PAF 410: Intro to Web Design - Fall 2014
Mondays and Wednesdays: 3:45 – 5:05
Instructor: Jonathan Lee (jtlee03@syr.edu)
TA: Seth Singer (sesinger@syr.edu)
Office Hours: TBA
Class Description
In this three-credit course, students will learn how to design and develop multimedia
documents for the World Wide Web. Students will become familiar with the planning, design,
implementation and management cycle of web design for personal, business, and
government/non-profit purposes.
After studying the basics of HTML, you will learn how to create effective and visually appealing
web sites. As the PAF prefix would suggest, the content of these web sites will center on the
skills and concepts you have acquired through the major in policy development and
implementation.
This course is not about memorizing facts, but about understanding and applying concepts and
learning web design skills. Your grade will be primarily based on the projects you create, a few
homework assignments, and a midterm exam.
The goal of the instructor is to offer a course that is interesting, challenging, and—most
important—useful. If there is something you want to learn that is not covered in the course
syllabus, please contact the instructor.
Skills students will develop:
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Develop and maintain a website using HTML5 and CSS
Communicate technical needs and requirements with non-technical clients
Use statistics to help clients understand the information collected
Design an effective social media strategy from an organizational standpoint
Communicate effectively through social media
Overcome technical challenges using problem-solving techniques
Organizational skills
Explore career goals and the usage of technology in the real world
This course supports the following goals of the Policy Studies Major:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Apply problem solving to societal problems
Understand the implementation of public policy
Gather information in a variety of ways
Use computer programs to analyze quantitative data
Communicate effectively in oral and written venues
Work efficiently on individual projects
Work effectively on team projects
Gain knowledge of societal problems, causes, and policy in a specific problem area
Requirements:
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Attendance is mandatory.
Absences will result in the loss of one-third of a letter grade per absence (Ex: A to A-, Ato B+, etc.). Absences without penalty will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
This course REQUIRES the use of a personal laptop for each class.
Failure to bring your laptop to class will result in being marked absent for that class.
Punctuality is key.
Homework assignments and projects are due at 11:59:59 PM EST on the assigned day
unless otherwise directed. Late assignments will lose one letter grade per day.
Academic Integrity
This class will involve a considerable amount of code writing. While many of the
assignments will be similar from student to student, copying blocks of code from other
students, implementing “plugins,” or using prewritten code from the internet is
equivalent to plagiarism and all involved parties will receive a zero for that assignment.
These students will also be brought to the attention of Syracuse University Academic
Integrity Officers.
Attentiveness
Each student is expected to be organized, take notes, and pay attention in class. This
class covers a significant amount of content, and it is up to each student to ask
questions and seek help if they do not understand a concept or idea.
Grading
Point Distribution:
Homework Assignments
Midterm Project
Midterm Exam
Personal Website
Final Project
TOTAL
Grading Scale:
10%
15%
20%
20%
35%
100%
Min
93
90
87
83
80
77
73
70
60

Max
100
92
89
86
82
79
76
72
69
59
Letter
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD
F
Course Outline:
Disclaimer: This schedule is tentative. All assignments, lectures, projects, and dates are
subject to change.
Date Lecture
25- Course Introduction
Aug Course Requirements (laptops, software, patience)
“The good, the bad, and the ugly”
IT 101: “So, how does any of this stuff even work??”
27- Hardware, Software, Access
Aug What happens on the server?
HTML vs CSS (and other messes of code!)
1-Sep Labor Day – No Class
Celebrate work by not working!
3-Sep Hello World!
Elements, tags, attributes, and our first website!
Structure I
8-Sep Elements: block-level vs. inline
Intro to CSS
Structure II
10- The Box Model
Sep Floating
Homework: Box Model Assignment (DUE 9/17)
Date Lecture
Color and Images
15- Counting by 16s
Sep RGB(A) vs Hex
Why People Hate Technology: JPEGs, GIFs, PNGs
Navigation
17- Why People Hate Technology (Part II): Screen sizes
Sep A Look Ahead
Homework: Email Assignment (DUE 9/24)
22- Site Replication Project
Sep Homework: Midterm Website (DUE 10/8)
24Sep Site Replication Project
29- Midterm Review
Sep Finish Site Replication Project (DUE 10/6)
1-Oct MIDTERM EXAM
Our Social World
6-Oct Integrating Social Media with HTML
Homework: Personal Website Brainstorming (DUE 10/8)
Brainstorming
8-Oct How the heck are we supposed to do this from scratch??
Homework: Personal Website Sketch and Presentation (DUE 10/13)
13- Personal Website Presentations
Oct Begin work on websites in class
Homework: Personal Website (DUE 10/27)
15- Social Media Strategy
Oct Gaining followers, increasing brand-awareness, and giving your audience what they want
Google Analytics
20- Careers and the Web
Oct Designers, Programmers, and Webmasters
22- The Future of Web Design
Oct HTML 5 and CSS 3
Why People Hate Technology (Part III): Responsive Design
27Oct Photoshop I
29Oct Photoshop II
Dealing with Clients
3-Nov Final Project Introduction
Homework: Find a Client (DUE 11/5)
5-Nov Meeting the Client
Homework: Deliverables for Client (DUE 11/10)
Date Lecture
10- JavaScript I
Nov Making a website dynamic
Homework: Final Project (DUE 12/3 - uploaded to server before class)
12- JavaScript II
Nov Image Sliders
17Nov Work on Final Project
19Nov Work on Final Project
24Nov Thanksgiving Break - No Class
26Nov Thanksgiving Break - No Class
1-Dec Work on Final Project
Course Evaluation and Wrap-up
3-Dec Final Project Presentations
Disability Statement
Students who require academic accommodations due to a disability are encouraged to discuss
their needs with the instructor at the beginning of the semester. To obtain authorized
accommodations, students should be registered with the Office of Disability Services, 804
University Ave., Rm. 310; 443-4498; E-mail: odssched@syr.edu. Students must provide the
instructor with an updated accommodation letter. Services are not provided retroactively.
They must be requested in advance.
Faith Observances
There has been a change in the campus policy concerning religious observance. Information
can be found at http://supolicies.syr.edu/emp_ben/religious_observance.htm. If there are holy
days that are part of your faith tradition, the instructor must be advised within the first two
weeks of the semester for any related absence due to religious observance and entered on
MySlice.
Cheating/Plagiarism
Academic honesty is expected of all students. For individual assignments, students must hand
in their own work. Similarities in wording between individual papers, including a consistent
case of the use of the same sources, may result in a zero for both papers and a letter to the
department chair and to the dean. Any evidence of failure to follow University guidelines for
academic integrity will result in a zero for that assignment. Consult
http://provost.syr.edu/provost/units/academicprograms/academicintegrity/ for more
information. When it is determined to be necessary, authenticity of papers may be verified
using the plagiarism prevention system, Turnitin. Students may also use Turnitin through
Blackboard to confirm that information has been correctly cited. Students must not copy and
paste Internet sources without proper attribution.