Reflection

Finally it has come to an end to blogging for this assignment and I have learnt a lot through out this process. One of the skills I learnt from blogging is that it is essential to understand how readers read on the web because the way a reader read on print and web are different. It is best to emphasize on important information by highlighting the keywords, having headings and sub-headings as readers would skim through the texts at all times (Nielsen, 1997).

On the other hand, the information used in my blog posts were cited to avoid any copyright issues. Lannon (2006) stated that credibility and the accuracy of the information have to be used appropriately. Besides, I also learnt that images are as important as texts. It is essential to include images in the blog post as it will increase reader’s interest in reading them. Both images and texts are designed to work together as it will enhance learning and understanding (Schriver, 1997). Schriver (1997) also stated that “learning was better with text and illustration”. In conclusion, this learning process was beneficial and valuable to me.

References:

Lannon, JM 2006,'Technical Communication', 10th Edition, Pearson Education, USA.

Nielsen, J 1997, How Users Read on the Web, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, retrieved 15 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Schriver, K.A 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.

Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming

This article is regarding over 100 million of Facebook users feeling furious and unhappy over the launching of the new-look and format of the global social networking website. The change of the format design is believed to provide better advantages and more efficient design for users to navigate. However, Facebook hate forums were created for users to express their hatred of the new-look. The Facebook’s team believes that Facebook users will slowly adapt to the change of design as the changes will improve the social networking website.

Figure 1: The Old Facebook

(Source: www.news.cnet.com)

Figure 2: The New Facebook

(Source: www.352media.com)

In every good web design, there should be a clear purpose, the intended audience must be identified, a well structured design, easy for users to navigate and keep the site current (Grunwald, 2009). According to Kyrnin (1997), he also stated that a good layout has to be efficient and effective with the features of unity, balance, proportion, emphasis, and sequence.

According to Nielsen (1997), web users usually do not read word by word as they scan the page to pick out on individual words and sentences. A well structured web page should include highlighted keywords, meaningful sub headings, bulleted list, one idea per paragraph and half the word count.

From the change of the new design of the Facebook, we can see that the design is not well structure and categorized. New posted picture, status, posted videos and many other features are being notified in one category. This will confuse new users to navigate themselves which will affect in term of time consuming and estrangement of loyal users.

References:

Australian IT 2008, 'Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming', Australian IT, viewed 14 November 2009, <http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html>.

Grunwald, JR 2009, Five principles of a good website design, Martin Luther College, viewed 14 November 2009, http://www2.mlc-wels.edu/jgrunwald/site.html

Kyrnin, J 1997, The Principles of Design, About.com, retrieved 14 November 2009, , http://webdesign.about.com/od/webdesignbasics/a/aa053007.html

Nielsen, J 1997, How Users Read on the Web, Jakob Nielsen'a Alertbox, retrieved 14 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

New forms of media publishing

In this 21st century with the advanced of technology, people do not only get to read news, magazines and books in print form but they get to read it in web form as well, such as e-Newspaper, e-Magazine and e-Book. The advanced of technology have changed how people seek for information and provide advantages for political campaign in United States to gain the support. However, the new trend of political campaign uses the advantage of technology to share goals, views and ideas in order to create relationships with the society.

As an example, we can see that the election of the new President of the United States, Barack Obama uses the social media sites such as Youtube, Facebook, and MySpace to reach out to the demographic groups. Supporter will be able to view videos, post comment and have discussion. This enables them to have the power to control the message they want to see on the web.

Figure 1: Barack Obama's Youtube site

(Source: www.downloadsquad.com)

Figure 2: Barack Obama's Facebook site

(Source: http://www.boncherry.com/)

Figure 3: Barack Obama's MySpace site

(Source: http://www.hiringtheinternet.com/)

According to Nielsen (1997), the internet is a place where people interact with one another which maximizes user’s initiative and empowerment. The internet has become a new trend of communication tool in the era today where people have the freedom of speech to express their views.

References:

Nielsen, J 1997, How Users Read on the Web, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, retrieved 13 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Designing for Online VS Print

Online design and print are different from each other because they are different in genre. In print, the contents are design in linear form where readers will read from left to right and top to bottom (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Whereas for online, readers read in F-Shaped Pattern (Nielsen, 2006). Nielsen (2006) stated that readers “first read in a horizontal movement”, then “second horizontal movement” and finally “users scan the content’t left side in a vertical movement”.

Figure 1: F-Shaped Pattern

(Source: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

The content design for online is different as well because users tend to skim through the content but not reading them thoroughly. Therefore headings, sub-headings, bullet points are essential in online design to emphasize the important information (Nielsen, 2006). Besides, readers of print tend to flip through a magazine and read what attracts them rather than reading page by page or article by article. As for online, readers are allowed to read the content in several ways (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).

Figure 2: Times in Print

Figure 3: Times in Online

As we can see from the pictures above in Figure 1 and Figure 2, both are from Times but they are different because one is in a form of print and the another is in a form of a website. Hence the way the readers read them will be different. Therefore, a good design for print may not be good for online as they both differ from genre. Nielsen (1999) stated that “Anything that is a great print design is likely to be a lousy web design”.

References:

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Chapter 6: The meaning of composition, Reading Images: Grammar of Visual Design, Routledge, London.

Nielsen, J 1999, Differences Between Print Design and Web Design, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, Useit.com, viewed 12 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html

Nielsen, J 2006, F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, Useit.com, viewed 12 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

Document Design.

What is a good document design?

It is important to understand the features of the design in order to create an effective document design. (Reep, 2006)

Heading is the initial feature for readers to indicate before reading the contents in the slide as it gives an idea to the readers on what the slide is about. As Reep (2006) stated that headings are organization tools to alert readers to the sequence of information in a document. This is because headings help readers to indicate specific information. However, it also provides an outline to readers in order for them to see the hierarchical relationship of sections. Though, headings give the attention to specific topic as well as show the changes in topic. For example in figure 1, this slide taken from my group’s presentation power point, the heading in this slide would help readers to understand the presentation clearer.

Figure 1

Where as for this slide, in figure 2, without heading, readers might misunderstand or it might mislead the presentation.

Figure 2

Image is also an important tool to create a good document. It helps to give an illustration for readers to understand the topic better. (Reep, 2006) Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) also stated that texts and images exist side by side with one another. They are designed to work together in order help each other to enhance the idea of the context by clarifying and expanding reader’s interpretation towards the main idea. (Schriver, 1997) For example, from the slide above in figure 1, a slide with only text is not as effective as compared to a slide with images and texts. This is supported by Williams as cited in Putnis & Petelin (1996), images help readers to remember and illustrate the information better.

Besides, document must not be too wordy as readers often tend to lose interest in reading. However, it must include, sub-headings, highlighted keywords, bulleted lists, one idea per paragraph, and inverted pyramid. (Nielson (1997) Nielson (1997) stated that some readers would not read the whole content of a document as they scan through the texts. As we can see from the slide in figure 3, readers would be able to scan through the slide and understand the slide. However, as we can see from the slide below in figure 4, readers would lose interest in reading this slide as it is too wordy and the key words are not highlighted or in bold.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Last but not least, font type and size are the essential tools in creating a good document design. In a formal document, simple/standard type of fonts should be use as to create professionalism. The font size used in a document must not be too small or too big as well. This is supported by MacKenzie as he stated in Putnis & Petelin (1996) in order to create a good document, it involves factors such as the type and size of the font used and the amount of white space between the lines. The slide shown in figure 1 is a good example to this.

References:

1. Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images. Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication.

2. Nielsen, J 1997, How Users Read on the Web, viewed 10 September 2009, <www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html>

3. Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, ‘Writing to communicate’, in Professional communication: principles and applications, Prentice Hall, Sydney, pp. 223-263.

4. Reep, Diana C. 2006, ‘Chp 4: Principles of Document Design,’ in Technical Writing, 6th ed., Pearson Edu, Inc., New York, p.173-190.

5. Schriver, K.A 1997, 'The interplay of words and pictures', Dynamics in document design : creating texts for readers, p. 361-441, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.