Web Design Project
The purpose of this project is to gain practice with the process of designing web site and executing that design. The focus will be on developing sound visual rhetoric and not on mastering a particular computer program or language.
Because each student will define their own topic, purpose, and audience for this project, the details for each web site will be negotiated individually. What follows are the goals for the assignment and and a list of deliverables and due dates.
The site should include:
at least four pages including the main page.
a multimodal design (i.e., the site should include more than text on a page)
evidence of primary and secondary source research in its content
a clearly defined purpose and target audience
a rhetorically justified visual design
a navigation system appropriate to the purpose and target audience
deliverables, due dates, and meetings:
Thursday, October 4
- Web site design plan: Writing Studio forum due at the end
Thursday, October 11 (drafts)
- site map
- storyboards for each page of the site
- all previous, abandoned, storyboards and site maps
- drafts of all written text to be used in the site.
- a 3-4 page (double-spaced) reevaluation of your original design plan that explains the audience, purpose, and visual rhetorical choices you have made for the site thus far.
the storyboards may be designed by hand or using a computer program. They should be in color and each storyboard should include a written explanation of the content.
This text should be labeled to indicate the storyboard to which it corresponds (i.e., I need to know where each piece of text will go in the site).
The discussion should refer to the ways in which your visual design meets the needs of your audience and how is contributes to the purpose of the site through the construction of ethos, logos, and pathos. The reevaluation document should also include a discussion of any concerns or questions you have about the site’s development rhetorically and/or technically.
Conferences
Individually scheduled for the week of October 14. These conferences will take the place of class that week. During them we will discuss the web site drafts, blog progress, web site analysis grades, and overall course grade thus far.
Tuesday, October 30 (final web sites)
- all materials turned in at the draft stage
- final, revised site map
- final, revised storyboards
- digital execution of the site as you were able to build it (posted in your Writing Studio folder).
- 3-4 page reflection on the process
The site need not be executed exactly as storyboarded if technological knowhow prevents it. However, all pages of the site must be present in a modified, but complete form.
This document should include a discussion of the revisions you made to your design after receiving feedback on the draft version from me and your classmates. Also included should be an explanation of what you were and were not able to achieve in the digital execution, and a discussion of how you modified the site to fit your technical abilities while still maintaining the rhetorical objectives you established in your design plan.