Welcome to the Next Layer
You know how to design and build sites with HTML (structure) and CSS (style). Pages that look right. Layouts that hold together.
But they don’t do anything yet. What’s missing is behavior.
This quarter, you add the nervous system—the layer that senses a click, responds to a scroll, remembers a preference. The layer that makes the difference between a static page and an experience.
You will learn JavaScript the way designers need it.
Behavior first. Syntax second.
“How should this feel?” before “How do I code this?”
This is not computer science. It’s Interaction Design, where code is the material we use to shape experience.
Weekly Curriculum
What is JavaScript, and how do I talk to a web page?
How does it adapt to me?
How does it adapt to me?
How does an interface remember what a user asked it to do?
What happens when I interact?
What's the story you want to tell, and what does it look like?
What happens when the page moves with you?
Can your story work before JavaScript starts moving it?
How does scroll become your storytelling medium?
What separates good from great?
Can you explain what you built and why?
Course Projects
Project 1: Signal + State
Weeks 1-3Theme system, persistence, user preferences, accessibility.
Project 2: Lost in the Scroll
Weeks 5-9Scrollytelling narrative from blueprint to final deployed experience.
Resources
Quick Actions
Essential Tools
Reference
Course Philosophy & Protocol
Sense. Respond. Adapt.
You already know structure. You already know style. This course adds the third layer: behavior. Code is treated as a creative material.
The question is not just "what syntax do I use?" It's "how should this feel?"
The Interaction Designer
Timing, feedback, state, motion, user respect.
The Behavioral Coder
Events, DOM, animation systems, preference APIs.
The Protocol
"I will design behavior, not just apply effects.
I will ask 'how should this feel?' before 'how do I code this?'
When I use AI, I will understand what it generates.
I will respect user preferences and build for everyone.
I will develop my creative voice through code.
I will make things that respond with intent."