Web Design & Development Unit

This unit introduces the modern context of web design and development, the core development technologies and standards and design methods that cater for different current platforms.

The key theme of the unit is the efficient design and development of effective and robust website for the range of popular platforms using the most modern technologies and techniques.

In the last few weeks I learnt how to design basic web layout using cascade styling sheet, different HTML elements and their use within a web document such as header, link, anchor tag, img, unordered lists, nav, article, section, aside, table and footer. I also studied different techniques to create navigation menues and the importance of designing responsive web content by the use of media queries

The topic I enjoyed learning most was CSS3 animation and all the possibilities it offers regarding change of elements property from one CSS style to another.

In my opinion I have learnt many important concept of web design and development and I am starting to put these into practice. I find the lab session useful and easy to follow, lecturers are keen to give support. Overall I am really happy with this unit and my learning curve.

Information Systems Unit

This unit studies a variety of computer-based systems designed to aid management staff in decision making, evaluation and analyzing data within large organization. The management information system relies on a number of devices such as hardware resources and dedicated software like databases and project management applications.(Source: www.webopedia.com)

During the academic year I will examine business activities supported by information systems including case studies, e-commerce, management information, privacy. Through the study and implementation of UML, ERDs, SQL and normalization I will gain an insight into systems analysis and design techniques.

So far I learnt about the business environment, system development life cycle: traditional system development versus SDLC waterfall model, use case diagrams, data modelling and entity relationship diagram. I found these topics interesting, particularly the data modelling and ERDs and how I can use these tools to determine what data is relevant to the design of information systems.

I have to admit I was not confortable with the first activities of the unit, particularly the presentation tasks. In the comming weeks I will invest more time in preparing presentation in my own spare time.