Instructor: Jeff McCartney

Phone: 416 798-1331 Fax: 416 798-1991 Email: Jeff.Mccartney@GuelphHumber.ca

Office: GH 408 L

Course Description

“This course offers a critical examination of the principles of successful web site and web page

design. Students will be introduced to the leading web creation software to prepare icons and

images in suitable formats, together with page layout and web animations. While the software

provides for web page creation with visual tools, some understanding of HTML is required.

Students will be expected to set up and create a small website as an online personal portfolio.

Emphasis will be placed on discovering creative solutions to web page interface design.

Students will explore navigation strategies and issues of readability with various page

layouts.”

Translation: You will learn to build a working website.

Web Design 3080

On completion of this course you will be able to:

1. Critique web sites for their content, function, usability and design.2. Identify the major issues that affect web usability3. Understand the current theories and trends in website design.4. Plan the architecture of a web site.5. Create a website using industry standard software.6. Design personal icons, navigation menus, banners and digital images. 7. Design and control the layout of web pages.8. Describe the main elements of web graphics and how to create them. 9. Create simple web animations.10. Work competently in digital image creation software.11. Create a personal portfolio web site.12. Choose or advise on an appropriate domain name.13. Understand the evolution of the internet and world wide web

Week 1

• Introduction to Web Design

• Introduction to the web and a brief history of the medium.

• Examples of successful web sites.

• Introduction to course textbook. Not.

Week 1

A Brief History of the Web

In the beginning… the internet. But before that… DARPA and the ARPANET.

DARPA = Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

1962 - J.C.R. Licklider of MIT posits the possibility of a "Galactic Network" concept. He envisioned a globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any site. Licklider goes on to work for DARPA in October 1962 as head of their computer research program.

 1965 – first computer network. One computer at MIT is successfully connected to

another in California via telephone line.  1967 – ARPANET proposed – a network of computers connected not by phone lines

but via ‘packet switching’, a superior method that will later become the foundation for all internet traffic.

 1969 – ARPANET construction begins, four computers connected by the end of the

year!

Week 1

1972 – email is introduced to the ARPANET The network is still envisioned at this time as a way to connect mainframe

computers. PCs did not yet exist, LANs did not yet exist. 1973 – Ethernet developed at Xerox PARC Large purpose-built networks begin to appear throughout the 1970s, mainly for

academic, government or military uses. 1985 – the NSF funds NSFNET, a network designed to serve the entire academic

community, ie universities. The original DARPA internet infrastructure is adopted for NSFNET.

1990 - Tim Berners Lee, a researcher at CERN proposes something called the World Wide Web. He builds his ideas for hypertext on ideas first proposed in the 1960s.

 While on Christmas break, Berners Lee writes the first web page, builds the first web

browser, as well as the first web server. Holy cow.

Week 1

1990 – ARPANET is decommissioned. 1991 – The web becomes publicly available service on the internet 1992 – Development of the Mosaic graphical browser begins at NCSA (National

Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois) led by Marc Andreesen. Mosaic allowed for the first time integrated images and clickable hypertext links.

 1993 –Mosaic version 1.0 is released for the X-Windows (Unix) system. Version 2.0

released later in the year for Apple Macintosh and MS Windows system.

1993 – Lycos debuts, the first search engine. Catalogs 800,000 pages by end of ‘03 1994 – National Research Council publishes the report “Realizing The Information

Future: The Internet and Beyond”. This was the blueprint for the evolution of the “Information Superhighway”.

Week 1

1994 – Netscape Communications founded by Marc Andreesen and Jim Clark, release Netscape Navigator based on the original Mosaic browser.

 1995 – NSFNET de-funded, the internet begins to be commercially financed.  1995 – Microsoft wakes up, releases Internet Explorer 1.0 for Windows 95. It sucks.

The Browser Wars begin. 1995 to present – global high-speed networks proliferate and the WWW takes off.

Yahoo now reports that its search engine has catalogued more than 20 BILLION web documents.

1999 – Netscape sold to America Online for $10 Billion. Internet Explorer is now the number one browser.

2005: Tim O’Reilly (founder of O’Reilly Media Inc.) coins the term “web 2.0”

Week 1

Web 2.0

Napster (P2P)

Wikipedia

Blogging

Participation

Wikis

tagging ("folksonomy")

Syndication (RSS)

Web 1.0 

mp3.com (download)

Britannica Online

personal websites

Publishing

content management systems

directories (taxonomy)

Stickiness

Week 1

Some ‘successful’ websites…

FaceBookYouTubeWikipediaMySpaceeBayCraigslistDiggAmazonFlickriTunesGoogle MapsDeviantArt

Why???

Week 1 : Textbook

There is no textbook for this course!

Week 1

Class Delicious Account:

www.delicious.com

Sign in:

Username = gh3080am / gh3080pmPassword = goAlpha99 / goBeta99

Week 1

Resources:

World’s first web page:

http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

Class Website:

www.uoguelph.ca/~jmccartn/