If you haven't looked at the course overview or met me (Kirk) yet, check out the course overview. The material for this course was created by Artie Kuhn. For this class, I have decided to remove most of the online discussion portion of this class so when Artie refers to this in his videos, you can disregard it. I want us to be engaged as a class and want you to be able share your ideas in a less rigid way than having required blog-type posts with required feedback. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with that, but I would like to see how it works out in a less structured way. Ultimately I want you to be able to create well designed dynamic web pages using PHP and a database that will use Responsive Design (i.e. mobile friendly). Watch the following two videos introducing the course and walking you through the syllabus.
Next, watch the HTML and CSS refresher video below. Note: If you're not comfortable with HTML and CSS, this might not be the class for you. Reach out to me if you think you're in this camp, we might be able to work something out.
Expanding on this, here's a brief refresher on HTML forms.
The files for both of these are available to be downloaded.
If you're not comfortable with basic, traditional design principles like color, type and layout, you may find these lectures from my IMS254 course helpful. Note, if you are comfortable with these, you can skip these (although it never hurts to get a refresher).
This class is about advanced interaction design. Design has grown up and transformed in the last century. It started out as a craft of just doing (being able to typeset and whatnot) and has grown up into a way of doing and thinking. Read an article about the role of design today. Consider if you agree that design is a liberal art (something that exists across multiple disciplines) and consider if interaction design is any way more "liberal art" than previous forms of design.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-kolko/design-liberal-art_b_2427295.html