The Publication Design (PD) project results in a web-based publishing space that will house your publishing team's News Cluster submissions. The PD is challenging because it requires you to consider how the space that houses your published news content connects with visitors and creates a sense of professionalism, authenticity, and authority.
This project requires prototype and final submissions (Version 1, Version 2) by your publishing team. All files are submitted to an Publication Design folder in your shared course space on Dropbox.com.
Each submission stage requires you to submit a memo.
For the full list of core and supporting documents/files, see Submission Requirements.
The PD project presents a design challenge with a different scope than most of the problems you encounter in RPW courses in that it asks you to consider what it means to construct an interactive space for publishing content. Most projects ask you to design a single document or even a series of documents (as is the case for the News Cluster projects that link conceptually and practically to this one). Few projects challenge you to imagine the environment within which those documents are to be encountered. The PD project does just that.
What does it mean to construct a publication space? Publication spaces are the vessels we use to curate content, to publish content for public encounter. Newspapers, magazines, journals, and such are the print versions of these spaces. Their digital parallels include spaces that carry the same names as well as knowledge bases, wikis, thought museums, and more.
Your journey for this project thus begins with developing an understanding of the qualities, characteristics, and features of publication spaces. Given the journalistic context of the course, you'll focus your primary attention on spaces with a journalism focus. However, within that, you may cultivate an atmosphere that suits your vision for the kind of content you choose to write.
Invest time individually and as a team in examining publication spaces in physical and digital formats. Consider the range of decisions that contribute to the effective design and maintenance of these venues: editorial standards for content; aesthetic qualities for the space itself; organization of structures for curating content; navigation of the space; strategies for engaging visitors.
Deliverables: memo, publication space
Document scope: 150 words (memo), variable (refer to specs below)
Project value: 250 points (50 for prototype; 200 for final)
Evaluation rubric: _Eval_PublicationDesign.pdf
Recommended tool(s): Google Sites
This project requires you to work with your publishing team to construct the publication space for the content your team produces for the News Cluster project series. Your collective goal is to design a space that feels like an authentic, professional, journalistic publication.
Your work on Workshop 7 - Working with Google Sites resulted in you constructing an online space where you might publish journalistic content. That news outlet likely lacks refinement and professionalism in one or more ways, but began the process of thinking about what it means to construct a publication space. Once you settle into a publishing team, compare notes on the qualities, characteristics, and features of publications that you had in mind individually.
Remember that one of your general goals here is to design a publication that is thematically appropriate to the content that the whole team plans to publish. Consider ways that such thematic qualities might be evoked through elements such as the publication title, the general aesthetic of the site, and so on. I anticipate that your goals for the publication space will evolve as your sense of the overall project series evolves.
The publication space you construct must curate the content you plan to publish. That makes sense. The challenge for you is to execute a design that serves your publishing needs and your readers equally well.
Your publication must address the following design problems.
A memo of transmittal introduces the accompanying document to its audience(s). You will craft such a memo with each submission for the project. Your memos should be addressed from you to me, and should introduce the accompanying project. Your memos should incorporate the following content elements.
For your prototype submission, your memo should address the following content and design specs.
For your final submission, your memo should address the following content and design specs.
This section is designed to help you anticipate and avoid problems as you work on this project. Therefore, as you work, consider the following hints and tips.
Approach this project as a design strategist. Consider how audience needs and expectations for documents of this type, and how all of the design components coordinate and complement one another. Pay attention to the design specifications you have been given to work with. Because authenticity of experience is a goal for connecting with genre standards, strive to meet the expectations established in the specifications and to craft an authentic trading card design.
Remember that communication in professional and technical contexts values highly the ability to write and speak with economy, directness, and professionalism. Another way of saying this is to make every word count. Stay focused on the details necessary to communicate effectively with your audience(s). Write and rewrite until your textual content makes sense and represents careful, concise, professional communication.
Edit carefully, seeking to express your ideas clearly and concisely. Edit out loud with the intent of writing in such a manner that your sentences sound professional and focused. Work to meet the design specs. Scrutinize your work so it is consistent, professional, and quality. Refine your document continuously throughout the stages of development.
Read and attend carefully to these submission guidelines. Failure to do so may result in points lost on the final evaluation of your project.
Create a folder for this project inside your shared class folder on Dropbox.com. Remember, I can only view files that you place inside the shared folder. Until you place files in that space, you have not in practice submitted them.
Name the folder Publication Design.
Note. Do not share this folder with me. By placing it in your class folder, you have already shared it by default.
Make sure your project memo is available to me in the project folder by the project deadline. Model your filename on the listed examples:
Note. Do not share the individual files with me. By placing them in your project folder, you have already shared them by default.
Make sure the memos for both submission stages are available to me in the project folder by the project deadline. Model your filename on the listed examples:
Note. Again, do not share the individual files with me. By placing them in your project folder, you have already shared them by default.
This section describes the standards by which your prototype and final submissions will be evaluated.
There are 50 possible points for the prototype stage of this project. You will earn points according to the following standard.
The final project submission is worth 200 possible points. You will earn points according to the standard described on the policies page (see Policies for a description of these categories).
The specific areas of emphasis for the RPWC project are drawn from this description and our discussions of the project (including the supporting teaching materials that I provide to you along the way). Review the project rubric (_Eval_PublicationDesign.pdf) for the specific qualities and characteristics emphasized in each evaluation category.
Remember that I will only post the point values for projects on the Grades page in SVSU Canvas. I will provide the supporting details relevant to that evaluation in your class folder in a project-specific file. Look for a Microsoft Word file in your shared class space on Dropbox with a filename that that follows this pattern:
YourPublicationName_Eval_PublicationDesign.docx.
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