Teaching - Private Tuition

This course is aimed at absolute beginners. You will learn to build a three page website using computer programs Photoshop and Dreamweaver plus learn how to write web coding language (X)HTML and CSS to WC3 standards. You will also learn promotion and marketing skills for use on the internet with your new website. You will benefit more if you already have Photoshop and Dreamweaver so you can practise outside of the lessons, all though they are not essential.

I have been a web and graphic designer for over five years and have a City and Guilds Level 3 Certificate in delivering learning.

If you are interested in being taught privately please email me from here info@digicooldesigns.co.uk. My fees are £30 an hour. I am also highly skilled in photoshop if you need to learn extra skills in that are area too.

Content:

What makes a good site?

1. Quick intro defining good from bad.
2. Good navigation systems.
3. Resolutions sizes.
4. Importance of title tag.
5. What is Web 2.0?

Know your market – what demographic are you aiming at?

1. Who are your customers?
2. Why should they choose you over another?

Functionality VS Design - usability versus look

1. Visual masterpiece or technically correct?
2. Flash vs static site?
3. Why Flash can be a hindrance?
4. Blending functionality with design and creating the best possible site.

WC3 Standards – standards to work by

1. What are the WC3 standards?
2. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential.
3. Why we should make sites that adhere to their specifications.

Website planning – designing the site

1. Sitting down and planning who you are, what you do and how you want people to understand you through your website.
2. Drawing on sheet of paper the website; the pages, the links etc.

The four section rule

1. The first part of the website. Broken down into four pieces this allows you to see the basic foundations.
3. Navigation bar.
4. Content.
5. Footer.
6. Once established we have an excellent template for almost every site.

The file system – organizing files

1. Creating the initial file structure and understanding URL paths.
2. Where to place HTML and CSS files.
3. Where to place images.
4. Where to place music files.

Using Photoshop to create a mock up to refer to

. The importance of a good idea to work from.
2. Working with Photoshop for the internet.
3. Resolution and pixel dimensions.
4. Tools and typography in Photoshop.
5. Creating image files for the internet.
6. Exporting files.

Shortcut keys

1. Helpful shortcut keys.

What is HTML?

1. HTML, a brief explanation of ‘HyperText MarkUp Language’.

Building a page using HTML

1. Building a page with HTML using the four section rule.
2. What ‘Doctype’ to use.
3. Creating the foundation
4. Declaring the ‘encoding’.
5. Creating a ‘title’.
6. Creating ‘section headers’.
7. Creating new ‘paragraphs’.
8. Naming ‘elements’.
9. Breaking pages into ‘divisions’.
10. Line breaks.
11. Adding comments.
12. Labelling elements.

Saving the page

1. How to save a page.

Editing the page

1. How to edit the page.

What is CSS?

1. What is CSS? A brief explanation of Cascading Style Sheets.

Styling the page using CSS – controlling the look

1. Creating an external style sheet.
2. Constructing a style rule.
3. Constructing selectors.
4. Selecting elements by name.
5. Selecting elements by class or id.
6. Selecting elements by context.
7. Selecting part of an elements.
8. Selecting elements based on attributes.
9. Specifying groups of elements.
10. Font families, setting the size and style.
11. Adding comments.

Adding images (using photoshop) and colour to the page – size and resolution.

1. Photoshop revisited.
2. Creating background images and why?
3. Where to save the files.
4. Adding them to the HTML page.
5. Alt tags.

Creating links to other pages and other sites.

1. Link to other pages within the site.
2. Link to other pages on the internet.
3. Title tags.

Tweaking.

1. Looking at site and addressing any issues.

FTP – File transfer protocol

1. How to get the site onto the net using ‘File Transfer Protocol’.

Let Google know your alive

1. Submitting your site to Google.
2. What Google has to offer for websites.

Marketing

1. Some ideas on internet marketing.

Search Engine Optimization.

1. What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization.
2. The do’s and don’ts.

Myspace, Facebook and other social networks.

1. Using Social Networks to promote yourself.

Hint and tips.

1. Hints and tips and quick re-evaluation of course.