PROJECT 3
Restaurant web site
For this project you will be redesigning one restaurant web site for either Citrus, CityFish, Beefy King or Virgin Olive Market. You will select one of the four restaurant websites to work from and use for your project. You can pull the copy directly from the existing website to begin redesigning for the new site and give the site a fresh new look - it should not have any graphical elements remaining from the old web site, with the exception of the logo/photos. However, you are permitted to revise or update the logo as well. Construct the site based on a minimum of six pages and MUST INCLUDE: Home, Menu, and Reservations/Order page. You will need to incorporate @font-face for your headings in the site and implement a CSS3 technique such as border-radius, text-shadow, etc.
Research & Planning
Complete the research & planning portion of the project:
- Process Books: You must complete a process book for this website that you will work on throughout the project. You will post your initial research, sitemap and wireframes/roughs.
- Research: Research examples of good design - get inspired! A minimum of five examples of research must be posted before the initial design critique. Design examples are not limited to Web design. Your Process Book MUST be provided in webCT under Project 3 Discussions. Make comments on the Process Book progress you provide.. Write what you feel about the design is strong. All research must be good design examples, and not just examples of web sites similar to the project topic.
*How to take a screenshot
Mac Users - CMD + Shift + 3 will enable you to capture an image of your entire screen
CMD + Shift + 4 will cause a crosshair will appear on your screen that will allow you to drag across a specified area of your screen you wish to capture an image of. Once complete a pdf will appear on your desktop.
PC Users - A Print Window key on your keyboard may be used to copy an image of your screen to your clipboard. Once complete, simply open an image editing program, open a new file, paste the screenshot into the new file and save your file. - Wireframes: You must complete a wireframe of your website (minimum 6 pages). All wireframe screens can be created on the computer and should indicate your overall organization of graphical elements. Include in your wireframes design considerations such as typography, graphical elements, motion, etc. Your wireframes should include consideration for navigational elements. Think about not only how the navigation is placed but also think about functionality & usability. Post your wireframes in a post on webCT under Project 3 Discussions. More information on wireframes here and here.
- Site Map: Although the site we are designing is rather simple, please create a basic site map including all pages of the navigation as well as appropriate links. Each page will represent a rectangle in your site map, with links to other pages connected via lines. This site map can either be hand drawn or created on the computer. Additionally the site map should clearly outline the information and content that is planned for each page.
Comprehensive Designs
Once these initial steps have been completed, you are ready to mock up your site design. You may use Photoshop (or your design program of choice) to create your comprehensive designs. Your designs comps should closely resemble your plans for your final functional design. It should be work you'd be proud to show a client. For this project you are to propose a minimum of two concepts for the home page and two concepts for a sub page (menu) (4 pages total). You may design your comps for a monitor that is up to 1024px wide. However, when designing your comps, this time you MUST increase your canvas size to 1200px x 1000px so we can visualize your intentions for the background of the web page AND so we can see how you intent to use additional content. In other words, we DON'T just want to see a paragraph on each page. Be sure to keep in mind the top fold of your page. You must ftp your design comps by the project design comp due date. Keep in mind the following web design factors when designing your project:
- Color scheme
- Typography
- Style & Use of imagery/graphics
- Top fold - Ensure the important elements (logo, navigation, calls to action, etc.) are in the top 350-450px of the page
- Navigation - is it usable? Have you considered rollover effects?
- Content Organization. Group relevant topics together, use columns rather than having one huge body of text.
- Text. Text areas generally should never be longer than 365px wide. (Line length article: Web style guide) Use headings & subheadings to help emphasize areas of interest.
- You must present your menu page as a concept.
- Target audience
- Concept - the "idea" behind your design.
- Print style sheet design. You will place an emphasis on ensuring a print style sheet is created for the menu page.
-
to recieve the full credit for concepts you must present both a home page and menu page design comp of each concept. The comps for concept 1 & 2 should be different concepts
Technical Requirements
You must demonstrate your proficiency with Dreamweaver, XHTML & CSS during this project. Keep in mind the following guidelines prior to uploading your projects:
- Your site must contain a minimum of six pages.
- Name your HTML files and images descriptively.
- Your home page must be named "index.html".
- Use all lowercase letters for naming, and avoid special characters and spaces (except for hyphens and underscores, which are OK).
- File optimization. (appropriate file size, file format, & image quality)
- Put your images in an /images/ subfolder to keep your site organized.
- Check all your links and pages to ensure they work correctly before you are done.
- All pages should have descriptive page titles
- All images must have alt tags and height/width declared
- CSS Navigation w/ rollovers (no javascript rollovers).
- Correct use of html/css syntax
- Proper use and set up of CSS Positioning
- Use at least one CSS3 technique
- Use @font-face in your website
- The site must demonstrate proper CSS formatting. Name all CSS rules (NO .style1, .style2, .style3)
- Validate your entire web site with w3.org
- For this web site you must create a print style sheet which prints and looks professional when printed. Print a copy of the menu page that has a decent amount of content to show your efforts.
- Use proper organizational methods in your html & css. Optimize/Shorthand your CSS to reduce CSS code.
- Your host directory for this project is p3
| Deadlines | (60 pts) | ||
Process Book/Research |
|||
| Design Considerations | (70 pts) | ||
Design Improvements |
|||
| File Organization | (30 pts) | ||
| Proper naming conventions | (15 pts) | ||
| File organization (separate directories for assets, images, css) | (15 pts) | ||
| File Optimization | (25 pts) | ||
| Appropriate file size, file format, image quality | |||
| Technical Considerations | (95 pts) | ||
Site contains a minimum of six pages |
|||
| Presentation | (20 pts) | ||
FTP site (Do NOT FTP source files (photoshop, illustrator, flash) |
|||
| Total: | (300 pts) | ||