Designing Effective Websites

Master the basics of web design and learn to build sites that are better and more effective. This course provides powerful graphic design techniques that will help your site stand-out from all the others.

Details
Syllabus
Requirements
Instructor
Reviews

Enrollment Options

$170.00

Instructor-Moderated

6 Weeks Access

Study online with Instructor moderated discussion boards.

Select Course Start Date:

October 16, 2024

November 13, 2024

December 18, 2024

January 15, 2025

Select a Start Date

$170.00

Instructor-Moderated

Select a Start Date

Details

These days, creating a website is so easy almost anyone can do it. But with all the competition on the web, creating a site that's effective is more challenging than ever. Regardless of your current skills or level of knowledge, in this course you'll master the basics of web design and learn how to build sites that are better and more effective.

You'll examine the tension between form and function, explore the six major states of the website development process, and learn the basics of user-centered design. You'll also look at the five basic steps to organizing information, find out how site design themes can be used for information delivery, and review website design considerations. Along the way, you'll learn about effective type and graphics and explore the idea of making a website fully interactive. This course is a must for web designers, giving the tips and tools that will help them establish a solid career.

Syllabus

Lesson 1 - Form Versus Function

This course is different from most web creation courses you'll find because it's not designed to teach you the mechanics of creating a web page or how to use a particular software program. Instead, it's designed to help you take your website creations to the next level by enhancing both design and functionality. You'll discover what attracts visitors to a website, and how to use design tools such as typography, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and multimedia to captivate visitors and keep them coming back.

Lesson 2 - Website Planning Process

Visitors are attracted by good design, but content is what keeps them at the site longer and motivates them to return. Learn how to use two tools to attract and retain visitors: design critiques and a content inventory. Explore the six major development stages that yield expert design and smart content. Then study the three parts of web design and the skills you'll need for each.

Lesson 3 - Interface Design

By now, you probably understand that an interface is the screen visitors see and use when they visit any page of your site. Designing an interface is easy. Designing an effective interface, however, is more challenging. There are four main elements that you'll need to consider to make your site user-centric: usability, visualization, functionality, and accessibility. Explore each of these elements to see the thought that goes into effective interface design.

Lesson 4 - Site Structure

Even if your basic content is accurate, attractive, and well written, your site won't function well without a solid and logical organizational foundation. Review the five basic steps involved in organizing information and four essential structures that you can use to build a website. Then learn how to create a flowchart for the pages you want to include on your site.

Lesson 5 - Site Design

Websites exist to inform, educate, persuade, or entertain. Take this opportunity to concentrate on site design themes that pay attention to information delivery. Learn how to organize elements in order to enable visitors to accomplish their own goals. Explore usability, content, and design.

Lesson 6 - Page Design

Discover how you can use visual and graphic design, page layout, and grids to take your designs to the next level. At the same time, become familiar with design considerations like visual hierarchy, page dimensions, and white space.

Lesson 7 - Typography on the Web

Typography plays a dual role by providing both verbal and visual communication. Almost any type of font will do to transmit information to others. But to convey the right type of mood along with the information takes a special type and color of font. Learn all the secrets here!

Lesson 8 - CSS and Font Embedding

Find out how you can use Cascading Style Sheets to modify fonts. Become familiar with inline, document-level, and external (linked) style sheets, and learn how to create an external CSS file to control the formatting of any or all pages on your site. You'll also take a look at some early font embedding techniques and explore two popular Flash-related options currently in use.

Lesson 9 - Writing for the Web

Before you write for the web, you should take the time to understand how people read online. Become familiar with the use of titles, headlines, and subheads to assist readers in navigating your site. Discover the advantages of using a web content management system. Learn how you can communicate more easily and informally with web visitors by adding a blog to your site.

Lesson 10 - Images, Colors, and Layers

You can use images to add interest to your site and to help with navigation. Early designers were limited graphically by HTML attributes, and later designers discovered they could use tables to place images. Today's designers also use CSS to add styles to their text and images. As fun as CSS can be, you also have to take accessibility into account so that users with older browsers or screen readers can still navigate your website.

Lesson 11 - CSS Positioning: More Layers

The combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript allows you to create intensely interactive web applications similar to any game or presentation built with traditional programming languages. This interaction of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is known as Dynamic HTML or DHTML. Become familiar with the basics of DHTML, including code you can use to enhance your designs by adding layers to your pages.

Lesson 12 - Web 2.0 and Beyond

Early websites were created by a few to be read by many. Over the years, developers added interactivity to websites through discussion forums, chat rooms, and shopping carts. These features are part of what might be called "web 1.0". Today the focus has shifted from the sponsor of the site to the visitor, and sites like Flickr and YouTube are popular. They're examples of web 2.0 sites. Examine several popular web 2.0 sites, and take a look ahead to web 3.0.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

Completion of Creating Web Pages (or equivalent HTML or web authoring tool experience).

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
An imaging program, such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, is recommended (not included in enrollment).
A web page authoring tool, such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Web, is recommended (not included in enrollment).
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Instructor

Richard Blum

Richard Blum has been an IT industry professional for over 20 years, working mainly as a network and systems administrator. During this time, he has worked with Microsoft, Novell, Unix, and Linux servers, and has created websites using a variety of different programming languages. Blum is the author of several programming and systems administration books, including Professional Assembly Language, C# Network Programming, PostgreSQL 8 for Windows, Sendmail for Linux, Postfix, and Network Performance Open Source Toolkit.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Reviews

Excellent course. I liked using a restaurant as a model and designing a web page - I learned a great deal about site design and am beginning the design of another site.

Thank you so much for the great information and advice given in this class. It was very helpful and I'm sure it will help me start my own business in web design. It will take awhile to take in all that we have covered but I'm sure my new business will be underway soon.

The course material was and will be very useful to me. It answered a lot of my questions, introduced me to new web page development methods, and provided good material for use as I work to improve the web site that I helped build and help maintain.

This course was extremely helpful to my pursuit of web design knowledge, on many levels, especially organization and development, which I came to discover are just as important as technical issues!

What a great learning experience! My instructor was great. I was able to complete the class without missing any important part of my life. I am convinced that online learning is the new classroom for busy individuals. I just wish I had took the advice of my daughter and started sooner. I do not have one complaint. It was a great learning experience for this 56 year old lady. Thanks for having this at my disposal.

You have been extremely "hands on" with us, a wealth of info and very pleasant. You always answer promptly and personally. For the first time, I've felt like part of a class even though I'm alone here at my computer. You made me feel comfortable to ask anything and as often as I needed.