Final Project

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/cat/cat14/FinalProject/home.html

Web Resources

Disjointed Text Rollovers 
LIghtbox
Highlight Navigation 

 

Portfolio site

Here is my portfolio site in Dreamweaver.  Still figuring out if I want to do thumbnails or a scrolling bar.  Let me know what you think.

Portfolio website

OLA in dreamweaver

Ola

Here it is so far.  I still haven’t figured out how to make the gray nav bar extent to the footer without using a fixed width.  Also, my Spring Office hours runs into the footer.

Articles

Killer Web Content

This article deals with content on the web.  The author says that content on the web must be customer-centric.  Consumers want thing that are to the point and catches their attention.

CSS Cheat Sheets

This article gives you code for different elements on your website such as background color, font, margins, padding, etc.  It is a nice resource to have especially if you want to learn how to learn some basic coding.

How we really use the web

This article dealt with the three “facts of life” about real life web use.  

Fact #1:  We don’t read pages, we scan them.  We scan pages with the exception of news stories, reports, and product descriptions.  We scan web pages because we don’t have time to read everything on the page, we don’t need to read everything because we are only interested in a portion of it, and because we are good at scanning (we’ve been doing it our whole life).  

Fact #2:  We don’t make optimal choices.  We satisfice. When thinking about what users will scan, we have to use the  first reasonable option, or satisficing.  We don’t search for the best choice because we are in a hurry, there isn’t much of a penalty for guessing wrong, weighing options may not improve our chances, and guessing is more fun.  

Fact #3:  We don’t figure out how things work.  We muddle through.  Very few people take time to read instructions, they just figure it out on their own.  We do this because it’s not important to us and when we find something that works, we stick to it.  

I agree with most things in this article.  In today’s world, people are trying to find out information as fast as they can, and don’t want to waste their time.  Clicking on a wrong link isn’t a big deal.  If it leads you to information that isn’t helpful, all you need to do is click the ‘back’ button.  I disagree that we just click anything because guessing is more fun.  Just clicking on anything can waste your time even more.

Articles and Videos

Here are some articles regarding CSS:

Understanding CSS

CSS Page Layout basics

ID and Class Rules

CSS Zen Garden

Videos:

Creating Templates

Using Templates

Ola design in Dreamweaver

ola design

Well, here is what I’ve come up with so far.  Here are some things a had trouble with: lining up the bottom of the side bar with the bottom of the footer, and also aligning the Department bar with the top of the sidebar.