Designing Effective Websites - Pass Christian University

Designing Effective Websites These days, creating a Web site is so easy almost anyone can do it. But with all the competition on the Web, creating a site that's effective is more challenging than ever. To do that, you need to employ good design principles. Regardless of your current skills or level of knowledge, in this course you'll master the basics of Web design and learn how to build sites that are better and more effective. Get ready to take your Web design skills to the next level!

We'll examine the tension between form and function, explore the six major states of the Web site development process, and learn the basics of user-centered design. We'll also review the five basic steps to organizing information, find out how site design themes can be used for information delivery, and review Web page design considerations. Along the way, we'll talk about effective type and graphics and explore the idea of Web 2.0.

This course is a must for Web designers, giving the tips and tools that will help them establish a solid career.

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Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

This course is a different from most Web creation courses you'll find because it's not designed to teach you the mechanics of creating a Web page or how to use a particular software program. Instead, it's designed to help you take your Web site creations to the next level by enhancing both design and functionality. Together, we'll discover what attracts visitors to a Web site, and how to use design tools such as typography, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and multimedia to captivate visitors and keep them coming back.

Friday - Lesson 02

Visitors are attracted by good design, but content is what keeps them at the site longer and motivates them to return. Learn how to use two tools to attract and retain visitors: design critiques and a content inventory. Explore the six major development stages that yield expert design and smart content. Then study the three parts of Web design and the skills you'll need for each.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

By now, you probably understand that an interface is the screen visitors see and use when they visit any page of your site. Designing an interface is easy. Designing an effective interface, however, is more challenging. There are four main elements that you'll need to consider to make your site user-centric: usability, visualization, functionality, and accessibility. Explore each of these elements to see the thought that goes into effective interface design.

Friday - Lesson 04

Even if your basic content is accurate, attractive, and well written, your site won't function well without a solid and logical organizational foundation. Review the five basic steps involved in organizing information and four essential structures that you can use to build a Web site. Then learn how to create a flowchart for the pages you want to include on your site.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

Web sites exist to inform, educate, persuade, or entertain. Take this opportunity to concentrate on site design themes that pay attention to information delivery. Learn how to organize elements in order to enable visitors to accomplish their own goals. Explore usability, content, and design.

Friday - Lesson 06

Discover how you can use visual and graphic design, page layout, and grids to take your designs to the next level. At the same time, become familiar with design considerations like visual hierarchy, page dimensions, and white space.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Typography plays a dual role by providing both verbal and visual communication. Almost any type of font will do to transmit information to others. But to convey the right type of mood along with the information takes a special type and color of font. Learn all the secrets here!

Friday - Lesson 08

Find out how you can use Cascading Style Sheets to modify fonts. Become familiar with inline, document-level, and external (linked) style sheets, and learn how to create an external CSS file to control the formatting of any or all pages on your site. For the more adventurous, we'll also take a look at some early font embedding techniques and explore two popular Flash-related options currently in use.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Before you write for the Web, you should take the time to understand how people read online. Become familiar with the use of titles, headlines, and subheads to assist readers in navigating your site. Discover the advantages of using a Web content management system. Learn how you can communicate more easily and informally with Web visitors by adding a blog to your site.

Friday - Lesson 10

You can use images to add interest to your site and to help with navigation. Early designers were limited graphically by HTML attributes, and later designers discovered they could use tables to place images. Today's designers also have the option of using CSS to position images on the screen. But believe it or not, many people still use text-based browsers. So, you'll learn how to make the information you convey through your images accessible to those individuals as well.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

The combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript allows you to create intensely interactive Web applications similar to any game or presentation built with traditional programming languages. This interaction of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is known as Dynamic HTML or DHTML. Become familiar with the basics of DHTML, including code you can use to enhance your designs by adding layers to your pages.

Friday - Lesson 12

Early Web sites were created by a few to be read by many. Over the years, developers added interactivity to Web sites through discussion forums, chat rooms, and shopping carts. These features are part of what I think of as Web 1.0. Today the focus has shifted from the sponsor of the site to the visitor, and sites like Flickr and YouTube are popular. They're examples of Web 2.0 sites. Examine several popular Web 2.0 sites, and take a look ahead to Web 3.0.

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Patricia Franks.

Dr. Patricia C. Franks—a frequent presenter at workshops and conferences on the local, state, and national level—brings her extensive background in business and education to this course. She has over 20 years of experience as a college educator, teaching courses in business, Web development, information management, and e-commerce. Franks was awarded a New York State Chancellor's Award for her creative efforts in curriculum design and teaching. She is the former owner of a successful small business support center. And while completing a Ph.D. in business organization and management with a specialization in e-business, Franks performed extensive research into the use of Internet technology to promote business.

Requirements:

Completion of "Creating Web Pages I and II" (or equivalent HTML or Web authoring tool experience). Any type of computer, Internet access, e-mail, and Web browser, such as Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox. Optional: An Imaging program, such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (any version), and a Web page authoring tool, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression Web.

Student Reviews:

"A lot of excellent information. I learned more from this than I did in a 16 week class."

"An excellent course that looked at the principles of Web design without going into a lot of technical detail. WELL DONE."

"Excellent course. I liked using a restaurant as a model and designing a web page - I learned a great deal about site design and am beginning the design of another site."

"Excellent instructor and teaching assistant!"

"Excellent Supplementary materials. I was grateful that you had sites that would walk me through some of the design elements that I was unfamiliar with."

"Good course. Easy to follow. Useful information."

"Great class, great content, a valuable learning experience!"

"Great class, great instructor, fun assignments. Leaves you wanting more."

"Great course! Interesting topics and the supplemental material was very useful."

"Great course! I really enjoyed another online course thru your organization!"

"Great instructor. Great topic. I feel like Pat covered the topics very well. The things I learned will be very helpful for my future web design projects."

"I am overall very pleased with the course and the knowledge of the instructor as well as the affordable price and convenience of the course."

"I found the course to be very informative and the instructor to be very helpful and up to date with info."

"I have taken four online classes and this was the best by far. The lessons and assignments were really interesting and enjoyable to work through. The instructor was very involved and very helpful."

"I learned a lot of new information that I can use in my web designing. The instruction was great!"

"I loved this course. The instructor was so helpful. I got a lot out of this experience."

"I really appreciate the time you put into this and all the great bits of info you shared on these discussion boards. I have printed a lot of things you shared to keep in my binder with the lessons and will refer back to those pages, no doubt. This has been a great class."

"I really enjoyed this course and learned a lot about what goes into creating a good website."

"I've been a web designer (self taught) for seven years and your course has let me see where my short comings are. Thank you."

"I want to personally thank you for being a terrific instructor."

"Pat Franks has done a great job with this class. She is personally invested in this class and how her students perceive and manage the new information she has provided. I hope to have the opportunity to take another of her classes."

"Pat, I enjoyed this course very much. The lessons were just the right length for me. Although I didn't post any questions, I learned quite a bit. Thank you for teaching this course."

"Pat - I really enjoyed this class, so much so that it has encouraged me to go to our local tech college to pursue my web design and development certificate. Thanks for a great class!"

"Pat is a wonderful instructor. She was always available, answered any questions posted on the discussion board herself, almost immediately and is very knowledgeable. She was always very helpful and friendly. I would definitely take another course from her."

"Pat is very helpful. She's patient with beginners like me, and she doesn't mind taking the time to answer your questions effectively. The material is very relevant and very much geared to developing the skills and know-how to build effective websites. Great course! Great teacher!"

"Pat was especially courteous, quick to respond and easy to communicate with. She is an excellent instructor and I would enjoy taking another course taught by her."

"Seeing as how I have never undertaken designing a website, and how I am now nearly finished with my business website, I'd have to say that this course was extremely helpful, and Pat did a great job of answering questions when I had them."

"Thank you for teaching this class so well. Although I never had the chance to post anything in the Discussion Area, I did get a lot out of this class and I appreciate your well-planned lessons and enthusiasm. I would definitely recommend this course to others!"

"Thank you so much for the great information and advice given in this class. It was very helpful and I'm sure it will help me start my own business in web design. It will take awhile to take in all that we have covered but I'm sure my new business will be underway soon."

"The course material was and will be very useful to me. It answered a lot of my questions, introduced me to new web page development methods, and provided good material for use as I work to improve the web site that I helped build and help maintain."

"The instructor was awesome! Since she has experience with a wide variety of web technologies, she was able to provide great advice and examples in the discussion area."

"This course was designed to make the student think and understand the lesson. I appreciate the fact that the answers were not taken word-for-word from the lessons, which made me work harder and go back to try to comprehend the lesson even more."

"This course was extremely helpful to my pursuit of web design knowledge, on many levels, especially organization and development, which I came to discover are just as important as technical issues!"

"This was a good informative class. I learned a lot from this class."

"This was a great refresher course for me! I really feel like now I am ready to take more advanced courses."

"This was a very good course! I learned a lot and feel the instructor did an excellent job! Thank you very much!"

"Very good, informative class. I am even more interested in pursuing further study of this topic after taking this course."

"Very helpful course and instructor."

"What a great learning experience! My instructor was great. I was able to complete the class without missing any important part of my life. I am convinced that online learning is the new classroom for busy individuals. I just wish I had took the advice of my daughter and started sooner. I do not have one complaint. It was a great learning experience for this 56 year old lady. Thanks for having this at my disposal."

"Wonderful teacher! This course fits right in with all of the other web design courses."

"You have been a great instructor. You never failed to answer questions, help solve problems, or do anything else for us. I would be disappointed with anything less than what you give. I feel a lot smarter now. I got a lot for my money."

"You have been extremely "hands on" with us, a wealth of info and very pleasant. You always answer promptly and personally. For the first time, I've felt like part of a class even though I'm alone here at my computer. You made me feel comfortable to ask anything and as often as I needed."