Due Date: Friday, August 02, 2024 by Midnight
As you presumably know, I had hoped to make the final assignment involve creating a website for the Langara Film Arts program.
However, for a number of reasons we have not been able to coordinate this between the departments.
For that reason, I have no choice but to present a different final assignment. My apologies for the confusion, but this was not in my control.
These, then, are the final guidelines for your project. This project will be done in groups of two, and will serve as the final project for both WMDD 4835 and 4840.
Team Characteristics
You will work in teams for your project. Each team will have one developer and one designer.
However, in recognition of the fact that there are more designers than developers in the program, some teams can have two designers and no developers.
No team can have two developers.
Content
The subject of your site is up to you. Pick something you are both interested in.
No content can be lorem ipsum. Use real text. This text can come from wikipedia. Or chatgpt.
Any explicitly non-copyrighted source.
If a site does not explicitly allow you to use its text content, you may not use it.
If your text is from wikipedia, clean the text up: don’t include footnotes or links, etc.
Images
Each post must have a feature image. Make sure that you have consistent image dimensions.
Make sure that no images are scaled up.
To minimize file sizes, consider using the webp format for photographs.
Technical Considerations
- You must create your own theme, starting with a blank one from the Create Block Theme plugin.
- Your site must have a logo. It can be created by you, or with AI resources like Adobe Logo Maker. It must, of course, suit the design of the site.
- You must have at least 24 “regular” posts and at least three categories.
- You must have a static front page that includes both static and dynamic content (ie a Query Loop or equivalent).
- That front page content must be in a Page, not in the template itself. It will, in other words, be loaded by a Content block in the front-page template.
- You must use at least one Custom Post Type in your site. I recommend the Custom Post Type UI plugin for this.
- You must use and output at least two Custom Fields. These can be attached to Custom Post Types, regular Posts, or particular categories, etc.
For creating Custom Fields, use the Advanced Custom Fields plugin.
Note: to output Custom Fields you will need to use the Kadence Blocks Pro plugin, which the developer has allowed us to use.
You must agree not to host the site anywhere but the WMDD server (unless you purchase a licence for Kadence Blocks Pro).
You must also agree not to use our academic-use license on any other project.
Theme.JSON Characteristics
- Your site must include and use at least one Google font.
- Your site must turn off the default WordPress color palette.
- Your site must have at least five colors defined. You do not have to use all five in the site, but your theme must make them available for use.
- Your site must turn off the default WordPress gradients
- Your site must have a least two gradients defined. You do not have to use either in the site, but your theme must make them available for use.
- Your site must have have at least five defined font sizes
- Your site must have at least one clamped defined font size.
Most of these settings will require editing of the theme.json file in your theme. With some settings, you can also modify theme.json by making changes in the editor, then saving changes to the theme.
Deployment
The site must be deployed to one of the team member’s accounts on the WMDD Server.
Keep in mind that you have a minimal quota of space on the server, so before deploying this project, delete any projects that are currently deployed there.
Other considerations for keeping within your quota:
- keep image dimensions reasonable: you shouldn’t need images that are wider than 2560px.
- for photos, consider using a file format like webp.
- delete unused plugins and themes, or plugins that are used only occasionally, such as Duplicator or All-In-One WP Migration.
Security
Two Factor Authentication must be enabled for the team members, but a grace period for a third admin account must be set for one month after the project due date.
All Plesk security settings and general security best practices must be followed.
Automated backup to a cloud service must be set up.
Posts must be published from a non-admin account.
FAQs
- Can your project use Patterns? Yes.
- Can your project use videos? Yes.
- Can your project use any of the other blocks in the Kadence Pro plugin? Yes, definitely.
- Can your project use any of the Kadence AI features?
No. We do not have the credits to do that.
Written Documentation
Your team must submit a text document listing the following:
- Team Member Names
- URL of the Site
- The login credentials for the third admin user described above (one for whom the one-month TFA grace period applies).
The document must also list the custom fields created—and where and why they were used.
This document will be called site-documentation.
Each team member must also submit a two-paragraph summary of their own and their partners’ contributions to the project. This document will be called individual-assessment.
What to Hand In
One team member will collect the following:
- the site-documentation document
- a Duplicator archive of the live site (two files: installer.php and zip file with long file name).
Put all three files in a folder named team-member-one–team-member-two–finalproject (no spaces in folder name, please).
Zip that folder, then hand it in to one team member’s hand-in area in WMDD 4840 on Brightspace.
Both team members will also hand in the following
- the individual assessment document
Make sure that this document is zipped and handed in to your own WMDD 4840 hand in area on Brightspace.
If you are doing this project, please do not hand in anything to WMDD 4835.
How You Will Be Marked
The usual considerations will be assessed. These include things like:
- Security: is the site as secure as possible, or could more be done?
- Development considerations such as those listed above
- Performance issues: are image sizes kept reasonable, etc
Design Considerations For Marking:
- Is type readable at all screen sizes?
- Are text line lengths reasonable?
- Does text touch edges of boxes?
- Are the graphic design principles of contrast, white space, repetition, and alignment used to enhance the presentation of the content?
- Does the presentation support the content or distract from it?
- Does the use of color add to the site, or take away from it?
- Are image quality and reasonable file sizes maintained?
- Are “effects” and “showing off” avoided?
- Does the content work at any device size, or are there issues on some?