DEADLINE
- All final projects must be complete by the last day of class.
REQUIREMENTS
- projects must show your mastery of the technologies we have learned in this class: XHTML, CSS, Javascript (using JQuery), PHP, and MySQL.
- projects must be completely information architected before you start programming
- projects must involve at least 3 distinct web pages.
- you are required to present your site to the class on the last day of class
- all filenames must be all lowercase with no spaces or special characters except underscore “_”
- all variable names in PHP and Javascript must be written in lower camelCase.
- all CSS class names and IDs must be written in lowercase, with no special characters except the underscore “_” character.
- final projects must be working and accessible on the web (if it only works on your client machine, it is not a working web site)
- projects must be linked to from your blog.
GRADING
Grades will be based on your ability to exhibit mastery of Information Architecture and Web Development programming techniques.
- Information Architecture (20%)
- Programming (50%)
- Ability to conceptualize and realize a fully-functioning, well thought-out site (30%)
PRESENTATIONS
You will be required to present your work to the class on the last day of class.
Presentations should be no more than 10 minutes.
Here are some suggested questions to answer in your presentation:
You
- what’s your name?
- remind us… what do you do when not in this class?
- did you have any previous design or development experience?
- any previous experience with the web?
Concept
- three sentence description of your site
- why did you decide to build this site?
- who is your intended audience?
- does this site serve a particular need, either personal or business?
Information Architecture
- how many main pages are there, and how are they conceptually related? In other words, what is the hierarchical structure of the site? Perhaps show a simple sitemap diagram to help explain.
- what are the main navigation elements people can use to get from one page to another?
- is there a consistent header, footer, or navigation section on every page?
- how does a user know where they are in the hierarchy of your site? Breadcrumbs? Highlighted navigation links? Or is your site so simple a user couldn’t possibly get lost?
- what kind of content are you showing on each page?
- how are the bits of information on each page related to each other (if at all)?
- what is the most important info on each page, and what is the least important info, and how did that affect the layout of the page?
Design
- what were you thinking in terms of design of your site?
- what design techniques did you use to get the pages to look as they do?
- did you borrow any design ideas from other sites?
- are you happy with the design of your site?
Development
- are you using page “templates” in PHP?
- is there anywhere where you are passing data from one page to another?
- is your data stored in a database or hard-coded into the XHTML?
- if using a database, did that make development easier, or more difficult?
- are you using Javascript, JQuery, and any JQuery plugins?
- did you use any AJAX, and if so, where?
- discuss any interesting development challenges you faced in any of these technologies.
The future
- is this site a good representation of what you originally planned?
- what remains to be completed on your site?
- what parts do you think work, and which do you think don’t work?
- do you plan to continue developing this site?
- are you hoping to actually launch it as a real website?
- are you planning to continue with web development?
- what parts of web development interested you most?
- what parts of web development interested you least?
- how has this class reinforced or changed your view of the web?