Interactive Design: Lectures and Exercises

28/3/2022 - 18/4/2022 (Week 1-Week 4)

Adeline Wong Chyn Nee / 0344017 / BDCM

Interactive Design

Task 1 / Exercises



Week 01 Lecture: (29, March 2022)

In our first week of lecture, we were introduced to the website and the different types of websites.

What is a Website?
I learned that a website is a web document on the internet with usually one page or more, and each page serves a different purpose for the user.

The Types of Websites
After getting to know the meaning of a website, I learned that there is a variety of them as well. The types of websites are:

    • Informational website

    • Corporate website

    • Portfolio website

    • Brochure website

    • Entertainment website

    • Personal website

    • Educational website

    • E-commerce website

    • Nonprofit website

Lecture exercise:

After the lecture, we were tasked to look for websites on the internet and evaluate them. We would have to explain each website's pros or cons, target audience, goal, and purpose. From this exercise, we would learn to critically evaluate websites based on purpose, design, and usability.



Week 02 Lecture: (5, April 2022)

Web Design and New Media
In week 2, we explored the basis of a web, such as the web standards, how it works, and the structure. We were then introduced to HTML and learned the basic structures and components of HTML.

Web Standards
The standard language used to build a website are called "standard markup languages" and the most common ones are HTML and CSS which we will mostly learn in this course. 

Why?
Having a web standard allows for better development communication and also ensures that all browsers will display your website properly, without time-consuming rewrites.

How?

1) A user connects to the web via an ISP by typing a domain name to visit a site.
2) Your computer then contacts a network of servers called DNS servers.
3) The unique number that the DNS server returns to the computer allows a browser to contact the web server that hosts the website requested.
4) The web server then sends the page you requested back to the web browser.

Web Page Structures

A hierarchy of information will be clearly differentiated with the use of headings and subheadings. A large heading typically starts a document followed by an introduction or the most important information. Texts are separated to give the page structure, and each topic might have a new paragraph and each section can have a heading to describe what it covers

A web page can be created by translating that with the use of HTML. To describe the structure of a web page, code to the words is added to appear on the page. The codes are typically placed in between 2 brackets, the opening tag and the closing tag.

<element>Information</element> 

Attributes

Attributes are added to the opening tag of the element to provide additional information such as name and value, which are separated by an equal sign.

<p lang=“eng-us”>Paragraph in English</p>

Body, Head, and Title

<head>

Placed before the <body> element is the <head>. This part contains information about the page and it's where <title> is placed.

<body>

Placed after the <head> element is the <body> element, everything inside the main browser window are placed here.

<title>

The contents of the <title> element are shown in the browser tab bar.

Headings

There are 6 levels of headings:

Fig. 1.1 Heading examples (taken from lecture slides)

• <h1> main headings

• <h2> subheadings

• If there are further sections under the subheadings then the <h3> element is used and so on...

Paragraphs
The <p> tag is used to create a paragraph by placing the information between the opening and closing tag.

Fig. 1.2 Paragraph examples (taken from lecture slides)

Bold and Italic

By enclosing words in the italic or bold tags, we can make characters appear italic or bold.

 <i> and </i> 

<b> and </b>

Lists
There are two types of lists:

Ordered lists are lists where each item in the list is numbered. A list is a set of steps for a recipe that must be performed in order

Unordered lists are lists that begin with a bullet point

The ordered list is created using the <ol> element and it is paired with <li> in order to complete one.
Fig. 1.3 Ordered list examples (taken from lecture slides)


The unordered list is created using the <ul> element and it is paired with <li> in order to complete one.
Fig. 1.4 Unordered list examples (taken from lecture slides)

Links

Links are created using the <a> element, anything placed between the opening and closing <a> tag is clickable by the user. The href attribute specifies the page that it is linked to.


<a href=“http://www.imdb.com”>IMDB</a>

Week 03 Lecture: (12, April 2022)

Adding images in HTML

The tag <img> is used to add an image in HTML, and it is considered empty until added an attribute.


<scr> specify the location of the image:

<img src=“url”>


An Alt attribute is added to describe the image:

<img src=“img_flower.jpeg” alt=“Flowers in Denmark”>


Adding width and height to the image:

<img src=“img_flower.jpeg” alt=“Flowers in Denmark” width=“500” height=“350”>


Image Format for Web

The 3 most common formats are JPED, PNG, and GIF

• JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group): The most commonly used on the web, it is highly compatible and is mostly small size as it uses lossy compression.

• GIF (Graphics Interchange Format): GIF uses lossless compression and uses an 8-bit lossless format that supports 265 colors, which means it is able to support animated content.

• PNG (Portable Network Graphics): PNG uses lossless compression which allows a full range of colors and it is the most used format on the web as it supports images with transparency.


Extra Markups

A class attribute can be used in HTML to have a way to identify several elements as being different from the rest on the page.

Using a class attribute also does not affect the presentation of an element by default. It will only change its appearance if there is a CSS rule that indicates it should be displayed differently.

Block elements like <h1>, <p>, <ul> and <li> will always start on a new line.

However, inline elements like <b>, <i>, <em>, <a> and <img> will appear on the same line as their neighbouring elements.


Week 04 Lecture: (19, April 2022)

UI vs UX: Their difference

UI refers to the screens, buttons, toggles, icons, and other visual elements that you interact with when using a website, app, or other electronic devices. UX refers to the entire interaction you have with a product, including how you feel about the interaction.

• UX Designers focus on the structure and layout of content, navigation, and how users interact with them.

• UI brings together concepts from interaction design, visual design, and information architecture (IA).


Interface elements

• Input Controls: buttons, text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdown lists, list boxes, toggles, date field

• Navigational Components: breadcrumb, slider, search field, pagination, slider, tags, icons

• Informational Components: tooltips, icons, progress bar, notifications, message boxes, modal windows

• Containers: accordion


Golden Rules of Interface Design

The 5 usability attributes by Nielsen are:

• Ease of Learning

• Efficiency of Use

• Memorability

• Minimize Errors

• Satisfy the User


Introduction to CSS

The Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) allows us to create rules that specify how the content of an element should appear. CSS works side by side with HTML and the rules in CSS govern how the content of specified elements in HTML should be displayed.

There are 2 parts to a CSS: a selector and a declaration

p {

                                font-family: Arial

    }

Selectors: They indicate which element the rule applies to. The same rule can apply to more than one element if you separate the element names with commas.

Declaration: They indicate how the elements referred to in the selector should be styled.


There are 2 parts to a declaration, the property, and the value, which are separated by a colon.

      font-family: Arial;

color: yellow;

Week 05 Lecture: (26, April 2022)

Text Styles

Bold [font-weight]: The font-weight property allows us to create bold text


Italic [font-style]:

There are 3 values of property we can take to create italic texts

- normal-text- to appear normal

- italic-text- to appear italic

- oblique-text- to appear oblique


Uppercase and lowercase [text-transform]:

There are 3 forms of text-transform

- uppercase-text- to appear uppercase

- lowercase-text- to appear lowercase

- capitalize-first- to make the first letter of each word appear capitalized


Underline & Strike [text-decoration]:

There are 4 ways to give decoration to a text

- none- removes any decoration already applied to the text

- underline- adds a line underneath the text

- overline- adds line over the top of the text

- line-through- adds a line through words


Indenting Text [text-indent]:

The text-indent property allows you to indent the first line of text within an element


Drop Shadow [text-shadow]:

The text-shadow property has become commonly used despite lacking support in all browsers. It is used to create a drop shadow, which is a dark version of the word just behind it and slightly offset.

There are three lengths and a color for the drop shadow:

- The first length indicates how far to the left or right the shadow fall

- The second value indicates the distance to the top or bottom the shadow fall

- The third value is optional and specifies the amount of blur that should be applied to the drop shadow

- The fourth value is the color of the drop shadow


CSS Boxes Model

Limiting Width [min-width, max-width]:

Some page designs expand and shrink to fit the size of the user’s screen. Using the min-width or max-width can ensure that the contents of pages are legible.


Limiting Height [min-height, max-height]:

The min-height and max-height can be used to limit the height of boxes on a page.


Overflowing Content [overflow]:

The overflow property tells the browser what to do if the content contained within a box is larger than the box itself.

It can have one of the two values:

- hidden- hides any extra content that does not fit in the box

- scroll- adds a scrollbar to the box so that users can scroll to see the missing content


Border, Margin & Padding

Fig. 1.5 Border, Margin & Padding example (taken from lecture slides)

Border: The border separates the edge of one box from another
Margin: To create a gap between the borders of two adjacent boxes
Padding: the space between the border of a box and any content contained within it

The Display Property

Block-level element: <div> is the standard block-level element. It starts on a new line and stretches out to the left and right as far as it can.

Inline Element: <span> is the standard inline element. It wraps some text inside a paragraph <span> like this </span> without disrupting the flow of that paragraph.


Week 07 Practical Exercise: (10, May 2022)

In week 7, we were introduced to web layout through HTML and CSS. We followed the tutorial during class and attempted to make one of our own too. The PDF below shows the final progress I made during practical class.

Fig. 1.6 Week 7 Exercise HTML and CSS PDF

Netlify link: https://week-7-exercise-practical.netlify.app/




INSTRUCTION:




Exercise 01: (7, April 2022)

In week 2, we were tasked to create a web document based on the content given in Google Classroom. We would have to follow exactly the format as in the given document such as the heading, sub-heading, paragraph, list, and links.

We would have to create the document using Text Edit or Note pad for windows as shown in class. Then when we are done, we are required to upload the web document onto Netlify, which will be demonstrated in the next class.

Fig. 2.1 Given Content for Exercise 1 (PDF)

We are required to create a web page by following the given example, the PDF below is my attempt at the exercise.

Fig. 2.2 Exercise 1 in HTML and CSS (PDF)


Exercise 02: (14, April 2022)

In week 2, we were required to create a single HTML page that contains the content given in Google Classroom. The images provided should be utilized in some sections. In each main section, we would need to include an id attribute that will be later used as an anchor to be linked from the navigation.

We would then have to upload the file onto Netlify upon completion.

Fig. 2.3 Given Content for Exercise 2 (PDF)


We are required to create a web page by following the given example, the PDF below is my attempt at the exercise.


Fig. 2.4 Exercise 2 in HTML and CSS (PDF)


Exercise 3: (11, May 2022)

For this exercise, we are required to create a single web page based on the content given in the link from Google Classroom. We must follow the layout as in the reference given, and use an external CSS file to create the layout as shown in class. 

We are then required to upload the completed work onto Netlify and submit the link in Google Classroom.

Fig. 2.5 Given Content for Exercise 3 (PDF)

We are required to create a web page by following the given example, the PDF below is my attempt at the exercise.

Fig. 2.6 Exercise 3 in HTML and CSS (PDF)





Reference:

C. (2022, May 26). UI vs. UX Design: What’s the Difference? Coursera. https://www.coursera.org/articles/ui-vs-ux-design


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