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!”?