CIS-72A Course Launching Pad
Thanks for dropping in! This site, built by your instructor Scott McLeod, is your main source of information and resources for the course. From this launching point, you can jump to all relevant course documents and Web sites using the menu. Strap on your helmet and jump at your own risk.
Course News
- Assignments are due at the start of class stapled together with printouts in the proper order as indicated in the assignment steps.
- Late assignments can be turned in to the MLK-219 CIS computer lab front desk (ask for a time stamp and leave it with the instructor there to place in your instructor's folder.)
Look for more course news frequently. It is your responsibility to check this area for course related news. The types of news that might be posted here include a correction to the instructions of a current assignment, a change to the syllabus' weekly class calendar, or a change to your instructor's office hours or lab hours.
Please email your instructor with any assignment related issues that might need correcting or clarifying so this info can be posted here.
What is Extreme Web Design?
Does extreme Web design mean you adopt an attitude, throw caution to the wind, and just go for it, like when Travis Pastrana landed his jaw-dropping, death defying double back flip at Moto X Games 12?
Well, sort of. You see before Travis launched that crazy stunt for all to see, he had actually practiced it a few times before and carefully planned and tested things out. And before you launch your Web sites for all to see, you need to plan and test things too. Like making sure your design that looks so sweet at 1024x768 doesn't fall flat on its face at 800x600. And like taking that layout that catches big air in Firefox and testing it in IE to see if it crashes. And like always validating your XHTML and CSS code and making sure your pages are accessible so everyone can enjoy them in all their glory. Isn't that a little extreme? Exactly!
Oh and by the way, a little attitude never hurts either, so with all that in mind, expect more, explore beyond, exceed limits, and go for it! Be an extremist!
About this Site's Design
This site consists of XHTML, CSS, Graphics, and JavaScript. Dreamweaver was used to build most of the coding. Photoshop was used to create all of the graphics. JavaScript was used to create the menu system and to randomly choose one of the many banner images across the top of the page (refresh the page or revisit later to see this in action). But is the site an example of extreme Web design?
This design was focused on looking good at various screen resolutions without requiring a horizontal scroll bar or loss of meaningful content even at 800x600 while rewarding those at higher resolutions with more eye candy. Try it at 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024 to see the effect. The main content remains at a fixed width (760px) but more of the background image on the right hand side of the page is exposed -- this image is rather large in physical size yet small in file size. Also of interest are that the multi-column layout is accomplished without the use of any tables (just good clean CSS) and that the menu is nothing but a large unordered list of links. The design holds up in all major recent browsers and can withstand a variety of text size adjustments. My XHTML and CSS validates. (The menu CSS validates except for a few necessary hacks that help certain browsers display the menu correctly but throw off the validator.) And it is fully accessible too, having passed Section 508 and WAI compliance tests. How extreme!
