IS 322 is a Web Development class taught by Dr. Gudea in Fall 2008.
I started the class knowing very little about web design. I expected to be bogged down with learning various web languages and coding but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the class focused on conveying core concepts regarding Web Development. We learned how to evaluate websites and what makes good design and what doesn't. The 3 books that were required for the class 1) Van Duyne, D.K., Landay, J.A., and Hong, J.I. (2006) The Design of Sites: Patterns for reating Winning Web Sites (2nd Ed.), Addison-Wesley, 2) Krug, S. (2005) Don’t Make Me Think (2nd Ed.) and 3) Williams, R. and Tollett, J. (2005) The Non-Designer’s Web Book (3rd Ed.).helped to emphasize what steps should be followed to ensure good website design.
The in-class exercises, group excercises and the books worked in concert to prepare us to for the web design assignment at the end of the class.
My group created a church web site design. We used what we learned over the past weeks to design our site. We were also allowed to add a bit of creativity to some parts of our designs while keeping in scope with the assignment.
Since this class I have been more aware of good and bad design each time I visit a website. I have a higher appreciation for web designers that take the time to put together user friendly and concise web sites.