IvansStuff

Podcasting

2006-10-17T13:59:00.000+10:00

What is podcasting?

Podcasting is a way of automatically downloading audio files to your computer. You can then listen to this audio on your computer or transfer them to an MP3 player.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/services/podcasting/

What is a podcast?

It's a new way that a web site can automatically send you music or radio programming to your portable device. To do this, you subscribe to the podcast by downloading a small piece of software that manages all of your podcast subscriptions. When connected to the internet, the software searches for the latest edition of the program on the accessed website and will download it to a folder on your computer, ready for when you next plug in your portable mp3 device. This means that you don't have to manually search for new programs to download on this website. It happens automatically!

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/services/podcasting/help.htm#what

So what is all the fuss about podcasting?

Portable, flexible and global.

Is it of any interest to you as webdesigners of the future?

Provide emotional context and overall tone. Enables people with vision impairment and reading disabilities to access information and entertainmant.

What are the possibilities and limitations?

Possibilities:
Creative entrepreneurs and smart technologists may make it easy for podcasters to create hyperlinks to pre-defined cues in audio files, deliver on-the-fly closed captioning, automatic index creation or full-text transcripts.*

Limitations:
Podcasts lack rapid comprehension - the user does not know immediately whether the contents are useful.*
Lack of access to high speed connections, may have to pay, file sizes and file compatability.

*Source: The value of podcasting
http://blogs.bnet.com/church/?m=20050708

All sources accessed on 17 October 2006.

Web Page Contents & Their Attributes

2006-03-28T13:24:00.000+11:00

Icons
Logos: smooth, transparent
Banners: collage
Photographs: jpeg (cannot use background transparency or be animated)
Graphics: gif or png (png's enable background transparency but have high file size and like gif's can produce unwanted pixels on image)
Vector: mathematical description
Raster: pixel
Images in general: for web use 72 dpi, for print use 300 dpi

Code of Ethics

2005-11-22T14:08:00.000+11:00

A professional in any industry endeavours to uphold and advance the honour, dignity and effectiveness of the profession by observing high standards of competence and ethical conduct.

A professional should act with professional responsibility and integrity in their dealings with the community, clients, employers, employees and students. In doing so they acknowledge and demonstrate the following values and ideals as Standards of Conduct:

Priorities
I must place the interests of the community above those of personal or sectional interests.

Competence
I must work competently and diligently for my clients and employers.

Honesty
I must be honest in my representations of skills, knowledge, services and products.

Social Implications
I must strive to enhance the quality of life of those affected by my work.

Professional Development
I must enhance my own professional development and that of my colleagues, employees and students.

My Profession
I must enhance the integrity of my profession (eg. the information technology profession) and the respect of its members for each other.

Source: Australian Computer Society Code of Ethics

Design

2005-10-25T14:50:00.000+10:00

A web designer must consider three important elements in any design: layout, colour and typography.

Layout
The layout features of a design give form and space. These features extend to depth, balance, consistency, resolution and dynamism.

Colour
Colour has decorative appeal that creates interest and draws attention. It also captures association and emotion. For example, red is a hot colour and evokes passion while blue is a cool colour and evokes tranquility. A designer must also be aware of the different cultural associations of colour as well as the limitations others may have have when viewing them. For example black in western culture is associated with mourning whereas it is white in Japan, while many people may suffer from some form of colour blindness. To ensure harmony and continuity and avoid confusion, colour schemes should also be matched and consistent.

Typography
Typography is the ability to present words in ways that enhance and extend their literal meaning. Relative emphasis and different styles of text are two means to achieve this. Examples include the use of headings and indents that promote or demote words producing a hierarchical ordering of thoughts and the many font families that reflect a theme.

A designer knows that all three aspects must complement the other in order to achieve the desired objective. This is fundamental for any good design.

Source:
* Judith Cooke's TAFE Website Design class
* Visual Interface Design for Windows by Howlet.

Project Management

2005-10-17T14:04:00.000+10:00

Project management is the ensemble of activities (such as tasks) concerned with successfully achieving a set of goals. This includes planning, scheduling and maintaining progress of the activities that comprise the project. Reduced to its simplest project management is the discipline of maintaining the risk of failure at as low a value as necessary over the lifetime of the project. Risk of failure arises primarily from the presence of uncertainty at all stages of a project.

Project management is the discipline of defining and achieving targets while optimizing the use of resources (time, money, people, space, etc). Thus, it could be classified into several models: time, cost, scope, and intangibles.

Project Management is basically divided into five parts:

1. Requirements analysis
2. Engineering and Design
3. Procurement
4. Development or Construction
5. Maintenance or Post Development System (or Software) Support

Not all projects will visit every stage as some stages will not be needed or projects can be terminated before they reach completion. Some projects will also go through steps multiple times.

Many industries utilize variations on these stages and while the names may differ from industry to industry, the actual stages typically follow common steps to problem solving - defining the problem, weighing options, choosing a path, implementation and evaluation.

Requirements analysis begins the process by defining the requirements and specifications, first in coarse terms, followed by increasingly refined terms, until a clear concept of operation and design can emerge. It is critical to the remaining steps that this step be complete and not changed because the cost to make changes to the requirements is exponential as one moves from step to step.

The basic design, conceptualization and engineering comes under the category of Engineering Works.

Procurement is the purchase of raw material like brought outs, materials, tools and tackles, etc required for the project.

Construction includes implementation, installation or construction project including testing.

Maintenance ensures the project is monitored and controlled and remains at peak performance. It could even initiate a new project managment cycle if required.

Project management lifecycle of "A Bushcare Day"

The stage names for "A Bushcare Day" project are not similar to the general stage names indicated above. This reflects the individual nature of the project. Because of this generalisation, some stages of "A Bushcare Day" fall into more than one general stage of a project. For example, Morning Tea Break falls under both Requirements Analysis and Maintenance or Support. This is because Bushcare volunteers determine the next working day location and work to be done whilst having a tea-break. Thus the list below shows some stages belonging to more than one general stage of the project cycle. Please refer to MS Project Document "BushcareDay" for the list of tasks.

1. Requirements Analysis: Preparation, Morning Tea Break
2. Engineering and Design: At Start of Day, Before Commencement of Work
3. Procurement: Preparation, Finish Up for the Day
4. Development or Construction: Start Work, Recommence Work
5. Maintenance or Support: Morning Tea Break, Start Work, Finish Up for the Day

Sequence of Stages for "A Bushcare Day:"

Preparation
At Start of Day
Before Commencement of Work
Start Work
Morning Tea Break
Recommence Work
Finish Up for the Day

Project management tries to gain control over five variables:

time
cost
quality
scope
risk

Three of these variables can be given by external or internal customers. The value(s) of the remaining variable(s) is/are then set by project management, ideally based on solid estimation techniques. The final values have to be agreed upon in a negotiation process between project management and the customer. Usually, the values in terms of time, cost, quality and scope are contracted.

To keep control over the project from the beginning of the project all the way to its natural conclusion, a project manager uses a number of techniques: project planning, earned value, risk management, scheduling, process improvement.

Three "A Bushcare Day" Scenarios that show how project management variables can be affected:

(a) Only a few volunteers attend the day

Time: Time is not affected
Cost: No cost accept loss of potential free volunteer contribution
Quality: Quality of work is not affected
Scope: Less work is achieved
Risk: Work required to be done is not achieved

(b) It rains

Time: All time is lost
Cost: All free volunteer contribution is lost
Quality: Irrelevant
Scope: Nothing can be done
Risk: Risk has eventuated resulting in lost work

(c) Hot weather

Time: Less could be achieved in the alloted time
Cost: Possible reduction in free volunteer contribution
Quality: May decline as a result of sun/heat exposure
Scope: Less work achieved due to heat conditions
Risk: Injuries from sun-stroke, snakes and black ants affecting performance.

(Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management)

What is Web 2.0?

2005-10-17T12:44:00.000+10:00

Definition:

Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.

(Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0)

Wired News.Com Excerpts:

SAN FRANCISCO - 10:42 AM Oct. 06, 2005 - No one may be able to agree on what Web 2.0 means, but the idea of a new, more collaborative internet is creating buzz reminiscent of the go-go days of the late 1990s.
Web 2.0, according to Tim O'Reilly, is an "architecture of participation" - a constellation made up of links between web applications that rival desktop applications, the blog publishing revolution and self-service advertising. This architecture is based on social software where users generate content, rather than simply consume it, and on open programming interfaces that let developers add to a web service or get at data. It is an arena where the web rather than the desktop is the dominant platform, and organization appears spontaneously through the actions of the group, for example, in the creation of folksonomies created through tagging.

"Web 1.0 was commerce. Web 2.0 is people," (Ross Mayfield).

Satish Dharmaraj knows he's facing a tough battle taking on a flagship Microsoft product, but thinks that Web 2.0-style collaboration and the efforts of the open source community might be his saviour.
"I would not like to take on the big boy by myself," Dharmaraj told Wired News. "I would love to take Microsoft on with IBM and Google and Apple on my side."

Written by Ryan Singel.

(Source: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,69114,00.html)

Scalable Vector Graphics

2005-09-19T14:24:00.000+10:00

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a language for describing two-dimensional graphics and graphical applications in XML.
(Source: http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/)

"Scalable Vector Graphics will let you draw graphics using inline code...and it's efficient!"
(Source: http://www.webdeveloper.com/design/design_svg_example.html)

Basic SVG tags include:
svg
style
g
desc
defs
use
text
rect
circle
path
line
polyline
polygon
rotate

Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts

2005-08-23T15:46:00.000+10:00

General:

Ctrl + a - Select all
Ctrl + d - Deselect
Ctrl + z - Undo
Ctrl + Alt + z - Multi-undo
Ctrl + c - Copy
Ctrl + v - Paste
Ctrl + x - Cut
Ctrl + s - Save
Ctrl + n - New Document
Ctrl + p - Paste
F1 - Help
[] - Resizing brush

Toolbox:

t - Type
v - Move
d - Resets palette to black and white
x - Switches foreground to background on palette

Colour Blind - Lizzy

2005-08-23T13:42:00.000+10:00

Hints to create:

Choose Eliptical Marquee to select the eye.

Select Image/Adjustments/Hue-Saturation and vary levels to change colour.

Select Image/Image Size and change Resolution to 72 pixels/inch.

Save for Web as .jpg and ensure quality does not exceed 10 seconds.

Groovy Sites

2005-08-16T17:07:00.000+10:00

www.del.icio.us

www.ourmedia.org

www.creativecommons.org

www.archive.org

Links to Flash Sites

2005-08-16T14:18:00.000+10:00

www.flashkit.com (for learning flash)

www.tofteproject.com (for viewing flash)

www.leighblackall.com (for viewing flash)

www.blendedchocolate.com (for viewing flash)

Worn-Out Cog

2005-08-09T16:36:00.000+10:00

The Web Designer's Pre-Flight Checklist

2005-08-09T13:13:00.000+10:00

1. What is the importance of flexibility in design?
Flexibility in design is important because Websites constantly change, so if you find that putting in a new navigation button is going to take a lot of work, you have to reconsider your design. You should be able to freely add and remove elements from your pages with little to no trouble.

2. Usability , accessibility, what’s the difference and what is usability?
In web design, usability is referring to how easy someone can get around your website ... how usable is it. If someone has to 'hunt' for your 'home' link or your contact information, then you have a usability problem. Accessibility refers to the ability of other users to access your site. If your site is accessable, people with disabilities or using older technology based computers can still view your site. Thus usability looks at a site's ease of use while accessability looks at site's universal user-friendliness or reach.

3. What is the maximum page weight as a rule of thumb, and how is it calculated?
The page weight should should be no more than 60kB - images and all. People will leave your site quickly if your site takes over 10 seconds to load on a 56kB modem.

4. Give an example of when the previous rule might be broken.
Web sites that incorporate animation or movie broadcasts using multimedia software such as "Flash," can easily surpass the recommended page weight.

5. There is a plethora of tools out there for building websites, what are the criteria you would use in choosing you tools.
You need to let the goal of the website dictate what technology you are going to use and not what the flavour of the month happens to be at the time. For example, intelligent use of technology means using "Flash" when it makes sense, not because you want a 'cool' intro!

6. Why is it important to convey the meaning of the website clearly and quickly.
Web Designers need to make sure that visitors easily know what's going on (and why) when they get to your Website, otherwise you won't be conveying your message too well. If this is the case, people will just leave your site.

7. Can you think of some ways of ensuring the previous?
Keep your site simple and brief. Distractions such as pop-up windows are not advisable nor emphasis on unrelated fancy artwork.

8. What is a 4th generation website?
A 4th generation web site is a web standards compliant website. It has all the elements of a 3rd generation web site along with the following:

1. The proper use of markup (HTML): only structural tags in the HTML, use of CSS, proper use of structural tags in the layout ( tag order in a document for example).
2. Respect to usability in web site design: using proven layouts.
3. Search engine aware web pages and web site.
4. Well structured - easily updateable.
5. Automatically printable with CSS media type linked CSS files.

9. What hardware is required to build websites, explain?
You don't need any special hardware to create web pages. Just a standard computer and an Internet connection so that you can put (upload) your websites onto the web - this assuming you want to get your websites on the web. Fortunately web design is not like 3D animation, where you need the latest and most powerful PC's to be competitive. These days home computers are so fast that even three, four-year-old PC's are more than enough to handle all your web design needs.

10. What are light images?
Light images are those that don't take forever to download. This means that light images use less computer storage/memory space or have small file sizes. Consequently, images used in web pages (and all screen graphics by the way) need to be reduced to a PPI (DPI) of 72 to 76, a big contrast to the usual 300 DPI when working in the print world.

11. That old question, how big is “light”?
The last several years of web experience has shown that if people have to wait more than 10 seconds to see your page, you can kiss most of your traffic goodbye. High speed Internet access is growing, but sadly still too many people are using dial-up connections. At present, the number of people on (slow) dial-up connection is about 60%. This number of course will vary from place to place, but the bottom line is that you should expect to have many surfers hitting your web pages at 56k or less. 56k is the speed of the fastest of dial-up modems you can expect, and 56k modems download at a speed of about 5.6 kilobytes per second. With this in mind, and the 10-second rule mentioned above, you can see that shooting to create pages under 60k (kilobytes) is a good idea.

12. What is Image optimization?
The heaviest aspects of most web pages are the images. Following the old 80/20 rule we should concentrate on making our images as light as possible without making them look ugly. The best way to keep your web pages 'light' is through image optimization. Hence, the process of 'lightening-up' an image is commonly referred to as 'optimization'.

13. Explain how we optimize our images.
Just about all the image editing programs out there (programs like Adobe Photoshop, Xara, Macromedia Fireworks) have the built in capability to output/create images that are as light as possible. These programs have special export filters that are designed to produce web-optimized images. When you start using image-editing software you will find that the process is pretty painless, though you will probably have to tweak things as you go along.

14. What criteria might be used to choose whether your image would be a gif or jpg?
A gif file extension is more appropriate where the image resembles a graphic or animation whereas a jpg file extension is more appropriate where the image resembles a photograph.

15. The old saying rules are made to be broken, does it apply in web design, explain.
There are always circumstances where rules may be broken. For example an artistic site may contain just one image replaced periodically. However, they rarely occur. Thus rules, developed and tested over time, are recommended to be adhered to.

A new blog is born every second

2005-08-04T14:06:00.000+10:00

From 4 August 2005 SMH:

The blog-tracking site Technorati counted more than 14.2 million blogs last month, compared with 7.8 million in March. That's 80,000 new weblogs being created every day, said Dave Sifry, the company's chief executive. But only about half of all blogs are active - updated in the past three months - and just 13 per cent are updated every week.

Jude's Eats

2005-08-02T17:48:00.000+10:00

Photo Galleries & KISS Principle

2005-08-02T15:29:00.000+10:00

Before reading my comparative analysis please view sites:

Jude's discovery

Ivan's find

ANALYSIS

Target Audience
JD - Strange people.
IF - People who enjoy the great oudoors/wilderness/bushwalking/camping/white water rafting etc.

Age
JD - More mature age groups.
IF - All age groups except teenagers.

Gender
JD - Both genders.
IF - Both genders.

Computer Literacy
JD - Very little needed/directions not provided/not needed.
IF - Likewise, very little needed/directions provided/perhaps not needed.

Interest
JD - Life/people.
IF - Nature.

Language
JD - English
IF - English

Buying
JD - Not found.
IF - Provides links to photographic and digital hardware and services.

Navigation
JD - Besides image links 7 very small text links are provided.
IF - Besides image links 4 text links are provided.

Colour
JD - Predominantly white background and black/grey text with black/white images.
IF - Predominantly black background and white/colour text with colour images.

Layout
JD - Compact and off-set proportioned. Text above images.
IF - Page Extends beyond screen view and ill-proportioned. Text above and below justified positioned images.

Different Resolutions
JD - Different resolutions available however images still appear too small.
IF - Different resolutions available are just ample.

Image Download Speed
JD - Too slow.
IF - Acceptable.

KISS Principle
JD - Clean and simple but too busy.
IF - Ill-positioning and use of text disrupts clean and simple impact.

Hardware and Software Needed for Multimedia

2005-07-27T07:02:00.000+10:00

Hardware

P3 CPU
512MB RAM
Graphics Card
Sound Card
80GB HDD
DVD Burner
Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
Speakers
Microphone
Camera
Scanner
Graphic Pad
Flash Drive (USB 2 compatibility)
Printer

Software

Operating System (XP or OSX)
Web Authoring (Text Editor for HTML and CSS, HTML Kit, BBedit, Topstyle, Dreamweaver, Coffee Cup, Adobe GoLive)
Browser (Explorer, Firefox, Safari)
Graphics/Animation (Adobe CS Photoshop - raster/bitmap, Adobe Illustrator - vector/no scaling problems, Macromedia Flash - has large file, compatibility, plug in & accessibility issues, Macromedia Fireworks, Macromedia Freehand, GIMP - open source/free/similar to Photoshop)
Audio Editing (Audacity)
Administration/Project Tools (MS Office, Adobe Indesign, MS Project, BaseCamp, Open Office)

Cloning Weeds

2005-07-26T16:42:00.000+10:00

ABC Logo

2005-07-20T09:18:00.000+10:00

This image was created using Adobe Photoshop. Three layers composed of text, brush and gradient, each with different colours, are present. The image was converted from a PhotoShop Data format (.psd) to a Joint Photographic Experts Group format (.jpeg).

MCRN Link

2005-06-02T04:16:00.000+10:00

The url for the MCRN Blogger Web site is: http://www.resourcenetwork.blogspot.com

Re-designing Web Sites

2005-06-01T08:46:00.000+10:00

1. What do you think of the process used by 'gotomedia' in re-designing the 'WebEx' Web site?

The Challenge
'WebEx' had a legacy site that was outdated and ready for a design and branding boost. They were also preparing to launch a new television campaign featuring a new spokesperson. A new web presence needed to be live in less than a month. Ongoing, a complete site rehaul was in order, as well as addressing individual areas of the site for usability and search engine effectiveness.
'gotomedia' also had to address 'WebEx' constantly moving in new targeted directions with strategic insights and focus on information and usability.

The Solution
'gotomedia' worked with 'WebEx' to launch portions of their site in iterative stages starting with the home page in January 2003. Subsequent work was done on the site and the complete version was launched in August, 2003. Partnering with 'WebMama' and 'Vividence' allowed 'gotomedia' to measure the success of the site launches using customer insight surveys and metrics from the internal marketing team. Post-launch, 'gotomedia' continues to work closely with the 'WebEx' marketing team, concentrating on specific areas of the site from a user-experience perspective and working out a long-term strategy for site growth and improvement over the next fiscal quarters.

2. What did you think of the screen real estate concept?
Screen real estate is the amount of space available on a display for an application to provide output. Typically, the effective use of screen real estate is one of the most difficult design challenges because of the desire to have as much data and as many controls as possible visible on the screen to minimize the need for hidden commands and scrolling. At the same time, excessive information may be poorly organized or confusing, so effective screen layouts must be used with appropriate use of white space (Source: usabilityfirst).
The screen real estate concept is very useful, perhaps essential. For example, the home page layout for 'WebEx' was divided into 'chunks' of information — mapping out primary and secondary audience tasks and marketing message areas. The breakdown also showed how the site would appear in different monitor settings.

3. How did 'gotomedia' manage information architecture?
The contents of the site were prioritized and restructured to create two sites - one targeted specifically to the end users' needs and the other for company information.

4. Would you use wire framing?
A wireframe is a skeletal rendering of every click-through possibility on your site. It's a text-only action, decision or experience model (Source: ClickZ).
The page layout, naming and labeling along with user path cues were outlined using wire frames when WebEx's site was being developed by 'gotomedia'. As such wire framing can be considered an essential part of Web design.

5. Give a brief review of the finished site.
The final design for the WebEx site reflected a fresh, contemporary yet, corporate look and feel matching their new branding initiatives. The website's marketing areas were modular and scalable to meet the growing needs of the company. Further enhancements to the primary path flows have led to increased lead generation and traffic to primary actions within the site.

Answers to questions sourced from:
http://www.gotomedia.com/portfolio_webex.html

Human Machine Interaction

2005-06-01T07:29:00.000+10:00

What is HMI?
Human Machine Interaction is the scientific study of the usability aspects of peoples’ interaction with computers and other systems through both field studies in users’ workplaces and laboratory experiments with trial subjects.

How are field studies carries out?
Field studies are very often the choice for analysing human machine intereaction due to the nature of the domains that are faced (product development, control rooms, cockpits, ship bridges, large scale simulators, etc.) But also with respect to software development and development of mechatronic systems it is very often a requirement to carry out experiments on location, for example due to confidentiality requirements and to gain an accurate impression of work practices.

There are a large range of techniques that can be used in field studies, for example, interviews (semi-structured and unstructured), critical incident techniques, questionnaires, observation, eye-mark recordings, video analysis, system logs, and document inspection.

What is the "think aloud protocol"?
The 'think aloud' protocol is a rather simple but very powerful method for evaluating user interfaces. A user is set a task and asked to think loud while accomplishing the task, possibly with encouragement from the observer. The data collection is based on video, audio and screen capture, together with observers’ notes.

How is R.E.D. used?
Remote Eye Tracking Devices (R.E.D.) enable eye-mark recordings in a non-intrusive way without placing any instruments on the user. Consequently, the fact that users can interact comfortably with a given system, REDs permit unique possibilities for carrying out detailed usability evaluations. Moreover, the devices allow the study of people collaborating through the interface.

The R.E.D. is placed in front of the subject below the line of gaze. Then the R.E.D. tracks head and eye movements, by way of a computer controlled video camera with automatic focus and zoom, mirror technology, and infrared light.

How can you apply these theories to your work?
The commercialisation of Human Machine Interface studies allows services and support for a wide range of companies and organisations that produce software or incorporate software and electronic controls into their products; or that are concerned with monitoring tasks and complex on- and off-line decision processes involving information retrieval, for example in relation to product development, engineering design and software development. Some examples include the IT, medical, telecom, transport, machine manufacturing and electronics industries.

HMI technology can also be used to evaluate individual and team based work activities.

Answers to the above questions are sourced from: http://www.risoe.dk/sys/facilities/hmi_lab.htm

Interesting Web sites for our MCRN project

2005-05-11T16:13:00.000+10:00

I have found some useful sites for our MCRN project. You might like to have a quick surf. Some sites are good and some are 'not-so-good.' The last two sites may be very beneficial. One provides information on how to market a community-based Web site and the other, information on planning and organising FrontPage-based Web sites. See you all on Thursday, 12 May 2005 at TAFE for think-tank session.

http://www.cal.org/caela/

http://www.friendsnrc.org/

http://www.bristol-link.co.uk/info/links.htm

http://fdncenter.org/funders/grantmaker/gws_comm/comm_ca.html

http://www.metrostate.edu/ccbl/links.html

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/hsrsites.html

http://canada.gc.ca/cdns/children_e.html

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/it/itaids/lessons/internet/market.shtml

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011872471033.aspx

Project Two Intentions

2005-05-10T05:49:00.000+10:00

For project two, I plan to rehash my web assignment completed during Certificate II in Information Technology, incorporating web design standards learnt in project one. For the week beginning 9 May 2005, I hope to complete coding for three web pages.

Flash Movie

2005-03-09T12:24:00.000+11:00

Ivan's 'Flash' movie:

Genre's and Information Architecture

2005-03-08T12:14:00.000+11:00

Information Architecture from a slightly different perspective:
"Chunkings information" into genre's.
Jude Cook (2005)

1. Content Genres - The Hidden Workhorse of Information Architecture
Summary of article by Peter Merholz from Adaptive Path

Unlike other information science fields that are oriented toward retrieval, findability, and research, information architecture is keenly responsive to use. What do people *do* with information once they have it? How do the tasks they bring to their information usage affect their strategies, expectations, and appreciation of their information interaction?
Not explicitly called out in any information architecture text, but essential to successful practice, are content genres. Genres go beyond typical classifications of document types, to get at how content is developed to satisfy particular purposes, and how its form both guides access as well as sets expectation for use.
In the real world, we use genres all the time. For example if you are visiting a new city you use the content genre of a guidebook to learn the basics of a place. You use the genre of a map to orient yourself and understand where things are. (You might also use subgenres, like a bus map, or a map of popular sites).
You approach each of these with a purpose in mind, and an assumption that these genres can satisfy that purpose. The form of these genres helps us identify them and sets expectation for use. Guidebooks look and work different than maps which look and work differently than newspapers. When we want to know what movie is playing, we would never even approach a map -- it's appearance tells us that it's not for that purpose. On the web, however, there are far fewer cognitive cues to distinguish between genres. Everything kind of looks the same -- a page in a browser. So what do we do?

2. Information Architecture for Content Management
by Ann Rockley from The Rockley Group, Inc.

Information architecture for content management is a key component of a successful content management strategy. Information architecture formalizes the structure of your content and helps you determine rules for identifying, managing, retrieving, and delivering your content. Information architecture for content management includes content modeling, metadata, content management business rules, repository structure, and workflow.

Source: http://www.iasummit.org/2005/conferencedescrip.htm#92

Information Architecture and Webdesign

2005-03-03T08:47:00.000+11:00

Last week we talked about Information Architecture and Webdesign. Michael said, "Information architecture Involves organizing, structuring and labeling. They are the ones who make the decisions on how the site should be put together, what pages should be grouped under what label, etc."

Why is important to define your audience/users?
It is important to define your audience when designing Web sites because doing so:
-Allows users to enjoy a pleasant experience
-Promotes repeat visits and perhaps business
-Enhances an organisation's credibility
-Allows users to dictate decisions when a 'user-centred approach' is adopted during the design phase
-Knowledge gained can be applied elsewhere.

What information about your users is important? Why?
-Needs and wants
-Technological capacities
-Physical Capacities
-Cultural context
-Motivations, habits and preferences.

The above list of information is important because it enables Web developers to produce a Web site that is useful, accessable, pleasing, easy to use, quick to download and respectful to its visitors.

What is meant by the purpose of the website?
A Web site can have many objectives that determine its purpose. These include meeting the needs of targeted users and businesses while not precluding accessiblity and cultural issues. Without guiding goals during Web development, communication and business via the WWW cannot fully be appreciated.

What challenges might arise in doing your job well?
Challenges faced include:
-A 'let's make it an IT-driven' approach
-A 'let's do a quick fix' approach
-A 'let's make it all about us' approach
-An 'everyone's a Web expert' approach.

Describe some strategies you could use to deal with these challenges.
Four strategies include:
-Focus on the business
-Education
-Use a sound methodology
-Manage the managers.

How do you think and act smart?
Think smart by:
-Aligning work practices with business goals
-Determining competitor's actions/goals and share this knowledge
-Developing a sound methodology
-Providing justification for every decision.

Act smart by:
-Establishing clarity of purpose
-Managing expectations
-Educating and inspiring
-Showing tangible progress
-Acknowlegding and supporting
-Managing at all levels
-Spending time with people who know your users
-Listening, maintaining impartiality and clearly explaining your ideas
-Providing other sources of information that support your actions.

Information Architecture for Michael

2005-03-01T13:50:00.000+11:00

Do you think this is a role that you might want to take on, or does the role of IA sound so boring that you wouldn't touch it with a 6ft pole?
Information architecture is an important role because it enables Web developers to produce Web sites that fulfil their objectives. Without IA, information may not reach the intended audience. As a result Web designers and IAs must work together, particularly on large projects where they share the same goals. Even with small projects requring only one Web designer there is no escape, for IA must be embraced alone. In essence, a Web designer is a Web developer because it incorporates IA. Visual presentation cannot exist without proper communication. To be a Web designer also means one is an IA.

What the heck does Information Architecture have to do with the way we code our pages? Any ideas?
By coding in line with W3C standards and thus applying IA principles, better design workflow and improved communication between design teams is obtained. Three key ways to do this include:
-Making your site map references CSS compatible
-Identifying hierarchies
-Cataloging.

Information Architecture for Jude

2005-03-01T12:30:00.000+11:00

Information Architecture and Webdesign. Which plays the most important role in production of a good Web site, information architecture or Web design?
Both information architecture and Web design equally play an important role in the production of a good web site. Information architecture can in fact be considered an extension of Web design.

Briefly define the roles of each.
Information architecture involves organising, structuring and labeling.
Web design involves technical development and visual design.

What are three common Web design tasks that can be extended into the role of information architecture?
Navigation, layout and code.

Write a brief description of each of these tasks and how they can be extended into the role of IA.
Navigation is important so that a Web site visitor can quickly and easily find the area of interest. By grouping Web pages according to information contained therein (and naming these groups), a hierarchical classification scheme called taxonomy by information architects, is developed. This aids the naming of navigation labels and site maps for a Web site.
Layout should encompass not only page layout but a page schematic or wireframe. A wireframe typically shows the location of content, images, navigation and other functionality on the page. By focusing on information rather than visual design at first, it examines relationships between information, content and groups of content.
Code that incorporates W3C Web development standards can help drive information architecture and design workflow by:
-Making your site map references CSS compatible
-Identifying hierarchies
-Cataloging.

Describe the word taxonomy.
-Can mean: classification, nomenclature, catalog, categorisation, arrangement or organisation.
Source: MS Word Thesaurus
-The science of naming and classifying organisms.
Source: www.cmdr.ubc.ca/pathogenomics/terminology.html
-A hierarchical classification scheme that can be useful when deciding on navigation labels and site maps for a Web site.

General source: http://www.digital-web.com/articles/ia_as_an_extension_of_web_design/

Software Copyright and Patents

2005-02-25T12:39:00.000+11:00

Copyright applies to software code as it does to books. It discourages others to duplicate and benefit from what already has been written by someone else. Software code however, can provide a good or service. Thus the question arises as to whether code, code written by web designers and other programmers, should be protected by patents?

In a capitalistic society, it is perhaps reasonable to expect a monetary return for producing a product from which society can benefit. This may encourage its development. Although on the other hand, this may stiffle technological development as monopoly companies form in the market place controlling product prices and commencing law suits against struggling competitors.

The answer may be a balance of the two; patent protection for a short time so that technological innovation can advance.

Disabilities, Technologies & Resources, Resources for Designing Accessible Sites

2005-02-25T10:25:00.000+11:00

"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."

(Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web )

Disabilities affecting web-browsing:

Visual disabilities
-Blindness
-Color blindness

Hearing Impairments
-Deafness
-Hard of hearing

Physical disabilities
-Motor disabilities

Speech disabilities

Cognitive and neurological disabilities
-Dyslexia, dyscalculia
-Attention deficit disorder
-Intellectual impairments
-Memory impairments
-Mental health disabilities
-Seizure disorders

Multiple Disabilities

Aging-Related Conditions

Assistive technologies are products used by people with disabilities to help accomplish tasks that they cannot accomplish otherwise or could not do easily otherwise. When used with computers, assistive technologies are sometimes referred to as adaptive software or hardware.
Some assistive technologies are used together with graphical desktop browsers, text browsers, voice browsers, multimedia players, or plug-ins. Some accessibility solutions are built into the operating system, for instance the ability to change the system font size, or configure the operating system so that multiple-keystroke commands can be entered with a sequence of single keystrokes.

Adaptive strategies are techniques that people with disabilities use to assist in using computers or other devices. For example someone who cannot see a Web page may tab through the links on a page as one strategy for helping skim the content.

The following is a list of some assistive technologies and adaptive strategies:

alternative keyboards or switches
braille and refreshable braille
scanning software
screen magnifiers
screen readers
speech recognition
speech synthesis
tabbing through structural elements
text browsers
visual notification
voice browsers

Source: http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/PWD-Use-Web/#tools

A few resources for designing accessible sites include:

Guidelines - http://www.w3.org/WAI/

5 Design Steps - http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol3/design_no17.htm

Another 5 Design Steps - http://www.ataccess.org/rresources/web/5firststeps.html

7 Design Steps - http://www.techsoup.org/howto/articlepage.cfm?ArticleId=381&topicid=13&cg=content&sg=feature

10 Accessible Web Authoring Practices - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/accessibility/

Boycott !!! Problem - Cool off !!! Too many bloggs !!!

2005-02-25T10:01:00.000+11:00

There is not enough time for coding. Nearly all time is spent creating posts. I consider this unreasonable. I will boycot blogs if they continue at such a rate. One a week at the most please.

Sources of Documentation for Web Design

2005-02-24T07:08:00.000+11:00

Some items to include in web design documentation already highlighted by Genie:

- Time line or project plan.
- Client specifications.
- Client sign off.

Other items to include:

- Log of meeting times/dates/arrangements.
- All correspondence.
- Budget - Hours/expenditure.
- All changes with client approval.

Flashing and Smothering "Flash"

2005-02-22T13:40:00.000+11:00

Flashing "Flash "

A standard for interactive vector graphics and animation for the web. Web designers use Flash to create beautiful, resizable and compact navigation interfaces, technical illustrations, long-form animations and other effects. Graphics and animation will anti-alias and scale based on the viewer's screen size, providing high-quality viewing. Source: www.firstclasssolutions.net/glossary.htm

Flash is a vector-based animation technology. Flash animations are quick to download, are of high quality and are browser independent (they look the same on different browsers). Flash animations also scale to fit the browser window. Flash animations are created using Macromedia Flash software. Source: www.red.net/glossary/f.php

Flash is a multimedia software that allows for the design of fast vector based animation with sound. It is particularly useful for web based multimedia. Source: www.thinkworks.co.uk/support/geh.htm

Flash, a popular authoring software developed by Macromedia, is used to create vector graphics-based animation programs with full-screen navigation interfaces, graphic illustrations, and simple interactivity in an antialiasing, resizable file format that is small enough to stream across a normal modem connection. The software, currently in version 4.0, is ubiquitous on the Web, both because of its speed (vector-based sites, which can adapt to different display sizes and resolutions, play as they download) and for the smooth way it renders graphics. Flash files, unlike animated but raster graphics Graphics Interchange Format and JPEG, are compact, efficient and designed for optimized delivery. Source: www.cpsmedia.net/technology/glossary.htm

Smothering "Flash"

1. Accessibility problems
The careless use of Flash can create serious accessibility problems for blind, partially sighted or disabled users.

2. Proprietary technology
Unlike many other web technologies, Flash is a proprietary commercial product, owned and developed by Macromedia. In order to create any serious Flash-based work, it is therefore necessary to purchase and install Macromedia's Flash development software.
Similarly, before a user can view a Flash movie embedded within a web page, it is necessary for them to have downloaded and installed the Flash Player plug-in from http://www.macromedia.com/. Although this is usually not a complex or lengthy task, some users on securely managed corporate computer systems may be prevented from downloading and installing their own software, and so may be unable to view Flash movies.

3. Complexity of Flash development,and difficulty of subsequent editing
Professional Flash development is a highly complex and specialised activity, calling for both high-level graphic design and programming skills.
If you commission Flash-based development work from a commercial designer, this will be produced in Macromedia's proprietary Flash file formats (filename.fla and filename.swf), and may contain a large amount of complex and cryptic code. Therefore, it will probably be difficult for anyone other than the original designer to modify and update this work in the future.
Many Flash-based web sites commissioned from external commercial developers become effectively useless when their non-technical owners realise that they cannot afford to pay the designers repeatedly for every trivial update (or when the designers themselves go out of business!)

Source: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/webpack/factsheet25.shtml#section25.3
(Advantages of Flash can also be viewed here)

Communicating with Others

2005-02-18T16:41:00.000+11:00

When communicating with others:

1. Be aware that everyone has different perceptions.
2. Be patient, honest, respectful and try not to judge others.
3. Politely seek feedback from the person communicated to, so as to determine whether you have been correctly understood.
4. Politely give feedback to others communicating to you, so as to determine whether you have understood others.

Good luck!

Questions for Ray Cauchi

2005-02-18T15:53:00.000+11:00

Five questions for Ray Cauchi:

1. How did you get to where you are now?

2. What do you like about web design?

3. What do you dislike about web design?

4. Where do you see web design headed and do you think web designers will be needed in the future?

5. What advice would you give to aspiring web designers?

Web Design Standards - Part Two

2005-02-18T12:42:00.000+11:00

Web standards help different devices (user agents) connected to the Web communicate in a way that is understood by all these devices.

Web standards also tell Web coders (Web authors) not only how to code Web pages but how to interpret and display that code so user agents can read Web pages. For example Hyper-Text Mark-up Language (HTML) code tells a user agent where and how to denote the different parts of the document (the structure of its content) while Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) code tells the user agent what the document should look like (its presentation). Separating content from presentation is important as it is a very efficient way to code Web pages. It gives the author the ability to easily change the look of a web site in less time.

Several organisations contribute Web standards but the most influential is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It releases technical specifications, recommendations and other missives for the Web infrastructure.

The benefits of Web standards include:

- Accessibility.
- Device independence.
- Faster page loads.
- Lower bandwidth usage.
- Ease of maintenance.
- Improved user experience.
- More compatibilty and less lock-in.
- Planning for growth in the future.
- More flexibility in selecting a vendor or Web staff.

Source: www.maccaws.org/kit/primer/

Web Design Mistakes

2005-02-17T14:27:00.000+11:00

To see mistakes, please click here.

Web Site Analysis

2005-02-17T08:00:00.000+11:00

The following is an analysis of the home page web site for www.freedom.com.au as displayed in August 2001:

1. Who is the target audience for this web site? Give reasons for your decision.
The target audience is anyone who is interested in purchasing furniture and dinnerware at a reasonable price. A picture (the front cover of a sales catalogue) along with a caption on the home web page indicates dinnerware is sold. Freedom also markets its products consisitently and as such it well known the company sells furniture despite the home page not indicating that it does.

2. Why would this web site appeal to the target audience? - ie: what characteristics in the web site would appeal to the target audience and what type of people would be attracted to this web site? Give reasons for your decision.
Appealing characteristics include a well laid out home page using a balance between white space, image, graphics and text. The web site appears to be emitting a sense of relaxtion and coolness, perhaps attracting a cool, fashionable and discerning audience. It is a good example of expressing much with less encapsulating ease of use.

3. What do you think the client who ordered this web site wanted the web site to do? [ie: what where the requirements?]. Give reasons to support your answer.
Simplicity, style and ease of use. The web site evokes these qualities through the use of placement and choice of objects. There is no clutter nor overwhelming information. An image is used to promote a product sensually, demonstrating the company's market niche accompanied by a 'clean' and stylish navigation bar.

4. What improvements would you make to this web site?
Hardly if any improvements can be made to the web site. If only one change were permissible, this may include removing the date and company name from the catalogue image's side strip as the text already appear elsewhere and are a little difficult to read being rotated 90 degrees.

5. Who would not use this web site? Who would not find it appealing? Why?
People who do not need to buy furniture or dinnerware would not use this web site and probably those who wish to purchase higher quality priced products. Persons not apppealed by the site may include users who are interested in instant information, interaction, sound, animation and video coupled with variation in colour presentation as the home page exhibits none of these features. However this could be considered an advantage.

6. Is it possible to develop a web site that appeals to everyone? Why?/Why not?
It is impossible to develop a web site that appeals to everyone. Everyone is different for different reasons and everyone has changing views. As a result web sites have different objectives and different themes for different or even the same objectives. Perhaps web site design is governed by consensus and limited by education, despite everyone having different thoughts and imaginations.

JPEG Myths and Facts

2005-02-15T15:17:00.000+11:00

What does JPEG stand for?
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the group that developed the JPEG format.

Does a JPEG lose quality by just opening and saving it?
JPEG quality is not lost when edited and saved many times within the same session or copied and renamed. However, use of the 'Save As' command or multiple opening, saving and closing of a JPEG image will deteriorate its quality even when saved at 100% quality.

Can you save a JPG at 50% then come back and restore its quality to say 90%?
No. Once an image has been saved at 50% quality, the remaining data essential for 100% image quality is lost when an edit program is closed. On re-opening the edit program, the image cannot be restored to 90% quality, as essential data to do so has not been saved. If 90% quality is now chosen, the edit program will edit the image to 45% quality of the original image. However, some image editors save all data and the quality can be restored to 90%.

Saving your image at 100% quality will not degrade the image - true or false? Why?
False. Saving an image to JPEG format always introduces some loss in quality, though the loss at a quality setting of 100 is barely detectable by the average nake eye.
In addition, it may be worthwhile to use a quality setting of 95 or even 90, in order to reduce the file size without a considerable loss in image quality that is detectable. It is best to use a software's preview to do this.
Colour shifting can also occur with JPEG compression, so it is best avoided where precise colour matching is important.

What are JPEG 2000? List advantages and disadvantages of each.

JP2 is the file extension for the new image format called JPEG2000 based on state-of-the-art wavelet compression. The JPEG2000 architecture advances a number of different applications in the digital imaging market, everything from digital cameras, pre-press, medical imaging and other key sectors.
JPEG2000 is in the final stages of becoming an International Standard.
Advantage - JPEG2000 utilises an advanced compression technique resulting in better image quality.
Disadvantage - JPEG2000 is not compatible with all graphics software and web browsers.

Source: JPEG Myths and Facts by Sue Chastain.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/formatsjpeg/a/jpegmythsfacts.htm

Storage Devices used in Multimedia

2005-02-15T13:40:00.000+11:00

Hard Drive: 120GB Adv. Very high capacity Disadv. Difficult to transport
CD: 70MB Adv. Transportable Disadv. Limited capacity
DVD: 4.7GB Adv. High capacity Disadv. Can be lost/stolen

Pen Drive: 1GB Adv. Easy to carry on person Disadv. Easily lost

Output Devices

2005-02-15T13:27:00.000+11:00

Monitor: A device that displays images, colours and graphs.
Speaker: A device that transmitts audio signals.
Printer: A device that produces hard copy information on documents.
LED: An indicating device that may highlight a problem or status.

Persuading Clients Gently

2005-02-14T12:54:00.000+11:00

Extracts from "The Gentle Art of Persuasion":

"When you just spent days figuring out the right layout, colours and images for a design – spent hours finding the perfect font – and the first words out of a client's mouth aren't "I love it", then it can be heartbreaking. But obviously you made those decisions for some well thought out reasons, and it behooves you to explain – not argue, never argue – those reasons to your client. Persuade them that this is a good design, but keep an ear open to what they have to say."

"If someone simply says they don't like a design it's hard to discuss it with them, let alone improve upon it, so I like to take a few deep breaths and ask "what exactly don't you like about it?" When armed with an exact list of perceived problems with a design you can tackle each of them individually – it's far easier to get agreement on a lot of small problems than on one big one."

"Most often a response of distate is based purely on aesthetic pretiness, hich in the field of web design makes up only one of many parts that etermine a design's success. Aesthetics are also highly subjective. Some people ove graffiti, others hate it, but I don't think any one person has the objectivity to declare it either good or bad. Although it may seem vital that the client has to like the aesthetics of a design, most of the time it's not essential, particularly if they themselves aren't part of the design's target group."

"Ultimately, I think that when explaining a point of design you want to stray away rom aesthetics and frame it in more of a logical and definable framework. Therefore, before the aesthetics of a design element are questioned, I like to explain how it meets both business goals and usability requirements. By pointing at an element and explaining the process behind the choices that make it up – by stablishing a strong basis for that element's existence and appearance – it decreases the emotional blinkers that aesthetics often introduce."

Pickle Jar Theory & Week Two Timetable

2005-02-14T10:58:00.000+11:00

Pickle Jar Theory
The Pickle Jar Theory of time management is interesting because it shows tasks should be prioritised. Tasks can be set for daily, weekly or even yearly periods but it is important to make sure all our big rocks (most important tasks) fit into our jar (planning period) and allow for the unexpected. Pebbles, sand and water (respectively less important tasks) are then residual fillers of our jar.

Week Two Timeable
This week I plan to begin project one by following Elizabeth Castro's book, "Creating a Web Page". I intend to follow the Visual QuickProject in this book so that I gain the correct foundation even though I have already created web pages at a beginner level.

Week Two Aim: I hope to reach page 19 of the book, 'Create a web image'.

Ivan's View About Standards for Web Design

2005-02-10T15:09:00.000+11:00

From my limited knowledge of web design, I feel standards do have some benefits for web designers. These include the ability to create web pages from a set basis form and the ability to maintain web sites easily and quickly. I understand standards also enable search engines to easily find web sites.

Standards on the other hand, I am told, do have problems. Stiffling creativity and restrictive formats are two examples.

In conclusion, while every standard has pros and cons, the final decision will depend on acceptance and use. At present, I believe I need more experience to determine whether standards are useful.

Michael's Favourite Holiday Destination

2005-02-10T07:05:00.000+11:00

1. Do you have a favourite holiday destination?
Yes.

2. Where is it?
Ballina; north coast of NSW near Byron Bay.

3. Have you already been there?
Yes, many times.

4. How did you get there?
By car. It is a nine hour drive.

5. Would you consider other transport modes?
Yes. Either by boat or plane but not by bus or train.

6. What did you like about Ballina?
Nice beaches, friendly people, a quiet/relaxing town.

7. Did you meet anyone interesting?
Yes, a locksmith from Katoomba.

8. How long did you stay?
Five or six days, sometimes a weekend.

9. What advice would you give someone else planning a trip to Ballina?
There are numerous places to stay depending on your budget. These include hotels, camping grounds or caravan parks.

10. Would you go back to Ballina or visit another part of the world?
Yes I would go back to Ballina. I would also like to visit Eygpt followed by Japan.