Course Project Descriptions

Project 2: One of the Following

For project two, you can do one of the following:

  1. Continued work on your professional site. Those who chose this option will work to enhance the design, interactivity, and/or content of Project 1.
  2. Redesign of a webpage that you use frequently. From webmail sites to library search pages, there are many online resources most of us have to work with that are less than effectively designed. Those who choose this option will focus on a structural, visual, and/or interactive redesign of a page or small portion of a site.
  3. You call it. Those who choose this option will propose and execute a project of their own design.

Project Goals

As part of your Project 2 proposal, you will outline your goals for the project (regardless of which option you choose). However, the following goals apply to everyone:

  • Further increase your literacy and confidence in working with Web standards.
  • Learn to more effectively research solutions to production/technology problems you encounter.
  • Employ emotional/affective design theory (Norman)

Project Requirements

  • Use the XHTML 1.0 Strict Document Type Definition (DTD)
  • Avoid table-based layouts (though the presentation of tabular data in tables is, of course, OK)
  • NO factory or web-available templates or using someone else's CSS/XHTML (with or without permission) You are still encouraged to examine sites like the CSS Zen Garden and study their composition, markup, and CSS.

Project Deliverables

As part of your Project 2 proposal, you will describe your deliverables for the project (regardless of which option you choose). However, the following deliverables are expected of everyone:

  • Project available at a public URL (on your own domain, or at the iit.edu/~login/ domain)
  • Self-critique memo, which will include:
      • Your original project proposal
      • Where appropriate, scans of your sketchbook or images of digital sketches
      • Screenshots of your site on different systems/browsers
      • Areas where you were successful in executing your proposed project
      • Areas where you would like to improve your project
      • Ways that your approach to digital production grew or altered
      • Your overall impression of your project and your work in the class
  • Participation in the public critique during finals week (Time, Date, Location TBA)

Grading Criteria

You will specify your own grading criteria as part of your Project 2 proposal.

Project Proposal

You will submit a project proposal to the instructor at least one day prior to the class meeting the week of October 29. This proposal must include the following:

  1. A description of the project you're undertaking
  2. At minimum, a week-by-week timeline for completing the project
  3. Outline of your goals for the project
  4. Description of project deliverables (in addition to the ones required of everyone)
  5. Grading criteria you wish the instructor to apply to your project

Email the proposal as email text to the instructor, at least one day before your class meets the week of October 29

Project 1: Standards-Based Portfolio Site

This project asks you to create a professional web presence on your iit.edu web account or ad-free commercial space. In addition to providing you with an important experience in professionalization, this assignment will give you the foundations you need to complete other projects later in the course.

It's OK if you currently have a web site (and certainly OK if you don't). If you have one already, you'll be redesigning it according to web standards (you also have a good reason now to develop a new look for your site, too).

Project Goals

  • Develop a solid and sound rhetorical presentation of yourself and your skills, based on your career or field of study/expertise
  • Learn to choose appropriate materials to represent yourself
  • Learn to mark up various texts for structure/semantics
  • Expand your visual skills by developing a compelling visual design
  • Establish or increase your comfort in working with code
  • Validate your XHTML and CSS using the W3C Validators
  • Test and refine your site design based on display on different operating systems (Mac OS X, Windows, Linux) and browsers (Safari, FireFox, Internet Explorer, Lynx, etc.)

Project Requirements

  • At least three substantial pages, for example:
    • A welcome page of some sort
    • Your resume or curriculum vitae
    • A portfolio/gallery of your work
    • Your professional interests and goals
    • A feature page on a project or position you wish to highlight
  • Use the XHTML 1.0 Strict Document Type Definition (DTD)
  • Avoid table-based layouts (though the presentation of tabular data in tables is, of course, OK)
  • NO factory or web-available templates or using someone else's CSS/XHTML (with or without permission) You are still encouraged to examine sites like the CSS Zen Garden and study their composition, markup, and CSS.

Project Deliverables

  • Your site at http://www.iit.edu/~youruserID/ or other URL you control, preferably yourname.com
  • Screen captures of your site on 3 different graphical browsers (e.g., IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari; one browser you test must be on a different operating system, and one must be a v.5 or earlier version browser {Netscape and/or IE])
  • Screen captures of your site in Lynx or a Lynx emulator.
  • A self-critique memo of your site design, which will include descriptions of:
    • The screenshots of your site on different systems/browsers
    • Areas where you were successful in executing your design
    • Areas where you would like to improve your site
    • Ways that your approach to digital production grew or altered
    • Your overall impression of your project and your work in the class to this point
  • Particpation in the Public Critique the evening the project is due (October 24)

Grading Criteria

Grading of Project 1 will be based largely on your self-critique memo, particularly in light of where your skills/abilities were at the start of class, and how far they have come. There is no absolute “line in the sand” that everyone must cross in terms of design, programming, or Web development. Rather, all members of the course must present evidence of what they have learned, and how they worked to learn it, around and through project one. In short, grading on this project is largely about effort.

That said, here are some baseline issues that successful projects should address:

  • Turning in all Project Deliverables (see list above)
  • Effective writing and suitable materials for building one’s Web identity
  • Validating XHTML and CSS against the W3C validators
  • Meaningful, accurately descriptive XHTML structure (more important, for this project, than a striking visual design)
  • Inclusion of development materials (scans of sketchbook, screen shots) that lead to final project
  • Contacting instructor for help with troubles encountered (BEFORE project turn-in date)

Current Calendar

Class not in session; see full calendar.