Shifted Focus

Well, I used this weekend to work on my website reflection and finish changes to my website. I haven't uploaded the changes to my site yet because I still have a couple of tweaks to make.

As for the artist redesign, I got some positive feedback from Lynn. However, I'm having issues getting the gallery page to work properly. It is rather frustrating, and I may need to scrap that design and use another. Based in the feedback from the class, I am experimenting with different blues instead of that bright turquoise. I figure I'll be working on the site down to the very last minute. There's so much content to put out there. I think that's one of the main reasons I am having so many problems with the gallery page. Somewhere along the lines, I have inproper coding that is messing everything up.

My head is spinning right now. I can't belive it's the May 4 a week from tomorrow. I am also a little dazed at the prospect of getting the artist website, artist instruction manual, and the website reflection paper and presentation all ready to go by then. Time flies very quickly.

Back to work!

Screenshot of Artist Redesign

Here's a screenshot from my artist redesign effort. It's just the homepage. I have a slider bar gallery at the top that will display 5 or so of Lynn's works, and I have a quote from her statement beside it.



I'm having the most difficulty with the actual gallery page - getting all the images to display. The page design for the other pages is still puzzling me. I'm not sure if what I have is best. I was worried about the color scheme in the beginning, but I think it worked out rather well.

5376 Podcast is on my site

My podcast is on my site! Woo hoo!

Here's a direct link to it: http://www.grad.english.ttu.edu/owen/images/PowerPoint%20Podcast.htm

I ended up using Captivate to create it, and I am proud of it.

5376 Week 9 Post

As a general comment, I just want to say how great everybody's sites were. It is amazing how everyone was able to pull together such great sites. I felt my site was lacking after browsing through everyone's sites. I had fun with the blog assignment, and I want to give everyone a big round of applause for their sites!!!

Chris
My favorite part of Chris’s website is his landing page that says ‘You can’t know if don’t click somewhere’. I think it is a great way to engage the site visitor. The image and text combined make me very curious to enter the site. The only recommendation I have is to make the quote on the Philosophies of Teaching page, “No ideas but in things,” Williams Carlos Williams. I think if it were larger it would be a great intro and emphasis for the page.

Jessica
I love the pictures and personal dialogue throughout Jessica’s site. It has an enormous emotional impact, and I think that the background color choice really helps play into that. I have so much respect and admiration for Jessica for being so honest and open on her site. I don’t think I could be so open, especially since I knew my classmates were also going to be reading through my site. The one change I would recommend is changing the font color on the book reviews page. Right now it is two colors: 1 book review is light green, the other is dark blue. I like the two different colors for contrast, but the green is little hard to read on the screen.

Sharba
I think Sharba’s site is very well put together. I love all the comments in the banner on each page. I think it is a very engaging site. I was very interesting in reading the text on each page and moving throughout her site. The one thing I would recommend is for Sharba to put a picture of herself on the Me page. Since we learn so much about Sharba, I think it would be good if we could see a photo of her and maybe of Calcutta.

Dominic
Dominic’s site is very well designed. It takes a great web designer to be able to pull off a blue and orange color scheme! I love the landing page and the page layout. I also love the page names and personal comments throughout the site. This is a great personal site because Dominic gives so much information about himself. The only comment I have is that it might be good to put a navigation links to each page at the bottom of each page since some of the page are long and require a lot of scrolling.

Shawna
I love how Shawna’s site has the bright color tabs that drop when you hover over them. You can tell how much effort Shawn put into her site. I think the thumbnail banners at the top of the page are a great touch, and it’s very accessible. This is a great professional site, and I was struck by how much fun I was having navigating around her site! I think it was a mixture of the colors and the thumbnails. My comment for Shawna’s site is that it would be good to add some into text for the sample pages. Maybe a quick overview of what each sample is or if there is any special story behind a particular sample.

Adrian
I love how Adrian created a Flash-based website. I think the flower in bottom right-hand corner is a great element that is eye-catching and interesting for the reader. I think Adrian made a bold move choosing black and orange as her color scheme. It takes skill to use these colors effectively without them looking too much like a Halloween theme. Adrian did an excellent job of using this color scheme. I would suggest making the font size on the home page a little bigger.

Carie
I think Carie did a great job on her site. I especially like her biography on her Instructor page. She gives great information about herself. I wish I had a site like this, especially the podcast on passive voice when I was an undergrad in the beginning technical writing class! This is a great resource for students, and I think that Carie’s students will get so much information and help from this site. The only comment I have is that if the Syllabus page could be a web page version of the PDF syllabus with a link to the PDF syllabus. I think having the PDF syllabus is great, but it would be a useful tool if there could be a web page version too. You could link to major assignment descriptions.

Melody
Melody did a great job with her site. It is very impressive. I especially like how she linked to other pages, such as the Gardener’s Rake, on her biography page. I think it helps the visitor get to know Melody a little better and really get to know what her hobbies are. The only thing I would suggest is maybe having a page specifically for samples of her work. I know there are some links throughout the site that take us to her research, but I think it would good to have separate samples page for ease of searching.

Rebecca
I think Rebecca did a great job adding personality and fun to her professional site. I liked how she has pictures of herself on every page. It shows her talent as a professional, but still lets the visitor get to know about her on a personal level. This is an excellent mixture or Rebecca as a person and Rebecca as a professional. The only thing I would suggest changing is the hosting environment just because Geocities pops up all these extra menus. However, I do not think this is too big of an issue. The strange this is, I didn’t notice much when I was in an IE browser for class on Monday. I didn’t really notice it. But I noticed it tonight when I was in FireFox.

Brett
I think Brett has a great landing page. The oPhone is a great concept and idea. It is very creative, and I know it made me want to enter the site to take a look around. I think it is an informative site with a lot of good information. I like how there is a mix of personality with professional content. I think it is important to liven up the material! The only suggestion I have is making the top menu with the name of the site and links a little bigger. It seems small in comparison with the rest of the page. Or maybe separating the site name from the menu and making the site name bigger to put more emphasis on Brett.

Monica
I think Monica did a great job on her site. I love the usability of the site, especially how on the page links you can click the text or the box below. It makes it really easy for the user to navigate around the page. I think it is an engaging site too with all the visual stimulation that occurs on every page. The only change I would suggest is to fix the text on the home page with the Left-brain, right-brain text. Since it was justified, there were a lot of huge gaps when I opened it, and it started to run on the MW graphic.

5376 Week 8 Post

3 Podcasts I found interesting

It took me a while to decide on which podcasts to choose for my 3. This first one is a podcast I found on podcastdirectory.com called The Presentation Sidebar. It is from a PowerPoint presentations series. I thought this would be a good one to include in my blog because it is a PowerPoint presentation turned into a podcast. I like that it has bright colors. I think that brighter colors are better podcast videos. Since it’s a smaller screen, the video needs to ‘pop’ more. All dark colors tend to blend in together. Here’s the link to the podcast:

http://www.maniactive.com/templates/SideBar.ppt#266,3,Answer:

The second podcast I found is from the Adobe Creative Suite podcast series. I was unaware that Adobe had a podcast series, so when I saw the link the Adobe library, I had to go and take a look. This podcast is about using SmartView in Dreamweaver CS4. I really like how it is mimicking a live demonstration of the functionality like a short training video. However, I was not very impressed with the initial quality of the podcast. It starts out with a Talking Head of the instructor, Terry Quinn. The audio is not synched with the video. I do think it is an informative podcast though, and I really like the overall format. It is very helpful.

http://cdn4.libsyn.com/cspodcast/podcast-DW-pssmartobjects.mp4?nvb=20090301022753&nva=20090302023753&t=05538c84fb43bf663369a

The third podcast I chose is from the PhotoshopUser TV series Episode 174. It was one of the top results in all my podcast searches, so I decided it must be worth checking out. Plus, it has instructional podcasts, which is what I am most interested in since my podcast is going to be instructional. I really like this podcast. It is very sharp. There are opening credits with an announcer who introduces the 3 speakers. It then opens with the speakers sitting in at a desk and talking to the camera. It reminds me of ESPN SportCenter or something like that. I really like the presentation. It is original and engaging. This podcast is long – 30 minutes, but I think the TV show format of the podcast makes this length doable for a viewer. The podcast toggles between the speakers and then their computer screens. They do an excellent job of switching between the two views. It is really neat how they are able to demonstrate how to perform an action in Photoshop, while still keep it light and fun with banter and interaction between themselves and with the audience. I think it is very well done.

http://www.photoshopusertv.com/

My Podcast

My Podcast is going to be a video version of a portion of a Business Communication course I gave at my job. I am choosing a small part of the course about giving effective presentations. That was a lengthy session, so I am breaking down to cover creating effective presentation visuals. I could foresee creating an entire podcast series of my entire course. It is valuable information, and I love podcasts because they are so easy to distribute and access.

5376 Week 7 Post

Pause & Effect pages 212-222. Think about the third paragraph on page 212 as you work in your blog this week: "Action is the highest form of thought." What does this mean? It might mean something from a writer's perspective, from a user's perspective, and from a student's perspective.

When I think of ‘Action is the highest form of thought’, I think that it is because actions stimulate your brain more than stationary or passive things. To take an action, you usually have a trigger such as an instruction, instinct, etc. In terms of a website, I think actions would be more appealing to the user. It would draw the user into the site and make them engaged. Engagement makes you more inclined to browse more and return to the site.

I agree with Meadows comment that we don’t fully understand something until we’ve done it (212). It is about experience. I think of think of those new Hulu commercials with Alec Baldwin. He repeatedly says ‘You never know until you try it” and “You won’t realize what you’re missing until view TV on your computer”. I think that is a very clever use of interactive narrative. It creates a sense of intrigue. And that intrigue is likely to lead to an action – the action of going to hulu.com.

A writer would use action to draw the reader in. If the reader remained passive, it would not be as engaging of an experience for the reader. If the reader isn’t excited or engaged, they are more likely to put the book down, exit the website, turn off the TV, etc. The writer needs to use action to gain the loyalty of the reader.

The user needs action to fully process the concept and purpose of the site or book. The action stimulates the user. I have struggled with creating action for the user in my site. I tend to get stuck on the only action as being clicking on links and opening pages. I feel there is more to do to make a website more engaging for the user, but it is hard for me to apply to a professional portfolio site. I can think of good mechanisms for a more informal site, but not professional. I think that in order for my site or any site to be successful, the user has to be engaged and want to explore and return to the site. It’s a lot harder to apply than I originally thought.

From a student, I refer again to Meadows’ comment on page 212 about comprehension relating to action. I can think of a perfect example of Meadows’ principle applied to this class. I can’t fully understand podcast creation until I create a podcast. I have never made one before, and while I thought it wouldn’t be too difficult, I am discovering all these things I didn’t know or think of. It is a complex process, and there is so much that goes into creating podcast that I didn’t dwell on before. So the action of creating a podcast is instrumental in my learning to create one. I could learn some of the same things reading a book about podcast, but I would miss some of the more complex details and nuances that I find as I take the action of creating a podcast. The action is a great teacher.

ENGL 5376 Week 6 - Reflection on Previous Posts

I decided to create a new blog to reflect on my past posts in addition to adding comments to my previous posts. I wanted a plus where I could type up a complete summary of my thoughts and experiences thus far in the course and assignment.

The post I made that strikes the most is where I gave examples of what I want my site to look like. I had a lovely idea for the design of my site, but I have had some issues recreating it that 'vision'. I can't seem to marry my Photoshop mockups to the Dreamweaver reality. I know I can still create something similar to what I want, but I did realize that I aimed a little high.

The only sites I have created before were for work, so I have now learned that that translates to 'I have no website experience' because it is a different when it is creatively and artistically your own. And this really impacted me when I tried to upload the site. I was not expecting loading my site to be problem - in fact I considered it to be the easiest part of the assignment, but then when I went to upload my site last night, nothing worked. I chose a free host and upload service - mistake 1. The previous 3 websites I have uploaded were through work, and I got to pass through so many steps to do that. It was easy, and it did take 5 minutes. So I estimated that the extra steps I would have to take for this site would add maybe 10-20 minutes to the process at most. I tried to get my site up for 4.5 hours yesterday night. And it is still not up and running. So I am really disappointed at that and very mad at myself. My sense of comfort is that at least it was for the draft showing that I couldn't get it up and not for the final submission. It also makes me want to kick myself for not trying to upload it sooner, but I am control freak/perfectionist who does not like to have 'unfinished' work up. So that's why I had not done it. Now I know better.

Over all, I do think I am holding true to a lot of the thoughts and ideas I had expressed in previous blogs. And I do think this experience is great because it helps me begin to learn a skill I really want to have as well as make me think about communication in a new way.

5376: Week 5 Post

Pause & Effect pages 154-179. Meadows lists three principles of interaction (page 39). How do these three principles relate to the projects you're working on for class? Can you trace, for instance, oberservation > exploration > modification > reciprocal change (page 44) in your work?

I think that the three principles interaction relate to different elements of each project. For the personal website project, I would relate the input and output principles to that the site does what it is supposed to – it’s functional and there aren’t any error screens. The personal website needs to educate the reader further. In my website’s case, it needs to inform the reader of my professional skills and history. To make the experience more realistic, I will have samples of my work. These illustrate my skills and give my words credibility.

For the artist’s site, I would like for the user to have an interactive and engaging experience. I think that to help the artist gain publicity and viewership, the website would need to capture the reader’s attention. The easiest way to capture attention is with interaction. I could see a feature like an interactive gallery really drawing from the Input/Output, Inside/Outside, and Open/Closed principles.

Observation>Exploration>Modification>Reciprocal Change

I think these four concepts bring interesting depth to a site. For my work portfolio site, I would see the following model:

• Observation: Reader looks and the homepage of my site and decides whether or not
  they want to delve further into the site.
• Exploration: Reader goes to each page and looks through the material.
• Modification: Reader clicks thumbnail to open portfolio sample
• Reciprocal change: Site opens the sample in PDF viewer

This is a basic level of how my site would utilize these concepts. However, I plan to incorporate my podcast into my site, and I would like to add some Flash elements to the site as well.

For the artist’s site, I would see something like the following:

• Observation: Reader looks at the homepage of the site and sees different options such as Interactive gallery, etc.
• Exploration: Reader goes to each page and looks at the content.
• Modification: Reader goes to the interactive gallery and launches the slide show. (I would like to incorporate select/deselect options so the reader could customize what work they see in the slideshow),
• Reciprocal Change: Site compiles and launches the slideshow.

Reflection

I am having difficulty with my portfolio site. My first issue with my portfolio site is my work samples. I created these materials at my job, so I have to carefully edit and anonymize the snippets of work I put out there. My second issue is now that I have my skeleton created, I do not like my concept, etc. I seem to have hit a brick wall creativity and motivation wise. I spent a large portion of today coming up with a new theme for my personal site if that gives you any indication of how things are progressing at the moment! I am feeling discouraged, and I keep wondering if I should switch tracks now while I can. I know we have a draft due next week, but I know I would have a good draft ready of my new concept by the 16th. It might be more complete than on my portfolio site will be. Is anyone else finding themselves in the same situation? Or did you find yourself in this situation in the beginning of the project?

Question for the Week
Which do you think is the most effective principle of interaction and why?

I’ll get it started! I think that Inside/Outside is the most effective principle of interaction. I really like how the text referred to it as inside the skull and outside the skull (pps. 40-41). It’s really important to ensure that your site has value. The reader wouldn’t linger at your site if they weren’t learning anything they didn’t know. And it’s important to create an environment that is engaging. It captures the reader’s attention. If you can attract and capture the reader’s attention, readers will browse through your site, return to your site, and recommend your site to others.

02/16 Post Addendum

For this post, the concepts we were supposed to compare really made sense to me after class. Whereas in this post, I was still confused. And in response to my rather dismal reflection about my site, I did get that issue resolved!!!

5376 Week 4 Post

Share the best website URL you can that models what you think a good homepage like the one you want to build looks like. Why does it do what you want your's to do? Please include information from the reading you've been doing as well.

I have websites that I would love mine to look like. I have this great vision my site. However, I am not certain that I have the capability to create as complex of a site. I also debate if the vision I have for my site is really necessary or helpful for my site; I think it may not be appropriate for the audience and purpose of my site.

My Current Mockups
I love the current web trend where you have a scrolling banner that contains image thumbnails that you click to open the corresponding page. For my site, which is a professional portfolio site for me, I envision a thumbnail for each work I have done. The banner would be a scrolling work gallery that readers would click to open and view the body of work (think iTunes where you can scroll and click thumbnails: http://www.apple.com/itunes/). My design would be different than iTunes’, but the concept and functionality would be the same. I love the idea of that. I also like having a Flash banner too like the Adobe site has with the interaction and animation:

http://www.adobe.com/

I also love the clean simplicity of the Apple site:

http://www.apple.com/

Granted, my site would still look drastically different from these sites, but there are concepts from each of these sites that I love. I just have to mix these features with what would be good for my site and with what I am capable of producing. I know I can create the design representation for this, but I am worried about creating the functional capability of this properly. My coding leaves much to be desired. I also wouldn’t solely be using Dreamweaver to create my site because I think Dreamweaver’s design capabilities are more limited than an image I could create in Photoshop or Illustrator. Then I would have to put in code to call up the images, which increases the chances of me not getting everything to work properly! I would like to incorporate some Flash in my site too, so that adds some additional complications to it.

One thing I have been struck by in the readings is how many concepts of interactive design align with the concepts of technical writing/communication:

* Having redundancy in the design – repetitive symbols and styles
* Assigning meaning to things rather than putting meaningless imagery in the site
* Speaking directly to the reader, etc.

I haven’t considered the similarities between the two disciplines before, but as I read the textbook, I keep finding all these shared principles. I think this close relation is why many technical communicators are finding jobs available to them as user interface designers. When you are trained to look for usability issues and on so many similar concepts, it seems an easy career transition to make. I think technical communicators make excellent user interface designers; I have had many colleagues take this path. I have considered it myself at times since my job has required me to do some screen mockups. It is rewarding work. I like to see something I have thought out come to life once development is complete.

It is amazing how interrelated web design and technical communication are. In the past, I have tended to separate the two, putting web design firmly in the artist category. But, technical communicators would make excellent web designers too since they are trained on many of the same principals such as making things clear and compelling for the user as well as capturing and retaining the user’s attention. Does anyone else agree with this? Can technical communicators be effective web designers (given that they have access to the proper technology to do so)?

2/16 Addendum to this Post

Looking back a whole 2 weeks later (!) I commend myself for aiming high in my design standards! However, I have had difficulty merging my design with my web coding skills. I don't have the slightest clue how I could do the flash thumbnails. I have it mocked up nicely, but a picture can't perform the functionality! It is a goal of mine to do some sort of flash thumbnail, but I doubt I can perfect it for my personal site.

5376 Week 3 Post

Comment on communication, transparency, and participation (the three points listed on the WhiteHouse site), and if/how those three point fit into your homepage and your second (re)design project.

I am excited about the participation part of the whitehouse.gov site where citizens get to read and comment on non-emergency legislation before the President signs it. This is an exciting form of interactive narrative and a very shrewd decision made by the White House. Typically, people’s biggest complaints with government legislation are that they feel helpless and as though they have no voice. If they have an issue they are passionate about or interested in, people are directed to go to their local representative’s office or email their local representative. Now, people can comment on legislation directly to the White House; they have a more direct line to the President. Whether or not people’s comments impact the legislation remains to be seen, but this very concept is a powerful idea. It’s a great way to get citizens more involved and interested in the issues and legislative process. I can see this as being a wonderful forum and source of assignments for political science and government classes.

I think this truly shows the capability and advantage of websites and other forms of online publishing. The internet is a great way to get people involved; it is convenient and easy to do because you can do it from your home. I think the internet has been great for marketing firms for this reason too. I know I am more likely to take a survey online than by phone or in person because I have more control over the amount of time it takes to do it online. I do think some websites and online outlets tend to overcomplicate things, which would make it harder to retain visitors and boost site traffic. My particular pet peeve is the site registration process where you have to set up an account with the site before you can even view a page. It’s important to balance the amount of interactive narrative (participation and communication) with simplicity. If things get too involved and too complicated, it can minimize the effectiveness of your site.

I have decided to make a professional homepage for myself, so communication will be important for my page. I have to communicate clearly with my visitors that I am a skilled professional, and I need to project a professional image. I will need to stay away from things such as silly widgets and whatnot. I want my homepage to function as a digital work portfolio, so I would like to have some participation features to the page as well. I am still struggling to figure out how to do that since it is a professional site. I know I would have a lot more inspiration for the participation aspect of the site if I was creating a personal rather than professional site.

I think communication, transparency, and participation features would bring great strength to the artist’s site. I think communication and transparency are closely related. If you communicate clearly and frequently, you are making yourself transparent to others – they know what you stand for and what you are doing. It is important that artist be transparent to the site visitors so the visitors can understand the artist’s work and point of view as well the artist’s schedule of appearances and shows. Audience participation would be a good way for the artist to get feedback from fans and peers; the site could do this through some sort of a virtual showcase feature. There are many possibilities for the artist site.

I think communication, transparency, and participation are very important concepts to incorporate in a website. They can maintain interest and traffic in your site. However, you also have to find a way to use the concepts outside of your site in order to generate publicity and traffic for your site. If you don’t have money to pay Google or other search engines for placement in searches, how do you get the publicity for your site? What is the most effective means for that? Do you go to forums and chat rooms about your site’s subject? There’s quite a bit of PR effort in getting a site off the ground.

5376 Week 2 Post

What is interactive narrative and in what ways does it relate to websites?

Interactive narrative allows your audience to change and influence the media or outlet. It gets the audience involved in determining the actions and the outcome. For example, www.secondlife.com allows viewers to create avatars of themselves and allows them to create or mimic their real environment. In fact, many emergency planning crews use secondlife.com to create virtual representations of buildings and cities for emergency drills.

What narrative elements do you find most in websites?

I think imagery is one of the most frequently used forms of narrative by far. I believe this is because images are universal. It does not matter what language you speak, you can generally interpret the meaning and be influenceed by images. Websites use images to catch the viewer’s attention and bring them into the site. I think the new design trend where you have the scrolling thumbnail bar of images is very effective. It is basically a conveyor belt of all the website has to offer. This will make a viewer more likely to click another tab or link to delve further into the site. Or if the website has an ambiguous name, images will help the viewer determine the purpose of the site. It’s a good way to grab and keep a viewer.

One thing I have overlooked in the past is how graphic and web design utilize classical art principles such as vanishing points, etc. The best example I can think of is the current design trend most prominently used by Apple and iTunes where you have a lone image, such as an album cover, with its reflection in front of it. So much goes into producing this effect. You have to accurately judge the vanishing point and the perspective of the image. Before I started working with web and graphic designers and before doing some of that myself, I had always separated classic art principles from communication design. But, the classical principles do form the foundation for any design. I now notice how web designers and graphic designers apply these principles to their work. I will look at a website and notice all the intricacies and perspectives that went into the design. I find myself looking and dissecting a website like I would a piece of art. I had always looked at them from a technical, detached point of view, “this is just a convenient tool,” etc. I now realize my viewpoint was an injustice or sorts to all web designers and graphic designers!

What do you want your homepage to say?

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what I want my homepage to say. I have many ideas forming in my head, but I have to decide what I want my website’s main purpose to be. Do I want it to be a professional representation of myself where I can keep a portfolio or my work and accomplishments, or do I want it to be a more informal and fun site that will convey my personality and be more of an extension of a Facebook page? I am leaning towards it being for more of a professional representation of myself. If I choose that route, my homepage will need to present me as a sharp and valuable professional. I would need to capture viewers’ attention with glimpses of my work and accomplishments that would make them curious to click a link and go further into my website. I think it’s hardest to get people to dive into a website; the homepage needs to state just enough to get them to click a tab or link, but not too much where it has everything the website offers.

Question for the week

My question for everybody this week is “What feature of a website attracts you the most or captures you attention first? What does a website need to have in order for you to look at it and say “I want to find out more?” or “That’s a great website!”?