CS033b - Multimedia and Communications

Major Assignment

Due: Tuesday, December 4, 2007 by Noon

Worth 25%

Overview:

You are to create an on-line resume for prospective employers to view directly on the Internet. This means that you are to create a professional looking website that follows the criteria listed below. You are free to tailor your resume to meet a certain position that you are applying for or types of positions that anticipate applying for when you leave Western.

Note: If you are uncomfortable posting information about yourself online, you may use a fictional name.

Design Criteria:

The on-line resume website must include:

• Animation: Add a component of animation
  
  
• A Video Clip: Tailor it to your needs to portray your personality. Some ideas: think of what you have done, what’s important to you. It could be career-oriented, about your family or your favourite sports, travel you have done, your hobbies. For example, you consider yourself an artist, you might take several scan in pictures of your paintings, then put them in movie maker, put some transitions between the images, add some sound and convert this to a small movie
  
  
• Sound: You must have sound as part of your video clip. If you want to use sound in any other additional way, then go ahead and use it.

Build a website with the following criteria:

1. Web pages:
   • Home page plus at least four additional web pages
   • Use your creativity to layout your resume with unique link categories based on your personal experiences. For ideas: think of how a resume is layed out, think of what you would include in a cover letter)
   • You decide on content organization and create the link categories you feel are appropriate
   • Create the banners, buttons, layout. YOU MUST PROVIDE US WITH THE NATIVE FILES EVEN FOR the banner and buttons, i.e. you must upload not only the .jpg/gif files but also the .psd files.
     
     
2. Table structure: Your web pages should use a table set up (not cascading styles sheets, we did not cover CSS in class) with a fixed width of 780 pixels wide. You can definitely use more than one table to help you lay out your web pages as shown in the lectures.
   
   
3. Navigational structure (i.e. links and link layout): Remember to be consistent on each page and make sure your links are easy to navigate through your entire website not just the home page.
   
   
4. References: Set up a link off the homepage where you link to the References web page and place all your references of where you obtained any graphics you did not create yourself, and/or if you obtained any content from another site, you must include references for that content, you should also credit any sound/movie clips used. NOTE YOU MUST ALSO INCLUDE REFERENCES TO YOUR ORIGINAL NATIVE FILES. FOLLOW THE FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS TO GIVE US ACCESS TO YOUR NATIVE FILES:
   1. Create a sub folder within the folder called major. This folder must be called originals (all lowercase). Thus you will now have a link called http://publish.gaul.csd.uwo.ca/userid/major/originals
   2. Move all of your Photoshop native files, (i.e., all the files that end with the extension .psd), into the folder called originals. NOTE: Remember that the P: drive is VERY VERY case sensitive, so we recommend naming ALL you .psd files with lowercase file names AND with NO SPACES in the filename, thus, a good file name would be homepagebanner.psd and a bad file name would be HomePage Banner Copy.psd
   3. Now, double check that you did the copy correctly by seeing if the links work to your psd files. You check your links by opening Internet Explorer and typing in the following address: http://publish.gaul.csd.uwo.ca/userid/major/originals/filename.psd. Thus, using the above example, for user jsmith34, the valid address would be: http://publish.gaul.csd.uwo.ca/jsmith34/major/originals/homepagebanner.psd. MAKE SURE THAT THERE IS A WORKING LINK FOR EACH PSD FILE!
   4. Copy the working address for each .psd file INTO YOUR REFERENCES WEBPAGE. There MUST be a link in your references page for each of the psd files you created for your resume website.
   5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 above for all Flash native files you have created. Flash native files have the extension .fla
   6. Repeat steps 2 to 4 above for all Microsoft Movie Maker native files you have created. Movie Maker native files have the extension .mswmm
   7. Repeat steps 2 to 4 above for all Audicity native files you have created. Audacity native files have the extension .aup
      

Be creative but don't forget to be professional also!

Marking Scheme:

Based on what you have learned from your labs, put together a professional website that uses different Dreamweaver attributes (list, bookmarks, tables, links, buttons, text formatting etc) to effectively create a professional looking website that provides a potential employer with all the necessary information that shows your qualifications/skills that they may be interested in.

Use your creativity and go beyond providing a standard resume structure.

Below is the list of criteria to be used for marking purposes.

Criteria:

• Layout and Some Basic Instructions:
  • The top level folder MUST be called major (all lower case).
  • Your home page MUST be called index.html (all lower case). Thus, eventually, when you copy your final product on to a lab machine in MC230 or MC235 your home page would be found in P:\major\index.html
  • ALL of you images and additional web pages must be UNDER the folder major, i.e. must be contained in the folder major or in sub folders of the folder major
  • Outer table size must be 780 pixels wide on the home page. Use as many rows as you need to set up your layout and as many tables required to achieve the look.
  • The site must have at least five web pages, one of which must be the home page
  • Each page in the site must be laid out nicely, i.e. clean, not crowded, not cluttered
  • All web page file names must be lowercase with NO spaces in them.
    
    
• Color creativity: As with every other assignment in CS033, you must use the colors in your assignment in a creative, clean, professional manner. I.e. the colors must be consistent within each web page and within the site, flow nicely and complement the overall look of your website.
  
  
• Images:
  • Use images effectively through out your website to enhance the theme and visual appeal of your website
  • Use professional, crisp images only
    
    
• You must show instances of the following items used in an appropriate manner:
  • Navigational Links
  • Banner (780 width)
  • Links: You must have one of each type as listed: text links, e-mail links, hotspots, link(s) pointing to your files within your site, link(s) to a website on the Internet
  • Structured List (ordered or unordered )
  • Bookmarks
    
    
• Text formatting:
  • Appropriate use of headings, font size, font type
  • Appropriate text emphasis
    
    
• Animation:
  • Must be viewable
  • Must be smooth, not jerky
  • Must be used in an appropriate manner (i.e. it must fit in with your resume, or add some sort of visual appeal to your resume)
    
    
• Video Clip:
  • Must be professional and appropriate
  • Must use effective transitions
  • Must contain music
    
    
• Sound:
  • You must have sound as part of your video clip
  • You must be able to hear it once added to website
    
    
• Technical:
  • Files must work properly and be viewable from your Publish area
  • File must be well organized within the site
  • Follow the Website Criteria on the course on the website. Also appended to the end of this document, is a checklist for building a website properly.
  • References to extra material that you included in your website must be cited (provide website address of extra material) and there must be working links to all the native files you created (.psd, .mswmm, .aud, .fla) This is like a bibliography for any work you reference. You will receive an automatic 0 if the references page is not included or the references for your native files are missing..
  • Submission form needed (automatic 0 if missing) Click here for the submission form
    

Handing In Your Major Assignment:

You must use your lab machines (in Middlesex College, room 230 or room 235) to hand in your assignment. In order to hand in your major assignment, perform the following steps:

1. Log onto a machine in MC 230 or MC 235
   
   
2. Make sure your entire website is stored in a folder called major. The major folder must contain a file called index.html The index.html file must be your home page and all your other files and other sub folders must be inside major in a well organized manner. THE FOLDER NAME major MUST BE ALL LOWER CASE. THE index.html FILE NAME MUST BE ALL LOWER CASE.
   
   
3. Copy the folder major, including ALL of it's contents, to the P: directory on your Middlesex College lab machine. To see the P: drive, just open Windows Explorer (or explore My Documents) and look at the drop down box. You should see the P: drive there as shown in this image:
   
   
   
   
   
4. Double check in Internet Explorer or Fire fox that your website in major is on the internet by typing the following web address: http://publish.gaul.csd.uwo.ca/courser/major. For example: if your username was reid, you would type: http://publish.gaul.csd.uwo.ca/reid/major/ This should bring up your home page in index.html. If it doesn't, you have done something wrong, try again or contact your professor.
   
   
   
5. Now you must prepare your files to submit to webct.
   • In notepad (or some other simple text editor) create a file called uwouseraccountmajor.txt, make sure the name of the file is all lowercase. For example, if your name were John Smith and your UWO user account was jsmith34, then you would create a file called jsmith34major.txt
     
     
   • Inside the uwouseraccountassignment3.txt, list the following:
     • the web address (include the http://) of where your home page can be viewed
     • For example: if your name was John Smith and your UWO user account was jsmith34, then here is a possible jsmith34major.txt file:
       
       

       http://publish.gaul.csd.uwo.ca/jsmith34/major/

       
       
   • NOTE: you don't need to put references in the above txt file this time because you have included the references in one of your web pages.
     
     
   • Go into http://webct.uwo.ca and upload and submit the following files:
     • uwouseraccountmajor.txt (if you fail to submit this file, you will receive an automatic ZERO, the time stamp on this file and the time you uploaded your files to major will be used to decide on the punctuality of your assignment)
     • a COMPLETED submission form named: uwouseraccount_submissionform_major4.doc The form can be found at http://www.csd.uwo.ca/courses/CS033a/assignments/submissionform_major4.doc Open the .doc file, read it, fill it in, resave the file with the following file name: uwouseraccount_submissionform_major4.doc. (if you fail to provide this file, you will receive an automatic ZERO)
       

Dreamweaver Website Tips:

A lot of the following concepts have been presented during the lectures and used in your lab tutorials, remember to think about them when designing your website :-)