Cheat Your Way to a Fabulous MYSPACE Design!
 August 15 -  Sept 15, 2008  
$30

INSTRUCTOR: Mai Christy Thao

CLASS DESCRIPTION: This is a 4-week design intensive course that focuses on creating a MySpace page design layout. This class is taught at the beginner level so anyone can create their own design, no matter what level of experience they have with HTML and web designing.  This class will cover the basics of MySpace – what it is, how to sign up for a free account, and navigating your way around MySpace. Students will be taught basic HTML and script writing suitable for creating a personalized, appealing MySpace layout. At the end of the class, students will have a fully functional and personalized MySpace page, the ability to alter/make changes to their layout, and access to a wealth of resources and learning tools available to them via the wide world web. Evaluations will be given to completed sites by the instructor.

Classes will consist of seven lessons and a bonus lesson on blogging. Lessons will be posted on Monday and Wednesday morning of each week. Lessons will be held via a YahooGroups email loop and will also be posted on the class MySpace blog.

Please Note:  This is a design intensive class. This class will not go into depth about the marketing/networking aspect of MySpace. Class participants do not need any graphic/web design background, or HTML knowledge. A graphic/design application (such as Photoshop) is not required, although strongly recommend if you plan to do more design/graphic manipulation to your layout.

INSTRUCTOR BIO: Mai Christy Thao is a full time web and graphic designer for an association management company. The associations she works with range anywhere from the state to international level. She’s worked with a myriad of web and graphic design programs and applications, and is skilled in all aspects of design, from web designing (DreamWeaver, FrontPage, CSS, HTML, Script Writing), to photo and graphic design (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), to print designs (QuarkXpress, Adobe). Currently she’s looking to expand her learning into Flash. She also owns an internet network marketing business and likes to spend whatever free time she has left over devoted to reading and writing. She’s a member of RWA, an American Title finalist, and a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. You can visit her online at http://maichristythao.com  or  http://www.myspace.com/maichristythao  .

COURSE AGENDA

WEEK ONE
Lesson 1
What is MySpace, and How to Set Up Your Free Account and Start Adding Friends
Homework:  Set up your MySpace account and invite/accept classmates as friends.
Lesson 2
Adding Profile Photos and Typing in Your Profile Information
Homework:  Add a photo of yourself and update information in profile section.

WEEK TWO
Lesson 3
Basic HTML for Dummies, and Where to Find Simple Design Ideas on the Internet
Homework:  A) Research MySpace pages you admire and present 1-2 pages stating what in particular you liked about those pages.  B) Start thinking about design concepts and color schemes for your page. Collect photos/graphics if you have any that you’d like to include in your new MySpace design. Visualize how you want your page to look like.
Lesson 4
MySpace Design Part I – Your Site Theme
          A)  Background
                    i.    Image Background or Color Background?
                    ii.   Stationary Background or Non-Stationary?
                    iii.  Adding Background Color/Image to Your Site
          B)  Boxes
                    i.    Solid Boxes or Invisible Boxes?
                    ii.   Borders or No Borders?
          C)  Scroll Bar Color Manipulation
Homework:  Incorporate all these concepts into your page.

WEEK THREE
Lesson 5
MySpace Design Part II – Text and Links
          A)  Text
                    i.    The Different Font Types and Sizes
                    ii.   Header Text and Body Text
                    iii.  Text Color
          B)  Links
                    i.    Link Color
                    ii.   Link Manipulation (underline, size change, stars, etc.)
                    iii.  Adding Images as Links (also includes image rollovers)
Homework:  Incorporate all these concepts into your page.
Lesson 6
MySpace Design Part III – Extras
          A) Image Manipulations
                    i.    Solid, Fading, and Blurry Images
                    ii.   Images Set at a Fixed Size
          B) Hiding Boxes
                    i.    Hiding the Comment Box
                    ii.   Hiding the Friends Box
          C)  Adding Music To Your Page
                    i.    MySpace Media Player
                    ii.   Project PlayerHomework: 
Incorporate all these concepts into your page. Turn in your completed site for evaluation.

WEEK FOUR
Final Lesson
Page Evaluations
Bonus Lesson
The MySpace Blog – Adding Your Design to the Blog