[February 22, 2006]

Middle Tennessee State U. students form Web design team

(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)MURFREESBORO, Tenn., Feb 22, 2006 (Sidelines, U-WIRE via COMTEX) --A new Web design team called W3, a group allowing Middle Tennessee State University students to gain experience in Web site and graphic design, is having contest for students to design their logo.

The winner will be decided Feb. 22 and although there is no monetary prize, the logo will be displayed on posters, banners, and press releases to raise awareness of the group.

The student-run group has already started discussing future projects during weekly meetings held Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m.

W3 plans to volunteer services to clients that need help designing or maintaining a web site, which would allow students to apply what they have learned.

"I learn entirely through experience, not through reading or hearing," said W3 founding member Marcus Snyder.

Snyder, who started learning Web design 10 years ago, said, "What I'm trying to do now is be able to apply that to something as opposed to just doing it on my own."

"I definitely want to be pro-active," he said. "We're actually talking to some people about possible projects."

The group plans to concentrate initially on university related web sites such as campus organizations or departments, Snyder said.

"Some of the different department Web sites you can tell are thrown together really quickly just for the purpose of having a Web site," he said. "No one has taken the time to properly do it. 'Here's a link, here's a link;' its not very clean and really very bland to look at."

"There are some ugly Web sites on our campus [homepage]," Snyder said in reference to more than a hundred organizations, clubs and departmental Web sites linked to the MTSU home page, some of which are not updated for six months at a time.

MTSU's home page Web designer, Professor Randy Livingston, serves as the W3 faculty sponsor. He said the multitude of information the site must deal with is one reason why some of the university-related departmental, organizational and club web sites are not better designed and maintained.

"In this digital age we live in it becomes less of a problem to seek out information, and more a problem of having too much," Livingston said. "How we organize all of this information is really the only way to solve it and that's what is done in web design."

Livingston said people are getting their information from the Internet more than ever and anyone seeking to create media of any type must get past the obstacle of learning web design.

"I think W3 is a great way to help students that are interested in web design learn about it even if they've never done it before," Livingston said.

Anyone interested in learning Web design may find themselves on level ground with experienced students. Most of the Web design classes use Macintosh computers so even the founding members are learning something new.

"Some of us are just trying to learn ourselves," said W3 founding member Amanda McClellan.

"I worked with Macs a little bit, but mostly it was a whole new world for me," McClellan said. "[The] programs are so much more intricate when switching between Indesign and Photoshop;" two programs frequently used by designers.

McClellan said she has little experience in Web design, a subject she became interested in after taking an Internet promotions class.

Joining W3 will allow her to learn more about Web design, which is essential to her as a recording industry major with a minor in Public Relations, McClellan said.

"If an artist doesn't have a web site, its almost like they don't exist," McClellan said. "You can't even find a list of show they are playing."

The group wants anyone interested in joining W3 to know that they understand the lack of time that is often associated with a college life style.

"We want it to be at your own pace, learning a little bit when you can," she said.

"If it ends up just being the three founding members that are able to work on projects full time and help others learn Web design, then that's OK," Snyder said. "Personally I don't have a lot of time but this is my passion."

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