Cheat Your Way To A Fabulous MySpace Design!
October 15, 2008
Writers Online Classes

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.

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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 Player
Homework:  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

Registration Information

This class will be offered at Writers Online Classes starting October 15, 2008. Registration is not yet available. Please check back at the Writers Online Classes website for registration information. Or you can enter your name and email below to be added to my Creative Concepts 101 mailing list and I'll send registration information along when it becomes available.

About the Instructor

Mai Christy Thao is a freelance web and graphic designer. Before leaving the workforce, she worked as a web and graphic designer for an association management company, where her clients 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 digital design (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), to print designs (QuarkXpress, Adobe). Currently she's looking to expand her learning into Flash. Mai is also a freelance writer as welll.

Mai owns her own internet network marketing business and is an affiliate marketer for several Fortune 500 companies. She 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 maichristythao.com or on myspace at www.myspace.com/maichristythao.

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