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last.updated 10.23.05

Web Authoring: Web Design & Creating Banners

Purpose

As we think about issues of design we should also think about audiences that do not have the best assess to the information because the design of some web page interfaces do not accommodate their physical challenges. We will discuss how these audiences fit into our rhetorical decision when authoring for the web.

We will also move closer to preparing you to develop a usable web site by learning how to create visual images.

Before Class

• Read R. Williams's Chapter 7 (Designing the Interface and Navigation) and Chapter 8 (How to Recognize Good and Bad Design)
• Read Dunn and Demers's "Reversing Notions of Disability and Accommodation" [Kairos 7.1]

Questions about Readings

Dunn & Demers

• What is their argument?
• How do their pedagogical suggestions address the rhetorical challenges they address in their argument?
• What design strategies can you take/extrapolate from this article?

Williams & Tollett

• Any questions about their discussion of design principles?

Web Design That You Can Do

Look at the web design for the following two pages. Based upon what we read and did for the tutorials over the last two weeks, address the following questions:

• Why is the Pennisula Track Club's site poorly designed?
• How would you design the Mount Vernon Sierra Club's web site?

Tutorial

We will work through a tutorial on creating a banner. By the end of this tutorial, we will have a .gif file that you can use to start establishing the theme for your web page.

Workshop

The rest of the class will be used to give you an opportunity to work on your web sites.