Introduction to the Module
This week's lecture introduced the DES511 module, hereforeafter referred to as 511.
In this short, but informative session we provided an overview of the module, outlining the deliverables: a Research Diary; a Live Project; and a Major Project Proposal.
This Week's Recommended Book
Written by the final year design tutors, HTML and CSS Web Standards Solutions - A Web Standardistas' Approach will teach you how to build future-proof web pages the right way, using easy to master tools, which are all available for free.
Regardless of your computing platform — Mac OS, Windows or Linux — it recommends the right tool for the job. Step-by-step it covers how to construct well-structured HTML pages and how to apply layout and style to these pages using CSS.
Homework
As covered during the lecture, this week's homework was quite simple. All we asked is that you email a plain text document with the following details:
- Your Name
- A 50 Word Pen Portrait (50! Maximum! Not 100!)
- Three Prospective Projects (Title, Brief Description, Pros and Cons)
- Five Inspiring Websites
To give you some inspiration we've included a couple of homework examples from our 2007/08 cohort. Both, as it happens, did find employment at Design by Front. You might wish to refer to these to get an idea of what we're looking for:
As we mentioned during the lecture, at this point we're looking for a plain text file. We are not looking for a web page. It is the content we're interested in, please give some thought to that content. You may choose to submit the plain text file unformatted or, the more adventurous amongst you might wish to go the extra mile and submit the plain text file formatted using Markdown. Examples of both follow:
You can read more about Markdown at John Gruber's excellent Daring Fireball.
Email the file to: chris [dot] murphy [at] ulster.ac.uk
Subject Line: 511 - Ronald McDonald
Replace Ronald McDonald with your own name (unless your name is Ronald McDonald).
Deadline: 10.00 am, 5 October, 2011.
Accurate Citation
During the lecture we stressed the importance of citing your references properly. As we discussed, copying and pasting wholesale from other web sites does not constitute research. Where you have referenced another web site or a book, please clearly list your sources using Harvard Referencing. David Turner's ReferenceIt is a useful tool for this purpose.
We take citation very seriously. Where text has been copied and pasted from another web site, please ensure it's obvious that this text is quoted (consider the visual styling so that this is clear) and cite your source clearly. Failure to do so may result in an accusation of plagiarism which has serious consequences.