Portfolio Assignments

Completed Final Project
The process of planning, proposing, and then launching a prototype Web site for peer review was a tremendous learning experience. See for yourself how the final version of my Final Project Web site turned out.

Final Project Prototype
Triumph and heartache. My Final Project Prototype turned out a bit clunkier than I had hoped for, and the peer review proved very useful in pointing out areas for improvement. Back to the texbook, class tutorials, and Lynda.com to try to sort out numerous issues.

Final Project Proposal
The exercise of creating a Final Project Proposal was a very useful peek into the business side of Web design. Fleshing out the user profiles and project plan, and testing my artistic abilities creating a site sketch, will undoubtedly pay dividends on the completed Web site.

Rollover Button Lab
Dreamweaver continues to impress with how relatively easy it is to create Javascript and CSS rollover buttons.

Hobby Site Project
Another cool project and a chance to test just how far over my head I could get while constructing a mock-up home page for a fictitious hobby company. Lessons learned: 1) Start earlier. 2) Stop procrastinating. 3) Practice most of the book lessons again. The Hobby Site home page project was challenging and instructive.

Graphics Project
Give a person a logo and they'll be happy until a new CEO wants to change the corporate image. Teach a person to design his own Web site logo and he'll work late into the night tweaking and fiddling graphics, altering colors, resizing, and endlessly worrying about resolution. Designing a Web site logo and buttons for the Graphics Project was an exercise in PhotoShop/Illustrator mania, and was extremely rewarding.

Image Lab
So that's what the Optimize and Photoshop (or Fireworks) buttons are for! Completing the Image Lab was extremely useful considering that I had been hopping in and out of Dreamweaver to do the same tasks.

CSS Layout Lab
Fun CSS layouts and divs are my new BFFs. I managed to overlook the CSS Layout Lab on the schedule and didn't get to it until a bit later. You pay the piper when you don't pay attention.

Tables Lab
When all else fails, at least you have tables.

Course Portfolio
So here we are. The textbooks and instruction have been outstanding. Hopefully enough of Reed's, Krug's and Chow's instruction sinks in.

Practice Lab 6
This exercise offered a chance to learn a bit about embedded and external style sheets. After completing Practice Lab 6 it appeared that navigating through CSS might not be as bad as I had heard... how quickly things changed.

Practice Lab 5
More fun with linking pages to images and to each other. In Practice Lab 5 I also explored the property inspector panel to change heading styles, link properties, and background color.

Practice Lab 4
Brimming with confidence after the second quiz, creating a few new pages for Practice Lab 4 was easy enough. I practiced adding images (complete with Alt. label) and setting up links, and learned about DOCTYPE, line breaks, meta tags and keywords.

Design Overview
The Design Overview Essay was a very instructive assignment. I learned a significant amount while researching various topics for my essay, and from reading submissions from other students.

Dreamweaver Site Management
Pretty easy and straightforward in retrospect, but it did take me a couple of tries to reliably get through the Site Management procedures.

Hand Coded HTML Page
Just like taking a foriegn language class, CIS-212 students plunged right into the language of the Net with the Hand Coded HTML Page assignment. (OK, maybe "plunge" is a bit of an overstatement: With the step-by-step guide that was provided, it was more like we dipped our toe in a heated kiddie pool while wearing a life-vest and inflatable arm floaties.) My sense of accomplishment was diminished not one jot and I sustained a nasty rotator cuff injury giving myself a hardy pat on the back after the page loaded.

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