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Calendar/Schedule

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Lecture Notes

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Projects

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Resources

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Student Work

Art 344B Projects

Web Artist/Developer Research Paper, Flowchart & Presentation

Part One: Research Paper

Locate a Web artist or Web designer/developer to research for this paper. No online artist portfolios please! Reseach subjects should be Web artists using the Internet as their medium of expression or interactive studios that develop sites for clients. See Resources for subject suggestions. Your paper will be a typed, 1000 word, double-spaced paper describing their work, techniques, conceptual philosophy, client list, etc. Explain why you were attracted to their work and how it relates to your own interests. Please list word count on paper.

Select and critique one of their client/art projects in detail as a case study (text should be 1/4 to a 1/3 of your paper). Provide printed examples of their work as well as an url list. You will give an oral presentation of your paper to the class. There are four parts to this assignment to complete.

Hint: You may be able to contact the developer via email to ask them some questions regarding their work. Add this to your paper!

Part Two: Information Architecture Outline (separate from paper listed above)

In outline, bulleted form answer the following quetions about the site you have chosen.

Define the target audience: (specify all)

• Age group of intended audience
• Platform (Mac or PC or both)
• Anticipated browser and version
• Technical ability: experienced or non-experienced user
• Hardware set-up: high-end or older low-end model, monitor resolution, color depth
• Connection: dial-up or high-bandwidth connection
• You may also want to define your audience by age, gender, etc.

Define the site’s navigation strategy:

• Where is the site navigation on the screen? (top nav, left-hand nav, pull-down list or combination).
• Does the navigation involve interactivity and if so, how?
• Is navigation graphic-based, html-based or a combination of both?
• How does the navigation system translate page to page? Is it consistent or does it change from page to page? If so, define the changes (color variations, new images, etc.)

Other considerations:

• Is the site graphic-driven or text-driven? Or a combination of both?
• How is the screen layout organized? In two equal sections? In thirds? Vertical or horizontal orientation?
• What plug-ins or media does the site require? (i.e. Flash, Quicktime Video, VRML, RealAudio, etc.)

Part Three: Graphic Flowchart

Finally, you will create in Illustrator a graphic flowchart that shows the site's architecture. Click the link above for an example.

Part Four: Presentation

See calendar for due dates.