, critical thinking, and collaboration.
Late coursework will be factored into your final grade in the following way: for every 3 late assignments, your final grade will be lowered by one full letter grade.
Final grades for the course are: A, B, C, D, and F.