Three designed objects

For each week of this course, you will get a coursework sheet (.pdf) with details of the tasks to be completed before the following week. In most weeks, you are asked to do some contextual reading, to write and publish a blog entry and to progress your Three Designed Objects website. Additional details will be given during the taught sessions.

Schedule

Work in progress review: weekly
Submission date: Friday, 17th November 2023

Deliverables

A four page website with one homepage and three internal pages (one for each object). Each page should include navigation that allows the user to link to any other of the four pages. The homepage is a general introduction/overview. Each object page must include:

• A text description of the object and an explanation as to why you think this is a good design (approximately 200 words for each object). The text must be original and written in your own words. Text copied from elsewhere or generated by AI is not acceptable.
• One or more original images of each object, taken by you, using a phone or camera. Found or AI generated images are not acceptable.

Your mini-site should be styled using a single CSS style file and the design should be distinctive and appropriate.

You must link to the project homepage from your coursework homepage. Be sure to work through the checklist below before completing your submitted work.

Checklist

These are the things you should do before submitting your work.

1. Validate your code (both HTML and CSS).
2. Ensure your code is lean, consistently formatted and clearly commented.
3. Check that the semantics and structure of your HTML are logical and consistent. Pay special attention to heading levels.
4. Ensure you are using the Meyer reset for CSS.
5. Optimise your images (file size, image size and image quality).
6. Check your file and folder management – filenames and folder names should be descriptive, all lower case, no spaces. Folder structure should be logical.
7. Check all your links and make sure navigation works as expected.
8. Ensure the visual design shows attention to detail, especially typography. Think about font choice, line height, use of whitespace etc.
9. Check that the link to your work from your coursework homepage is working.
10. Read the requirements above and ensure you have done everything you need to do before the submission deadline.

Small business website

You will design and produce a simple website for a small business concern. This project will give you the opportunity to implement some of the techniques and design ideas you have developed during the first part of the course. This project will be used to help demonstrate some of the issues involved with the development of small websites including: the design process, colour and typography, site structure and navigation, standards compliant and semantic coding. You will also need to consider your clients needs and the needs of their business. The full brief is given below.

Deliverables

1. A website designed for a small business, in accordance with the project brief, and linked to from your coursework homepage. See the project brief for full details.
2. A short (approx. 500 words), reflective account of your design process posted as a WordPress post and linked to from your coursework homepage.

Schedule

Initial ideas and client meeting (roll play): 15th November 2023
Work in progress review: 13th December 2023
Interim crit: 17th January 2024
Submission date: Friday, 2nd February 2024

Submission checklist

These are the things you should do before submitting your work.

1. Validate your code (both HTML and CSS).
2. Ensure your code is lean, consistently formatted and clearly commented.
3. Check that the semantics and structure of your HTML are logical and consistent. Pay special attention to heading levels.
4. Ensure you are using an appropriate CSS reset (e.g. Meyer).
5. Optimise your images (file size, image size and image quality).
6. Check your file and folder management – filenames and folder names should be descriptive, all lower case, no spaces. Folder structure should be logical.
7. Check all your links and make sure navigation works as expected.
8. Ensure the visual design shows attention to detail, especially typography. Think about font choice, line height, use of whitespace etc.
9. Ensure that your branding design and use of colour is appropriate for this business.
10. Check that all the information a visitor may need is included on the site and is easily findable.
11. Check that your responsive page layout works from the narrowest to the widest of viewport widths.
12. Check that the links to your work from your coursework homepage is working.
13. Read the requirements above and ensure you have done everything you need to do before the submission deadline.

Assessment criteria

This project is worth 70% of the total module mark (30% for the Three Designed Objects project). This assessment is weighted towards the technical aspects of your Small Business Website project but also includes assessment of your interface design. The weighting is approximately 60/40. See the submission checklist above for details.