Web Design Final Project
(Required for Overall Web Design Certificate)

In order to receive a Web design certificate, you must complete all required unit projects and the final course project outlined below. All unit projects and the final project must be submitted one week prior to the student's class completion date. The instructor will not accept projects on the last day of class or after a student has exited class.

Using what you have learned (HTML/XHTML, Non-Designers Web Book, Web Design Workshop, Macromedia Suite, Photoshop, & PHP), create your own portfolio Web site. You need to really think about the design of the site. It should be professional looking and easy to navigate. The site must incorporate all of the techniques that you have learned throughout the course. I would highly recommend that you review all of the Web Design Workshop book. Study the example sites in the book. Your design should be professional, easy to navigate, attractive (use of graphics, colors, etc.) load quickly, and well thought out.

Project Preparation

Read Creating Your Web Design Business Web Site at About.com.

Review these art and design resources before beginning your project. Review the Web Style Guide.

Review the article on making your documents XHTML Compliant.

Review these resources on copyright.

Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the Web planning process.

Students should complete the Project Proposal (Word document format).

Students will demonstrate their knowledge of Web development by developing a portfolio Web site with a minimum of six pages.

Using what you have learned in the course and other resources you have been provided create a Web site using the following guidelines:

This site should be a minimum of six created pages. This site should be your own portfolio or Web design business site. It should include links to other sites you have created (examples of your work), an about page, your resume, pricing information, contact information, services offered, and any other relevant information. Portfolios.com is a great place to get ideas for your own portfolio site.

The page design should be visually pleasing, professional, and should support the page content. The page design should be appropriate for its intended audience. The page design should be controlled with CSS.

The images should be well designed and complement the overall site design. They should not be distorted and should not include negative graphic effects. The images should be optimized and should download quickly. All images should have ALT and height and width tags. If necessary the images should be resized using an image editor and not via the image height and width tag. Images from the Web can be used as long as you have obtained appropriate permission.

Notes: All graphics should be original and your own artwork. Graphics should look professional: No jagged edges, text should be the same size on all buttons and be easy to read, colors should coordinate. When you're creating your graphics ask yourself "Would a fortune 500 company use this?" Alt tags and height and width tags should be used on all images. Try to incorporate disjointed rollovers into your site if possible.

The pages should use effective and professional layout. The layout should not be cluttered. The background and text colors should be readable. Visitors who use a 800x600 monitor should not have to scroll to the right. Font sizes should be appropriate for the audience. The page layout should be controlled with CSS.

The content on the site should be well written. The content should not contain grammatical, punctuation, or spelling errors. The content should be easy to read and use appropriate fonts. The content should be controlled with CSS.

The site should be well organized. All pages should have meaningful titles. Navigation should be obvious and easy to maneuver. Navigation should be on every page and should be easy to find. The navigation should be consistent throughout the site. Folders should be created to store necessary files. A site map should be used so that visitors can find what they are looking for easily.

Everything on the site should work. There should not be any missing graphics or broken links. The layout and design should work on both a PC and a Mac. Sites should work in all of the major browsers (Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, Safari, Netscape 7). Sites will not be checked in Netscape 4.7.

The site should download in a reasonable amount of time. Multimedia objects should be used with care. All images should be optimized and download quickly.

The site should include the author's name (copyright statement) and some form of contact information (a contact form). There should be no copyright infringement on the site. The author should obtain permission for all images and content that was obtained from another source. Outside sources should be credited appropriately.

The site should incorporate a Flash movie with animation. This movie may include photos, text or drawn characters and shapes. The movie should utilize start and stop buttons, tweening, sound, and other effects. The movie should be well organized; Movie clips should be used for animation, symbols should be used and stored in folders within the Library. Students should submit the original FLA file for instructor review. Here is a sample movie; this is a Flash opening that one of my former students, Shizuko Angel created for me.

The site should contain keywords and description meta tags. The site should be registered with Google. For additional information on Meta Tags and registering your site with search engines click here.

The site should be XHTML compliant (transitional) and you should validate all pages prior to submitting it to your instructor. http://validator.w3.org/

Students should read the Web design rubric before they begin their projects. This rubric defines the grading criteria for the project.

Self-evaluation and peer-evaluation

The site should be uploaded to your account at robinshosting.com.

Before you submit your project to your instructor, use the Web design rubric to evaluate your own site. You should also ask two of your fellow students to evaluate your site using the rubric. After self and peer-evaluation, revise your site as needed. Submit your self and peer-evaluations to your instructor along with the Project Proposal.

This Web site is the beginning of your Web design business site. Do some research on purchasing a domain and hosting for your portfolio site http://www.tinkertech.net/tutor/hosting.htm. What domain name would you want to use for your Web design business? Check to see if the domain name that you chose is available here. You do not need to actually purchase the domain and hosting, but you should gather information so you are prepared to do this in the future. Write a short email to me rwood@cccoe.k12.ca.us on the domain name that you would choose and the hosting provider.

Submitting the Site

Submit your self and peer-evaluations to your instructor along with the Project Proposal.

Place a link from your homework page to your project.

Notify your instructor via email, rwood@cccoe.k12.ca.us, when the site is complete. Be sure to use the complete URL/URI in your e-mail, i.e., http://robin.robinshosting.com (always include the http:// when you send your links out in e-mail or post them on message boards).

Copyright information

Prior to creating your final project, read R. Delago-Martinez' What is Copyright? site. Be sure that you do not include images, text or code without permission from the originator. For additional information on copyright visit the following sites:

10 Big Myths About Copyright
United States Copyright Office (Be sure to read the copyright basics)
Copyright Information from the University of Michigan
The Copyright Website
Copyright Resources Online from Yale University
Copyright Law from the Copyright Clearance Center
Copyright and Fair Use from Stanford University Libraries
Legal Information Institute - Copyrights & Copyright Infringement and Remedies

Additional resources at http://www.robinsblog.com, http://discuss.robinsblog.com and http://www.tinkertech.net