Welcome to Class

Welcome to our Web design studio with Dreamweaver. I have been using Dreamweaver CS4 for many years to support Web page development for multiple clients and am excited to explore CS6 with you via interactive learning. I am excited to share enthusiasm for Web page design in general, but want to balance our classroom learning between old reliable CS4 features (as made available in CS6), learning new CS6 features that represent improvements in interface design and access to facilities to implement new design ideas for Web page evolution in general, and learning enough HTML, XHTML, and CSS to help make sense of the Dreamweaver interface since the interface more transparently informs you of specific HTML and CSS features as you use the software.

Web page design technologies and methodologies have grown significantly since the humble beginnings of HTML 1.0 that I used in 1993 to deliver content to my first client — a technical recruiting organization in Seattle, Washington. Web browsing technology has continued to evolve since my first use of the Mosaic browser back then (a browser supported by your taxpayer money through coordinated development at the University of Illinois main campus). Those days were so exciting for me since I saw a pathway to providing computer-mediated communications to the world effectively. I had been working for corporate clients implementing proprietary solutions on private telecommunications networks. That involved a lot of travel (26 cities in 18 months) and required the installation of the networking hardware and software from scratch as telephone lines were not used for computer networking solutions back then (and that was the only wire that passed bits in the office before our arrival).

After using Lotus Notes and Powerbuilder for corporate clients, I used a program called Hot Dog to provide a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) preview of the HTML-based Web pages I created. It was developed by technical geeks with very little concern about graphic arts and electronic publishing — the Web was supposed to be about information sharing via a shared information architecture. Attractive presentation was a secondary interest (I can't even assure it was a concern to those of us back then as I don't remember it being so to me). Get the information in the hands of needy users who could flatten organizational hierarchies and empower new careers that had been held down by the militaristic design of our companies and schools — that was my goal, at least!

Imagine my education in graphic design and human vanity that very quickly accelerated as I got invited to participate in corporate Web site planning retreats and received stipends to teach corporate clients through a fantastic teaching methodology provided by IBM's training elite. Fast forward to twenty years later I have the distinct honor to facilitate learning among a fascinating crop of RISD students with the ideal workstation at my fingertips. It has been quite a wonderful ride and I appreciate you all educating me through your life trajectories as I do my best to facilitate your learning.

I will let the Web speak for itself. We can surf the Web together and identify good design as a team. We can focus on good interactivity and good experiences for the audience. I will provide technical details from a historical perspective (since that's my forte having lived through it) which should help you buy into the status quo. History also teaches us how the status quo doesn't last long on the Web. Flattening hierarchies of human thought means there is more open competition and experiential suggestion in the Web consumers and producers (we can aim to be both as good world citizens) who iterate the status quo based on needs and wants.

You'll learn two of the most important concepts of Web page design as they are enabled today: The class which lets us name a grouping of design elements for reuse across elements in a Web page or across multiple Web pages; and the id which lets us self-document Web page components for their purpose and associated design elements. As a quick rote piece of knowledge you can carry with you in class, remember that classes are associated with the period (.) symbol and ids are associated with the hashtag symbol (#), also known as the pound or crosshatch symbol. The word class in our HTML code will identify the content element that matches with the CSS code's design element identified with a period. The word id in our HTML code will identify the content element that matches with the CSS code's design element identified with a hashtag. The label you use for that association is up to you — choose wisely based on convention and self-documentation. For example, a id="nav" association with #nav suggests design of a navigation element on a Web page whereby nav is a conventional label for that association (based on the whole of Web design and developer's use).

The class and id structure in our Web page code is managed tightly in the Dreamweaver interface, primarily though the Properties panel that appears at the bottom of the interface by default. We will start there and then build up our understanding of Web page design process from there. We will give homage to the highly successful emergence of HTML 5 since HTML 5 does what we want it to do — take emerging conventions in designer use and codify them in a specification that can be implemented in Web browsers (since we are highly dependent on the browser manufacturers providing proper rendering of our code for presentation).

Welcome to the community of Web designers and developers. Dreamweaver is the market leader in providing software to us in aiding our process. If you can envision the crux of the process without a Dreamweaver dependency, you'll be better off as the Web rushes off to its next temporary equilibrium. We aren't sitting tight in a place of safety as designers but instead are rolling along with the punches of a highly dynamic process. The more agile and nimble we stay, the more we can take advantages of new opportunities. As you do, you make my twenty year jump on your learning obsolete. That's the beauty of this domain. It's there for the taking. Take all you need but give back as you do. Participate in our class Forum as a representation of your commitment to sharing as a way to build win-win relationships on-line. I'll see you in there. Have a great class!