Website Design (225 hours)

Course Overview/Description

The Website Design Program focuses on developing the visual graphic and information design skills required to create compelling Web sites.

Students learn professional applications for Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Flash, or equivalent software tools. Course projects include critique, digital imaging, color, typography, and composition, Web page design using HTML, tables, frames, and CSS, ecommerce and gateway pages, site maps and many more.

Course Objectives

• Perform critiques of existing Web sites based on design principles, functionality, and audience needs, and suggest improvements.
• Use Photoshop to select, enhance, distort, color, scale and manipulate scanned images and artwork — or create them from scratch.
• Use Dreamweaver design sophisticated sites, creating advanced layouts by using tables, colors, style.
• Learn HTML tags, hancode pages, use templates and troubleshoot the HTML in major web design applications like Dreamweaver.
• Learn color principles, terminology, and applications, with an emphasis on manipulating color.
• Explore the anatomy of the fonts through interactive lectures and hands-on exercises, classify typefaces and use them creatively.
• Develop page compositional skills a series of artistic workouts applying the principles of effective composition.
• Learn to clearly organize a consistent and functional website from both a user and business perspective.
• Learn to plan, design, test, and promote websites.
• Improve graphic design skills and learn navigation design, and page layout.
• Develop a proficiency in Web foundations including HTML, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Learn website project planning, layout, usability, learning different design styles, adding popup windows, forms, and CSS.

Course Outline

Intro to Web Design: Learn how the Web evolved, cover the technical fundamentals, and learn the design principles that characterize the leading sites. Through exposure to best (and worst) practices on the Web, you'll learn how to intelligently critique a Website design, both from a functional and an aesthetic standpoint.

Photoshop Basics: Learn the basics of Photoshop in this thorough six-lesson beginner help course. You will learn how to select, enhance, distort, color, scale and manipulate scanned images and artwork — or create them from scratch. Even if you just took your software out of the box, the course will help you learn and tame this creative powerhouse of a program.

Dreamweaver I: Dreamweaver integrates a host of design tools in one easy-to-use application. Without any advanced HTML knowledge, you can design sophisticated sites, creating advanced layouts by using tables, colors, style sheets, frames, and more. This intensive 6-lesson training course guides you through Macromedia's leading-edge Web editor, taking you from absolute beginner to intermediate level. You'll be weaving dreams on the Web before you know it!

HTML Basics: Learn HTML basics with an experienced professional. Thanks to today's HTML editors, (programs such as Dreamweaver, HomeSite, and Frontpage) entire sites can be designed without "hand-coding" in HTML. Applications to help users find the right HTML codes have become more user friendly, but for any Web designer, a baseline knowledge of HTML is critical. In this practical 3-lesson course, you'll cover everything from basic tags and tables to using templates and troubleshooting.

Color Theory: Color is probably the most relative medium in art. Each color has a specific property, whether it's the particular wavelength in optical perception, the molecular construction of pigments or an RGB value for a monitor. Though each of those properties may be fixed, the expression and perception of a color may change within different contexts. Understanding color requires that you understand its systems, interaction — even a bit of physics! This course deals with the abstract language of color. We'll discuss basic color principles, terminology, and applications, with an emphasis on manipulating color.

Fundamentals of Typography: Typography is what sets designers apart from other artists. In visual communication, typography must be integrated (every last loop, bowl, and descender) into a total design. In this 3-lesson course, you'll explore the anatomy of the letterform. Through interactive lectures and hands-on exercises, you'll learn how to classify typefaces and use them creatively. Understanding the fundamentals of typography will give your work power, eloquence, and beauty

Design and Composition: Composition, literally the assembly or construction of elements, is the artful arrangement that guides the viewer's eye and unifies your work. In this 3-lesson hands-on course, you'll develop your compositional skills by analyzing everything from Grand Masters to Madison Avenue ads to tubes of toothpaste. Through a series of artistic workouts, you'll learn the principles of effective composition, building to a Final Project.

Information Design: Clearly organized, consistent, and functional sites reap big rewards from both a user and business perspective. A great Web site is one that has been specifically planned, designed, tested, and promoted to connect the right user with the right message. In this course, you'll learn the difference that information design can make. The information designer is someone who pre-plans information hierarchies and pathways, effectively "paving the roads" and putting up signage before the traffic arrives.

Web Design I: Course assignments focus on project planning, layout, usability, learning different design styles, adding popup windows, forms, and CSS. Develop your Web design skills by training with one of the leading experts on Web design and technology. You'll complete the online course with a clutch of projects and a fully functional site to add to your portfolio.

Each Student will be required to select one elective from the following list: Flash Basics: In this 6-lesson course, you'll develop a deep understanding for basic drawing and animating tools in Flash, mastering such critical interface elements as layers, scenes, nested symbols, and movie clips. You'll create an animated logo, a cityscape, a splash screen, a basic Flash site interface, and more.

Flash Website Design: If you're familiar with basic Flash animation techniques, learning to create sites in Flash is the perfect next step. Flash Web sites don't just engage Web visitors with motion, sound, and visual intensity. They also provide strong functionality and interactivity, unprecedented browser and platform compatibility, and a higher level of usability than you might expect. In this challenging, project-based course, you'll learn to create compelling, well-designed Flash sites, avoiding common pitfalls and "Flash abuse." You'll build on the basic Flash skills you already possess to learn a step-by-step approach to Flash web design you can apply to your professional projects.

Dreamweaver II: Some powerful features lie just below the surface in Dreamweaver, including precision layouts through Cascading Style Sheets, templates and asset management, and even the ability to create high-end interactive features without wading through reams of code. Each hands-on lesson and exercise combines upper-level Dreamweaver technology with visual Web design know-how. In this rigorous 6-lesson course, you'll take your existing knowledge of Dreamweaver to the next level, putting your skills a cut above the rest.

E-Commerce: In this hands-on course, you'll learn how to build a well-conceived, fully functional e-commerce Web site for your own business or your small business clients. Studying with one of the leading voices in Web site design, will help you learn a systematic approach to e-commerce development. From initially validating your business plan, to building your shopping cart, to setting up quality customer service, and fulfillment after the launch, you will be address the skills required to tackle e-commerce Web projects. Class projects guide you step-by-step through the design and business decisions that are critical to success. By the end of the course, you'll have built a fully functional site and gained the confidence to build more.

Prerequisites/Audience

There are no specific prerequisite skills for this program. Each course builds on the skills and knowledge gained from the previous course. Students will begin with the Introduction course and work their way through the program. Students will need basic computer skills, and they will need to have access to the Internet, emailing capabilities, and be comfortable navigating the Internet.

The intended audience for this program is anyone seeking a thorough web design education.

PC Requirements/Materials Included

This course is compatible with Windows Vista Operating System.

This program can be accessed and completed using either PC or Macintosh computers. You'll need an Internet connection of 28Kpbs or higher, and a Web browser (Internet Explorer 4.0 or Netscape 4.0 or higher). We do not recommend AOL or Netscape 6 browsers.

Students will be required to provide their own software for each of the courses. Once registered, students will have the ability to purchase software through a student software store at discounted prices. There are no required textbooks.

The following software is required for this program:
• Adobe Photoshop 7, CS, CS2, or CS3 (preferred)
• Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 or MX2004

Instructor Bio

Margaret Penney is a teacher, designer, writer and media artist. Margaret teaches Web, print and motion graphic design, multimedia, and JAVA programming at an independent school outside New York City where she designs the Computer Science department curriculum. As a Web designer and developer, Margaret has created a multi-channel community portal for Hong Kong teenagers; ecommerce for Delias.com girls' clothing; a flash promotional for Nike; and currently she is working on a site for artist Sol Lewitt.

As a new media artist, she has exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London; the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City; and around NYC. Her artwork has been reviewed globally online, in print magazines, and included in the book Eye Candy from the Underground: Fresh Styles for Web Designers. She has lectured on new media art at Purchase College, the School of Visual Arts Annual Conference for Educators, and the Pratt Institute. As a writer, she has been published in New York Arts magazine, Rhizome.org, and the Baltimore City paper. Margaret has a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and M.F.A. from Columbia University.

Donald Gambino is a computer artist, consultant, educator, and trainer, since 1983, teaching students of all levels and abilities. Formerly the Chairperson of the Computer Art Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he has taught innovative computer art courses for over 12 years, and created the BFA program in Computer Art.

Piper Nilsson is a graphic designer and information architect. In her four-year career for a leading Web design agency, she blueprinted sites for such global clients as MetLife, Pepsi, ETS, and Citibank.

Her current projects include building an e-learning prototype for children with learning disabilities and teaching technology in New York City public schools. She received a degree in graphic design from Pratt Institute.

Lynn Kyle is a Web developer and author with many years of industry experience with companies including Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, and Palm. Most recently, she was an Interactive Advertising Engineer at Yahoo!, Inc. where she worked on Flash-based interactive advertisements for the front page of Yahoo from Fortune 50 clients. She has written 6 books and CD-based courses on Flash, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver. The most recent is The Unofficial Guide to Dreamweaver. She is a freelance Web developer and writer, and is currently writing Head First SQL for O'Reilly. She holds a Bachelors degree in Education from Texas State and a Masters of Fine Arts from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Bruce Bicknell is a writer, instructor, illustrator, animator, Web designer, video editor, marketing pro, and graphic designer based in Tampa, Florida. In his career he has worked on projects for Adobe Systems, ATI, Photoshop Elements Techniques, MacTribe, Yellow Machine and Mac Design to name a few. Bruce has degrees in Computer Animation and Web Development from The International Academy of Design and Technology.

Christopher Schmitt is an award-winning Web designer and developer who has been on the Internet since 1992. In 1997 he graduated with a Fine Arts degree with an emphasis on Graphic Design from Florida State University, where he designed the first incarnation of the department's Web site. He has written for Web Techniques, A List Apart, Digital Web, Web Reference, and contributed four chapters to XML, HTML, XHTML Magic.

His latest book, Designing CSS Web Pages, covers contemporary new media design through Cascading Style Sheets, Dynamic HTML, PNG, & SVG.

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. How do I register?
Click on the register button at the top of the page and follow the directions. It is important that you type all your information in the boxes, then print it out to sign.  Payment and sending instructions are in the bottom right corner of the form.

2. How much do the courses cost?
The fee is in the pink box at the top of the page.

3. Can I register for courses if I live outside the United States?
Yes you can!

4. Do I ever have go to the school I register with?
All of our courses are delivered entirely online, so you never have to go to a class or travel to the school.

5. How long does it take to complete a course?
All of our courses are self-paced and open enrollment. You can start and finish the course at your own pace. When you register for a course, you are given 180 days (6 months) to complete the course. If you need more time, extensions are available.

6. Do I have to buy additional materials?
All materials are included. The cost of materials is covered by your tuition. GES ships all materials via UPS ground service upon registration.

7. Can I get financial aid?
GES courses are non-credit courses, so they do not qualify for federal aid. In some states, vocational rehab or workforce development boards will pay for qualified students to take our courses.

• GES provides a loan opportunity for students. Simply go to www.collegeloanapplication.com to apply for an easier qualifying loan at a slightly higher rate. Click here for more information on this loan program.

8. What happens when I complete the course?
Upon successful completion of the course, you will be awarded a certificate of completion from the school with which you registered. You must obtain a final passing grade of 70% or greater to be awarded a certificate.

9. Am I guaranteed a job?
GES courses will provide you with the skills you need to obtain an entry-level position in most cases. We do not provide direct job placement services, but our instructors will help you build your resume and are available to give advice on finding your first job. Instructors will also be available to use as a professional reference upon completion of the course. Potential students should always do research on the job market in their area before registering.

10. Who will be my instructor?
Instant Mentoring enables 24x7 access to certified instructors and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Instructors are Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs), all possessing instructional backgrounds. In addition to providing content expertise, our Mentors facilitate interaction and enhance the overall learning experience.

11. What do I have to have in order to take an online course, and what are the system requirements?
In order to take our online courses, you must have access to a computer and the Internet (a normal dial-up connection is fine). You can access the course contents from any Web-enabled computer. There are no necessary plug-ins. You do not have to use the same computer to log-in to the course every time. We recommend that you have a word-processing program (Microsoft Word is best) and the latest version of Internet Explorer.

12. Can this course be taken on a Mac?
Yes

13. How can I get more information on the course?
All of the information we have is available online under our course catalog (www.gatlineducation.com). If you have questions that are not answered online, please feel free to email us at courseinfo@gatlineducation.com or call 817-870-2870. We will answer your questions promptly.