Select a topic for your Web site

Pick a project that has value beyond the requirements of this course.

• Help market a personal or family business.• Create a portfolio to present work you have done.• Provide information about a club or organization.• Any other topic that you find exciting.

• Notes:In this course you’re going to select a topic (theme) and develop a Web site around that theme. Your Web site can be about almost any topic… as long as it’s not offensive or illegal. When you select your topic try to pick a topic that’s important to you. You are going to put a lot of effort into developing your site. You’ll find it much easier and a lot more exciting if all that effort is going toward a project that has value beyond the requirements of this course. Students have created sites designed to help market a personal or family business, as a portfolio to present their work (design drawings, graphics, poetry, music, etc.), to provide information about a club or organization they are affiliated with, and a host of other topics. Pick a topic that you find exciting enough so that you can see yourself continuing to develop and improve your site long after this course is over.

It can be for you, your employer, a group you belong to, a relative or friend, etc. You can start from scratch or redesign an existing Web site.

Spend some time on this. If you pick a topic you’re really excited about, you’ll find this course a lot more rewarding.

Constraints on your project

Don’t be too ambitious… Don’t choose a project that requires visitors to fill out a

form so that you can collect information which will later be displayed on your site (ex. CraigsList). That would require you to link your pages to a database, a topic covered in other courses.

Don’t pick a project that requires sophisticated use of video and animation. Simple use of video (YouTube) and animation (animated GIFs or simple Flash) is OK. Again, more advanced skills in this area are the subject of other courses.

Begin your Site Design

• Read the first four steps in Strategic Design: 6 Steps For Building Successful Websiteshttp://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/strategic-design-6-steps-for-building-successful-websites/

• Begin the process outlined in the article.• What is the main message and goal for your Web site• Write down everything you know about your audience

(target market).