Week 12

Week 12 project using CSS is located at http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/10/week12/sample-design-lauram.html

Week 12 project using tables is located at http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/10/week12/design_lauram.html

Additional Week 11 Reading

Information Interaction Design – by Nathan Shedroff

In the article, Information Interaction Design - by Nathan Shedroff, Nathan discusses design as an intricate intersection of Information, Interaction, and Sensorial Design.  He starts off talking about needing a process to solve “information overload.”  This I agree with as we are in the Information era and need to sift through so much information in so many medias.  In Information Design, he describes data as being “fairly worthless to most of us.”  I have to disagree with him here, or maybe I don’t fall in the “most” category.  As an engineer, I like to deal with the actual data rather than the author’s interpretation.  I tend to feel that most information (being described as “relationships between data”) is data with an opinionated spin on it, making it pretty worthless to me.  You can take data and present it as a statistic showing pretty much whatever you want it to show.  
Nathan notes that there are seven ways to organize data by:  alphabet, location, time, continuum, number, category, or random.  Experiment to find the best method.
He gives an example of the Vietnam Memorial, in which the names are listed by time, creating an emotional reaction and how the memorial would be completely different had it been organized in another way.  Of course, most organizations use multiple methods. 
Metaphors can be used when appropriate.
Define goals as early in the design process as possible.
Clarity
Interaction Design
Nathan says the best way to learn about interaction design is through the performing arts.
Encourage participation

Chapters 8 & 9 Dreamweaver Book

Sample from Chapter 9 is located at http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/10/chap_09/layout.htm

I couldn’t get Exercise 2 Adding Layers to work even after trying Jed’s changes.

Sample from Chapter 8 are located at http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/10/chap_08/css-teapots.htm

Questions and comments from Chapters 8 & 9

Dreamweaver Chapter 8

1.       In Dreamweaver book, Chapter 8, page 202, #4 – book mentions dotted lines defining table cells – mine doesn’t have this – is this a difference between 8 and CS3?

2.       On page 205-206, the table shown in the book has the second column expanded in width to hold the description in 3 lines.  Mine did not expand automatically and my column is 8 lines long.

3.       On page 207, my browser shows borders.  On page 208, mine already had 1 typed in the Border field.

4.       On page 225, I can’t find Format Table in the Commands heading.

5.       On page 236, I don’t understand the two numbers at the bottom of the columns – includes padding?

6.       On page 239, my photo column changed sizes only when it got bigger – it never tried to display the image as two parts.  When I set the width to 92, it did the exact same thing.

7.       My table was a different color than the rounded corners.  When I tried to change the color of my table by selecting the table and then putting in a different color in the bg field, nothing changed.  How do I make the change correctly.

Dreamweaver Chapter 9

1.       On page 251 Browser Offset – Do we want to design our web page with this offset, or do we want design to begin right at upper left-hand corner?

2.       Page 253 Adding Layers – Insert>Layout Objects>Layer – No Layer – Help!!!  Comments in Jed’s blog – didn’t work for me either.  Jenn, for some reason I did not get your email on this subject.  I also didn’t get the last one on a mistake in the book.  I’m getting all your other emails, so this doesn’t make sense, but can you send me those 2 emails – thanks

3.       Page 261 – There is no Layout Table Object button – use Insert-Layout Objects – Layout Table (Note that when you drag, make sure you’re not in the hashed area or it doesn’t work)

4.       Page 262 – No Draw Layout Cell button – use Insert-Layout Objects – Layout Cell

5.       Page 263 – mine was 203 x 76 vs. 204 x 76

6.       Page 263 – mine was 323 x 300 vs. 324 x 320

7.       Page 267 #2 – Should “with” be “will?”

Updated home page

Homework Week 11

My comps are located at:  http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/10/project/homepage.png and at http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/10/project/photopage.png

After reviewing the Search Engine Presentation, I have the following questions:

1.  How do we notify search engines of our site?

2.  Are key words specified as key words or just located from words typed in our website?

3.  How do we put META descriptions in Dreamweaver?

4.  What is a key page?

5.  How do we submit key pages to search engines?

6.  How many search engines are there and how do we know if we got them all?

Homework Week 10

oops -forgot to post.

These are my comments and places where I struggled on tasks from Chapter 9 in Fireworks book. 

1.  On page 191, I kept using the wrong circle tool – there are two – one in the web section, which you don’t want, but I kept using without realizing it and then I couldn’t work with it.

2.  On page 203, File-Preview in Browser – didn’t show the animation, only the Specials layer.  After optimized, this worked.

3.  On page 204, the author said to change colors or other options.  What are the other options available to change?

4.  On page 204, #2 click Export – no Export button, I clicked Save.

5.  On page 208 #1 I couldn’t remember how to add an inner bevel to the star – use Add filter – inner bevel.