REQUIREMENTS FOR ACTLAB STUDENT WEB PAGES

These requirements are mandatory.  You are responsible for knowing them and for carrying them out.  Failure to do so will result in a failing grade.  You will receive no further reminders.

We will provide whatever tutorials you may need to construct your web site until the date that first web pages are due, two weeks after first project presentations.  No further tutorials will be given after that date.

You may construct your web site by writing it from scratch; by adapting one of the WordPress templates available on the ACTLab server; or by using web construction software such as Dreamweaver, Nvu, Amaya, etc.  Dreamweaver is a commercial product and is available on all ACTLab computers.  Nvu and Amaya are free Open Source products and you can download them to your own laptop.  You may NOT use iWeb.

The entire contents of your web site must be on the ACTLab server, nowhere else.  No external links are permitted, except on the “Links” or “Further information” page if you make one.  You may not link anything to your, or anyone else’s, UT Webspace.  You may freely link to your own pages on the ACTLab site or to other pages on the ACTLab site.

Everything must work.  No broken links, no missing images.

Videos must play in Quicktime or Flash players.  No Windows Media (wmv) files are allowed on your site.  With Quicktime Pro, compress videos using the following default setting (Export: Quicktime to Movie (or whichever format you originally made, I.E. AVI to quicktime), Use: Broadband Medium).

Compress images to jpg set to low quality (20).  In Photoshop, use “Save for Web”.  In Gimp, use “Save image as”, select “JPEG”, click “preview” and visually choose a quality between 20 and 50.  Save as gif only if you require the alpha channel (transparency).  On average, a properly compressed jpg file should be no more than 10-20K in size.

Resize and save images and videos in the screen size you will display them.  A 1024x768 image will still download as 1024x768 even if you tell the browser to display it as 250x120 -- a huge waste of bandwidth that can unacceptably slow your site’s loading time.

All videos and sound files must stream.  This means videos and sounds start to play immediately when the page loads, without having to download the file first.  An exception is that a video or sound need not start instantly if it is embedded in a web page which contains large amounts of text that must be read before watching the video or listening to the sound.  Because the university’s internal bandwidth is so wide, it is impossible to know if your files stream properly if you test them at the university.  Test your streaming files from home.  Be sure to clear your browser cache between tests.  If you don’t, you are merely playing the file out of your computer’s memory, not from the stream.

All pages must have clear, visible navigation tools.  This means buttons, menus or links to the main headings of your site and your home page, plus a link to the ACTLab home page.

You may NOT:

Cause your code to open a new browser window.

Cause your code to resize the browser window.

To upload your files, use Cyberduck for Mac and WinSCP for PC or other programs that support secure file transfer.  The ACTLab server is secure; ftp will not work.

When you complete each phase of your website, email the full url (http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/~youraccountname) to both Joe and Sandy on or before the due date.

Web sites submitted after five p.m. on the due date, or that are incomplete or do not work properly by that time, will be considered late.  A late, incomplete, or broken web site on Project One will reduce your final grade.  Absent dire circumstances such as documented family emergencies, a late, incomplete, or broken web site on Project Two will result in a failing grade.

DUE DATES for Weird Science:  PROJECT ONE:  March 26, 5pm, FINAL PROJECT:  May 18, 5pm

DUE DATES for Dream/Delirium:  PROJECT ONE:  March 24, 5pm, FINAL PROJECT:  May 18, 5pm