Web
Design

Fall 2006
course
navigation

syllabus

info

title Web Design term Fall 2006 time Friday evenings 5:30pm - 8:30pm dates Sep 8 and 22, Oct 6 and 20, Nov 3 and 17, Dec 8 place Graduate Center of Marlboro College, Brattleboro VT faculty Jim Mahoney (mahoney@marlboro.edu) prereq general computer savy, previous exposure to HTML, web pages, and the 'net. Some programming experience recommended.

blurb

While it seems simple enough to create a web page these days (just clicking "Save as Web Page" in MS Word will make one), in fact there's a lot going on in your browser behind the scenes. Moreover, HTML and browsers have changed significantly in the last couple of years as open standards have become better supported and more commonplace. The good news is that you can create sites that load quickly, look good across many browsers (even phones and handhelds), and will still work in a few years - but only if you understand what's going on underneath.
This course covers the modern "client" (i.e. the parts that run in a browser) technologies of web design, including XHTML (the structural layout), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets, the presentation specification), and the JavaScript DOM (Document Object Model) programming language that defines the behaviors of buttons, menus, and all that. We'll also likely cover AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, a popular browser technology behind things like Google maps), forms, mashups, and some other bells and whistles depending on available time and students' background and interests.
We'll also look at many examples of good and bad website visual designs, including navigation and page layout; however, as part of the MSIE (Master's of Science in Internet Engineering) technical track of Marlboro's Grad Center programs our emphasis will be on how client-side web technology works more than the aesthetics of how web pages should look.

grading

Grades will be based on weekly assignments and a final project. Details will be discussed in class.

books

required

optional

(Prices as of Aug 14 2006.)

calendar (tentative)

Sep 8 overview | tools | aesthetics / usability 22 XHTML and CSS 1 | navigation and layout Oct 6 XHTML and CSS 2 | compatability etc 20 midterm projects | start Javascript | forms and buttons Nov 3 DOM and JavaScript | HTTP and the server side 17 AJAX | CMS : drupal, joomla, wordpress, ... Dec 8 final projects
http://cs.marlboro.edu/ courses/ fall2006/web_design/ syllabus
last modified Friday October 6 2006 4:15 am EDT