Class 7 of 15

Today we will finish up the book. You should have read chapters 1-11 and 13-14.

Chapters 14 and 15 focus on creating layout using CSS, which you already got a taste of from your CSS assignment. Chapter 17 is about designing navigation, which will be important in your redesign assignment.

Speaking of assignments, here are three new ones that are due week two of the class:

1. The divs worksheet will show that you understand how to use CSS to layout a page. It is due 11 p.m. May 31.

2. For the CSS challenge, I give you all the content for a page and you need to design it using ONLY CSS. Your finished design should look as close as possible to the image on the assignment. Here is the assignment and here are the files. It is due at 11 p.m. May 31.

3. Finally, you get to show off what you have learned by redesigning a crappy website. Find an ugly website from a Des Moines company or a company in your hometown. Then redesign the home page and one other page. Tomorrow, I'll give you some tips on what makes good web design that should help with this assignment. Here's the assignment. It's due at 11 p.m. June 5.

Can't find a site? Here are a couple I came across recently that need a facelift: Block Party Studio and Dyamond Forever.

Bring on Wordpress!

Thursday we transition from writing HTML and CSS to starting our Wordpress websites. So start thinking about what you will do with your website. Most students create portfolio websites or blogs, but really you can do anything you want with these sites (within good taste, of course).

Here are the sites from last semester for inspiration. You're going to need to be able to create roughly 10 pages of content for your site, which can consist of blog posts and pages such as your resume and your about me page.

You're also going to need to drive a good amount of traffic to your site in a short amount of time next week (so that you can analyze your traffic), so make sure you are creating content you're willing to share on social media.