Web Design and Development Fundamentals

Course details

The aim of this module is to provide learners with a sound understanding of the core concepts central to web design/development and their subsequent application through technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. In addition to equipping students with the skills necessary to design and publish content on the worldwide web, the module will also focus on typical web design/development workflows and will expose learners to a suite of tools and processes for robust development and testing of web-based material. The module also aims to instil good design principles/practices and a critical awareness of web-based content. On completion of this module the learner will:

1. Have a sound understanding of how the World Wide Web works and of the various processes / principles involved in developing web-based material.
2. Understand how the 3 layers present in web-based material work together to provide content (HTML) with styling, presentation (CSS) and interactivity (JavaScript).
3. Be capable of demonstrating learned processes and scripting languages and to develop and test robust, semantically sound and fully interactive web-based material in an effective manner.

Entry Requirement

• No prerequisites apart from basic computing skills.

Examinations

• No examinations. Ongoing assessment will take place during the programme

Course Content

• The Internet and Web Design/Development: Fundamental concepts.
• HTML: Semantic mark-up, structure of a HTML document, core HTML elements, URLs, HTML attributes, working with images and HTML5 video + audio elements.
• CSS: CSS and HTML, external, internal and inline CSS, CSS selectors, the box model, CSS3 animations + transitions.
• JavaScript / jQuery - Basic DOM manipulation and animation: Core JavaScript concepts: variables, operators, statements, functions, types. What is the DOM, events, introduction to the jQuery API, using jQuery selectors, method chaining, jQuery plugins.