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hi, class!

Course: Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Graphic Design
Units: Web Development

If you're in my classes at Central TAFE then you're in the right spot - our cyberspace class notice board. All information contained herein is unofficial and not necessarily shared by TAFE :)

Here, we can share urls (website addresses), book titles, info about assignments and anything else that you might need to access from home. As this is being added to week by week rather than being designed as a site, it might be a bit of a mess - so "do as I say, not as I do!" ;)

 

For Official Handouts (eg Delivery Schedules etc) ask in class for a current version to be printed for you.

Non-Official Class Handouts will be posted here for you to access any time.

Other useful links now have their own page

GUI Review Sheet (Word Doc, 26kb)
10 Rules for a Quite Nice Site (Word Doc, 54kb)
A Quick Overview of Web Graphics (Word Doc, 1.5Meg)

FAVICONS

How to make the natty little icon that marks your site in a browser (like the little kittykat here). It's a challenge to make a 16x16 pic, but then once that's done you just need a plugin filter that works in either Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. eg:

CSS

I don't do it, and we don't have enough time to cover both tables-based and CSS web design in just one semster. Still, if you want to follow it up yourself, here are some recommended resources:

GEEKSPEAK

Some geeky sites I visit & enjoy:

I'll do a step-by-step of what to do when we get to the Building stage. Remember, if you want to do something other than that covered in class, TALK TO ME ABOUT IT! It might be just fine and dandy, but I'll want you to understand all the pro's and con's of what you want to do.

Remember, the assessments have requirements that you MUST meet to be assessed as Competent. eg, if it says no frames, no Flash, then follow those directions. If you don't HAVE the assessment handout, ask for it - BEFORE you try to do your assignment, not after you hand it in and get told it doesn't meet the specification requirements.

I'll just keep adding pages and content based on resources I find that I think you guys might find useful. The pages will all be added to throughout the semester, so stay tuned, call back regularly.

My Web Rescue site has more resources about making websites - see http://retrokat.com/rescue/

Note: I teach this in combination with GUI (Graphical User Interfaces), so some resources for that unit are linked from here.

If you'd like to send me an email letting me know what you're most interested in doing with the web, that would be a great way for me to get to know your needs as students and hopefully locate some specific resources that will help you to get the most out of this semester's work. My address is kat@retrokat.com. I'd love to hear from everyone in the classes.

And don't worry, if you say what you want to do is a whizzy Flash-based site, I won't ignore you :) As long as you meet the competencies set in the assignments I'll do what I can to help you meet your other web design goals too.

As mentioned in class, I believe it's vital for you to have an internet-connected computer at home to get the most out of these units. Access to the Mac Labs at school is limited, and the only way to be a good web designer in my opinion is to be a regular, observant and well-informed web user. I expect you to be able to talk about websites you like, websites you don't like, and most importantly WHY you feel that way about the site. You don't need a brand new, top-of-the-range system at home (although if you like to do flashy stuff, you might) but just a basic setup that can deal with the web. I've listed some places to the left that you can buy secondhand or inexpensive new computer equipment, and throughout this site I've linked to freeware alternatives wherever possible so you don't need to buy a lot of expensive software.

See you all in class...

meow & ciao,

kat =^..^=

Kat's Web Rescue Site

retrokat.com quite nice sites

all graphics, text and design: copyright retrokat.com 2001-4


Note: If you personally hold copyright to any images or other content herein and wish it to be removed or credited, please email me on kat@retrokat.com and I'm more than happy to do so.