Web Design Week 1

This week, I will be teaching at a few more colleges, which includes Marist and MSMC along with SUNY Ulster. My website’s blog for the next 15 weeks will be focused on Web Design, because it is the main course I am teaching this semester. The textbooks I am using is Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS the 9th Edition by Jessica Minnick. This textbook was recommended to me, and it has great coding examples for students to learn from and practice. The course discussion questions are from a different book called Web Design Introductory 6th Edition by Jennifer Campbell. I selected this book because it dives more into the actual process than coding.

So, let the journey into Webspace begin …

Chapter 1 is about the internet and how it was created. Today’s students know this information because they grew up with the internet. The most interesting part of this chapter is the author discusses the types of website structures that exists, which are linear (that is line based), hierarchical (flows downward) and webbed (no present structure). Students will have the opportunity to research the internet to find examples of each type web design structure and examine if it was a success.

Next, I will review the necessary steps that are involved with the web design planning process, along with the importance of wireframes and site maps for websites. Students will be given the opportunity to do a wireframes assessment for homework, as the first half of the semester they will be designing their own personal portfolio website. The second half of the semester students will be challenged to to work in groups to build a non-profit website that is service oriented. I can’t wait to see what the students in my 3 web design classes create this semester.