Week 7: Boostrap Workshop, Plus a Taste of Tables

Weekly Updates

Now that our first exam is behind us (hooray!), we can shift our focus back to the Website Modernization Project. Based on the very small number of you who successfully completed the Week 6 homework assignment, it’s clear that most of you have some catching up to do, and that needs to happen this week. So…

If you haven’t completed the following tasks already, please do so before we meet on Monday:

  • Select a “client” for the Unit #2 project and claim that business or organization in our class’s shared Google Drive folder. (Look for the “Potential Clients for Unit #2″ file.) If you have an idea for this project that isn’t on the “pre-approved” list, contact me via email. Only six of you have finalized your clients for this project, which means that the other nine of you are a week behind schedule.
  • Carefully review your client’s site and start thinking about how you might reorganize the site, revise the content, and reimagine the visual design.
  • Get comfortable with Bootstrap. I know this stuff is complicated, but there are plenty of resources online to help you. I suggest reading (or re-reading) the “Getting started” and “CSS” sections on the Bootstrap site, then moving on to video tutorials if you’re feeling lost. There is a video series on YouTube called “Learn Twitter Bootstrap in 2 Hours,” and four different Bootstrap-related courses on Lynda.com (just search for “Bootstrap”), any of which will help you get up to speed before class on Monday.

Here’s a quick overview of how we’ll spend our time in class:

  • On Monday, we will quickly review the results of the first exam, then we will spend the rest of class working with Bootstrap. Before you come to class, please review Chapter 16 in Learning Web Design, focusing specifically on grids, fluid layouts, and elastic layout. If you weren’t able to complete the Week 6 homework during Week 6, give it another shot and bring your files to class.
  • On Wednesday we will hop in our time machine and visit web design’s former best friend: the table. Today, table-based layouts are widely considered verboten, but you shouldn’t leave this class without understanding why good designers don’t use them anymore and, more importantly, how to use them effectively for displaying tabular data. Please read Chapter 8 in Learning Web Design and “Bring on the Tables,” by Roger Johansson, before you come to class. (When you get to class, download the files for our in-class workshop.)

As you can see, both of our class sessions will be packed next week, so much of your work on the Website Modernization Project will need to take place outside of class. If you have fallen behind on this project, or if you’re feeling confused at any point along the way, please come see me during office hours (T 1–4, W 9–12) to get some help on your project. If you’d like to reserve a specific time to meet with me, just drop me a line.