Introduction to Web Design — Week 2, Ankledeep

In Spring of 2011, I taught an 8 week introductory course to web design at Brookline Adult and Community Education. This is the presentation deck from week 2 of the course.

1. introduction to WEB DESIGN brookline adult and community education SPRING 2012 taught by lou suSi
2. week 2 ankledeep more about text ( stupid font tricks ) web image basic including image optimization how about that <img> tag? img positioning using css background img options tricks with img tiling
4. but first, the homework
5. homework
6. let’s talk about text, baby
7. firstly, there are always about 3 ways to do everything
8. text-related tags { and the anatomy of } here are some helpful examples of text-related tags <p>a brand new website</p> <p align=”center”>a paragraph with centered content</p> <p style=”text-align: center”>the same exact concept, using in-line CSS</p> <p class=”para-c”>the same exact concept, using an external CSS style</p> <br> or <br /> <p>here’s some <span style=”color: #cc3300;”><em>red error text</em></span></p> paragraph tag break { or a ‘soft return’ } span tag
9. of course, some ways of doing things are better than others
10. of course, some ways of doing things are better than others it will always be our strategy to build and iterate each page in a way that brings CSS style- and layout-related code out into an external file for more site-wide use
11. of course, some ways of doing things are better than others but we’re not going to worry too, too much in this class about there being ‘one way’ to do all of this
12. of course, some ways of doing things are better than others let’s not get too nervous or hung up on the details i definitely want you to just explore HTML and CSS
13. be fearless
14. nobody’s gonna get hurt if the code’s a little ‘off’
15. and feel free to ask me questions at any point
16. making mistakes and then troubleshooting is probably the best way to learn how to code
17. and now, back to text
18. fonts
19. fonts in the CSS p { font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; } in the HTML <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ...</p> in the page Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ...
20. other font-related properties in the CSS .stylename { font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-weigth: bold; line-height: 22px; color: #000; } in the HTML <p class=”stylename”>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ...</p>
21. once again, the CSS can be included in the header or in an external stylesheet but pushing the CSS out into an external stylesheet will make creating and maintaining CSS styles throughout a website easier to maintain at a global level throughout the site
27. a look at images for the web
28. images for the web resolution 72dpi displayable image formats gif jpg png graphics interchange format joint photographics expert group portable network graphic good for flat, solid colors ( logos and vector art ) good for photographic imagery, raster imagery good for either of the above, larger file size supports transparency, sort of no transparency supports transparency
29. image-related tags { and the anatomy of } here are some helpful examples of image tag details <img src=”ladygaga.jpg” width=”700px” height=”500px”> <img src=”images/ladygaga.jpg” style=”width: 700px; height: 500px;” border=”0”> <img src=”images/popstars/ladygaga.jpg” style=”border: none;” /> <img src=”http://famemonster.com/img/posters/badRomance77.jpg” style=”float: right; margin-left: 15px; margin-bottom: 22px;” alt=”Lady Gaga - Bad Romance Poster”> img { border: none; }
30. background image tricks
31. web page layout basics
32. web page layout basics fixed width the width of the page container is a set pixel value the main contents of the page can be left, centered or right aligned within the browser liquid layout the width of the page container is flexible and will expand and contract with the size of the browser also called flexible layout, depending on what social circles you’re swimming in ;] mixed fixed and liquid layout a combination of fixed and flexible layout that keeps certain blocks of information fixed width inside more flexible columns or containers in the page also called elastic layout, depending on what social circles you’re swimming in ;] responsive layout the layout of the page changes depending upon the size of the browser the page is rendered
33. web page layout basics example of a fixed width layout
34. web page layout basics example of a fluid width layout
35. web page layout basics more food for thought on fixed vs fluid layout http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/02/ fixed-vs-fluid-vs-elastic-layout-whats-the-right-one-for-you/
36. homework find 5 ‘different’ websites that appeal to you and do a little analysis get 2 screenshots from each site, include the home page and an inside page put the screenshots into Word, Pages, Powerpoint or Keynote and write up a short analysis of each site, just a paragraph or 2 per website include notes about the layout type, use of color and typography and what you think the core purpose of the website might be as well as your best guesstimate of who you think the target audience is as usual, have fun with it and be creative let’s try one right now together while we’re here in class ;]