Usability Testing

Usability questions & Feedback:

1. Was the page informative?
Feedback: Yes.
2. Was it easy to navigate?
Feedback: Yes, good transitions and navigation bar is clear and easy to explain.
3. Is the purpose of this site clear?
Feedback: Clear- for photography
4. Are there any problems with the color scheme?
Feedback: No- Colors contrast well.
5. How well did the layout work with the purpose?
Feedback: Layout was organized, but the fading out of pictures when you mouse over them didn't work well.
6. What was the most difficult aspect of the website?
Feedback: Mouse over effect mentioned in question five, and the contact page's writing was difficult to read.

Blog Post 10

There were two points that i don't plan on following.

The first tip that i don't intend on following is the logo placement. I think that generally putting it at the top lefthand corner of your page is good, but I always want to center mine. I think that the most important thing is the visibility of it, so depending on how bold or eye catching it is the placement doesn't matter as much.

Next is the tagline. I personally don't always like using taglines unless they're really good and catchy. If an about me or description page is on the webpage, the tagline is unnecessary.

My two favorite websites were the following:

http://www.toby-powell.co.uk/

and

http://www.pedrolamin.com.br/2008/

These two websites have unique navigation. They are very memorable and have a unique way of going from link to link. To do these things I would probably have to learn flash and gain a great amount of creativity. Coming up with the ideas, however, would be much easier than learning how to put it all together in my opinion.

Project 3 Proposal

For my third project I am going to talk about the linguistic mode, and how I began reading and stuck with it. My great grandma and I have bonded greatly over the years due to Jane Austen books, so I will talk about those. I also want to talk about the books that my mom and dad would read me when I was a child. I feel as if a lot of relationships in my life have become stronger due to common interest in books, and this is probably going to be my main subject of my literacy narrative.

Blog Post 6

Assignment 1:

http://www.jayinslee.com/home

What is your definition of “credible” in relation to your project goals?
Although the author is clearly not Jay Inslee, the bottom of the page has the following statement: "Paid for by Jay Inslee for Washington (D)." By reading this, you know that he has reviewed, and supports, the page. The information and facts on his own website are approved by him.
What is the purpose of your source? The purpose of this source is to allow the audience to get to know Jay Inslee. While it is biased, it's expected- he's not going to have considerate commentary about the person he is running against. It is mostly to understand his perspective and what he is trying to accomplish if he wins the election.
What info can you find about the text’s author/creator? There isn't much information on who created the site, it simply says that it was paid for by Jay Inslee. Assuming that he did not create the website, someone who knows him well must have since he approves everything on it.
Have you seen this author or organization referred to in any of your other sources? Yes, because he is in the news so frequently due to his attempt to win an election. I have seen this source in the citations on my other sources for him, which are advertisements to vote for him.
Is the information believable? The information on this website is believable. It is information about him and his politics.
What medium is the source in? The source has visual evidence (pictures and videos) as well as texts that give you information about him.
Are your sources diverse and inclusive? The information on his page is diverse. He has a variety of links that you can click on to learn more about him including a biography, his standpoint on issues, news about him, how to be involved, events he's partaking in, as well as his blog.


Since Rob McKenna has the same type of website, the same things can be said about his.

Assignment 2:


Assignment 3:
Since my sources and webpages will be frequently talked about in my webtext, I will have in text citations so the audience can easily find where I found my information, as well as a reference page that has all of my work in one place. They will be links so that they can easily be found.
Links for Jay Inslee advertisements:


Jay Inslee's Website
Jay Inslee for governor advertisement
Jay Inslee's job plan



Rob McKenna's website
Rob McKenna for governor advertisement
Rob McKenna on education

Post 5

• blog post 5: First, describe things you like and don't like about the sample webtexts. Second, describe how you plan to organize your own webtext
  

Dove Project: I loved the flow of this project. The text it gives you is very easy to read, and guides you exactly how the author intended. Each new slide and topic relates back to the previous one. This, I think, helps generate movement throughout her project, rather than having slides that are irrelevant to one another. If I were to change anything in this project, I would make a conclusion page. It ends without any finality, and jumps back to the starting screen.

Life-Based Web Comics: I didn't like this webtext as much as the first one. The text bubbles had too much in them, I think, so i started to lose interest in reading them all. You also had to go to another page that had the comics on them and they didn't give many examples while going through the presentation. They related back to them but it would be hard to keep five tabs open and switch through them while reading the text. When they did put in the analysis of the webpages, I liked how they formatted the example page and talked about the rhetorical situations that were used.


(Third link wasn't working)

Project two proposal

Step 1: I decided to look into Washington State's 2012 governor election. The two candidates are Jay Inslee (Democrat), and Rob McKenna (Republican). For this project I will be using the following websites and advertisements to rhetorically analyze each candidate's tactics.

1. Jay Inslee:
a) http://www.jayinslee.com/home
b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQhdM1GoROQ
c) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAomJutm7L0&list=UUsDVG0KviIAgwx2Z49DopUQ&index=2&feature=plcp

2. Rob McKenna
a) http://www.robmckenna.org/
b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF2Jatumaag&feature=plcp
c) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo0dG_6uIDE&feature=plcp

Tutorial Responses

Emphasis

1. Initially, my attention is drawn to the notepad that the person in the video is writing on. However, since there are so many objects surrounding the notepad and taking up more space, I begin to lose interest in the writing. The emphasis is effective, however I do not think it reaches it's maximum potential.

2. The moment where the stop-motion pauses and the author is out of the picture emphasizes the importance of what is written on the notepad. It gives the viewer a brief moment to absorb the information given. Ceasing the stop-motion makes it easier to view what she has written, allowing the audience a chance to grasp the context of the text.

3. The music sounds more harsh when she gets to the end of every line. I think different and less repetitive music would have been more effective. I would have used something that directly correlated to the movements and the main points of the video. I felt like I had to think about how it emphasized the video rather than those realizations coming naturally. The emotion it brought out made it seem fun and not very serious. It was a pretty mellow, repetitive beat that simply added a little bit to the film.

Contrast

1. The voice mixed with the written text on the screen declares the importance of the message. While the text scrolls down, the background scrolls to the side. Since there is a darker background to the light words, the words stand out the most. It doesn't contrast very much, however, since the color used are all in the same family.

2. In this section of the clip, the contrasting elements are the text, which is a light color, and the background, which is black. This makes the writing stand out more and causes the viewer to focus only on the words rather than additional images in the back. Since the writing stands alone with such high contrast depicted in the overall image, the intensity of the image is higher.

3. If I were to make a poster for this video, the title of the program would contrast with the rest of the image. I would have it grab the readers attention. With almost equal importance would be a basic description of the program. I would make sure there was a way for the audience to clearly know what it was about, and how to find information. The colors I would use would be similar to the ones used in the video to maintain consistency. The poster would have to be designed towards an audience of younger adults, since that's who the program is for. 

Organization

1. I arranged the pictures in following way: flowers, a girl painting, a math equation written in chalk, what looks like a junkyard, and finally a stone angel that does not depict happiness. To me, this conveys the message of how the things that make you happy can eventually turn into the things that make you stressed out and unhappy. I imagine the sequence being something along the lines of someone painting beautiful nature (the flowers and the artist), then going to school or creating a job out of their hobby (the math equation), then becoming stressed and losing interest and creativity (the junkyard), to eventually feeling sad about something that you used to love.

2. I could have done the exact opposite if I rearranged the sequence. I could have put the pile of junk first, then the angel (which would cause the audience to think something happened that had a saddening impact), then the math and flower pictures (which could say something about finding a distraction to take a way from sadness), to the girl painting as the last portrait (showing that everyone needs an outlet when faced with something sad). This would make the story go from something sad to something happy, rather than the other way around as it was originally organized.

3. Having the pictures in a slide show with music could add emotion to the text. It would emphasize the way the story is supposed to be perceived. Since everyone understands things differently, interpretation would be more definite, rather than how each individual sees it.

Alignment

1.     The way the letters slowly drop down to form the word make it easier for the viewer to be aware of the authors intentions on how they should be read. They gently drop to the bottom of the screen with the letters scatter, and then lightly fade out. It is obvious that the author wants the words read in a delicate fashion. It emphasizes the word and meaning “murmur.” 

2.     The visual now says “in the weeds” and the background turns green. There are three different phrases: “in the weeds,” “murmuring,” and “insects.” They came in slowly, and at the bottom of the screen. If they were at the top, the text might say “in the trees.” Since it’s at the bottom and says “weeds,” it emphasizes where the insects are located, and makes you focus on the words rather than the background.

Proximity

1.     I grouped the two title messages at the top of the page: "The Seagull" and "A Novel About Flight." At the bottom, underneath the image of the seagull (which is in the center of the cover) I put the authors name. "The Seagull" and the authors name are in the same font which helps them connect.

2.     I think the title of the book and the image of the Seagull are the two most important things on the cover. The title lets you know a little bit about what the book is about, and the image gives you a visual description.  Everything is centered to make the page flow more, and to allow the reader to see all of the information on the page.

3.     In a traditional way, the viewer may look past the book because it would be too typical. When I see a book like this with such a plain cover, it's hard to care about what the book is about. It's easy to assume it's not any different than most books. By putting it in a non-traditional format, it will catch the reader off guard and make them look at it for an extra minute, potentially looking to read it. However, this is only if it's done correctly. It could make the viewer think that if it's too confusing to read at the beginning, the actual book will be even worse.

Spatial Arrangements

When viewing the homepage for the University of Idaho, the large central image is easily the main focal point. The spacial mode is most prominent, due to the carefully articulated plot of the words and pictures on the website. There are three smaller sections below it, but you have to scroll down to see them. There are two other articles that show up when you click on the arrows next to the main picture. It's obvious the designer of this page finds those three the most important. The miscellaneous links (not shown in the above picture) are underneath the three articles titled "News & Events," "Future Students," and "Inspiring Futures." If these links were at the top with the three articles in the middle and the singular large image at the bottom, the large image wouldn't get as much attention. While still being the same size, it may not even be seen if one was simply trying to find one of the miscellaneous links.

Multimodal vs. Multimedia

Do you think there is a difference between the term "multimedia" and "multimodal"? Describe why or why not.

Yes, there is a difference between multimedia and multimodal. Multimodal is the way in which information is presented to the audience. It can either be linguistic, visual, aural, spatial, or gestural. Multimedia, however, is the way in which one chooses to present this information. There are many different types of multimedia, such as televisions, newspapers, and radio. The two types work hand in hand with one another to provide the audience with the most retainable information.

Page 3 “To Do”

The delivery of this paragraph is written. Starting the paragraph by saying that our thoughts and prayers are with those in Japan gives the reader the understanding that we are concerned, and are keeping them in mind during our daily activities. Also calling them our “friends” brings them down to a more personal level. It makes them feel like they are right next to us, rather than an ocean away. I think it helps the people want to reach out and do what they can to help because they wouldn’t let their friends suffer or be in harm way.

Page 4 “To Do”

The twitter page on the left of Cheryl Ball contains darker shades. To me, I personally like more subtle colors. The green and black contrast is very bold, and does not keep me interested as much as the one on the right, Kristin Arola’s, with a light blue background. Kristin’s also has a tree in the background which makes the page more personal. Instead of just colors, an image is portrayed to reflect on her aesthetic preferences. Just by a glance, Cheryl’s twitter page looks like it would have more serious things, while Kristin’s would be more light hearted. Since I’m new to Twitter, I chose the template from the website that I liked the most just on views. It’s a dark teal background with what seem to be leaves appearing in clusters of a similar shade. The links were originally red, but I changed them to black so they blend better. I don’t think this really reflects what my Twitter profile would include, but more so what type of colors and patterns I enjoy more.

Page 5 “To Do”

(video wouldn’t load on my computer)

Page 6 “To Do”

For Washington State University’s homepage, three pictures with captions and links take up the center of the page, where my eye happened to be drawn to. They are larger than anything else on the page, so the designer must want these to be the first and most important things seen. Underneath these pictures are categories. When you click the categories, links relating to them drop down below. You have to scroll past the three pictures to get to these links. If the two were switched, they may not be seen as much. When I personally go onto this page, I am usually trying to get to those links. If they were at the top I would pay almost no attention to the pictures.

Page 7 “To Do”

I watched the video where president Obama talks about the Kids State Dinner at the White House. Since it is a light hearted event, he has somewhat of a smile the whole time he is talking. He is also much more energetic. He is also making jokes about “crashing” the state dinner, and how there’s “more entertainment that’s more entertaining than me.” If this was a speech about something serious, such as war or some sort of disaster, he would not be so cheerful and comedic. When he talks about how he is proud of people for following his wife’s plan to eat healthier, he strictly moves his hand to show how sincere he is about that statement. His gestural mode throughout the video is good for the situation. He wants to keep the audience interested on the light subject, and make sure that they are having a good time.