LIS 650 Passive Web Site Architecture and Design

LIS 650 Passive Web Site Architecture and Design
Westchester Campus
Spring 2008, Tuesday 7:10 - 9:10
Margaret Kipp, margaret . kipp @ gmail . com

Bulletin Description
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of designing, building, and maintaining Web sites. Students will learn and apply Web site technologies like HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in the design and construction of their own Web site. Students will be introduced to the information architecture and Web usability literature to learn the concepts and measures that may be applied in the evaluation of Web sites. Prerequisite: Good computer skills 3 credits

Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course students will:

be able to interact with a web server for storage and retrieval of pages
understand fundamental concepts of HTTP and related Internet protocols
be able to create HTML web pages by hand
be able to create simple style sheets using CSS
be able to articulate and apply important concepts of information architecture and web usability in the design and evaluation of websites

Course Description
This course covers the construction of web sites. Students will learn how web sites work, how to build standards compliant websites and basic principles of website design and architecture.

This course will not be conducted using a software package to generate pages. Students will learn how to hand code XHTML and CSS. The course will emphasise the use of standards compliant XHTML 1.0 and CSS level 2.1. Students will learn to use standard validation tools to check that their websites are standards compliant and accessible.

The course will cover all major HTML tags except:

forms
frames
scripting objects

Additionally, we will discuss web site design and architecture principles and accessibility.

Textbook
There is no required text for the course. The recommended text is:
Castro, Elizabeth (2006). HTML for the World Wide Web, Sixth Edition with XHTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide. Peachpit Press. http://www.cookwood.com/html/

Assessment	Percent of final mark	Due
Web Site Plan	10	March 4
Small Site	15	March 4
Web Site Analysis	3x10	March 18, April 8, April 15
Web Site	40	May 6
Participation	5

Week 1: Introduction to Web Protocols and Markup Languages
January 22

Readings

Castro 2006, Introduction, Chapter 1
DejaVu: (re)creating web history. http://www.dejavu.org/

Slides
650week1.ppt

XHTML Tutorials

Tools

Validate HTML or XHTML. http://validator.w3.org/
Validate CSS. http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Assignment
Web Site Plan

Week 2: Introduction to XHTML, Character Encodings and Image Types
January 29

Readings
Castro 2006, Chapters 2-3

Slides
650week2.ppt

Week 3: XHTML Images, Links, Formatting
February 5

Readings
Castro 2006, Chapters 4-6

Slides
650week3.ppt

Assignment
Small Site

3 web pages linked
at least one image per page (or a list or table)
at least 3 links
proper use of XHTML tags

Remember to validate your file using the correct validator!

Tools

Validate HTML or XHTML. http://validator.w3.org/
Web Design Group HTML Validator. http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/

Week 4: XHTML Lists and Tables
February 12

Readings
Castro 2006, Chapter 15-16

Slides
650week4.ppt

Week 6: XHTML Lists and Tables and a Brief Introduction to CSS
February 26

Readings
Castro 2006, Chapter 7, 15-16

Slides
650week6.ppt

Week 7: Introduction to CSS
March 4

Readings
Castro 2006, Chapter 7-8

Slides
650week7.ppt

Tools
Validate CSS. http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Web Site Plan due
Small Site due

Week 8: Page Design: Separating Content from Presentation - No Class Session
March 11

Readings

Web Content, Writing for Web Sites, Websitetips.com http://websitetips.com/webcontent/ (skim for interesting articles)
Jakob Nielsen, by weekly column on web usability. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ (skim for interesting articles)
Recommendation on Separating Content from Presentation Standards. 2006. http://www.webtools.ca.gov/ppt/IOUCA_Separating_Content_from_Presentation_Recommendation_Adopted_071406.ppt (skim)

Slides
650week8.html

Assignment
Web Site Evaluation - Layout and Design

Week 10: CSS cont. (Layout and Design)
March 25

Readings
Castro 2006, Chapter 9-11

Slides
650week10.ppt

Week 11: Site Design and Navigation
April 1

Readings

Castro 2006, Chapter 12-14
Leise, Fred; Fast, Karl, and Steckel, Mike. Creating a Controlled Vocabulary http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/controlled_vocabularies_a_glosso_thesaurus
Krug, Steve. 2001. Don't Make Me Think. Sebastopol, Calif: O'Reilly. http://www.sensible.com/chapter.html

Slides
650week11.ppt

Assignment
Web Site Evaluation - Site Design and Navigation

Week 12: Accessibility and Accessible Site Design
April 8

Readings

Castro 2006, Chapters 21-22
Burstein, Cari D. 2006. Viewable with Any Browser: Campaign. http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/
Pilgrim, Mark. 2002. Dive Into Accessibility. http://diveintoaccessibility.org/
Krug, Steve. 2005. Don't Make Me Think! http://www.webreference.com/programming/usability/ (Chapter 11)
W3C. 2006. Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility: Overview http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/Overview.html

Slides
650week12.ppt

Assignment
Web Site Evaluation - Accessibility

Week 13: XHTML, CSS and Site Design
April 15

Readings
Castro 2006, Chapters 21-22

Slides
650week13.ppt

Week 14: HTTP, Webservers and Javascript
April 22

Readings
Castro 2006, Chapter 17, 19-20

Slides
650week14.ppt