Website Planning

Course code : DESI1047
Course co-ordinator : David Watson

Introduction

This course builds on the skills developed during the Webpage Design course and covers the design and implementation of medium to large scale websites. It is concerned with some server-side technologies, such as PHP and MySQL in addition to the more advanced development of client-side technologies. The focus of this course is upon 3 main areas of web design:

  1. The creation of websites with "user-centred" design techniques.
  2. The deployment and promotion of websites.
  3. Improving efficiency in the building and management of larger sites.

As with the Website Design course, this course is about the technical and aesthetic aspects of web design in equal measure. The course develops a professional approach to web design and the creation of websites to a high standard. The web designer is essentially a designer of user interfaces and it is crucial that design aspects such as Usability, Accessibility, Findability, Navigation and Information Architecture are well understood in order to create successful websites. The web designer must also ensure that designed sites are optimised for search engine indexing so that they can easily be found and successfully categorised. In addition, it is important to understand how websites can gain high page rank status on search engines such as Google. Finally, it is important to understand that whilst basic web design techniques may be suitable for basic websites, more complex sites require more complex solutions. This may involve the use of server-side technologies and/or the use of ready-made applications such as content management systems.

Course Diary

The course diary gives an overview of the timetable, weekly topics and submission dates for this course. There may be occasional changes, so check back frequently.

2009-10 Session Diary
DateRoomTitle
25th November 2009Tower Lab CWeb hosting and domain names.
2nd December 2009Tower Lab CSEO and site promotion. ◊
9th December 2009Tower Lab CInformation architecture and navigation. *
16th December 2009Tower Lab CThe .htaccess file and other oddities.
Christmas break (4 weeks)
20th January to 10th March 2010: Content Management (weeks 1 to 8)
17th March 2010Tower Lab CUsability. †
24th March 2010Tower Lab CAccessibility (JAWS demo at 2.30pm). †
Easter break (3 weeks)
21st April 2010Tower Lab CPHP for site modularity. **
28th April 2010Tower Lab CPHP and databases (MySQL). †
5th May 2010Tower Lab CBlogs, forums and CMS solutions. ***

◊ Website Makeover project crit.
* Website Makeover project submission.
*** B&B Revisited project submission and crit.
† Seminar dates, see Week 3 Coursework for details.

All face-to-face sessions are 3 hours long and take place on Wednesday afternoons; beginning at 2.00pm. Sessions will be taught in Tower Block Lab C unless otherwise indicated.

Aims and Outcomes

Format

The course runs during Terms 1 and 2 and consists of five main elements - workshops, online dialogue, coursework, projects and seminars.

The workshops are mainly discussions based on that week's topic and are based in Tower Lab C (see the course diary for details). Coursework will be reviewed each week. From time-to-time, project "crits" will be arranged and seminars given.

Workshops

The workshops will focus on "webpage design" in the widest sense of the words. We will cover both technical and aesthetic aspects during the workshops and lively dialogue is encouraged. The various topics are given on the timetable although this is only meant to be indicative and may change to suit specific requirements. Detailed tutorials etc. may be given at the workshop sessions or made available on-line. It must be stressed that complete coverage of the topics under consideration cannot be dealt with during the workshops and you will need to allocate time to follow up each workshop with further study.

Online Dialogue

Online teaching and support is available from a number of resources. Firstly, you may contact the course tutor by email. However, for general comment and discussion, students should engage with the course tutor, other tutors and other students on the programme at the online forum. This is a public forum, specifically set up for this programme but it also has a number of private areas where course and programme specific topics can be discussed. It is well used and a popular method of communication among the other students. Your questions will be answered either by the course tutor or by other members of the forum. Use of the forum is an integral part of the learning process and you are expected to become active members. The forum already contains a large amount of information and is a valuable resource tool as well as an excellent "forum" for debate.

See Assessed Elements for details of coursework, projects and seminars.

Key Texts

Essential Text Books

Essential Periodicals

Further Reading

See the reading page for more information on these titles.

Online Resources

Course Documents

There are currently 25 files in this section

File Listing
  Filename Size (KB) Date Modified
Course Brief 08-09.pdf 88.5 6th May 2009
Week 1 - Coursework.pdf 13.0 25th Nov 2009
Week 1 - Domain Names & Web Hosting.pdf 662.2 25th Nov 2009
Week 1 - Domain Names & Web Hosting.ppsx 467.4 25th Nov 2009
Week 2 - Coursework.pdf 17.4 1st Dec 2009
Week 2 - SEO & Site Promotion.pdf 2,932.3 7th Dec 2009
Week 2 - SEO & Site Promotion.ppsx 3,597.3 7th Dec 2009
Week 3 - Coursework.pdf 18.8 9th Dec 2009
Week 3 - Information Architecture & Navigation.pdf 478.5 9th Dec 2009
Week 3 - Information Architecture & Navigation.ppsx 456.2 9th Dec 2009
Week 3.5 - htaccess and other oddities.ppsx 1,838.2 16th Dec 2009
Week 3.5 - htaccess and other oddities.pptx 1,924.9 16th Dec 2009
Week 4 - Coursework.pdf 19.9 28th Mar 2009
Week 4 - Usability.pdf 3,430.7 28th Mar 2009
Week 4 - Usability.ppsx 3,360.0 28th Mar 2009
Week 5 - Accessibility.pdf 107.5 28th Mar 2009
Week 5 - Accessibility.ppsx 78.2 28th Mar 2009
Week 5 - Coursework.pdf 18.3 28th Mar 2009
Week 6 - Coursework.pdf 18.5 28th Mar 2009
Week 6 - PHP for Site Modularity.pdf 97.0 29th Apr 2009
Week 6 - PHP for Site Modularity.ppsx 54.2 29th Apr 2009
Week 7 - Coursework.pdf 18.5 28th Mar 2009
Week 7 - Databases.pdf 128.1 6th May 2009
Week 7 - Databases.ppsx 122.6 6th May 2009
Week 8 - Coursework.pdf 10.7 28th Mar 2009

Assessed Elements

This course includes 4 assessed elements; coursework, two projects and a seminar. Details of these elements are given below. Each of the elements has a slightly different weighting and this is indicative of the degree of difficulty and/or the amount of work required. The weighting is as follows:

Coursework

Each week you will be given one or more tasks and some recommended reading to be completed for the following week when feedback will be given. Some tasks will build on work completed the previous week so it's important not to fall behind. Coursework will be assessed at the end of the course. You will be provided with web hosting facilities so that you can put your coursework online. This enables tutors and students to look at coursework outside of normal teaching times and allows you the flexibility to work whenever convenient.

Seminar

You will be allocated a topic on which you will give a 15 minute seminar to the other students in your group. Each presentation must be given using either PowerPoint or a web browser based medium. In addition, each presentation must be accompanied by a simple website or webpage covering all of the salient points of the presentation and including relevant links. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to practice your presentation. The assessment for your seminar will be based upon the quality of the presentation, the content and the accompanying website. You will be allocated a suitable topic by the course tutor.

Small Business Website Revisited

This is an opportunity to demonstrate how far you have improved and how your understanding of web design has developed since completing the first project. This project requires that you critically analyse the website you created during the Webpage Design course and redesign/reengineer the site using all your new skills and knowledge. In addition to good visual design and coding, the new site should also demonstrate good findability, usability and accessibility. You may also want to improve the ease of maintenance by applying some modularity with PHP.

Reference Documents

There are currently 6 files in this section

File Listing
  Filename Size (KB) Date Modified
Database Driven Website sample chapters.pdf 872.2 28th Mar 2009
First Class Websites sample chapters.pdf 1,391.1 28th Mar 2009
PHP Anthology 2nd Ed Sample Chapters.pdf 3,411.6 28th Mar 2009
PHP Anthology Vol1.pdf 1,449.5 28th Mar 2009
PHP Anthology Vol2.pdf 1,136.3 28th Mar 2009
The Elements of User Experience.pdf 16.6 28th Mar 2009

Worked Examples

There are currently 0 files in this section

File Listing
  Filename Size (KB) Date Modified

Week 1 Links ~ Web hosting and domain names

Domain Detective Tools

Domain Name Registration

Web Hosting

Week 2 Links ~ SEO and site promotion

Search Engine Optimisation

Page Rank

Web Statistics

Website Promotion

Week 3 Links ~ Information architecture and navigation

Information Architecture

Website Navigation

Tabbed Navigation Design

Week 3.5 Links ~ The .htaccess file and other oddities

.htaccess

Passwords

Rewrite URLs

CHMOD

Favicon

Week 4 Links ~ Usability

Usability

Usability Testing

Week 5 Links ~ Accessibility

Accessibility Articles

W3C Accessibility Guidelines

Accessibility Testers

National Accessibility Guidelines & Regulations

Accessibility Statements and Help

Week 6 Links ~ PHP for site modularity

PHP Tutorials and Introductions

Modular websites with PHP includes (server side includes)

General PHP resources and articles

Week 7 Links ~ PHP and databases (MySQL)

General MySQL resources and articles

MySQL tutorials

PHP & MySQL security

Week 8 Links ~ Blogs, forums and CMS solutions

There are literally hundreds of open source and pay-for web applications. The lists below merely indicate the most popular and those that you should know about.

Forum Software

Blog Software

CMS (Content Management System) Software

Other Software

Copyright David Watson 2005–2010
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