Interactivity & Screen Design I

Expression College for Digital Arts

Course Director: Laura Cesari - lcesari@expression.edu

Textbook Materials: Learning Web Design

Assignments, examples, and resources will be given out in class.
Please email me if you have any questions or if you miss a day.

Class Schedule - Term 109 (January & February 2009)

1. January 22, Thursday:

Intro to HTML & CSS: Text, Color, Images, Elements, Stylesheets
Type Resources: Common Web-Safe Fonts, Lorem Ipsum Dummy Text
Color Resources: WebMonkey Color Chart, Adobe "Kuler" Color Tool
W3Schools Color Values, W3Schools Color Names

2. January 24, Saturday:

HTML & CSS: Layout structures 1, Styles & formatting 1
Beginning HTML Elements: DIV, SPAN, Images, Links
CSS Basics: General-Purpose CSS Reference, CSS Syntax, Linking to a StyleSheet

3. January 27, Tuesday:

HTML & CSS; Layout structures 2, Styles & formatting 2
The Box Model: Margins, Padding, Borders.
Floating Layouts: The Float Property, Setting Overflow
Setting Dimensions: Percentages and Pixel Values

4. January 29, Thursday:

HTML & CSS; Layout structures 3, Styles & formatting 3
Absolute, Relative, & Fixed Layouts: CSS Position Property
Not in the alphabet? Special Characters, Symbols

5. January 31, Saturday:

HTML & CSS; Layout structures 4, Styles & formatting 4
More Type Styles: Fonts, Text Formatting
Inspiration: CSS Zen Garden, CommArts Web Picks, CommArts Winners, Digital Thread, Smashing Magazine, Webby Awards

6. February 3, Tuesday:

Web Graphic Tricks & Techniques: Continuous Wallpaper Background Effects & Tessellation
Smashing Magazine Wallpaper Showcase

7. February 5, Thursday:

Web Graphic Tricks & Techniques: Wallpaper CSS properties, Transparency Effects, Animated Graphics
Wallpaper CSS Properties, CSS Transparency Settings

8. February 7, Saturday:

Midterm Exam & in-class Midterm Project

9. February 10, Tuesday:

Icons, Wayfinding, and Pixel Graphics
Icon Design: Susan Kare, Pixture Studio, Mozilla Firefox Theme Designs
Isometric Pixel Art: eboy, KirupaVille, pixeldam, World's Tallest Virtual Building
Communities: pixeljoint, deviantART

10. February 12, Thursday:

Infographics, Data Structures, and Information Design
InfoGraphics Resources: Infosthetics, Visual Complexity, GeoHive
Various Examples: They Rule, The Dumpster, Understanding USA, Mark Lombardi
Road Signs: PANOS 2013 Fake Street Signs, Antique Road Signs, Road Sign Fonts
Articles: Immigrant Family Road Sign, Stop Sign Modification

-- NO SCHOOL FEBRUARY 14 -- PRESIDENTS' DAY HOLIDAY --

-- do something fun --

11. February 17, Tuesday:

Continuing Web Graphic Techniques: Customizing Templates & Themes
Lightbox by Lokesh Dhakar, Shadowbox by Michael I. J. Jackson

12. February 19, Thursday:

Critique and Production: get feedback, work on projects

13. February 21, Saturday: (Short Day: 5-6pm only)

Final Project Presentations