I have been blogging for more than three months and it has been a wonderful experience so far. I have created around 15 entries in this blog which is not bad to start with. My initial emotional response when I started to blog was a mix of uncertainty, a little fear and a lot of excitement. I used my creatives skills and designed a logo and banner for my blog followed by my very first entry in which I wrote a critique on the way some Corporates have designed their blogs. This entry was followed by several other entries that examined different aspects of technical coomunication and visual design from a technical perspective. All of these entries have been influenced to a great extent by the podcasts that I listened to (from my MSPTC class in NJIT) from my research into the web and from the information that I assimilated from the blogosphere itself.
I have made some changes to my blog it now sports a new banner with a different design that I created on Paint.net and it has several mutimedia elements and RSS feed that was not there when I started.
I have shown more examples and discussed topics in details (blog on Folksonomy) that i used to do before. These examples have been explained visually - this has gained more importance after I learnt that I am a visual learner from the results of a small exercise we did in MSPTC on Learning Styles of Audience.
I plan to blog regularly on other topics of interest to me and would love to read more inorder to Learn and WRITE more.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Writing For The Web- Lessons Learned
My first blog post on Corporate Blogging - was the first writing on the web I ever wrote in my life. It was a simple critique to evaluate the use of blogs by three Corporate Companies that I selected based on their product, audience diversity, intent of the blog. Corporate websites and (off late) their blogs too are great examples that suggests web can be used as a great marketing tool. So how is this tool put to use by these companies? The answer is good websites always convey/communicate their message by the integration of imagery and content. The changing role of the new media has brought a change in the content of the websites as well. In the ‘90’s the only thing we saw on a web page was lines that read” Did you check out our Home page” or “Contact us for more information about our products” the web was not perceived as an Interactive medium and the content was static. But the current trends indicate that websites engage the reader in an emotional, interactive experience- and the good news is that it is relatively a new….evolving medium with exponential growth.
Web studies also reveal that the web is used by people who spend less than 2% of their time reading the content to find the information they want so that they can act upon it(Nielsen). That means web writing has to be user and topic –centered. People read differently online and writing for the web therefore involves the understanding of the principles of information architecture, usability testing that are beyond the realm of print or traditional copy writing. Web content needs to be concise, clear and to the point. Every design element, image, content added on the website should have a purpose . Grammar mistakes, long sentences, corporate jargons, should be avoided. When people read on screen their physical ability in reading a screen vs printed message, constraints of the screen, maintaining attention – all these have to be considered in crafting a message
Good writing means understanding the parameters of the broadcast medium such as print, broadcast, interactive. A good writer needs to have a fundamental knowledge of the web site usability issues, basic marketing principles and subject matter will adapt their tone and style to the Web.
Good writing makes a world of difference. The page layout and content has to be formatted to encourage user interactivity. There should be a good organized way of presenting the content in a clear, consistent manner. The information should be easily scannable. The use of headers, lists, HTML links, drop down menus should be used of easy accessibility and navigation. Video, multimedia content should be supplemented with the written content wherever necessary. When a copy is used take for example PDF files it is poorly edited, re-purposed to make a bad copy on the web.
For example, in this Nokia S60 website the software support has been developed and designed to help users find the information and act on it immediately. The header, drop down lists or forms have been put to good use in the Increasing productivity page that even has a input button that asks a question to the user whether they found the page useful as step in testing their web page usability.
The Plainsboro Township has a web page that contains information to its township residents and mostly makes use of PDF Files that take a long time to load, there is no mission statement or user centered design used. Long pages, use of PDF files make obtaining information make a badly designed web site.
One thing I learnt when doing a research about web writing is that it requires the collaborative work of a designer, writer, subject matter expert … it’s a team work. The information presented on the web should work in cohesion and the message communicated should convey the same meaning whether a image or written content is used. When designers work in a team where a writer is involved he/she realizes that web is a compromise and there are lots of things to consider like typography, space constraints, file size, his/her lack of knowledge of software tools are the limiting factors in web page designing.
Web studies also reveal that the web is used by people who spend less than 2% of their time reading the content to find the information they want so that they can act upon it(Nielsen). That means web writing has to be user and topic –centered. People read differently online and writing for the web therefore involves the understanding of the principles of information architecture, usability testing that are beyond the realm of print or traditional copy writing. Web content needs to be concise, clear and to the point. Every design element, image, content added on the website should have a purpose . Grammar mistakes, long sentences, corporate jargons, should be avoided. When people read on screen their physical ability in reading a screen vs printed message, constraints of the screen, maintaining attention – all these have to be considered in crafting a message
Good writing means understanding the parameters of the broadcast medium such as print, broadcast, interactive. A good writer needs to have a fundamental knowledge of the web site usability issues, basic marketing principles and subject matter will adapt their tone and style to the Web.
Good writing makes a world of difference. The page layout and content has to be formatted to encourage user interactivity. There should be a good organized way of presenting the content in a clear, consistent manner. The information should be easily scannable. The use of headers, lists, HTML links, drop down menus should be used of easy accessibility and navigation. Video, multimedia content should be supplemented with the written content wherever necessary. When a copy is used take for example PDF files it is poorly edited, re-purposed to make a bad copy on the web.
For example, in this Nokia S60 website the software support has been developed and designed to help users find the information and act on it immediately. The header, drop down lists or forms have been put to good use in the Increasing productivity page that even has a input button that asks a question to the user whether they found the page useful as step in testing their web page usability.
The Plainsboro Township has a web page that contains information to its township residents and mostly makes use of PDF Files that take a long time to load, there is no mission statement or user centered design used. Long pages, use of PDF files make obtaining information make a badly designed web site.
One thing I learnt when doing a research about web writing is that it requires the collaborative work of a designer, writer, subject matter expert … it’s a team work. The information presented on the web should work in cohesion and the message communicated should convey the same meaning whether a image or written content is used. When designers work in a team where a writer is involved he/she realizes that web is a compromise and there are lots of things to consider like typography, space constraints, file size, his/her lack of knowledge of software tools are the limiting factors in web page designing.
The Eyes Have It
Sometime back I read an article about the how a mouse can be replaced by another interface that actually makes use of the technology of tracking the user’s eye movement on the screen. Rudimentary eye-tracking technology dates back to the early 1900s. Using photographic film, researchers captured reflected light from subjects' eyes and used the information to study how people read and look at pictures. Eye-tracking technology was mainly developed for disabled people but there are some signs that it could find its way to the consumer market soon. . If eye tracking proves appealing to the consumer, and the hardware costs drop to a reasonable range, eye-tracking interfaces could provide an alluring and entertaining alternative to the mouse or laptop track pad.
Eyetools, is a company that conducted the Eyetrack III study: "Eyetracking is a monitoring technology that determines where a person is looking. Special cameras called 'eye trackers' can watch a person's eye and capture fixations and eye movements with a remarkable degree of accuracy (typically accurate to 1 cm on a standard computer screen) without requiring any special headgear." Eyetracking is research that tracks where a person's eyes look while reading then analyzes the data to reveal patterns. By combining and reviewing data from multiple individuals during testing, you can discover representative patterns that apply to most of the population. For the Eyetrack III study we examined viewing patterns of prototype news websites, but you can use eyetracking to study how people view printed newspapers and magazines (editorial content and/or advertising), to gauge effectiveness of various forms of advertising, product packaging, and computer applications; it can be used in flight simulators, and even to track what people look at on shelves when grocery shopping. In other words, it's like getting inside of a person's head and watching what they see -- with the advantage that a computer is recording every eye movement and fixation for later compilation and analysis.
First Findings
Way back in the late 1980s, The Poynter Institute first got interested in learning more about news consumers' behavior through eyetracking research. Poynter affiliates Mario Garcia and Pegie Stark Adam, working with researchers and EYE-TRAC Research technology from Gallup Applied Science of Princeton, New Jersey, conducted the first eyetrack studies of print-newspaper readership. Their findings were published in 1991 in a book, "Eyes on the News"
Focusing especially on the use of color, the research produced some findings that startled and surprised the news industry. In his introduction to "Eyes on the News," Poynter's Roy Peter Clark wrote: "As I read (the findings), I sat scratching my head as myth after myth about newspaper reading fell by the wayside.
The research was groundbreaking. This was the first time that a significant independent study had been conducted for the newspaper industry using eye tracking technology.
• Color photos do not automatically draw readers. Content, size, and placement are more important.
• Readers will enter a newspaper page wherever the most powerful element is - and are willing to follow trails that editors lay for them.
• Readers look at facing pages as single units.
• Readers are willing to accept bold, even outrageous color experiments.
• Color does not detract from a reader's acquisition of visual information.
Back then, eye tracking technology wasn't as sophisticated as it is today. Test subjects sat at a desk with a bulky headpiece containing two video cameras and a reflective visor, with wires attaching the unit to a computer. This was as "realistic" a reading environment as could be created given the limits of the technology at the time.
Videotape of each participant's session was analyzed to record where the reader entered a page and the number of elements -- headlines, photos, cutlines, and text -- looked at along the path through the page. By seeing how long the eye remained on any one element, the researchers determined to what degree the material was processed.
It revealed, among other things, that most people enter a newspaper page through the dominant photo, then move to headlines, cutlines and secondary elements before reading the story. That study established design principles still followed in newspapers around the world.
"In general, text was the last point reached in the reader's journey," Adam says. "It was amazing to learn that most readers did not enter through a lead story as many editors assumed."
Original findings also revealed that newspaper readers see facing pages as one unit and that they read from right to left, lending credence to the belief that right-page advertising is read first. In 1990, color was key and eye tracking proved its solidity as a navigational device. "Today, color is everywhere and utilized in intelligent, new ways," Adam says. "It will be interesting to see which of our initial findings hold true."
Understanding how people read
According to psycholinguist Keith Rayner of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, your eyes do not move smoothly across the text as you read. Instead, the typical reader behavior is to look at a word or several words in a group, then pause your eyes there briefly; this is called a "fixation," and it takes about 0.25 seconds on average. After a fixation, you move your eyes to the next word or group of words; this movement is called a "saccade" and takes only 0.1 seconds. (People often skip over short or predictable words such as "of," "in," "a," etc.) After this pattern is repeated once or twice, you pause to comprehend the phrase you just looked at (which on average takes 0.3 to 0.5 seconds).
According to Rayner, all these fixations and saccades result in 95 percent of college-educated people reading between 200 and 400 words per minute when reading an article; 300 words per minute is the average.
F-Pattern:
User interface guru Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group were on the road, giving seminars based on a recently completed an eye-tracking study that indicates how users consume Web pages–such as where people start browsing on a page, whether they have banner and text link blindness, where users look for navigation, how they react to different text types, relative attention allocated to text vs. pictures and more.
"The real highlight [of the study] is that peoples’ eyes flitter fast across pages. Very little time is allocated to each page element, so you have to be brief and concise in communicating online," Nielsen said. "They don’t look in on, across the lines of a page, and often fixate on something, such as the first few words of a headline, for only a tenth of second. The right-hand side is often never in view of the eyes. People look down the pages in an ‘F’ pattern with a few stripes at top–the first one longer than the second–and then down the long vertical stripe to see if is any else. Sometime the track turns into an ‘E’ pattern but it’s usually an F."
Pictures, images and moving objects tend to be more of an obstacle course for the eye, Nielson said. "It’s a bit of strange finding, but it’s consistent across Web sites. They tend to have a goal of distracting user," he said.
He gave an example of ecommerce sites with images of current promotions in the middle of a page that get tuned out. "If it’s a product associated with what they are interested in, it gets high attention," he noted. Similarly, animation can repel the eye if it’s not relevant to the user or if its overly complicated. "These are not spinning things that move around from all different angles, just a simple, predefined, one spin that plays on its own," Nielsen said.
Basically, users have become savvy surfers of Web pages, and that includes advertising content. "Advertising in general fares very poorly," Nielsen said. "There is almost no fixation on ads, and when there is, usually just in corner of the ad, perhaps attracted by some movement for a moment."
Ad placed on search pages are an exception. Search ads placed on the right side of a page, and especially at the top, get some amount of user attention, he said. The look and feel of text-based search page ads also carries over with a less negative effect on non-search sites. Non-ad page elements with the same shape or color of ads, such as banners, tend be ignored when people scan with their peripheral vision.
Eyetools, is a company that conducted the Eyetrack III study: "Eyetracking is a monitoring technology that determines where a person is looking. Special cameras called 'eye trackers' can watch a person's eye and capture fixations and eye movements with a remarkable degree of accuracy (typically accurate to 1 cm on a standard computer screen) without requiring any special headgear." Eyetracking is research that tracks where a person's eyes look while reading then analyzes the data to reveal patterns. By combining and reviewing data from multiple individuals during testing, you can discover representative patterns that apply to most of the population. For the Eyetrack III study we examined viewing patterns of prototype news websites, but you can use eyetracking to study how people view printed newspapers and magazines (editorial content and/or advertising), to gauge effectiveness of various forms of advertising, product packaging, and computer applications; it can be used in flight simulators, and even to track what people look at on shelves when grocery shopping. In other words, it's like getting inside of a person's head and watching what they see -- with the advantage that a computer is recording every eye movement and fixation for later compilation and analysis.
First Findings
Way back in the late 1980s, The Poynter Institute first got interested in learning more about news consumers' behavior through eyetracking research. Poynter affiliates Mario Garcia and Pegie Stark Adam, working with researchers and EYE-TRAC Research technology from Gallup Applied Science of Princeton, New Jersey, conducted the first eyetrack studies of print-newspaper readership. Their findings were published in 1991 in a book, "Eyes on the News"
Focusing especially on the use of color, the research produced some findings that startled and surprised the news industry. In his introduction to "Eyes on the News," Poynter's Roy Peter Clark wrote: "As I read (the findings), I sat scratching my head as myth after myth about newspaper reading fell by the wayside.
The research was groundbreaking. This was the first time that a significant independent study had been conducted for the newspaper industry using eye tracking technology.
• Color photos do not automatically draw readers. Content, size, and placement are more important.
• Readers will enter a newspaper page wherever the most powerful element is - and are willing to follow trails that editors lay for them.
• Readers look at facing pages as single units.
• Readers are willing to accept bold, even outrageous color experiments.
• Color does not detract from a reader's acquisition of visual information.
Back then, eye tracking technology wasn't as sophisticated as it is today. Test subjects sat at a desk with a bulky headpiece containing two video cameras and a reflective visor, with wires attaching the unit to a computer. This was as "realistic" a reading environment as could be created given the limits of the technology at the time.
Videotape of each participant's session was analyzed to record where the reader entered a page and the number of elements -- headlines, photos, cutlines, and text -- looked at along the path through the page. By seeing how long the eye remained on any one element, the researchers determined to what degree the material was processed.
It revealed, among other things, that most people enter a newspaper page through the dominant photo, then move to headlines, cutlines and secondary elements before reading the story. That study established design principles still followed in newspapers around the world.
"In general, text was the last point reached in the reader's journey," Adam says. "It was amazing to learn that most readers did not enter through a lead story as many editors assumed."
Original findings also revealed that newspaper readers see facing pages as one unit and that they read from right to left, lending credence to the belief that right-page advertising is read first. In 1990, color was key and eye tracking proved its solidity as a navigational device. "Today, color is everywhere and utilized in intelligent, new ways," Adam says. "It will be interesting to see which of our initial findings hold true."
Understanding how people read
According to psycholinguist Keith Rayner of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, your eyes do not move smoothly across the text as you read. Instead, the typical reader behavior is to look at a word or several words in a group, then pause your eyes there briefly; this is called a "fixation," and it takes about 0.25 seconds on average. After a fixation, you move your eyes to the next word or group of words; this movement is called a "saccade" and takes only 0.1 seconds. (People often skip over short or predictable words such as "of," "in," "a," etc.) After this pattern is repeated once or twice, you pause to comprehend the phrase you just looked at (which on average takes 0.3 to 0.5 seconds).
According to Rayner, all these fixations and saccades result in 95 percent of college-educated people reading between 200 and 400 words per minute when reading an article; 300 words per minute is the average.
F-Pattern:
User interface guru Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group were on the road, giving seminars based on a recently completed an eye-tracking study that indicates how users consume Web pages–such as where people start browsing on a page, whether they have banner and text link blindness, where users look for navigation, how they react to different text types, relative attention allocated to text vs. pictures and more.
"The real highlight [of the study] is that peoples’ eyes flitter fast across pages. Very little time is allocated to each page element, so you have to be brief and concise in communicating online," Nielsen said. "They don’t look in on, across the lines of a page, and often fixate on something, such as the first few words of a headline, for only a tenth of second. The right-hand side is often never in view of the eyes. People look down the pages in an ‘F’ pattern with a few stripes at top–the first one longer than the second–and then down the long vertical stripe to see if is any else. Sometime the track turns into an ‘E’ pattern but it’s usually an F."
Pictures, images and moving objects tend to be more of an obstacle course for the eye, Nielson said. "It’s a bit of strange finding, but it’s consistent across Web sites. They tend to have a goal of distracting user," he said.
He gave an example of ecommerce sites with images of current promotions in the middle of a page that get tuned out. "If it’s a product associated with what they are interested in, it gets high attention," he noted. Similarly, animation can repel the eye if it’s not relevant to the user or if its overly complicated. "These are not spinning things that move around from all different angles, just a simple, predefined, one spin that plays on its own," Nielsen said.
Basically, users have become savvy surfers of Web pages, and that includes advertising content. "Advertising in general fares very poorly," Nielsen said. "There is almost no fixation on ads, and when there is, usually just in corner of the ad, perhaps attracted by some movement for a moment."
Ad placed on search pages are an exception. Search ads placed on the right side of a page, and especially at the top, get some amount of user attention, he said. The look and feel of text-based search page ads also carries over with a less negative effect on non-search sites. Non-ad page elements with the same shape or color of ads, such as banners, tend be ignored when people scan with their peripheral vision.
Image quality is also a factor in drawing attention. People in pictures facing forward is more inviting and approachable, Nielsen said. Obviously, fuzzy, small images are less inviting as are big glamor shots. Nielsen said the eye-tracking study also surfaced a counter-intuitive finding–people who look like models (perfect human specimens according to popular culture) are less likely to draw attention than ‘normal’ people. "A call center ad with model in it on the phone may be a good picture technically, but it will more likely be ignored," Nielsen said.
Nielsen’s advice: Understand the F principle, write eye-catching, concise headlines and display crisp images.
Using Heatmaps:
A heatmap is an aggregate view of all the individual user session images (like the one in question 4 above) for a single webpage on a single task. Researchers combine all the individual page sessions to create a single view of a page, revealing eye patterns from the group of test subjects.
This heat map was used to study:
SECTION 1:
•Compare viewing across different news design elements (e.g., font size, use of blurbs, number of headlines)
•Compare viewing across different news website styles and layouts that we modeled after current high-traffic news sites on the Web.
•Compare viewing of different article page layouts and writing styles
SECTION 2:
•Compare comprehension of material in multimedia format vs. text format
SECTION 3:
•Gather preliminary information on how people view multimedia/interactive free-form articles
Eye tracking methods for websites and UI’s
Remember those early generation websites? Their pages were like vast landscapes of text sprawling across and down screen after screen. Graphics were crude and too large for the typical home user to view.
Today, the online landscape is more diverse: flashing animation, graphical displays, streaming video, sounds that roar from pages unexpectedly
The Stanford-Poynter Project revealed that text may be a more immediate entry point than images on online news sites. This is surprising, especially in an interactive medium that attempts to heighten the user's experience through the integrated display of text, photos, video, and animated graphics. However, it makes sense that new rules apply to the new medium.
The study, which involved 67 subjects who were experienced and regular users on the web, confirmed the obvious for some and raised doubts for others. Jakob Nielson, said in an article that this study "makes a few of their (researchers') minor conclusions suspect, but the main findings are very robust and credible".
Previous studies of reader behavior with news in print found images to be the key entry points to the printed page. Traditional schools of design understandably teach the same thing. And many in the design community are steadfast that on-screen design follow print. That's understandable, too, since designers are using the same storytelling tools online -- photographs, graphics, and typography -- that they use in print.
The study, however, has indicated that more often than not, briefs or captions got the first eye fixations when the first page came up.
Does this mean that photos or graphics do not have a place on the homepage? Hardly.
With 64 percent of all available photos having fixations, photos clearly are essential. In fact, many online news organizations' log files show that photo galleries are among their most popular destinations.
In the Page Elements sections of the study, page elements for all pages were ranked by volume of fixations. Photos are third to article texts and briefs, which were looked at 92% and 82% of the time, respectively.
The conclusions of these early findings are not meant to encourage text-only presentation of websites, nor do the findings reveal that online readers prefer text to images to get their news.
The release of these early findings and the analysis of additional data, described in an accompanying piece by Marion Lewenstein of Stanford, help online news visitors by helping designers better understand their audience.
So, what can we learn from the early results of the Stanford-Poynter Project?
Improve Headlines and Briefs
Many times, headlines and briefs run in the newspaper with a photo or other graphic. However, once uploaded to the website, the text and visual elements are isolated from one another because of limited real estate on the screen. One solution is to rewrite headlines to compensate for the lack of visual support. More often, headlines are written to fit the column space allocated for the story. These limitations do not exist online, so optimize and rewrite headlines to do what they're supposed to do: bring the reader into the story. With headlines and captions drawing the eye first, this may be the first and only opportunity to bring online readers in.
Edit Online Photos and Graphics
Just as headlines are packaged directly from the print edition into online, photographs are often taken straight from the paper and displayed on the web. Unfortunately, the amount of graphic information displayed on screen is far less than in print because of the enormous difference in resolution. Print can display from 180dpi to 1200dpi whereas a standard computer monitor only can display 72dpi. Photo editing for online news should consider the following:
1) Is there a different photo more appropriate for online display, one with a single focus or a single subject?
2) Can the crop of the same image be tighter, to help the user focus on the main detail?
Understand Your Online Reader
The online medium is different from print. The habits of reading from a computer screen are different, of course, than reading a newspaper or magazine. It is common to observe people focused on reading a newspaper on a bus, in a coffee shop, or waiting in an airport terminal, isolated from distractions. In contrast, online readers are catching up with their news between answering e-mail, conversing with colleagues, or answering phone calls. The need for quicker access to information is much more prevalent online. Competition for attention is not limited to other online sites but includes daily activity in and around the user's computer.
Study also shows that the bigger size font is for headlines and help people scan while smaller font siz actually help people to focus and read more.
Usage of lists, bullets and white space is good.
As this video from Poynter shows how several usability issues in online reading can be overcome with this technology
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Go Flash or Skip
At first glance the Bellecour website appears to be one that's promoting "green environment" or even one that sells eco-friendly ideas, plans, buildings rather than that of an art school. The commercial flash websites that I have come across are usually the one that has loud/soft music and this site surprised me with the absence of audio. The whole website is done in flash.
The website has made use of 3D elements; it has used nice spring colors that are effective and functional.
For the sake of convenience and lack of French language knowledge I have named the three pages in this website as GREEN, BLUE and ORANGE.
The three different Schools Of Art are distinguished by three colors green, orange and blue.
In the GREEN page the color is a compositional and unifying element, variety is created in placing the color elements with futuristic looking, and dome shaped buildings and metallic shiny car.
The proximity of the human elements near the passing cars, the landscape in the background with the buildings, the park-like setting and the dome shaped building, the big bowls of plant, the green rainbow are nice work of imagination and eye-catching compulsive work of art.
There is limited interactivity with the website at the click of a mouse the car moves there is a call-out window indicating a conversation between the man and the lady in this page The VOTRE IDEE sign board linear look creates hierarchy and is facing the dome shapes.
The BLUE color scheme with a green meadow forms the backdrop, the placement of the green meadow with the tiny looking human elements again in a park like setting creates visual hierarchy. The pink and white flowers, plants in the foreground, the low-flying blimps suspended in the air create variety. The green meadow is juxtaposed with blue billboard looking screen/big screen and the man position at the top creates visual interest and scale. The white fence creates line and visual interest.
The robot/alien looking character seen in the background creates movement, visual tension the same way the passing cars did in the GREEN page. The 3-D Robot arouses curiosity in me and I click on the next page.
ORANGE page or the Esta 3D Bellecour webpage shows the 3-D robot in the foreground beside the orange blob of paint. The movement of the robot/alien is realistic a vector illustration springs first same as the GREEN page with the architecture line drawings this becomes a full-blown 3-D element as it approaches the foreground. The 3-d robot/alien and the other younger robot are placed with the short grass growth that creates visual hierarchy, variety and visual interest – this page is dominated by the presence of the two robots and their wild actions.
There is a repetition of the elements such as the sign board this time in orange color, the trees, the grass and this repetition creates visual interest
The casual-looking human elements engaged in animated conversation appearing detached from the robotic elements and the parked car, the cityscape in the background creates an illusion of community and appears to be a student oriented environment. The learning environment is depicted as fun, open, casual and collaborative which is what it is supposed to be.
All the WebPages allow reader input on a cell phone's interface and they clearly target the students (audience) who are invited to open exploration of art, architecture and multimedia.
The logos in three different colors to distinguish the three pages in different colors with the B symbolizing the first letter of the name of the college Bellecour, the functional tabs that are consistent in color and brand imaging builds trust with the audience.
True to what Jakob Nielsen has said Flash 99% bad the website has small font, limited interactivity and flash typical poor intuitive qualities. Despite these drawbacks website however is able to convey its message clearly, consistently and effectively to the NetGen learning styles of its intended audience. I may not be a NetGen learner but that does not stop me from visiting interactive, Flash-spurned online games sites such as Orisinal. This website has beautiful feminine colors, interactive games with cool names , cute characters... Enjoy !
The website has made use of 3D elements; it has used nice spring colors that are effective and functional.
For the sake of convenience and lack of French language knowledge I have named the three pages in this website as GREEN, BLUE and ORANGE.
The three different Schools Of Art are distinguished by three colors green, orange and blue.
In the GREEN page the color is a compositional and unifying element, variety is created in placing the color elements with futuristic looking, and dome shaped buildings and metallic shiny car.
The proximity of the human elements near the passing cars, the landscape in the background with the buildings, the park-like setting and the dome shaped building, the big bowls of plant, the green rainbow are nice work of imagination and eye-catching compulsive work of art.
There is limited interactivity with the website at the click of a mouse the car moves there is a call-out window indicating a conversation between the man and the lady in this page The VOTRE IDEE sign board linear look creates hierarchy and is facing the dome shapes.
The BLUE color scheme with a green meadow forms the backdrop, the placement of the green meadow with the tiny looking human elements again in a park like setting creates visual hierarchy. The pink and white flowers, plants in the foreground, the low-flying blimps suspended in the air create variety. The green meadow is juxtaposed with blue billboard looking screen/big screen and the man position at the top creates visual interest and scale. The white fence creates line and visual interest.
The robot/alien looking character seen in the background creates movement, visual tension the same way the passing cars did in the GREEN page. The 3-D Robot arouses curiosity in me and I click on the next page.
ORANGE page or the Esta 3D Bellecour webpage shows the 3-D robot in the foreground beside the orange blob of paint. The movement of the robot/alien is realistic a vector illustration springs first same as the GREEN page with the architecture line drawings this becomes a full-blown 3-D element as it approaches the foreground. The 3-d robot/alien and the other younger robot are placed with the short grass growth that creates visual hierarchy, variety and visual interest – this page is dominated by the presence of the two robots and their wild actions.
There is a repetition of the elements such as the sign board this time in orange color, the trees, the grass and this repetition creates visual interest
The casual-looking human elements engaged in animated conversation appearing detached from the robotic elements and the parked car, the cityscape in the background creates an illusion of community and appears to be a student oriented environment. The learning environment is depicted as fun, open, casual and collaborative which is what it is supposed to be.
All the WebPages allow reader input on a cell phone's interface and they clearly target the students (audience) who are invited to open exploration of art, architecture and multimedia.
The logos in three different colors to distinguish the three pages in different colors with the B symbolizing the first letter of the name of the college Bellecour, the functional tabs that are consistent in color and brand imaging builds trust with the audience.
True to what Jakob Nielsen has said Flash 99% bad the website has small font, limited interactivity and flash typical poor intuitive qualities. Despite these drawbacks website however is able to convey its message clearly, consistently and effectively to the NetGen learning styles of its intended audience. I may not be a NetGen learner but that does not stop me from visiting interactive, Flash-spurned online games sites such as Orisinal. This website has beautiful feminine colors, interactive games with cool names , cute characters... Enjoy !
Friday, November 9, 2007
Social Bookmarking and Tagging
I just finished reading a video news article in ZDnet.com on Joshua Schachter, the developer/creator behind del.icio.us, one of the first, social bookmarking tools, created del.icio.us because he needed a more sophisticated bookmarking tool to handle his large and growing collection of links. He needed a better tool that offered greater functionality and scalability and allowed him to retrieve both his favorite and most frequently used links, as well as information less frequently used, but important to him when he needed it. He defines this as an efficient tool that helps to "keep found information on the internet found".
Folksonomy or social bookmarking is the Folksonomy, a term coined by information architect Thomas Vanderwal, combines the people or "folks-y" approach to building taxonomy and defines folksonomy as "a type of distributed classification system". It is usually created by a group of individuals, typically the resource users. Users add tags to online items, such as images, videos, bookmarks, and text. These tags are then shared and sometimes refined. Folksonomy is
"a naturally created classification system which arises as a result of user-based tagging. A user tags an object such as a bookmark in order to remember it later; that information is then added to the global tag cloud and helps to create a folksonomy".
Wikipedia defines Tagging as
- A tag acts like a subject or category.
- A keyword is used to organize Web pages and objects on the Internet.
- Each user "tags" a Web page or image using his or her own unique tag. An image or Web page may have multiple tags that identify it.
- Web pages and images with identical tags are then linked together and users may use the tag to search for similar Web pages and images.
According to Thomas Vanderwal, folksonomy involves three data points that is:
- Web page and/or media
- The individual tag
- The distinct person tagging
He also categorizes folksonomy into two categories:
Broad: "Delicious is a broad folksonomy, where a lot of people are describing one object," Vanderwal said. "You might have 200 people giving a set of tags to one object, which really gives a lot of depth.... No matter what you call something, you probably will be able to get back to that object."
In a broad folksonomy, Vanderwal continued, there is the benefit of the network effect and the power curve because so many people are involved. An example is the website of contemporary design magazine Moco Loco , to which 166 Delicious users had applied the tag "design."
But 44 users had also assigned the URL the tag "architecture," 28 "art," 15 "furniture" and so on. That means that because so many people applied so many different tags to Moco Loco's site, it could be located in a number of different ways.
Narrow: Flickr's system is a narrow folksonomy, because rather than many people tagging the same communal items, as with Delicious, small numbers of users tag individual items. Thus many users tag items, but of those, only a small number will tag a particular item.
"You don't have quite that capability of the power curve," said Vanderwal, "but you do have that ability of adding metadata to an object."
Folksonomy and user intelligence:
Like Wikipedia social bookmarking as Tim O'Reilly puts it, harnesses collective intelligence of its users to find information on the internet and encourages user participation. The success of Google, Amazon in user engagement and has proved that,
- It is a truism that the greatest internet success stories don't advertise their products. Their adoption is driven by "viral marketing"--that is, recommendations propagating directly from one user to another. You can almost make the case that if a site or product relies on advertising to get the word out, it isn't Web 2.0.
- Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia based on the unlikely notion that an entry can be added by any web user, and edited by any other, is a radical experiment in trust, applying Eric Raymond's dictum (originally coined in the context of open source software that "with enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow," to content creation.
All the above definitions of folksonomy aligns with what Joshua Schachter says that the most interesting thing about social bookmarking is "sharing" the information found with other users, in his words this means, "we're going to go from a world where] machines are telling you what's important and searching information [to a world where] we're actually going to be able search the knowledge of other people and get access to other people's opinions and thoughts and so on in much more direct manner". When I visited the del-icio-us site I was given a code (like that of Youtube when a video URL has to be embedded)to be pasted in the html to create a network badge thereby involving the user in the creation and application of software emphasizing "user-created content" – a Web 2.0 characteristic.
Social ties and folksonomy:
In her blog Rashmi Sinha discusses about social ties formed during tagging with the help of an illustration (mentioned below):
- Ad-hoc groups
- Lots of weak social ties
- Conceptually mediated ties
Folksonomy's future:
As folksonomies are very new, it is difficult to predict what directions people will take them in. From the graphs and analyses available, it appears that use of folksonomies is still on the upswing, and discussion in the "blogosphere" continues. There are many predictions of tags being incorporated into everything from search engines to home computers, to warnings of tags creating clutter, unusability, and advertising.
Some believe that folksonomies will become unmanageable, that the cost of classification is being transferred from the information creator to the information user.
Standard or popular terms for tags are also encouraged by the number of views that they are likely to attract if, for instance, they show up in Flickr's popular tags cloud. Clay Shirky suggests group classification as the "next frontier." Under this scheme, people would be able to select whose tags they want to view.
Hierarchies, search engines, and file folders are not likely to go away, but there is room to supplement and personalize their features with folksonomies and tags.
According to Mary Beth Lakin of American council of education, "there are disadvantages to social bookmarking. Although the organization of social bookmarking is flat with no folder fuss, the tools are still evolving and not all are user-friendly. Also, people create the tags. As a result, they create a level of meaning and context not found in current search engines (Wikipedia on Social Bookmarking). However, no consistent standards and management exist for tags, which can create confusion and result in wasted time.
The current focus of social bookmarking services is on individual users, but some trends point toward more collaboration and group use.
Organizations across sectors, from manufacturing and software companies to health care and social services, could make use of social bookmarking systems to more effectively serve their clients. Social bookmarking could also help professionals who need to easily store, access, and share information.
In another area, the marriage of social bookmarking to the digitization of books (Google's current book-scanning project has provoked a mix of opinions) offers the potential to expand reading as a community activity. As noted in a recent New York Times article: "Bookmarks can be shared with fellow readers. . . . You might get an alert that your friend Carl has annotated a favorite book of yours. A moment later, his links are yours. In a curious way, the universal library becomes one very, very, very large single text: the world's only book" ("Scan This Book," May 14, 2006).
In colleges and universities, students and professors could use social bookmarking systems to share course-based knowledge from one year to the next, leaving a "legacy for the next generation" of students and faculty (Tony Hirst, "Towards a Managed Social Bookmarking Environment in Higher Education," November 4, 2005). To better serve adult learner groups, support staff in academic advising, career services, and counseling could create bookmark communities.
Finally, social bookmarking might offer relief not only for researchers, students, and teachers, but also for the general public. With the abundance of online information, lifelong learners across sectors often feel overwhelmed and left behind. Through this electronic word of mouth, learners can mark it, manage it, and share it".
As I read more about folksonomy and spurred on by Vanderwal's tip "The more people getting involved with tagging, the greater the value", I created my del-icio-us account and tagged these websites that has interesting information on folksonomy, web usability, information architecture, technical writing and visual design:
Good website on visual design and interface usability- be sure to check out their podcasts and brainsparks blogs maintained by Jared Spool
Technical Writing Tips, Tricks and Tutorials | Free Word Templates
This website has a lot of practical tech writing tips and provides lot of goodies like document templates
http://www.adammathes.com/academic/computer-mediated-communication/folksonomies.html
Article on Folksonomy
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Monet Painting
The assignment that I completed on aesthetics involving famous paintings was an eye-opener. I am now eager and ready to "wild guess" the answer to Monet's painting to which the answer I think is that it may be used by a company to advertise its product for allergy medications - "pollen and sneezing" was the first thing that came to my mind when i saw the flowers. I wonder how Monet (had he been alive) would react to the advertising company's novel treatment of his painting's concept in order to manipulate the viewer.
Web 2.0 – First look
After reading the O'Reilly 's article on Web 2.0 I recalled an article I read on NY Times a couple of weeks ago by David Pogue who talks about Web 2.0 as websites whose content is provided by the people. He also raises a question as to what would Flickr be without its photos, YouTube without the videos, Craigslist without the ads, eBay without the auctions, TripAdvisor without people's travel reviews?, and answers that these mega-sites would be only empty white pages if the audience didn't supply their materials. In his article he cites examples of the two people generated and collaborated Web 2.0 apps that are well-known such as Craiglist.org and Goloco.org - an upcoming carpool initiative in which passengers will actually pay the driver a little something for his trouble. He says that there is a similar cab service in England called Texxi: where you send a text message to a special address; computers field the requests and compare locations; and a taxi comes by to pick you up and other people who share your itinerary. All the passengers save money, and the cab company makes money. He says that this system works especially well when there are lots of people waiting in the same place: a pub or club on Saturday night, a football game that's just ended, and so on.
As I read this I realized that whatever was only talked about in Web 1.0 era such as ability to take advantage of Web services, having rich internet apps, to socialize and collaborate – all this were difficult but now it is realized –thanks to Web 2.0.
Pogue also adds that we haven't even scratched the surface and feels that there are dozens or hundreds of huge Web 2.0 ideas that have yet to materialize and how a website becomes popular is a mysterious thing that is dependent on factors like buzz, timing, software design.
I also wanted to research further on the degree of corporate involvement in the Web 2.0 realm and found this interesting pie illustration charlnorman.comthat shows a moderatly active participation. 
These are the thoughts that crossed my mind when I saw this illustration with regard to the economic aspects. I feel that in order for these companies to sustain their service in the long run these companies have to come up with the economic model that is either fee-based or advertisement driven. This is required because Web 2.0 applications are cost-driven and have to be economically feasible
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Paintings & commercials
I came across two videos that are great accomplishments of bringing art to life. Both the videos have been made by famous U.K ad agencies for “Johnny Walker” and “Guinness” brand drinks respectively. They are A 60 second Johnnie Walker spot from Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Aardman Animtons. The other one is the “Surfer” spot for Guinness that has drawn inspiration from Walter Crane’s painting of Neptune’s Horses(1893).
In the Johnny Walker ad
, the spot’s central character begins as one of the warriors in Eugene Delacroix’s The Battle of Taillebourg and proceeds to travel through works by Seurat, Miro, Magritte and Hokusai.
In this video the animation studio has showcased several art styles but I am going to discuss the paintings that belong to the work and perception of two different artists who lived in different periods of time showing different contexts.
In the first picture Delacroix has painted a battle scene that evokes strong emotions in the viewer. Both in the video and the painting besides the context our eye is drawn to the “white horse” in the centre and the soldier in the red cloth with the head gear. The entangled bodies, the weapons, the soldiers and the surroundings in which they are confronting their enemy (the place looks does not look like a typical battlefield but it looks like trench near a fort) has been painted in a dramatic and striking way. In this painting” color” seems to be the main element that rules the composition. The painter has not paid much attention to the form or outline which is not very clear in this painting.
The painting looks magnificent, realistic with the color, tone and visual elements such as the soldier’s fighting each other, the spears and other weapons in their hands (creating visual tension), their head gear, the majestic looking horse which is of light color contrasting with the surrounding that is much darker in tone, the horse that is almost upside down in the background and the trench with its brick wall create the mood and impacts the emotions of the viewer.
In Eugene’s own words: The work of a painter who is not a colorist is illumination rather than painting. If one intends something other than cameos, color is, strictly speaking, one of the founding principles of painting, no less so than chiaroscuro, proportion and perspective... Color gives the appearance of life.
The ad ends with the central character disrupting the quiet stillness and the languid summer afternoon party that George Seurat’s characters in Sunday Afternoon on The Island of La Grande Jatte are enjoying. It is one of those rare works of art that stand alone. Herethe theme of the work is not some profound emotion or momentous event, but the most banal of workaday scenes- Parisians enjoying an afternoon in a local park. The beautiful landscape, a good use of space when painting a crowded party scenario is surrealistic and beautiful.
In Seurat’s words This is a world both real and unreal - a sacred world. We are often harried by life's pressures and its speed, and many of us think at times: Stop the world, I want to get off!
The use of light, the contrasting colors make the characters look real.
The elements that create hierarchy are the several human characters, especially the ladies with their umbrellas and flowing gowns reminiscent of the bygone era. The scenario looks like a scene from a film corresponding (romantic) to that era. The landscape with the trees and bushes painted in a striking green and the grassy knoll is contrasted with the color of the landscape.
The painting persuades its viewers to immediately relax and transports them to a world of pleasure.
The animation video shows the varied emotions, experience, people that the central character encounters and when he is just about to relax in the party(Seurat painting) the ad ends as if supporting the theme related to the product being advertised.
Jonathan Glazer’s 1999 “Surfer spot for Guinness, inspired by Walter Crane’s painting Neptune’s Horses.
This is an illustration by Walter Crane who is a famous children’s story illustrator. The video's theme is an inspiration drawn from this painting. The makers of this video say that the aim of this spot was to persuade the viewers to think that power and danger are synonymous with “surfing”. This illustration is an allegory, a striking visual narration of Greek mythology, the ever-powerful horses are here like Eugene’s painting but they are shown here for their resilience, they appear to be more like mythical creatures, they symbolize power, masculinity and epitomizes adventurous spirit found in the men doing the ad. The strong tidal waves showing the danger and risk involved in the sport.
Elements such as light, color contrast, symmetry, line and shape are present in this picture. The sunlight’s effect on turquoise color water, and the water droplets create a visual tension. Unlike Eugene’s painting this one uses pastel color palette but the man in this ad is contrasted and dark in tone compared to that of the horses.
The picture showing the "motion" of the horses and the use of space between them and around them creates a visual tension that has been dramatized in the advertisement showing a group of men on thsir surfboards. The natural rhytmic wave pattern found in the ocean and the hooves of the horses splashing in the water creates a 3D effect you can almost hear the splash and feel the water in your legs.
I think to paint four moving horses in water each one showed with a visually striking posture (creating line, symmetry and visual tension) is a difficult one- the effect created is dramatic, magical and a timeless, beautiful visual expression.
In the Johnny Walker ad
, the spot’s central character begins as one of the warriors in Eugene Delacroix’s The Battle of Taillebourg and proceeds to travel through works by Seurat, Miro, Magritte and Hokusai.
In this video the animation studio has showcased several art styles but I am going to discuss the paintings that belong to the work and perception of two different artists who lived in different periods of time showing different contexts.
In the first picture Delacroix has painted a battle scene that evokes strong emotions in the viewer. Both in the video and the painting besides the context our eye is drawn to the “white horse” in the centre and the soldier in the red cloth with the head gear. The entangled bodies, the weapons, the soldiers and the surroundings in which they are confronting their enemy (the place looks does not look like a typical battlefield but it looks like trench near a fort) has been painted in a dramatic and striking way. In this painting” color” seems to be the main element that rules the composition. The painter has not paid much attention to the form or outline which is not very clear in this painting.
The painting looks magnificent, realistic with the color, tone and visual elements such as the soldier’s fighting each other, the spears and other weapons in their hands (creating visual tension), their head gear, the majestic looking horse which is of light color contrasting with the surrounding that is much darker in tone, the horse that is almost upside down in the background and the trench with its brick wall create the mood and impacts the emotions of the viewer.
In Eugene’s own words: The work of a painter who is not a colorist is illumination rather than painting. If one intends something other than cameos, color is, strictly speaking, one of the founding principles of painting, no less so than chiaroscuro, proportion and perspective... Color gives the appearance of life.
The ad ends with the central character disrupting the quiet stillness and the languid summer afternoon party that George Seurat’s characters in Sunday Afternoon on The Island of La Grande Jatte are enjoying. It is one of those rare works of art that stand alone. Herethe theme of the work is not some profound emotion or momentous event, but the most banal of workaday scenes- Parisians enjoying an afternoon in a local park. The beautiful landscape, a good use of space when painting a crowded party scenario is surrealistic and beautiful.
In Seurat’s words This is a world both real and unreal - a sacred world. We are often harried by life's pressures and its speed, and many of us think at times: Stop the world, I want to get off!
The use of light, the contrasting colors make the characters look real.
The elements that create hierarchy are the several human characters, especially the ladies with their umbrellas and flowing gowns reminiscent of the bygone era. The scenario looks like a scene from a film corresponding (romantic) to that era. The landscape with the trees and bushes painted in a striking green and the grassy knoll is contrasted with the color of the landscape.
The painting persuades its viewers to immediately relax and transports them to a world of pleasure.
The animation video shows the varied emotions, experience, people that the central character encounters and when he is just about to relax in the party(Seurat painting) the ad ends as if supporting the theme related to the product being advertised.
Jonathan Glazer’s 1999 “Surfer spot for Guinness, inspired by Walter Crane’s painting Neptune’s Horses.
This is an illustration by Walter Crane who is a famous children’s story illustrator. The video's theme is an inspiration drawn from this painting. The makers of this video say that the aim of this spot was to persuade the viewers to think that power and danger are synonymous with “surfing”. This illustration is an allegory, a striking visual narration of Greek mythology, the ever-powerful horses are here like Eugene’s painting but they are shown here for their resilience, they appear to be more like mythical creatures, they symbolize power, masculinity and epitomizes adventurous spirit found in the men doing the ad. The strong tidal waves showing the danger and risk involved in the sport.
Elements such as light, color contrast, symmetry, line and shape are present in this picture. The sunlight’s effect on turquoise color water, and the water droplets create a visual tension. Unlike Eugene’s painting this one uses pastel color palette but the man in this ad is contrasted and dark in tone compared to that of the horses.
The picture showing the "motion" of the horses and the use of space between them and around them creates a visual tension that has been dramatized in the advertisement showing a group of men on thsir surfboards. The natural rhytmic wave pattern found in the ocean and the hooves of the horses splashing in the water creates a 3D effect you can almost hear the splash and feel the water in your legs.
I think to paint four moving horses in water each one showed with a visually striking posture (creating line, symmetry and visual tension) is a difficult one- the effect created is dramatic, magical and a timeless, beautiful visual expression.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
Video Design
The Hush Sound – The Lions Roar:
This video makes use of an interesting pattern of visual design elements in a steady flowing video stream. The foremost thing that attracted my eye was the bright, bold color and richness of imagery. The video is characterized by a tinge of brashness accompanied by a loud music.
On this video typographic images alternate with the pictures and drawings and they follow a steady and interesting pattern. A unanimity and balance is found among the design elements and visual interest is created by the combination of colors enhanced by the linear nature of the text and image.
The disparity used in the placement of the typography, images is well balanced. There is a good interaction among the design elements within the composition of this video. The typography used also enhances the shape, space and shows some texture. The size of the letters, their shape, color and texture establishes an internal hierarchy when used with the images. There are some words that are depicted pictorially (such as girl, town) providing balance, rhythm and proximity to the composition. The eye is attracted to a constant rhythm and visual tension created by the visual design.
The typography plays a versatile and creative role in the way it's been used and the colors used are complimentary for example, words like "puppets" (attached on a string) and word "fly away" (depicted with wings). Some drawings are used to enhance visual imagery matching the flow of text. There is an alternate pattern of space and shapes and the use of both organic and geometric patterns exists along with the creation of positive and negative shape/space relationships.
The typography used establishes a moving line, as an edge and line implied. The typography dominates and unifies all the visual elements in the composition of the layout design. The color used in the background conveys a mood and compliments the color of the typography, its size, color, font and graphical nature. The visual texture of the letters used enhances the image of the video which is cow- boyish, strong and loud. In this video the use of Typography and its dominance over the other elements of design is remarkable.
Crocs - Color UR World:
I chose this video because it is somewhat similar in the use of colors and imagery to the Lions roar video. It has the same bright colors and uses rich imagery but the main difference is the absence of the typographic element. Except for the elegant and well designed logo with the word "Crocs" there is hardly any text to read. There is a rhythmic flow of the image (that is the numerous "crocs" image) that forms visual patterns like flower, kite and the image of the product that is marketed itself. The white space is used creatively to form a backdrop that let the colors float by. The role of the type is replaced by the use of other shapes that draw the eye to its line and length. There is a heart shape with wings to fly similar to the "lions roar" video. The video opens and ends with the Crocs logo with a picture of the crocodile that forms the focal point where the images and color converge.
This video is easy on the eyes and the colors used depict a fun, lively and quick movement that provides an interesting visual treat.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Typo Video
I would like to answer these following questions regarding typography:
1) What is type’s role in design?
Type is used in design to facilitate effective visual rhetoric communication method to “convey an idea or to convince/persuade” (Ref: Podcast by Prof. Ronkowitz). It is used to lend expression to a design and when type is used in a specific way it’s meaning goes well beyond the text’s message( Ref: Podcast by Prof. Ronkowitz).By using the right typeface it is possible to establish a instant connection with the audience( Ref: Podcast by Prof. Ronkowitz).
2) How can type used as a “compositional element”?
· Type can be used as a linear element to help guide the reader through the composition
· Type can be configured to a shape, texture or a line in a composition
· Type assumes a supporting role when a compelling image deserves centre stage as seen in the ad for McDonald.
· The use of typeface family to create variation and theme in a composition
· Combine typefaces that requires effective mixing of opposites that have different but complimentary characterisitcs
Designing and choosing a type carefully to convey a particular persona and assure a “content unity and form” (zapf 1970 & White 1988 as quoted by Eva Brumberger in rhetoric of Typography.
3) What value does “expressive” typography to a design’s message?
In SIGN LANGUAGE: Typography is an art form of its own - and it's all around us by Richard Nilsen - Dec. 24, 2006( http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ae/articles/1224signage1224main.html) he speaks of John Risseeuw, who teaches at Arizona State University and runs the ASU art press, Pyracantha “And typeface has a voice," Risseeuw said. "Just as a writer has a voice and the typeface should somehow compliment that or make the writer's voice apparent on the page”. By choosing a specific typeface for a piece of text one can decide what kind of voice that text is "spoken" in. The voice might be loud or soft, friendly or formal, authoritative, hip or old-fashioned. Depending on the project design and communication goals type can be used as a design element to convey a message examples are NYT mastheads and logotypes that projects an attitude, mood and uses gothic (period) font.
Type can be configured to suggest a shape
Build hierarchy
Type can be altered in other ways to support a mood or attitude
All the above suggest that “visual rhetoric of a text can radically change the message”(Kostelnick 1994 p.112), visual elements of a document affect the readers attitude towards the document shape the way in which they receive information from the document and will make them assign a value to the information. Therefore typography should enhance the value of the product.(ref Avoiding typeface errors by Kathleen Burke Yoshida)
4) When is it acceptable to use decorative and hard to read typefaces?
Decorative and hard-to-read fonts are used for display or to create a special effect and when expression is given more importance than reading legibility.
5) When you should use highly legible typefaces?
When designing a lengthy document which contains instructions such as user/technical manual and importance is given to user readability.
6) How can type serve as a unifying element in a composition?
Using the right typeface harmoniously integrated with other elements such as length of the lines, line spacing, intervals between words that are consistent with the purpose of the document will enhance the meaning of the message whereas not doing so will alter the composition.
7) What makes the video effective in typography?
Video by nature is dynamic and fast moving every two seconds the image is changing. Due to the time limitation the reader needs a typography that is bold and the length of the lines short …they have to make a statement and make an impression on the reader within a short span of time.
Typography: Sky:
This video uses typography to render expression to the message, the text is bold with a legible and clean sans serif typeface and in web or video sans serif works better than serif (unlike in print). The mood or attitude is enhanced by the audio that accompanies the video. The typography is used to create special effects using text as images to create a linear effect. Throughout the video clip a consistent typeface is used.
Typography: Web 2.0 The machine is Us/ing us
Unlike the Sky video clip this one is very fast moving, distracting and conveys the message using visual rhetoric. The typography used here is inconsistent and ever changing expressing the attitude of the message and it carries the meaning beyond the message- it conveys the intent of the message effectively with the right mix of imagery (mostly screen shots, hypertexts, links of websites) and fonts. High importance and prominence is given to the text that appears in the message, the font that is used is bold and clean sans serif type face to differentiate it from the other fonts that come and go. Other than the theme of the video clip I read only these few words Google, flickr,Savage minds, anthropology club, blogger.
8) Can video techniques be used in other mediums such as web, print and merchandizing?
Video techniques can be used in web and advertising. Since print is a static medium video technique cannot be used unless it is to be printed online/web.
When video is used in Web and advertising due to its time limitation it is made with clean, legible fonts and the line length is very concise. The content on each page is very short. The video usually comes with an audio track. Images are used with text and it looks like a presentation in power point. The same thing goes for videos used for education too.
When video is used in advertising special effects are used to attract the attention of the audience and typography is used as an “expressive and composition element and can be configured to shape, line and texture or to build hierarchy.
1) What is type’s role in design?
Type is used in design to facilitate effective visual rhetoric communication method to “convey an idea or to convince/persuade” (Ref: Podcast by Prof. Ronkowitz). It is used to lend expression to a design and when type is used in a specific way it’s meaning goes well beyond the text’s message( Ref: Podcast by Prof. Ronkowitz).By using the right typeface it is possible to establish a instant connection with the audience( Ref: Podcast by Prof. Ronkowitz).
2) How can type used as a “compositional element”?
· Type can be used as a linear element to help guide the reader through the composition
· Type can be configured to a shape, texture or a line in a composition
· Type assumes a supporting role when a compelling image deserves centre stage as seen in the ad for McDonald.
· The use of typeface family to create variation and theme in a composition
· Combine typefaces that requires effective mixing of opposites that have different but complimentary characterisitcs
Designing and choosing a type carefully to convey a particular persona and assure a “content unity and form” (zapf 1970 & White 1988 as quoted by Eva Brumberger in rhetoric of Typography.
3) What value does “expressive” typography to a design’s message?
In SIGN LANGUAGE: Typography is an art form of its own - and it's all around us by Richard Nilsen - Dec. 24, 2006( http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ae/articles/1224signage1224main.html) he speaks of John Risseeuw, who teaches at Arizona State University and runs the ASU art press, Pyracantha “And typeface has a voice," Risseeuw said. "Just as a writer has a voice and the typeface should somehow compliment that or make the writer's voice apparent on the page”. By choosing a specific typeface for a piece of text one can decide what kind of voice that text is "spoken" in. The voice might be loud or soft, friendly or formal, authoritative, hip or old-fashioned. Depending on the project design and communication goals type can be used as a design element to convey a message examples are NYT mastheads and logotypes that projects an attitude, mood and uses gothic (period) font.
Type can be configured to suggest a shape
Build hierarchy
Type can be altered in other ways to support a mood or attitude
All the above suggest that “visual rhetoric of a text can radically change the message”(Kostelnick 1994 p.112), visual elements of a document affect the readers attitude towards the document shape the way in which they receive information from the document and will make them assign a value to the information. Therefore typography should enhance the value of the product.(ref Avoiding typeface errors by Kathleen Burke Yoshida)
4) When is it acceptable to use decorative and hard to read typefaces?
Decorative and hard-to-read fonts are used for display or to create a special effect and when expression is given more importance than reading legibility.
5) When you should use highly legible typefaces?
When designing a lengthy document which contains instructions such as user/technical manual and importance is given to user readability.
6) How can type serve as a unifying element in a composition?
Using the right typeface harmoniously integrated with other elements such as length of the lines, line spacing, intervals between words that are consistent with the purpose of the document will enhance the meaning of the message whereas not doing so will alter the composition.
7) What makes the video effective in typography?
Video by nature is dynamic and fast moving every two seconds the image is changing. Due to the time limitation the reader needs a typography that is bold and the length of the lines short …they have to make a statement and make an impression on the reader within a short span of time.
Typography: Sky:
This video uses typography to render expression to the message, the text is bold with a legible and clean sans serif typeface and in web or video sans serif works better than serif (unlike in print). The mood or attitude is enhanced by the audio that accompanies the video. The typography is used to create special effects using text as images to create a linear effect. Throughout the video clip a consistent typeface is used.
Typography: Web 2.0 The machine is Us/ing us
Unlike the Sky video clip this one is very fast moving, distracting and conveys the message using visual rhetoric. The typography used here is inconsistent and ever changing expressing the attitude of the message and it carries the meaning beyond the message- it conveys the intent of the message effectively with the right mix of imagery (mostly screen shots, hypertexts, links of websites) and fonts. High importance and prominence is given to the text that appears in the message, the font that is used is bold and clean sans serif type face to differentiate it from the other fonts that come and go. Other than the theme of the video clip I read only these few words Google, flickr,Savage minds, anthropology club, blogger.
8) Can video techniques be used in other mediums such as web, print and merchandizing?
Video techniques can be used in web and advertising. Since print is a static medium video technique cannot be used unless it is to be printed online/web.
When video is used in Web and advertising due to its time limitation it is made with clean, legible fonts and the line length is very concise. The content on each page is very short. The video usually comes with an audio track. Images are used with text and it looks like a presentation in power point. The same thing goes for videos used for education too.
When video is used in advertising special effects are used to attract the attention of the audience and typography is used as an “expressive and composition element and can be configured to shape, line and texture or to build hierarchy.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Individual blogging
Individual Blogging
The critical aspect that a blogger has to remember is that blogging is not about technology, it is about people. Media is an extension of man (Marshall Mcluhan, as quoted in the podcast by Professor Ronkowitz)) this analogy is true in the case of blogging that is an extension of our thoughts and ideas. Blogs are popular because they are easy to host and maintain. The content of the blog and the number of readers, their repeated visits and entries received determine the success rate of a blog. Many bloggers prefer a friendly tone in their blogs. The following are some of the many hats a blogger has to wear:
Technical Writer – has to be clear and concise while writing. When a blogger publishes views on a particular topic, interest or subject he/she has to keep the reader in mind and make the information easy to read, understand and find. The tone of the blog is as important as the content and a technical writer should maintain consistency in the tone throughout the blog.
Reader – has to read the various posts made on the blog for relevancy, redundancy and sometimes even for errors and editing the length.
Researcher –constant research on topics related to the blog is required to keep the blog current and relevant.
Designer – has to incorporate various design elements on the blog site. Blog should be user–friendly, information accessible easily (ref:Podcast by Prof. Ronkowitz), with appropriate links and pleasant visual layout.
Subject Matter Expert – has to have thorough knowledge on the technical aspects of the blog topic and should be able to respond to technical questions raised by bloggers. This area is important where there is a high degree of technical knowledge is involved.
Marketing - is required to promote and attract user visits to the blog site. This can be done by referencing the blog site through various popular corporate blogs, advertisements, search engines and email campaigns.
House Keeping –is very important in order to maintain the sanity of the blog and to purge redundant and irrelevant information from the site. This is applicable to both individuals and corporate blog sites.
Technical - maintaining appropriate hardware and software required for blogging and hosting blog sites. This is important for corporate blog website since the web servers are usually hosted in-house.
Security - is required for the site in order to prevent users from uploading malicious files, spamming and hacking. This is critical for corporate blogging since individuals use public websites like www.blogspot.com which already addresses these issues.
Legal – aspects should be considered while publishing contents related to copyrighted materials. This aspect is critical for corporate blogging and is not an issue with individual blogging.
Sources
1. http://www.chrisg.com/10-blogging-hats/
2. Essential Blogging , by Cory Doctorow; Rael Dornfest; J. Scott Johnson; Shelley Powers; Benjamin Trott; Mena G. Trott
Publisher: O'Reilly
Pub Date: August 2002
The critical aspect that a blogger has to remember is that blogging is not about technology, it is about people. Media is an extension of man (Marshall Mcluhan, as quoted in the podcast by Professor Ronkowitz)) this analogy is true in the case of blogging that is an extension of our thoughts and ideas. Blogs are popular because they are easy to host and maintain. The content of the blog and the number of readers, their repeated visits and entries received determine the success rate of a blog. Many bloggers prefer a friendly tone in their blogs. The following are some of the many hats a blogger has to wear:
Technical Writer – has to be clear and concise while writing. When a blogger publishes views on a particular topic, interest or subject he/she has to keep the reader in mind and make the information easy to read, understand and find. The tone of the blog is as important as the content and a technical writer should maintain consistency in the tone throughout the blog.
Reader – has to read the various posts made on the blog for relevancy, redundancy and sometimes even for errors and editing the length.
Researcher –constant research on topics related to the blog is required to keep the blog current and relevant.
Designer – has to incorporate various design elements on the blog site. Blog should be user–friendly, information accessible easily (ref:Podcast by Prof. Ronkowitz), with appropriate links and pleasant visual layout.
Subject Matter Expert – has to have thorough knowledge on the technical aspects of the blog topic and should be able to respond to technical questions raised by bloggers. This area is important where there is a high degree of technical knowledge is involved.
Marketing - is required to promote and attract user visits to the blog site. This can be done by referencing the blog site through various popular corporate blogs, advertisements, search engines and email campaigns.
House Keeping –is very important in order to maintain the sanity of the blog and to purge redundant and irrelevant information from the site. This is applicable to both individuals and corporate blog sites.
Technical - maintaining appropriate hardware and software required for blogging and hosting blog sites. This is important for corporate blog website since the web servers are usually hosted in-house.
Security - is required for the site in order to prevent users from uploading malicious files, spamming and hacking. This is critical for corporate blogging since individuals use public websites like www.blogspot.com which already addresses these issues.
Legal – aspects should be considered while publishing contents related to copyrighted materials. This aspect is critical for corporate blogging and is not an issue with individual blogging.
Sources
1. http://www.chrisg.com/10-blogging-hats/
2. Essential Blogging , by Cory Doctorow; Rael Dornfest; J. Scott Johnson; Shelley Powers; Benjamin Trott; Mena G. Trott
Publisher: O'Reilly
Pub Date: August 2002
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Corporate Blogging
Introduction
This blog entry is meant to compare and contrast the features present in three of the top corporate blogs namely Dell, Nokia and Toyota. The intent is to analyze and understand the best blog practices amongst the top corporate. Here is what Matt Brown- Macromedia Community Manager has to say about Macromedia using blogs as quoted in the book “Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content” by author Biz Stone.
“…The idea is that we can get information back to the community more rapidly than a lot of other channels. We do a lot of that anyway, but we do that mostly on a 1-1 basis or spread through a lot of other venues. This way we can bring in the important info to one place and get that out to people."
DELL (Direct2DELL Blog)
Dell’s blog starts with a clearly defined goal which is consistent through the blog where the creation, intent, methods, rules commitments to customers, privacy and Dell’s Online Policies are neatly listed out under DELL’s Doctrine (http://direct2dell.com/about.aspx) and the intended audience are its customers. The various blog topics related to the product are listed on the right side from A to Z which is localized according to specific region. These topics contain a lot of information mostly blogged by Dell’s employee regarding product launch, product delays, battery recalls and environmental campaign to name a few and the blog site also supports user subscription to RSS feeds. There are also topics devoted to Consumer, customer experience which allows the customers to comment as well as send suggestions through emails. The average length of the blog entry is anywhere from one liner such as the one in comments to half a page. Dell uses a variety of visual elements such as screenshots, video collections – under the topic VLOGS and multimedia links. Visual elements in terms of color, font and language were lucid and consistent in usage of screen shots, appropriate use of context sensitive hyper links, all blog entries have footer with links to comments and external websites such as Digg.
Nokia (S60 Blogs)
True to its image Nokia blog was flashy with generous use of the Flash multimedia tools, ability to subscribe to RSS feeds based on topic and support through various podcasts. The tone of the blog is very lively and the blogs are aimed at enabling and enriching the Nokia S60 user community. There are several topics related to user experience, and the site allows user comments by way of links, and there is a “subscribe” link for Posts and Comments. RSS feed is encouraged and the easy navigation allows the reader to navigate to the blog entry and place his/her comment. The length of the blog entry ranging from several lines to one or multi paragraphs, to half or one page in length.
TOYOTA (Open Road Blog)
This blog is aimed at Toyota retail vehicle buyers, the blog entries act as a tool to interact with the customers and to aids the company to tout its corporate image and standing in the consumer market. The mission of the blog is clearly stated in the main page under a note of Welcome on the left hand side. Corporate blogs are listed on the left side and blog related groupings are well organized on the right. The content is distributed evenly on both sides with the blog entries forming the main centre point. This blog encourages user comments; this is evident at the footer of each blog entry where there is a link to post the reader’s comments. Additional importance to reader’s comments is given by creating a category for recent posts and recent comments. The page layout of the blog is very stylish with three columns unlike Dell and NOKIA S60. Few of the more popular and recent blogs are posted with their header hyperlinks at the centre on top of the page and the blog entry itself is in the centre column. The length of the blog entry is not more than half a page. The font used is Trebuchet MS and the color -theme is very pleasing. The tone of the blog is very engaging and several visual elements have been used such as video clippings, multi-media presentations, cartoons and photos as communication tools.
Summary
Each company uses the blog as a strategic communication tool in order to promote brand-building, to build trust and goodwill with the consumers. Dell blog site is mainly used for customer service whereas Nokia S60 blog site is centered on its product features and issues related to it. The categories column in Dell blog is limited to customer service issues only whereas Toyota blog has additional entries promoting its products and company image. Dell was not efficient in eliminating duplicate blog entries on the same topic whereas Toyota had efficiently provided links to topics related to a specific blog entry. Dell’s blog was more forthcoming in providing detailed information on various issues but the navigation was problematic.
In comparing these three top blog sites Toyota seems to have a more effective blog site. The blog site suggests open conversation through its engaging appearance, and content-rich blog topics, it looks professional and community oriented.
This blog entry is meant to compare and contrast the features present in three of the top corporate blogs namely Dell, Nokia and Toyota. The intent is to analyze and understand the best blog practices amongst the top corporate. Here is what Matt Brown- Macromedia Community Manager has to say about Macromedia using blogs as quoted in the book “Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content” by author Biz Stone.
“…The idea is that we can get information back to the community more rapidly than a lot of other channels. We do a lot of that anyway, but we do that mostly on a 1-1 basis or spread through a lot of other venues. This way we can bring in the important info to one place and get that out to people."
DELL (Direct2DELL Blog)
Dell’s blog starts with a clearly defined goal which is consistent through the blog where the creation, intent, methods, rules commitments to customers, privacy and Dell’s Online Policies are neatly listed out under DELL’s Doctrine (http://direct2dell.com/about.aspx) and the intended audience are its customers. The various blog topics related to the product are listed on the right side from A to Z which is localized according to specific region. These topics contain a lot of information mostly blogged by Dell’s employee regarding product launch, product delays, battery recalls and environmental campaign to name a few and the blog site also supports user subscription to RSS feeds. There are also topics devoted to Consumer, customer experience which allows the customers to comment as well as send suggestions through emails. The average length of the blog entry is anywhere from one liner such as the one in comments to half a page. Dell uses a variety of visual elements such as screenshots, video collections – under the topic VLOGS and multimedia links. Visual elements in terms of color, font and language were lucid and consistent in usage of screen shots, appropriate use of context sensitive hyper links, all blog entries have footer with links to comments and external websites such as Digg.
Nokia (S60 Blogs)
True to its image Nokia blog was flashy with generous use of the Flash multimedia tools, ability to subscribe to RSS feeds based on topic and support through various podcasts. The tone of the blog is very lively and the blogs are aimed at enabling and enriching the Nokia S60 user community. There are several topics related to user experience, and the site allows user comments by way of links, and there is a “subscribe” link for Posts and Comments. RSS feed is encouraged and the easy navigation allows the reader to navigate to the blog entry and place his/her comment. The length of the blog entry ranging from several lines to one or multi paragraphs, to half or one page in length.
TOYOTA (Open Road Blog)
This blog is aimed at Toyota retail vehicle buyers, the blog entries act as a tool to interact with the customers and to aids the company to tout its corporate image and standing in the consumer market. The mission of the blog is clearly stated in the main page under a note of Welcome on the left hand side. Corporate blogs are listed on the left side and blog related groupings are well organized on the right. The content is distributed evenly on both sides with the blog entries forming the main centre point. This blog encourages user comments; this is evident at the footer of each blog entry where there is a link to post the reader’s comments. Additional importance to reader’s comments is given by creating a category for recent posts and recent comments. The page layout of the blog is very stylish with three columns unlike Dell and NOKIA S60. Few of the more popular and recent blogs are posted with their header hyperlinks at the centre on top of the page and the blog entry itself is in the centre column. The length of the blog entry is not more than half a page. The font used is Trebuchet MS and the color -theme is very pleasing. The tone of the blog is very engaging and several visual elements have been used such as video clippings, multi-media presentations, cartoons and photos as communication tools.
Summary
Each company uses the blog as a strategic communication tool in order to promote brand-building, to build trust and goodwill with the consumers. Dell blog site is mainly used for customer service whereas Nokia S60 blog site is centered on its product features and issues related to it. The categories column in Dell blog is limited to customer service issues only whereas Toyota blog has additional entries promoting its products and company image. Dell was not efficient in eliminating duplicate blog entries on the same topic whereas Toyota had efficiently provided links to topics related to a specific blog entry. Dell’s blog was more forthcoming in providing detailed information on various issues but the navigation was problematic.
In comparing these three top blog sites Toyota seems to have a more effective blog site. The blog site suggests open conversation through its engaging appearance, and content-rich blog topics, it looks professional and community oriented.
Friday, August 31, 2007
ITunes is cool
I think the quality of iTunes videos are great. They give you a lot of flexibility and the response time is also pretty cool.
Welcome to Revathi's Blog
Welcome to Revathi's Blog!
I'll be sharing my thoughts and ideas on various topics in this forum. Please provide you feedback to better this blog.
I'll be sharing my thoughts and ideas on various topics in this forum. Please provide you feedback to better this blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)