Gary's UW Web log

“Useful Information” for Web Designers

2005-05-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

Writing principles seem to retain their relevance over decades, as this article substantiates. Readability leads to usability; both of these in turn result in successful publishing, whether paper or web-based. But what in the world is the nebulous term “readability”? Zibell defines it through three characteristics:

1) Legibility—the physical appearance of the page—is the font type, spacing, graphics, arrangement easy on the eyes? We’ve all seen poorly designed websites in which the text has poor contrast or reverse image (e.g., light type on dark background). Zibell’s analogy is the “architecture” of structured organization.

2) Ease of Reading—the style of writing---is the value derived from the information presented as well as the positive ambience of the overall page. Zibell’s analogy is the “interface” of content between reader and screen display.

3) Ease of Understanding—the logic of information presented—is the degree to which the page makes sense to the reader; is the subject matter clear and unambiguous? Zibell’s analogy is the “interaction” of information between reader and writer.

I agree these three attributes are very important to good, solid web design, and I plan to take Klare’s still-timely advice into account when I begin to build some serious web pages later this year.

As our Spring class has also stressed, Zibell emphasizes user goals and task analysis throughout the article, two important areas a web designer must constantly consider to maximize readership and value to the end user. But how is this accomplished? Through audience analysis of course, as we have learned in both Winter’s Message Design class and our current Writing and Presentation course.

On page 143, Zibell alludes to web designers “designing an experience” to “create a three-dimensional space.” This is a great concept, although not really very new. Game designers and players have been living in such virtual environments for many years, if not decades. Before personal computers, there were elementary “spaces” generated on arcade machines through games like PacMan, Battlezone, 3-D Chess, and one of my all-time favorites, the original Space Invaders by Atari.

I enjoyed Zibell’s quote from Human Factors International to avoid “writing to show your profound grasp of complex concepts and terminology.” Too many academics seem to think that throwing a strong mix of etymological scholarship into their writing imparts an air of literary intellectualism. I agree that designers and writers for the web should maintain awareness of potential educational levels of their intended audience, to help avoid unnecessary “mumbo-jumbo.”

Another factoid I found interesting was on page 145: “…it is well-known that people read a lot more slowly from the computer screen than from paper.” This has been my experience, and I always suspected this was the case with most people. Thus, we cannot “scan” text quite as easily from a monitor compared to hard copy. Yet another reason for designers to avoid complex terminology, busy graphics and excessive animation. As Klare is quoted on the same page,

“Simplicity is, of course, the essence of good web design.”

* * *

Digital Asset Management

2005-05-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

For this reading, I selected the two newest articles, both written 2003. In the dynamic world of digital media, I try to access the latest information available, one reason I passed over the 1999 article by TechExchange.

Alan Zeichick’s “Content Control” is an excellent essay on managing digital information, and is one of my main interests as a student of the digital arts. He says knowledge workers (isn’t everyone to some extent these days?) spend way too much time trying to find, capture, and categorize information, an all-too familiar situation for most of us. He asks the right question on types of physical storage media, file format, architecture software, and hardware platform, all very critical considerations.

Surprisingly, Zeichick says that digital media “won’t completely replace a tape archive” due to its low cost. I cannot see tape lasting much beyond the current decade, however. It is volatile, too slow to access, subject to stretching, and is just so……….20th century.

Next, Zeichick get into the details of what I am really interested in--formats and standards. He advises that content managers try to determine which formats have the longest shelf life and how many different formats to store information in. This is a very difficult task considering the rapid evolution of formats! Consider the “venerable” DVD. It was introduced a mere eight years ago, yet Zeichick claims its MPEG-2 file format is no longer the major video standard, along with the even older .avi file type. He says these are becoming superseded by “emerging” standards such as MPEG-4 and streaming media formats developed by Real or Windows.

This is a huge issue considering the amount of data and software applications which have been using MPEG-2 compression and .avi file types all these years. And yet, I know he’s right since the blue laser DVD format(s) is just around the corner (late 2005/early 2006), necessary to capture the huge files contained within High Definition video. Current DVD formats can’t handle HD!

It’s really beginning to get a little out of control in my opinion. Not only are there two blue laser formats emerging for dominance, but the article quotes Isilon’s Brett Goodwin as observing “you have all the streaming formats…you have a proliferation of formats, and you have a growth in the number of distribution points.” In short: format chaos! Definitely making life more difficult for the content creators and digital asset managers.

Courtney Howard’s article on Content Control flows in the same vein as Zeichick’s. She quotes ContentGuard’s Bruce Gitlin guidance that digital media should be

“standards-based so that you are in a position to mix and match components over time as your needs change. That is my most important piece of advice: use standards.”

Indeed. Using standards and specifications for file formats should be the absolute minimum requirements for digital assets managers. Even then, there will inevitably be newer standards that will overcome existing ones (who remembers LP records, 8-track tapes, Beta video??) This is why standards approved by the the ISO in Geneva are so important to maximize (not guarantee) interoperability and cross-platform, cross-format communication in today’s complex digital environment.

Reading this article informed me for the first time of the issues surrounding Brand Asset Management (BAM). I did not realize this was such an important and still-merging topic of concern in digital media. I also learned about metatag-neutral technology for increasing reusability of digital data, along with the new “digital rights language” called XrML for an MPEG-21 standard. Wow, things are really moving in digital media!

Overall, I think these two articles are very informative and important for UW graduate students in the MCDM program trying to keep up with rapid developments in our field of study. Even if they are two years old!

***

Fixed or Fluid?

2005-05-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

A very interesting article, especially since it was written in 1994, just as the World Wide Web was in its infancy. Author David Levy was able to make some bold predictions about where digital documents and hypertext in general were headed. In some cases he was right on target; on others he missed the mark somewhat. Of course, it's easy for me to critique his essay with the advantage of eleven years of hindsight!

Levy’s major contention is that all documents are fixed AND fluid regardless of medium. He is correct to a certain extent, although we can certainly differentiate between purely electronic documents (i.e., files generated by computer applications) and physical document printouts either sourced from computer files or generated without them since the mid-20th century.

He writes that humans have an inherent need for “stability” in a dynamic, chaotic world, an argument to which I would agree. We tend to like fixed content, which provide us reference points to navigate information and establish order. Levy contends that physical artifacts such as paper-based documents are still subject to changes, only to a much slower rate and of different varieties than digital media. I like his example of the U.S. Constitution, since it “changes” via amendment over the centuries. In this sense, the original parchment paper, although protected under bullet-proof glass in the U.S. National Archives building, truly is a “living document” in much the same way that digital documents are today.

On page 27 Levy says that while hypertext introduced a degree of choice into the reading process, previously there was “little or none.” What he seems to overlook, however, is the fact that reading non-hypertext material has always offered choices in the process. Readers can simply skip around a particular book, magazine, newspaper, etc., much the same way they cruise the web.

Levy is somewhat prescient on page 28 where he writes that hypertext is leading to the “dissolution between author and reader.” Here he foresees the emergence of the democratization of digital media, just as we have seen this model explode in recent years with bulletin boards, blogs, peer-to-peer file networks, etc.

Surprisingly, Levy relates the account of written language being introduced as late as 1971 into Somalia. Even more surprising is his revelation that it never caught on, a fact I wasn’t aware of. While written text was never established, it seems that electronic means (audio cassette recorders) were used as a form of e-books for that particular culture.

In referring to all the mid-‘90s ballyhoo about the “paperless office,” Levy sensibly recognized that we would “gradually arrive at a balanced use of paper and digital formats,” which is exactly what has transpired in most businesses today. Thus, he is correct in asserting, “the assumption that digital forms will replace paper deserves to be challenged.”

Indeed, it is unlikely that digital media will ever make much more inroad into physical forms than it already has. There seems to be something warm and familiar with actually holding a paper, book, or other document in our hands, rather than a laptop, PDA, or electronic tablet. On a rainy night, it’s kind of hard to curl up in front of the fire with a mystery novel if it's not an old-fashioned paperback.
:-)

***

Attractive Things Work Better

2005-04-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed this article because it delved into the psychology of design, which inevitably involves emotional responses. Advertises and product designers have studied this field for many decades in deciding how to present and package their wares to consumers. We see this every time we shop or browse the web. Aesthetics is extremely important in selling an idea, product, or just “feeling good.” Demographers constantly remind us that more attractive people tend to get better jobs, higher salaries, and personal preferences from others in day-to-day social interactions. (i.e., do blondes really have more fun??)

Author Donald Norman is correct of course in his observations on page 2 that tense, anxious people are less creative and productive than those who are happy, comfortable, and calm. My employer (government) uses such knowledge to develop the science of Human Systems Integration (HSI). This is a newer discipline wherein the human is considered to be part of a holistic system, which can operate at maximum efficiency only when human needs are recognized and addressed. I presented a paper on HSI in my Fall 2004 class, discussing one major area of HSI in ship design known as “habitability.” This involves the study of making sure the environment of the human operator is made as pleasant as possible, in the belief that happy people are safe, productive, efficient people. Norman refers to this over and over again as the “positive affect” (p. 6). He also implies that minor imperfections in design can be overlooked if “the product is fun and enjoyable,” a sentiment I agree with.

Norman explores the three levels of thought processing very effectively. He describes this as “affective processing,” or how our conceptualizations at primitive and advanced levels of thinking influence our mental and physical states. He makes an interesting observation on page 4 that “the human brain can think about its own operations.” In other words, it seems that this organ is the only one capable of contemplating itself…kind of a peculiar consciousness unique to humans. Analyzing problems and developing solutions is one of the most important tasks to improving our daily lives, advancing technology, and carrying on progress to posterity. Thus, I understand Norman’s point on page 7 where he says that “good brainstorming and unusual, creative thinking require the relaxed stated induced by positive effect.”

As students of digital media, we have learned to be highly cognizant of design considerations; how various elements of text, images, sound, video, etc., may affect our audience. We continue to understand why some designs work beautifully with our audience, while others are rejected. As it is often said in the business world, appearances are everything, and while this may sound superficial at first glance, it has a huge impact on the “affective state” of our users.

* * *

Rhetoric of Objects

2005-04-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

People have different ideas about what “rhetoric” is or is not. Modern usage has distorted the word into the equivalent of political doublespeak or exaggerated advertising. Historically, it has a much richer connotation in the communications discipline, as in typical dictionary definition:

“the art of influencing the ideas and conduct of an audience through effective oratory”

Jonathan Price sets up an imaginary dialog between himself and the Greek philosopher Aristotle in order to discuss the “new” rhetoric of the web. He supposes that Aristotle views audiences with passivity whereas the web endeavors to engage people with participation and interactivity. Our game-film project has such an aim, as do most on-line gaming designs. Unlike ancient Grecian rhetoric, modern technologies use text, images, animations, as well as sound to entertain and educate the audience. Price mentions user and task analysis, persona development, and content customization as modern developments in the rhetoric discipline. Sure enough, these activities are typically part of web effective design and presentation, as we learned in the Winter quarter class.

On arrangement of information, Price discusses the move away from HTML toward XML, a newer language which seeks to better categorize, describe, structure, and stylize the mountains of information we encounter on the web. Our game-film project might fit into a hierarchy of “entertainment,” followed by “games,” then “create-your-own-story” etc. These categories could then be considered as a “class of rhetorical objects” as Price relates it. Another way he describes this is a “Document Type Definition” (DTD), or style.

In Aristotle’s time, rhetoric was delivered through the art of speaking. Our game-film project is part of an interactive rhetoric, one which includes the audience as a contributing factor to generate various outcomes. Price points out that one shoe does not fit all, there are too many “niches” to consider. Thus, he says we must develop several personas, exactly what we accomplished in our project specification last quarter.

Rhetoric has therefore greatly expanded from its original, purest form of persuasive public speaking. It has moved from forensics to political speech-making to music to the electronic publishing and commerce we see today on the web. It has effectively moved from a one-to-few to a one-to-many and many-to-many model, enabling us to better understand how humans use language to shape our understanding of reality. Practitioners of modern rhetoric can then design communications to meet modern audience requirements; what they value, need, expect, fear, trust, etc.

* * *

Elements of Storytelling and Top Three Tips

2005-04-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

The article “Elements of Good Storytelling” was, as it stated up front, written primarily from a perspective of fiction writing. At first I started to minimize the reading since my interests on the web lie more in news, technology, and history. Thus, the elements presented would seem to have more limited value; I do not see myself generating “characters” for stories I plan to publish on the web, for example. However, I understand better now how a real life person can be made more interesting. In that sense, classic fairy tale character development can be applied in a related way to biographical accounts, which are more to my taste.

Author Kimberly Appelcline is a graduate student in Creative Writing, so I assume fictional writing is her main pursuit. Nevertheless, she alludes to the friend at a party to whom people gravitate as a real life example of a good “story teller.” In a similar way, news reporting does contain certain elements of fictional writing, such as a “setting” (the Where), “character” (the Who) “plot” (the What), “detail” (the Reader), etc. So in summary, there are ways to weave in these types of elements into non-fiction writing, especially when looking to add “flavor” to otherwise bland prose, using set-ups, build-ups, and pay-offs in web publishing.

The article on web “personality” emphasizes that people tend to associate human traits to web sites through elements of visual images, sound, and motion. An important but subtle but important distinction the article makes is that visuals elements represent the “look” of a site and the emotional response of the reader constitute its “feel.” Together, the look and feel combine to create a site’s “personality.”

Gary’s TOP THREE TIPS for better visual design of a web story:

1. Do not use light text on dark backgrounds! (it is much too difficult on the eyes and is a very poor “reverse contrast”)

2. Do not use too much Flash animation. Like face makeup, a little bit goes a long way in enhancing personal features; too much is distracting and can “cheapen” the site’s design.

3. Do use bold, easy-too-read font sizes.

* * *

Storytelling

2005-04-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

As a content creator, three types of stories I am most interested in are: current news and events; technical information; and historical/biographical. Many times of course there is a significant amount of overlap among these three, such as can be found in a magazine like Newsweek, Time, etc. Even a large newspaper like the Sunday Seattle Times-P.I. contains a rich blend of these three areas among its pages. Although I enjoy fictional material as well, I consider that category a pure luxury due to time constraints. It’s all I can do to stay on top of the three non-fiction categories I’ve identified!

A good example of technical information on a web page devoted to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Digital Video is http://www.digitalfaq.com/capture/dv.htm. As part of a larger website devoted to digital video (DV), this page summarizes myths and misconceptions about capturing DV, along with concise “bullets” on DV formats and standards. It tells the reader what DV is and what it isn’t. A brief discussion on DV compression ratios helps to understand the differences between .avi and .mpg file types, with advantages and disadvantages. What sparked my interest in this topic is my ongoing research into transferring analog video source into digital media while retaining the best resolution quality. I want to know which types of file types and compressions formats (e.g., MPEG1 vs. MPEG2) work best for archiving historical material, editing applications, or uploading via the Internet. I also have a keen interest in digital media standardization regarding “-” vs. “+” DVD formats, along with the looming format war brewing in the next generation blue laser disks, This website provides a general synopsis of DV basics without being overly technical for the layperson.

“Inverted Pyramids is” a style of news writing well known among students of journalism: get the most important information out first! A noteworthy piece of advice is that “boxes” or related stories on the web must stand alone, without the need to tie back to the main story. Content creators must always be aware that their works may reside on multiple pages within a site which are not obvious to the casual reader.

In the article “Begin with Your Conclusion,” I was challenged to ask myself how informative can I make the first sentence of the first section, along with an informative title. Although this seems to be an obvious suggestion, it is good to focus on this when generating headlines and descriptive titles. The reason is that we want to “hook” the reader with something both interesting AND enlightening. The article’s example of revising a technical report shows how ambiguity can confuse readers without good organization and perhaps subheadings to arrange the information clearly. I have seen many examples of bad organization in technical manuals, such as those written for consumer electronic products—camcorders, computers, etc. Sometimes it seems the writers are the design engineers themselves, excellent at hardware invention but not necessarily good communicators!

The last article on Writing/Editing emphasizes succinctness in storytelling. At the same time, I appreciate the author’s advice to “thaw out” the 5 Ws by using human elements to bring life into what might be very mundane details, especially with technical material. Setting scenes and richly defining character qualities are fundamental building blocks of longer written pieces; I learned that these techniques might be used effectively for short works as well.

Section 8 on “focus, focus, focus” reminds me to ask the crucial questions that will help me think about how to define and engage my audience. Lastly, even if an assignment is a dry, technical work, the article encourages writers to spice it up a little so that routine information might be presented in something more special than originally intended. For example, a website announcing a high school reunion could be made more interesting with scanned images of classmates’ yearbook, school newspaper, or human-interest stories. This storytelling article was the most educational of the three readings this week.

* * *

Web Redesign

2005-03-07T16:37:00.000-08:00

Web Redesign, Chapter 6, Phase 4: Production and QA

I really enjoyed this reading because it offered a multitude of practical, user-centered recommendations and solutions on website design, redesign, and implementation. It divides the process into three major segments: Prepping, Building, and Testing. In preparing the site, author Chad Kassirer offers suggests that designers use a Client Spec Sheet early in the process to maintain a customer-oriented focus on the goals of the project at hand. He says that using this resource as a constant reference will help to keep the client in mind when building or redesigning the website. Of course, this is excellent advice since the client is usually the customer who is paying the design team or individual in the first place.

The Target Specifications charts on pages 148 and 149 are also very useful in considering the hardware and software constraints of the target audience. I like how they offer a checklist of choices vs. a “fill-in-the-blank” structure. On page 50, we are again reminded to “Focus on your user.”

File structure is always a concern during website building, especially if the designer is picking up the pieces from a previous team, and especially if the site is large and complex. Page 154 asks three important file structure questions, the first one asking “...is there a client-desired reason for this method?” In the accompanying text, we are advised that file structure “depends largely on how the client envisions the redesigned site growing and evolving.”

On page 156, the reading gets down to the nitty-gritty: creating HTML templates and pages. As the reading suggests, a good analogy is contracting a house. Templates are akin to drywalling, scripting to wiring, populating pages to furnishings, etc. This imagery makes it easier to understand the concept behind the Building stage, since most people can relate to the steps involved in building or remodeling a house.

Page 157 offers some useful definitions for the “uninitiated,” and is also a nice technical refresher for intermediate designers like myself. Author Jeffery Zeldman goes into interesting detail regarding light scripting, Cascading Style Sheets, and markup language types, all of these topics of high relevance to website builders and redesigners, especially beginners.

Near the end of the reading, some useful testing procedure types are provided for basic and advanced levels. This helps to remind website builders of the importance of the final QA process, where checking the design work is required to ensure functionality and usability.

As I decide my final project for my MCDM program, I am thinking about building a fairly complex website which will incorporate audio, video, and streaming files, as well as Flash-based graphics. This article presents several real-life applications for such a project, and is thus a resource I can apply directly. In sum, the reading is not over-analytical, but does a great job of balancing communications theory with specific guidelines for today’s website designer.

***

Digital Communication Aesthetics

2005-02-28T16:50:00.000-08:00

Find both good and bad examples of digital communication aesthetics, based on this author's perspective and prior readings on Gestalt theory.

One example of what I believe is a good aesthetic design is that of Russia’s Hermitage Museum website, http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/index.html. This site uses a classic three-column layout, exceptionally clean, appealing to the eye, and very uncluttered as well. Author Tom Greenzweig refers to this as a type of “ABA” format of organization, and this site follows that method of organizing content very well. After clicking on the Virtual Visit link on the upper right hand side of the homepage, it is apparent the site designer intended to maintain consistency with the home page’s general appearance and structure.

A visit to one of the site’s “3-D” galleries from the top hierarchy of http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/12/hm12_2.html also affords an opportunity to experience continuity in aesthetic design and navigation techniques. Thus, a holistic composition can be experienced by accessing various pages within the site, enhancing the viewer’s expectations of a particular style and awareness of an overall pattern. This is especially important when designing a museum site, since viewers typically expect to experience rich and compelling content as befits such a repository of art, history, and culture.

A bad aesthetic design example can be seen at http://writing.shawguides.com. There, the site designer attempts to cram way too much information and too many links into the home page, it that is the proper term to use. In fact, it is almost too easy to miss the main page title “The Guide to Writers Conferences & Workshops” since it is blends in among the huge amount of text and similar horizontal bar elements. Unlike the Hermitage Museum site referenced above, this complicated site discounts Greenzweig’s advice to “provide the user with an easily accessible, clearly structured, and aesthetically pleasing presentation” (pp. 8-9). On the contrary, this site is a jumble of visually unappealing elements that do nothing to enhance an aesthetic experience.

***

RSS Technology

2005-02-21T14:01:00.000-08:00

How does RSS (text or audio) change digital communication?

RSS is expanding the number of distribution channels in digital communication. It enables specific content sharing to be kept current, by automating updates whether news, music, or other file types. As part of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) familiy of customized tag sets, RSS is on the cutting edge of web-building technologies. It allows narrow filtering and search-like functions, independent of end-user schedules, and thus empowers consumers with data higly relevant data according to their interests and requirements. At the same time, it faciliates the publishing of web logs and other information by everyday Internet users, further blurring the line between professional journalists and "amateur" authors.

It appears that the Apple iPod got a jump start on competing MP3 playback devices with its large base of early adopters in music distribution, hence the name "podcasting." Now we see how anyone can become a radio "disk jockey," a talk show host, or launch any number of programming genres through the use of this new technology. The net effect will be to decentralize the power of established media publishers and broadcasters by shifting content creation and distribution to an ever-larger base of users. Not only are entertainment options expanded, but news and commentary will likewise grow.

I think this is a wonderful development because it strengthens the influence of mass consumers at the expense of traditional news and opinion providers. This levels the playing field between small outlets and the "Big Boys," and fosters more competition in a free marketplace. The First Amendment is thereby enhanced through a richer environemnt of ideas, expression, and general creativity.

The only concern with these new developments is the issue of incompatibility. According to the article on RSS Protocol, there are disagreements among the technical community over multiple syndication protocol standards. Apparently, a new "Atom" standard has been introduced, in order to address "confusions and incompatibilities," according to the article. This issue always seems to be a problem with new technologies; the hope is that time will allow these wrinkles to be ironed out to everyone's benefit.

***

Gestalt Principles

2005-02-14T14:55:00.000-08:00

Find an online design example (good or bad) of three Gestalt Principles. Be sure to provide hyperlinks to the source and explain why you believe it is a good example.

One example of how Gestalt’s principle of proximity or contiguity works is a series of lines which appear when first visiting New York’s museum of modern art at http://www.moma.org . When the page is first loaded, or refreshed, several vertical lines sweep from left to right. There is no meaning to the lines, except that there proximity and spacing suggest they belong together, i.e., as columns. I think this is a good example of how we perceive the placement of straight lines of belonging to a larger whole, in this case an architectural form. Under Gestalt’s theory, this visual effect indicates that things sharing common characteristics such as shape and orientation will have the impression of similarity.

An example of Gestalt’s principle of closure can be seen at the Motion Picture of America’s site http://www.mpaa.org. There, one will see an abstract blue image on a black background. Although the image consists almost entirely of simple curves and circles, the human eye immediately sees a pattern of an old movie film reel over a globe. This is a good example of how we tend to see familiar patterns even without very much detailed information in the image.

Lastly, a poor example of figure and ground can be seen at the federal government's nanotechnology portal, http://www.nano.gov. The visual elements near the top of the page include some "nano tubes," floating spherical objects, and a fuzzy image of the U.S. flag over what appear to be rows of molecular structures. These images have promising potential to interact with each other in unique ways, but their arrangement and placement on the page prevents a merging of these elements into a whole.

* * *

Three key learning points and applications

2005-02-06T17:34:00.000-08:00

Identify three key learning points or best practices from your reading. How might these be applied, either in this project or in something your are doing at work?

The first learning point has to do with the theory on how we can make valuable contributions within a social context; i.e., how we add "meaning" in a particular environment. We add value by raising levels of understanding and thus knowledge. For example, we establish sets of rules for effectively communicating our objectives and boundaries (goals and scope). We can apply this theory in helping to manage our game-film project by setting technical standards, limiting job tasks, staying on schedule, etc. The reading refers to such interactions as "master contracts" which define relationships among the communicating participants, or what each can expect of one another within a specific context. This could be very important as we collaborate tasks with our overseas teams.

A second learning point is in the area of symbology. Symbolic interactionism is based in part on the idea that effective communication occurs through the development of shared significant symbols. Thus, the field of semiotics is dependent on styles of thought distinguished by ontological and epistemological interpretations of signs, images, and representations of concepts. Since our ultimate game-film project may utilize such "signifiers" in a cross-cultural context, we should think about applying a best practice approach in the construction of signposts appearing in our game's pathways and/or various channels.

The third learning point is differentiating denotation, connotation, and myth in communication. Denotation refers to a literal, defined, tangible, or an "obvious" sign. Connotation has more to do with the abstract, emotional, personal, socio-cultural aspect of a meaning. As Daniel Chandler's article points out, if denotation is "what," then connotation is "how," although they are rarely unlinked. In our game-film project, these concepts apply in the area of mythology, which is one of the major themes we have discussed as a potential "appearance" of Tale-spin. But as Chandler inquires, does one's cultural mythological fairy tales produce an ideology, thus transforming historical connotations into reality? For example, does our shared Western conceptualization of "the Orient" denote and connote a cultural reflection to the extent of making that reflection a reality which requires no further interpretation? These questions concern our earlier discussions on considerations of gender roles, attitudes, and value-systems among the international teams we will interact with. Hence, Chandler's suggestion of a "semiotic analysis" of cultural myths to deconstruct certain modes of thinking and cultural assumptions, in order to examine potential ideological biases.

***

Standards

2005-01-30T22:34:00.000-08:00

How do standards impact our ability as communicators to reach our target audiences?

When I think of standards, I immediately think "technical." For example, the International Standards Organization (ISO) is engaged in trying to establish defined procedures for various organizational and industrial processes. Specifications and common modes of business greatly facilitate the sharing and processing of information. I enjoyed the reading, "Internet Standards, Protocols and Languages" because it not only provides a nice historical overview of standards setting, but illustrates why they are so important in technical communication.

In a general sense, our target audience expects to access electronic information using standard methods such as Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and standard e-mail transmissions (SMTP), etc. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a typical standards-setting body which helps to develop common sets of rules and processes by which everyone can communicate information. Since our team is working on an internationally-based game-film project, we must ensure that we all agree on common interfaces and applications. This is imporatant for our contribution on any digital video clips, such as file types and compression standards; i.e., MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, .avi extensions, etc.

When (why) might we chose to deliver information that does not conform with standards?

I can't think of a particular instance that we might not deliver information not conforming with standards; it seems that in most or all cases it would be beneficial. In the world of video, we already saw the result of the BETA vs. VHS format wars. Today, we just passed through the war of red-laser DVD-R vs. DVD+R, with neither claiming "victory" to date; both are widely used but totally incompatible. Next on the horizon (late 2005) is the blue laser DVD, with two incompatible "standards" vying for dominance, the Blu-ray DVD vs. the HDTV-DVD. These examples in digital media would seem to indicate the advantages of at least USING a "standard," even when there are more than one to choose from. Thus, standardization is very important for enabling maximum communication among technical users and their dependent audiences.

* * *

Team Roles

2005-01-22T13:15:00.000-08:00

Which team role most appeals to you? Which least appeals? Why?

From our class discussion and readings, the team roles which most appeal to me are producer, editor, and copywriter. These roles are appealing because they involve content creation and planning, roles which I have some experience with. Of course, when I think of "editor" I am thinking of more than just text documentation. This role can also involve video editing, a skill which I have developed over the past year using Adobe Premiere 6.5. As I learn more about video editing, I have become more creative and the activity is actually fun!

I have also prepared Requests for Proposals, contract language, budgets, and other documents; skills that might be useful to the Game-Film project I am on. This is what a producer is expected to do, to develop overall project plans, funding allocations, deliverables, schedule. etc. I feel that I could make valuable contributions to the team in these areas.

The roles which least appeal to me are such tasks as HTLM developer, technical lead, and database administrator. The reason is that I am not a "programmer" per se, and am still learning web-building skills through applications such as Dreamweaver and Flash. Although I have built simple websites, I do not feel fully qualified to take on a more complex site such as the Game-Film project may involve this quarter (maybe in Spring?). So, for now, I'd prefer to take a "wait and see" approach on the roles involving graphic design and technical teams.

* * *

Team Effectiveness

2005-01-17T17:31:00.000-08:00

Think of a team you've worked on before. Was it effective or not? Why?

Regarding teams, I thought about one I worked on in the summer quarter of 2004. It was actually a class taken as part of the MC DM program, "Webcasting and Streaming Media." We had the task of developing a project proposal and several deliverables for The September Project (http://www.theseptemberproject.org). We had ten classes, twice per week, squeezed into a 5-week schedule.....WHEW!

There were four of us "cohort 3" members, each of whom had a specific task, in addition to collaborative duties to make the project successful. We were really sweating bullets, coming in to the UW campus on Saturdays, holding off-hours conferences calls, etc. In the end, it came together beautifully, and the instructor (a visiting professor from NY) was most impressed with our efforts.

Thus, my judgment was that we were highly effective, although it wasn't necessarily apparent at the time. Why were we so effective? Several reasons, but four stand out:

1. We each had expertise in a specific area, such as: writing a proposal, developing a website, editing video, etc.

2. We were all dedicated to excelling in the class, each of us desiring an "A" for the course grade.

3. Because of (2.) above, we were all willing to devote time and energy after hours, even while we juggled full-time jobs, summer activities, family obligations, etc. We simply had to sacrifice some personal time (in the middle of July!) in order to meet our deliverable deadlines.

4. Willingness to think positively and get along with each other even under high stress situations. This is crucial for team performance, and we were able to set aside any personal differences (there were very few) to get the job done.

One "Lesson Learned:" In the video editing task, we used Apple's Final Cut Pro, a truly professional video editor. Problem was, none of us were Mac savvy, and the software was extremely complicated. For the project at hand, I would compare this to driving a garaged, fully-optioned Cadillac down to 7-11 to pick up some milk, rather than using the pickup sitting in the driveway. We muddled our way through, but wasted valuable time trying to use a software application that was not only non-user friendly (to us) but ran on a platform none of us were familiar with. In hindsight, we should have used a much-simpler, MS-based video editor due to the limited scope of our project and a very tight deadline.

How do you prefer to communicate with team members? Why?

I prefer e-mail to communicate with team members, but only through the UW account. I like e-mail because it is quick, easy, and "usually" effective, although there is a some room for interpretation since it does not involve body language or face-to-face expressions. I do not like using any account other than student UW accounts when working on team projects, due to negative experiences with "third party" accounts becoming maxed-out, disabled, server traffic overload, etc. If the UW e-mail server goes out, at least we can "blame" any overdue assignment on the UW, not some one else like Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.

Phone calls are always good as supplemental means to "fill in the details," and minimize misinterpretation common to e-mail. One-on-one calls are good, conference calls are even better, if everyone can coordinate schedules. So there are tradeoffs: e-mail allows "asynchronous" communications at the cost of misinterpretation, whereas telephone calls improve interactivity, but at the cost of schedule dependencies.

* * *