ART 43005 and CS 4/57105 Web Design and Programming I

The lab-oriented course is organized and taught jointly by CS and Arts faculty and meets twice a week. Students form teams to design and implement actual Web pages and present their final projects at the end of the semester.

During the first week teams, consisting of CS and VCD students, will be formed.

Prerequisites

VCD 37000 (or permission), Students should have enough programming and Web usage experience.

Requirements

• Mid-term exam 30%
• Homework assignments 40%
• Project milestones and finished team project 30%
• No final exam

Major Topics

• Introduction to the Internet and Web
• Web publishing tasks and tools
• Web site design methodology
• Hypertext Markup Language --- XHTML, Cascading style sheets
• Tools for creating art and content for Web pages, photoshop, IDLs.
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Visual Communication on the Web
• Artistic and logical Design of Web pages
• HTTP and CGI and CGI applications
• Server-side scripting --- Perl, HTTP, and CGI
• Client-side scripting --- DHTML, DOM and JavaScript

Text And References

1. Textbook: Introduction to Web Design and Programming
   Paul Wang and Sanda Katila, Brooks/Cole Publishing, (to appear) Fall 2003 (Read/print Final Manuscript online)
2. See textbook website for resources and links

Expectations for Students

WDP-1 is the first course in the Web Design and Programming (WDP) sequence that includes also WDP-2 and WDP-Studio. Based on sufficient background in CS (Computer Science) and VCD (Visual Communication Design), WDP-I focuses on the basic principals and techniques for building highly effective and attractive websites conforming to open standards. The course combines and integrates computer science topics with VCD topics. It follows the textbook by Paul Wang and Sanda Katila closely.

While we are not expecting VCD students to become expert programmers we do expect them to pick up basic programming skills in HTML, CSS, and Javascript to help their design work and to collaborate with programmers effectively.

Similarly, while we do not expect CS students to become expert designers, we do expect them to understand design concepts, to know how to use design and image processing tools, and to collaborate with designers by incorporating their design into a well-constructed Web site.

Here we list what we expect the course to teach and students to learn.

Expectations for VCD students

• VCD topics: Understanding and application of core web design principles and elements, information architecture, layout grids, page structure, use of photoshop and dreamweaver.

• CS topics: HTTP concepts, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, HTML+CSS for page layout, form layout, page templates, basic DHTML/DOM, basic form processing

Expectations for CS students

• VCD topics: Understanding of core web design terminology, ability to review, critique and communicate in design terms, basic application of design principles, information architecture, layout grids and page structure.

• CS topics: HTTP protocol, hand coding of XHTML to pass validation, CSS and table for page layout, in-depth CSS, Javascript, DOM, DHTML, forms and form processing (CGI), HTML, CSS, and Javascript trouble shooting/debugging, effective collaboration with designers.