Level 1 Task

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Category: Level 1, Portfolio 1 (Basic HTML, CSS)
Published: Monday, 07 December 2020 13:10
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Portfolio One: web design and development, problem solving, communication, and Software Engineering

All of this portfolio piece is individual work. 

In this portfolio, we are assessing the skills you have developed so far in the following areas: 

  • Understanding of standards, formats and tools used in the design of information, multimedia and web-based systems
  • Recognition of the need for adaptable approaches to problem solving
  • Ability to specify and contextualize a problem and communicate effectively an appropriate solution to a range of audiences
  • Use of software engineering techniques to design, code, test and evaluate a range of software solutions 
  1. Problem Context

There has been much reporting in the media in recent years about young people’s apathy towards politics and exercising their right to vote. The Scottish Independence referendum, the Brexit referendum, and the recent general election have however seen an upturn in youth engagement. This article, written in May 2017, was a call to action in relation to the general election that was about to happen https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/22/young-people-vote-british-politics-parties

(Reading this article may give you some useful background knowledge for what you are about to think about and do this week. The website that you did a PACT and Heuristic Inspection of last week is also useful preparation - voting counts.org.uk) 

Soon there will be local elections right across the country. Now is your opportunity to make an impact where you live – in the City of Funderland. 

Task

You have been tasked with making a website for a political party of your own devising (with a focus on galvanising young people and in particular at local government/local community level).

Your political party will uphold ideals of your choosing: eco-focused, left wing, centrist, right wing, or devolution-orientated. Bear in mind what we have discussed in terms of ethics and professionalism, and be aware that you are required to work under the university’s IT acceptable use policy which you can access here. Note in particular under internet unacceptable use:

  • 3.4 Use, transmission, duplication, or voluntary receipt of material that infringes on the copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, or patent rights of any person or organisation. All users must assume that all materials on the Internet are copyright and/or patented unless specific notices state otherwise.
  • 3.6. Creation, posting, transmission, or voluntary receipt of any unlawful, offensive, libellous, threatening, harassing material, including but not limited to comments based on race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or political beliefs.  
  1. Requirements gathering, analysis and specification

The context given above is as much information as you have been given. You know that the focus is on attracting young people to politics and that making an impact in the local community is very important. Therefore you need to gather further information to help you decide how best to solve the problem. You do not have access to anyone to interview. It is suggested that you:

a. Look at the following and make notes about what you think is useful to know, what may help in your design, what may provide some useful contentfor your website (remember to pay close attention to any issues of copyright in gathering your materials):

https://www.local.gov.uk/

The local government association website – in particular you may be interested in the ‘Topics’ menu 

https://www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2012/apr/11/local-government-2020-challenges-opportunities 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40244905 

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/2016-election-social-media-ruining-politics-213104 

https://www.thoughtco.com/how-social-media-has-changed-politics-3367534 

https://www.nfer.ac.uk/research/projects/cels-cit/CIVTA3.pdf 

http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/ 

Remember that these are just suggestions and they may or may not appeal to you, so you should also spend time finding other sources you find useful. 

b. Do a heuristic inspection of the following website which may have a similar remit to the one you have been tasked to create: 

https://www.greenparty.org.uk/ 

c. Do a PACT analysis for the website you are about to make. 

Submit b) and c) by 8pm Tuesday.  

  1. Building the website

Your web site must be created using validHTML and CSS. The design should use HTML 5 and CSS3 layout constructs, and should be based on the interim analysis and specification you submit on Tuesday.  It must contain:

  • 1 external Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)
  • Sevenpages that you have written (not copied and pasted from the web):
    • Home
    • About the party/its manifesto
    • Membership benefits and costs
    • 3 additional pages on key issues the party will tackle in the City of Funderland
      • Homelessness
      • Mental Health
      • Topic of your choice
    • The 7th page should be a reference page to the materials you have used to create your website e.g. book references and URLs of where you obtained graphics used in your site 
  • Appropriate titles using appropriate heading elements
  • Suitable graphics created or modified in Adobe Photoshop
  • Appropriate layout and format of HTML elements. E.g. headings, paragraphs, lists etc
  • Each page must contain comments explaining what the HTML and CSS does  
  1. Professional Practice

You are required to keep a daily log which not only records what you have done but includes thoughts about how you are understanding what you are doing – how well or poorly the process is going; what you are understanding or not understanding; how you plan to make further progress; anything that might hinder your progress. This is in line with how business and industry expect graduates to act in their employment. There are questions or prompts to guide you in your thinking and these follow the format that computing professionals use when they are developing using an Agile approach called SCRUM. You will find the template for this at the end of this document. You must complete one at the end of each day’s work in preparation for the next, up to the final day i.e. Monday to Thursday inclusive (4 logs).  You must upload each one to your eportfolio by 8pm each day. 

  1. What to Hand-in, where and when 

Everything is submitted in CANVAS.

In your ePortfolio, on the page called First Year Assessmentsyou must add a new page called Professional Practice Week 1.  All of the documentation should be uploaded there as PDF or Word files.

In addition to the documentation, there should be a URL link to your website which will be hosted onfas-web.sunderland.ac.uk (you have practiced doing this in the tutorials).

The documentation we are expecting you to upload is as follows:

  • Monday 30thOctober by 8pm - Upload your day 1 Professional Practice Week log to your PPW1 section of your First Year Assessment page in your eportfolio.
  • Tuesday 31st October by 8pm –
    • Upload your day 2 Professional Practice Week log to your PPW1 section of your First Year Assessment page in your eportfolio.
    • Upload your Heuristic Inspection and PACTto your PPW1 section of your First Year Assessment page in your eportfolio.
  • Wednesday 1stNovember by 8pm - Upload your day 3 Professional Practice Week log to your PPW1 section of your First Year Assessment page in your eportfolio.
  • Thursday 2ndNovember by 8pm - Upload your final (day 4) Professional Practice Week log to your PPW1 section of your First Year Assessment page in your eportfolio.
  • Friday 3rdNovember by 8pm – Upload a link to your website toyour PPW1 section of your First Year Assessment page in your eportfolio. 

Once submitted via CANVAS, you must not make any further changes to your web site.