CIS 162 Home

Welcome to CIS 162 - Applications for Web Development

Course Description: This course provides students with advanced Web theory and graphics. Students will learn how to analyze the needs and desires of the client or company as related to its Web presence and translate these objectives and goals into appropriate Web architecture. Students will also explore e-commerce issues relevant to this design. Students will work with software packages for graphics and Web page creation and learn to implement the graphic and interactive needs into the Web architecture. Pre or co-requisite: CIS 122 and CIT 131, or permission of instructor. Three lecture hours per week. Instructional Support Fee applies. Competency met: Technical Literacy (8.0) 3 credits Spring

Instructions: This website will be updated often and will be your resource for learning about weekly homework assignments, quizzes, etc. Be sure to check it frequently! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email. I am available for in person meetings if requested. I look forward to having all of you in my class and I look forward to a successful semester!

Week #11

Key Topic for Review: Final Exam

Final Exam Due by 11:59PM on May 15

This is a take home final exam - it is also an individual assignment. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me (at Rose.Ferro@Birstolcc.edu). Upon completion of your final exam, you should email it to me no later than 11:59PM on Friday, May 15 with the email subject CIS 162 Final Exam Your Name.

Final Website: You have until the date of the final exam to submit any modifications that you may be working on for you client website to be considered toward your overall course grade. Please be sure to include the final website URL (or login information) within the body of your email submission.

Week #10

Key Topic for Review: Final Website

Final Website Due by midnight on May 11

Please email me once your final website is ready and available for review.

Week #9

Key Topic for Review: Final Website - Updates

Status of Updates Due by midnight on May 5

Please provide me with a status update regarding the modifications that you have made to your final website along with any questions or concerns you may have at this point in time. Per our conversation, here are some of the touch points that we discussed.

Contacts Page - Remove comma after "St". I received your confirmation email indicating that the form is set up to return messages to an active email account.

Events Page - I would like you to populate several events within the calendar for months of May, June, and July (@ least 3 per week) along with designate holidays.

Home Page - I would like to see a reference to the business address and phone number to the home page (possibly as a footer - something easily accessible and visible) so that a patron who accesses the site can be reassured that they are looking at the correct business.

Menu Page - I would like to see this populated with menu items. Per our discussion, I encourage you to explore other eateries for inspiration. The menu should be a good fit for the design of the website and type of business. The menu should highlight categories such as specials, apps, drinks, etc. whatever you deem fits the business most appropriately.

About - I would like to see your progress on this page.

Week #8

Key Topic for Review: Business Logo Re-Design

Due by midnight on April 28

I would like to see 2-3 iterations of your logo design per my provided feedback. You are welcome to use the design tool of your preference. Please email your updated logos for my review along with a summary of your feedback and preference regarding your updated designs in comparison to your original look.

Week #7

Key Topic for Review: Business Logo Design

Due by midnight on April 14

This week I would like you to spend some time designing at least 5 different logo designs for your client's business. As you work on the look of your logo, please be sure to consider the research that you completed earlier in the semester regarding typography as well as logo inspirations.

Below are several tutorials and examples of how to design and create business logos using a variety of tools. You are welcome to use Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Gimp, Inkscape, MS Word, or an alternative tool of your choosing. You do not need to purchase any tools for this exercise. The aforementioned links direct you to free, temporary trials and/or free downloadable software for ongoing use.

For your assignment submission, I would like you to include the default format of the logo from the native tool you used to produce it as well as a non-editable version of the image. To determine the best format for the non-editable version, I would like you to do some research to determine the best format for images, logos, and photos for web use. Please include your findings (for all three: images, logos, and photos) within the body of your email upon submission of this assignment. I would also like you to include a brief synopsis (3-4 sentences) of the tool(s) you used for this exercise identifying your thoughts on the tool as well as the likelihood of you using it again in the future.

Tutorials

Additional Resources

Color Theme Selection: http://colorschemedesigner.com
Copyright vs. Public Domain: http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/
Trademark, Patent, or Copyright? https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-getting-started/trademark-basics/trademark-patent-or-copyright

College Status UPDATE

As you may already be aware, the college is making decisions on how to move forward with the semester as they received updates from the health and higher education authorities. With that said, I will be using Spring Break as an opportunity to get caught up with the feedback that I may owe you. Please do not hesitate to reach out should you have any questions or concerns. Please also be sure to check your Bristol email, ongoing, for additional updates.

Week #6

Key Topic for Review: Final Project Status Check-in

Due by midnight on March 17

Please send me an email with an update on the status of your intended final project. Is everything able to move forward as planned? Do you have any questions or concerns?

Week #5

Key Topics for Review: Intro to Web Development Tools: Expression Web and DreamWeaver

Due by midnight on March 8

Part 1: This week I would like you to begin exploring alternative Web Development tools. Two options that I have for you include Expression Web and DreamWeaver. If you have other tools that you would like to explore as part of this process, please let me know.

It is not uncommon for a web developer to be asked to convert a document into a webpage. Below, I have provided you with two documents (in PDF format) and one of the corresponding images. As an exercise, I would like you to create individual html files that, to the best of your ability, mimic the layout/look of the pages including lists, tables, images, etc. and validate Strict (I will also accept Transitional validation, however Strict will be worth more points). While developing your pages, be mindful of the filenames that you give each one as they should not contain spaces, should be reasonable in length, and be related to the purpose of the page.

You are not required to type the content. You may use Nitro PDF, Adobe Reader, or an alternative PDF reader so that you can select the content and paste it into your webpage.

Content / Layout Files
- Citing Poetry using MLA Format
- Bristol Enrollment Checklist (Recreate any two pages)

Associated Images
- Pen (JPG)
- Pen (GIF)

Resources

DreamWeaver: You can download a free trial of DreamWeaver directly from Adobe. Please note that the trail is for a limited time. There are also video tutorials as well as instructional tutorials available from Adobe as well as YouTube.

Expression Web: The entire Expression Web product (full version, not a trial) can be downloaded for free from Microsoft. There are also several video tutorials available on YouTube, including the following:

Working with Templates (Expression Web)

For Beginners (Part 1): How To Build A Website Fast (Review of Tool begins around the 4 minute timeframe)
For Beginners (Part 2): How To Build A Website Fast
For Beginners (Part 3): How To Build A Website Fast

Please note that for both of these tools, you have the option to view the Code, the Design as well as a Split view (both). I recommend that you use the Split view as it will help you see how making modifications to the design effects the code and visa versa. Although, you may be familiar with the code aspect of developing a webpage, for the sake of learning the application, please aim to work with the GUI to help you become familiar with the application. If you have any questions along the way, please let me know.

Part 2: Upon completion, I would like you to post your webpages to your CISWeb account. You should have received an email (not from me) with your CISWeb login information. You may use WinSCP to post your pages online. To learn more about how to post to cisweb, click here for a tutorial. In the linked references for posting to cisweb, please note that it identifies the host name as cisweb.bristol.mass.edu. However, you should instead use cisweb.bristolcc.edu. Also, the Port Number should be 220.

Part 3: Once you have uploaded your webpages to the server and identified your active URLs, add those links to your WordPress site. Within your WordPress site, I would also like you to reflect on which of the tools you used to complete this assignments as well as a 2+ paragraph reflection on the process of using a tool to develop web pages. Upon completion of this assignment, email your WordPress URL as well as attached your HTML files to me for review.

Week #4

Key Topic for Review: Final Project Competitive Analysis

Due by midnight on February 25

Based on your intended final project I would like you to conduct some research to determine potential competitors of your client as well as identify some inspirational features for the website that you plan to create.

Using the following resource, I would like to you complete steps 1-3, 5*,6** and 7**. How to Write a Competitive Analysis for Your Small Business

*Step 5: Identify and analyze their Social Media (if applicable) and existing Website and/or Blog. Include the URLs for all applicable findings.
**Steps 6 & 7: For these steps, focus on the features of the competitor's web presence.
- Based on the Idea Books that you have developed thus far, what are some features that you both do and do not like (and why)? Use this information to develop a new idea book to address these areas.

Reading/Resources:

Week #3

Key Topic for Review: Final Project Ideas (Rough Draft)

Due by midnight on February 18

Begin to brainstorm about the type of professional website you would like to create as your final project for this course. The business you choose, should be an existing (or start up) business with which you will be building / redesigning the company website for a client. Please consider a few potential options until you confirm whom will be your client for the semester. If you do not have someone in mind, please contact me ASAP so that I may assist you.
Send me a summary of your goals and potential considerations (up to three potential clients). If this is an existing company, you should include active links to either the company's existing website or links to information about the company. Since this is early in the semester, it is possible that you may change your mind in the next week or two, however, I want you to at least have some key considerations (an potential clients) in mind from which you can build upon.

Some things to consider and identify as part of your submission:
- Sector of Industry: Private/Public, Profit/Non Profit
- Type of Business: Financial, Consumer Product, Service Based, etc.
- Size of Business: Small, Medium, Large, How many employees are there?
- Target Audience: Business Professionals, Children, Senior Citizens, Government Agents, etc.

Week #2

Key Topic for Review: Understanding Logo Designs

Due by midnight on February 11

I would like you to continue to build upon your idea book by identifying at least 10 different company identification headlines / logos that appeal to you. As you had done last week, I would like you to take a screenshot and place your findings in either PowerPoint or Word. This document should be separate from your last idea book guideline. For each of the company headlines / logos you select, I want you to identify the category of typeface to which it best fits. As you search the web, I would like you to be looking to identify at least 4 different typeface categories.

Reading/Resources:

To help prepare you for future assignments, I would like you to begin reviewing the resources provided below.

Reading/Resources: Client Interview Questions/Considerations

Week #1

Key Topics for Review:

Online Communication
Online Research Techniques (see Search Engine Tutorial under Required Reading)
Understanding Web Design: Effective / Ineffective Web Design

Due by midnight on February 2

Required Reading

Course Syllabus
Read the following Search Engine Tutorial (http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/bones.shtml)
Note: You do not need to complete any of the assessments posted to the tutorial website.

Online Communication

Research the following forms of online communication: blog, discussion board, wiki, and website.
Using a Word Processor (i.e. MS Word), identify the purpose of each of these forms of online communication and differentiate between them - compare and contrast them (i.e. Why would someone create a blog rather than a wiki, website, or discussion board? List some of the differences between them.)
Identify at least two examples of each and provide the appropriate references for your research.
Upon completion, email your Word document to me as an attachment using the required email subject and filename format.

WordPress

Do some research on WordPress. Be sure that you understand the difference between a .com and a .org WordPress site.
Create your own FREE WordPress.com website. You are not required to spend any money to create your site as part of this course. If you choose to upgrade your WordPress site, you may do so of your own volition, but again are not required to do so for this course.
Once your WordPress site is create, email your WordPress URL to me.

Prior Experience

· Using the WordPress site you created, write 2-3 paragraphs explaining your computer background, experience with web development (which should include past courses), the software packages that you have experience with (this may include non-web development software), and your goal(s) for this course based on the course description. These goals may be either personal or professional.

Effective / Ineffective Web Design (Idea Book): Using either PowerPoint or Word, I would like you to create a virtual idea book that encompasses the list of items below. This should be accomplished by using the PrintScreen functionality. For each item, along with a thorough explanation of each of your selections, provide the URL for reference.

If you are using PowerPoint, your explanation (per website) should appear in the Notes section. If you are using Word, be sure that you are clearly corresponding your explanation with the appropriate website and feature.

Find 5 webpages with attractive background designs that enhance the overall appearance of the page.
Find 10 sites with unique artistic features. Circle the effect using a circle shape with no fill.
Research the Psychology of Color as it relates to web design (identify your references). Find 5 sites that have applied the psychology of color effectively to enhance their street appeal. Explain why you came to this conclusion for each site you have identified.
Research monochromatic, warm, cool, analogous, and complementary color schemes (identify your resources). Find 5 additional sites that have employed any of the schemes you researched. Clearly identify which color scheme was used in each of your samples.