New Blogs!

Welcome to Stephanie's original blog for for the University of Washington course for the Department of Communication degree in Master of Communication in Digital Media.

Visit all of Stephanie’s school blogs at Blogger, Vox and Wordpress .

"User Friendly?" - Design should NOT be complicated - Geek Squad to the rescue!

View at YouTube early premonitions of computer Help Desk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pyjRj3UMRM



Is it the machine, design, or the human?

Team 3 Meeting Notes

Team 3 wiki

Next meeting - Friday March 2: Chloe, Luke, Tony, Stephanie meet 4pm, Luke will meet up at 6pm, Kristina at work.

Tuesday Feruary 26 continued discussion of wireframe and deliverables - see wiki.

Tuesday February 20 made draft wireframe, continue working on deliverables - see wiki.

Sunday February 18 5pm via IM Discussed design ideas and deliverables - see wiki.

Tuesday February 13 Discussed and distributed assignments - see wiki for details.

Tuesday February 6
Audience and contributors - college students and exceptional high school students. Goals, what do we really want to provide? Content sections: opinion, school papers (e.g. take a media law class and post course work on site for others to learn from your research). Determining success: if we're profitable as a nonprofit! (raise money for scholarships, potential publishing contact, solicited advertising), number of readership/visitors, usability, original content (not available), Interaction/incentives: -best paper gets published or wins a scholarship prize - similar to http://www.threadless.com/ -multimedia (e.g. podcast, video) not limited to written Real-life events Tone of site feel/branding: formal and edgy, youthful (college), academic yet human and interesting (not boring!), credible! Next meeting…figure out exactly what our next moves are and goal.

Sunday February 4 via IM
Kristina set up our group wiki – http://theyown.pbwiki.com/• Project Idea – a resource page for students who are interested in media careers with content accepted from students. • Class presentation – discussed readings and assigned who will present what on Tuesday February 6 (meet before class).

Tuesday January 30
Established point of contact (Stephanie) and shared contact info. • Discussed Team Roles – consensus was to have people assigned to three plus roles based on interest with one main person/ manager for each role. • Handouts – reviewed individually and together. • Viewed websites where people submit stories; they are a webmaster: http://english.ohmynews.com/index.asp http://www.fark.com/

Week 8 -- Applicable Technologies

---
Everyone:Web Redesign, Chapter 6, Phase 4 : Production and QA (eReserve)
---

Finally, the production phase! Production is easy one only needs to “create a website that looks and works the same for every user.” No worries, no need for the big team, everything is simplified…wrong! Just when you thought it was almost complete, you have to deal with code, web standards, templates, and again the favorite term “usability.” The goal is ironically to be simple and straightforward so get in gear with the production team needed for all the testing ahead.

Phase 4 stresses the importance of setting HTML guidelines and Quality Assurance (QA).

HTML guidelines: Avoid “duplication of effort; code each HTML page only once.” Remember, “the first HTML template sets the standard for globals such as navigation; table structure; HTML font usage; ALT, COMMENT, and TITLE tag treatments; and so on.” HTML is the base; each site feature requires some technical specification. Part of planning for successful, timely, project completion includes addressing this in the design.

QA: Preventative trial and error behind the scenes before the big launch. Provided the budget allows, extensive test planning is recommended. One has to make sure the website works for all platforms such MAC, WIN, UNIX etc. or browsers including AOL, Firefox, IE, Netscape, Opera etc. (universal web standards and less choice are sounding pretty good right now…someone needs to dictate computer code to the world…maybe not). Using bug tracking tools to help identify and fix bugs are advised.

Following the planning advice in Phase 4 promotes ultimate website happiness – a bug free, aesthetic, user friendly site!

Week 7 -- Color and Typography

---
Everyone: Web ReDesign 2.0: Chapter 5, Design Visual Interface ;
Aesthetic Experience and the Importance of Visual Composition in Information Design ;
Web 2.0: Mistaking the Forest for the Trees? ;
Give Customers Short Paths To What They Want, a Gartner Report (eReserve)
---

Web 2.0 is about all about the USER! Putting them in control so that they are satisfied and the purpose and popularity of a site is also satisfied.

In Mistaking the Forest for the Trees, Tim O’Reilly’s definition is quoted:
Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.

Greenzweig’s article on Aesthetic Experience emphasizes the connections between aesthetics & information content, and text & image. Both are relevant for a gratifying user experience.

Web redesign 2.0 accentuates that good visual interface incorporates coordination and testing of:
-flow and functionality
-graphic template
-style guide

With the user in mind, reading after reading stresses planning; coordination and testing for successful web design. Common sense is more important than showcasing the latest technology or displaying lavishly useless creativity. The number one rule – unless there is a purpose, leave it out! Simplicity is better. These issues need to be addressed when connecting design aesthetic and information, all the while keeping in mind the user and their level of expertise. One does not want to alienate beginning or advanced users because the user is the sole purpose of designing a webpage; in order to do this one must remember the target audience.

Best advice - plan to make sure you have time to test your designs (color, typography etc.) for usability :-)

Entertainment Sites

Small Group 2-Entertainment

Definition:
Entertainment Website – sites people go to in leisure time for amusement/fun

Content: music, movies, plays, books, games, sports, celebrity

Design / what makes the genre "self-apparent":
Flashy
Color
Interactive (e.g. videos, podcast)

http://webstyleguide.com/site/entertainment.html
http://www.bandhosts.co.uk/

Sites which epitomize the genre:
http://www.eonline.com/
http://www.wwe.com/
http://www.blizzard.com/
http://www.foxhome.com/foxhome_main.html
http://www.image-entertainment.com/ (not an entertainment site but promotes entertainment)

A site that visually breaks the genre norm:
http://imdb.com/

Week 6 -- Web Site Genres

---
Everyone:
No reading - book reviews due this week!
Post to your blog a short blurb about what you are reading - title, author, why you picked the book and some key points/arguments
---

Title – Dan Gilmor

Author – We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People

Why – I chose this book for its renowned critique of critical issues surrounding the inevitable combination of technology and media which impacts webdesign message and content.

Key points/arguments:

Covering several topics, the book addresses how technologies such as weblogs, rss, mobile camera phones, etc. will and are currently transforming the roles of journalists, big business, politicians, government and more. The book also discusses the legal issues and implications of new technology in the United States including free speech, privacy, trolls, trust and creative commons. Gilmor advocates the idea of creative commons limiting his copyright with “some rights reserved” to 14 years and publishing the book online for individual use. He ultimately encourages experimentation, conversation and dialogue sparked from the ideas in his book.