GRC 339: Assignments

Digital magazine: visual language

Read the comments for the previous assignments.


Tasks

  1. Keep the same website structure. (Same two pages.)

  2. Keep the same page layout structure.

  3. For the navigation, keep 5–8 items that would make sense with your magazine.

  4. Have actual content. (You may copy from somewhere or even use ChatGPT if you want.) No more filler text.

  5. Find nice images. (Make sure to check the alt attributes.)

  6. Add the colors from your color palette. (Yes, it is ok to change your mind, just make decisions consciously.)

  7. Add your type families from Adobe Fonts to your website.

  8. Design a (simple) logo. Or use the one you’re using in GRC 440. Make sure it’s an SVG file.


Evaluation

Penalties in the list of easy mistakes to avoid are 20 points now. Three or more mistakes is an automatic zero, with no further comments. There’s no reason not to avoid all of them, though.

Beyond your technical skills on the HTML and CSS files, you will be evaluated on your capacity to apply the design principles that we have discussed in class to your work, using the rubric below.

Rubric

Other principles, such as Recognition over recall, Errors, Forgiveness, and especially Accessibility must be taken in consideration, but they are covered by other principles and/or by the HTML/CSS part of the evaluation.


Tips

  1. If you’re adding more classes, try to reuse classes for consistency.

  2. Don’t rewrite all the properties for an element on its declaration in the media query. Write only what changes in bigger sizes.

  3. Make sure to use appropriate, semantic class names.

  4. Use proper headings for headings, proper paragraph tags for each paragraph, appropriate list and list items tags for the lists, etc.

  5. Make sure to use appropriate, semantic property values in your CSS.

  6. Don’t forget to test in different screen sizes.

  7. Make sure to include the <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> tag in your HTML to have your page rendering correctly on mobile phones.

  8. Make sure to avoid the simple mistakes. Each mistake from the list of simple mistakes to avoid will be a 20‑point penalty. Three or more mistakes is an automatic zero, with no further comments. It’s easy to avoid them all, though.

  9. Don’t change the hierarchy of your HTML based on how the pages render on the browser. “I don’t like the bullets” is not a good reason not to use lists or list items; you can style the bullets out in CSS. “I want the navigation to be bigger” is not a good reason to make them headings; again, just style it in CSS.


Submission

  1. You don’t have to submit anything on Canvas.

  2. Go to your grc339/digital-magazine/ folder in your public repository on GitHub. 

  3. Upload your HTML files (index.html, mainstory.html) to your GitHub repository. 

  4. Upload your CSS file.

  5. Upload all your image files too. Don’t forget your logo.

  6. Click on your name to check if it’s working.

Check Canvas for deadlines.