adv-web-am: Syllabus

Advanced Web Design 7168

10:00 - 1:20 PM

N/1102

Spring 2008

Instructor: Jay Van Buren

Email: ad650@early-adopter.com

Course URL: http://vanburen-adv-web.blogspot.com/

Description

The Web may be a turning point in human history that rivals the taming of fire or the invention of the printing press. It’s been changing profoundly how we do business and communicate for the past 10 years and its just getting started. New technologies are ensuring that as the haystack of information grows exponentially our ability to find the needle we need at any particular moment is growing too.

Whether you are selling a product or service, trying to convince people of an idea, or creating interactive art, the web is the air we all breathe. Understanding how to use this medium now and how it will be used in the future will allow you to make your (or your client’s) content stand out.

The main project will be the completion of a web site for an actual client, including all the stages that a professional web designer should go through on the way to creating the site. I’ll be including both information
about how things are generally done by professionals in the field right now, and tips and tricks that I have learned personally (often the hard way) to help things run smoothly and achieve the best possible
out come for you and your client.

This class is not about learning to create web sites (you should already know that). This class is about creating truly excellent, beautiful, elegant web sites that are built using the best possible practices, and match the needs of your client in both form and function. We’ll also spend some time talking about and trying to understand both where we are right now and where we are headed. The future will belong to designers
who are able to grasp the implications of new technologies while they are still in their embryonic stages and creatively engage those implications, inventing new communication strategies before the need for them is clear to all.

Course Goals:

Upon successful completion of this class, the student will have gained the skills be a professional web designer, and will have a thorough grasp of the state of the art of web design including both aesthetic, conceptual and technical issues.

Grading:

10% - Attendance and Class Participation

40% - Weekly Assignments (each one will be worth 6 points 6=excellent, 5=average, 4=acceptable, not turned in = 0)

50% - Final Project

Course Requirements:

Come to class on time. Students arriving more than 20 minutes late may be marked absent.

Attend all classes. Each week we will build on the work learned the week before. If you must miss a class, please let me know ahead of time. It is your responsibility to obtain any missed material from your fellow classmates, and to turn assignments in on time even if you are absent. Students missing more than three classes may fail the course.

Turn in assignments on time. Work turned in late will lose one point (from a possible 6) every week that it is late. Final projects may not be turned in late.

Ask Questions. This is a technical class, and we will be covering a lot of information in a short time. If you are confused, lost, need clarification, etc, please don’t hesitate to ask questions in class. Chance are your fellow students will benefit from the answers AND this will add to your class participation grade! I am also available between classes via email. And during office hours -- Tuesday afternoon from 2 to 5pm

Academic Integrity. Plagiarism and cheating of any kind in the course of academic work will not be tolerated. Academic honesty includes accurate use of quotations, as well as appropriate and explicit citation of sources in instances of paraphrasing and describing ideas, or reporting on research findings or any aspect of the work of others (including that of instructors and other students).If you borrowed it from somewhere, cite it. NO EXCEPTIONS

Reading and Resources:

There are two texts that we'll be reading from