week7

Three Websites For E-entertainment

The definition of entertainment: activities that people do for fun at leisure time.

Board Game Central
http://boardgamecentral.com/online_games.html
This website is a center for board game. There are various categories for board games, but I don’t know this website how to categorize different board games.

Search Your Love
http://www.syl.com/
This is an online dating website. People can find their dates online.

Online Casino
“Gambling is not prohibited only the Internet. Payment for gambling is not allowed in some places but gambling for fun and entertainment is permitted pretty much everywhere. For instance, there is a site at http://casino.gambling.com/ that enables gambling with virtual currency” (From http://www.gambling.com/).

week 6 - Book Review

Title: The Design of Everyday Things
Author: Donald A. Norman

“The Design of Everyday Things” examines a lot of everyday little things such as refrigerators, stoves and doorknobs to explain what a poor design for users; in addition, it provides a clear framework to illustrate how to design a good product for end users. Although this book talks about the design of everything except computers, the concept and the theory can still be applied on computers. Web design or program design is also a product for average end users, so the usability and the design principles are suitable for Norman’s theory.

After reading this book, it reminds me to think of daily trivial things around me because of its vivid instances and comprehensive explanations. For example, the stove in my kitchen is just as the same as the book mentions, I usually mistake the stove I have to use and make the stove almost to burn! Furthermore, I am interested in content and graphic design so I want to correct my inappropriate notion. That’s why I choose this book.

Design must convey the essence of a device’s operation. How well the design fit the needs of people who use it is the main point of this book.
Here are the design principles:
a. Conceptual models—good design is an act of communication between the user and the design, except that all the communication has to come about by the appearance of the device itself. The models are critical to god design.
b. Feedback—in design, it is important to show the effect of an action.
c. Constraints
d. Affordances—perceived affordances.
Technology may change rapidly, but people change slowly.

Design should:
1. Make it easy to determine what actions are possible at any moment (make use of constraint).
2. Make thing visible, including the conceptual model of the system, the alternative actions, and the results of actions.
3. Make it easy to evaluate the current state of the system.
4. Follow natural mapping between intensions and the required actions; between actions and resulting effect; and between the information that is visible and the interpretation of the system state.

Imaginary Forces

Task 1--find their project featuring web videos
1. Click the link on the class website.
2. Wait the loading.
3. Click “project” at the right side of the homepage.
4. Click “interactive”.
5. Click “MTV virtual Laguna Beach” online community.
6. Click “+view MTV Virtual Laguna Beach experience”.
7. It pops out a window and plays a commercial.

Task 2--find the east coaset office and map
1. Click “company” at the right side of the homepage.
2. Click “locations & contact info”.
3. I found New York’s office add.
4. Click “map & driving directions” which is below New York’s office Add.
5. It pops out a window and show the direction and location.

After access imaginary forces, I realized that it is not easy to use; it doesn’t have a friendly interface and the instruction is not so obvious. I have to pass through at least five steps to find I want to find, and it may be “error” at the final step! Furthermore, it uses too many flashes and background music to annoy audiences. Moreover, the sign is hidden when you do click it; it looks cool but it let audiences cannot find links exactly. I think it is an unnecessary design.

Last, I have to wait loading when I enter the website, it would restraint some audience who do not have broadband because there is too many unnecessary flashes.

W4-Group 2

For the past few years, there are many companies set up intranet websites for employees to communicate with others. It is a trend for business because of efficient and economical factors. The advent of Web helped business to operate, manage and organize well and transformed business as an open garden instead of a closed fort. “The character of business is becoming the same as the character of the Web”. Thus, employees can communicate immediately and efficiently via intranet and managers can manage more easily than before; for outside communication, most companies set up official website or blogs to facilitate consumers to understand a general situation about a company and they also can communicate with inside company via Web.

Hyperlinks also break hierarchy of business. I agree most points of view of David Weinberger. Hyperlinks improve the communication with upper managers and lower employees; employees can directly email to major manager without passing through minor managers. The existence of Web breaks boundary between upper and lower employees and speeds out the inside efficiency.

Although “The 95 Theses” and “the Hyperlinked Organizations” were published in 1999, I think those opinions are still related and useful to communicators today, because there are a lot of these we still use nowadays even though the virtual world changes so fast. However, I believe that Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger are optimists of technology, maybe people immediately faced the upcoming millennium and most of them were afraid of Y2K, so they invested a lot to avoid Y2K. They also believed they were able to fix Y2K problem and they were heavily relied on Internet.

For me, I also relied on Internet very much; however, I think Internet drifts apart my friends and my families—it keeps interpersonal relationship at a distance. For example, people think they can communicate with each other via the internet even they are far from each other; over a long period of time, people would gradually forget it is important to communicate with people face-to-face and they may start to be afraid of face-to-face communication. Web exists because people need it but we cannot totally rely on it to forget the original essence.

Exercise 4

“Find two or more sites that reflect the end product you think you'd like to produce (or be able to produce by the time we conclude in June) - either as an individual or through group effort. Give us the URL and your reasons for selecting them. “

1. PRADA http://www.prada.com/
This is an interesting website for audiences who are more sensitive to pictures than words. Most audiences who access this website are very fond of fashion and they have more feelings about colors and art. This website reveals its artistry; moreover, this website is akin to an interactive website, audiences can get information by clicking pictures. The entry image varies every when audiences enter the website, I think it is specific and not to tire for users.
2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/
Audiences can easily get information form the website because it is easy to access and contains clear information. The message is “easy received”.
3. Apple Store http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore
This is one the websites that I mostly access. It covers all related information and end users can easily find information what they want; furthermore, it explicitly shows the products and their information. The main information is showed in central part and end users fully understand at a glance.

Standards and Adoption of Instant Messenger

In fall quarter I learned about “Diffusion of Innovation Theory” and “Use & Gratification Theory”. Both can explain the adoption of IM. Users can get process gratification when they search their friend lists and advertisements which are on the top or aside of the window; users can also get content gratification and social gratification when they chat with friends. Social gratification is the most important factor to let IM clients continually use instant messenger because they can interact with other people immediately. IM is a two-way communication tool, it allows users exchange message immediately. That’s why U&G theory can apply on IM.

As regards the application of diffusion of innovations, that’s because Email is not immediate enough for users, so they would like to accept a more innovate product for communication. After acquiring the knowledge of this innovation, users who are interested in IM persuade themselves to try to access IM and they think IM is very convenient for chatting and communicating with others; furthermore, users can leave message to others and this function is akin to email. After confirming the decision is correct, IM readily diffuse because the social network among users is so strong (e.g. facebook) that IM is easily to be known by users friends. Once a group of people get used to use IM like MSN, it will diffuse rapidly because of networking.

However, I think email is still irreplaceable. First, instant messenger is not formal enough. For instance, if I want to send important information to my friend like my address or my phone number, I will choose to send it by email instead of instant messenger to insure my friend will lose it. I will also send a instant message to my friend to remind him/her that I sent an email to him/her. Second, an email contains entire information instead of a series of message. An email can explicitly explain the main point. Finally, sometimes some instant messages do not be convey because of unstable internet. I can check my mail box to confirm my email was sent. Although IM is a two-way communication tool and it is more instant, both email and IM are the major communication tools now. They complement each other. That’s why I use email as my main communication tool and IM as an auxiliary one.

Exercise 2—My Three Goals

“Now, rethink your goals in the light of what has been expressed by team members. Post to your blog three personal goals (design, group dynamics, whatever) for our next five months of working together. Also list two team roles that you are willing to take on and two that you would prefer not to be assigned. Try to express this as a story (narrative) rather than a bulleted list.”

Since I have no idea and experience about planning a website, I can only imagine what I want to take on (but I can clearly know what I do not prefer to be assigned.)! My father is an interior designer, so I am more sensitive to color and pictures than to words. I think I am a picture-orient person and I am interested in graphic design and visual design. However, I haven’t been training for any related skill, so I hope I can learn more about website design at the end of spring quarter. Second, as I grow up, I become more interested in advertisement and I think it is interesting and creative to translate my idea into words and pictures. Thus I’m also interested in content design. I hope I will have improved my writing skill by the end of this quarter, and I would like to acquire knowledge that how to explicitly express messages to audiences. Moreover, I hope I can experience what a “real web team” this quarter! Since I have no related work experience, it is hard to imagine a real situation, so I expect the coming classes.

I think I would not dislike to be assigned any team roles; however, I am not capable of handling the work of HTML production design and backend engineer because it is too technical and I am unfamiliar with this part! So I would prefer not to be assigned these two team roles.

Exercise 1--A Virtual Team

Since it keeps snowing, I have to stay home and cannot go anywhere, and I just knew that we have to write an essay before 7:00 pm! Oh my goodness!! Back to the right track, if I have a team which is composed of a variety of members who come from all parts the division, it helps me allocate the work to every member according to various abilities. For instance, I can easily arrange who are responsible for researching and who are in charge of design. Furthermore, I can gather local information from all kinds of area because my team member geographically dispersed and I can more understand different culture from other areas. Success in one’s job is partly due to understanding the culture of one’s workplace, so I can modify the intranet website to help my co-workers access it more easily. Moreover, it saves time! We can have a meeting via webcam, email or Skype thus we don’t have to waste time and money on transportation for meeting together in a room!

However, this is a virtual team and maybe many members even don’t each other. Lack of a team centripetal force, so as a project manager, it’s important to create “we-ness” to let all team realize they are belonging a group! I may set up a visual space like “group.yahoo” to allow every member to report his rate of process and obstacles. Furthermore, all team’s basic information will be listed and each member will know who other people are, and I have to also coordinate and integrate diverse opinions. This hyperspace is just like a smaller intranet website. For the past few years, there are many companies set up an intranet website for employees to communicate with others and it is also a trend for business because of efficient and economical factors. Although I don’t have a real experience of website redesign, I hope I can learn form this class.

week2--Define the Project

Chapter 3 covers the materials that how a website be planned and the details about the process—discovery, clarification and planning. I realized how a website is planned and redesigned by a team and the importance of a web team—it couldn’t be accomplished by a person! What a project manager needs is an excellent group no matter the mission is extremely difficult! Each person plays a significant role in his position; for example, if the interface of a website is unfriendly, it may crash the audiences who are used in using easy-access websites. Furthermore, if the message doesn’t be easy received, audiences will not understand what the product is and what a company sells and the result will be inefficient. Thus, each role of a team has to explicitly understand the responsibility of his/her job.

What I am interested in are the roles of visual designer and content manager. I think a content manager is similar to a creator of an advertisement. The part of creation allows me to translate my idea into interesting words and creative pictures and to let audiences enjoy an imaginative world; as a visual designer, I can design effective graphics becasue I'm a picture-orient person, so I can communicate with audiences by visual images. However, above are my ideal situations, I think the ideal plan may be modified and adept because of considering moderation and economical factors such as budget. Hence, as a member of web team, I may have to face a situation that the ideal plan is greatly adjusted due to the need of client. So, owning a high EQ and an ability to handle high-pressure situations is also important.

Since I am a audience of a website, I am critical of a lot of pats: a friendly and beautiful interface, the amount of connected links, the clearness of message. A website what I access everyday is “the online banking of BOA”, it helps me easily manage my account and know the updated news. For example, I can know the latest news about credit cards just sitting at home and how much money left in my account without using an ATM and even more, I can personalize my online account, it’s interesting! Moreover, this website explicitly divides into three parts, and I can easily know what kind of information is helpful for me, or for business. A good website should effectively and efficiently match audiences’ need; however, for website planners, a good website has to consider both audiences and the profit of clients. I hope I can learn how to plan a useful website and won’t take the achievement of ideal plans into consideration to the neglect of the profit of clients.

Adoption of New Technology

At the beginning of this month, I bought a red i-Pod nano on the Apple website. I have begun to shop online when I was a college student. However, I initially distrusted online transaction, because I thought it was high-risky and precarious, so I still preferred to go shopping on brick-and-mortar stores then. As e-bay and YAHOO had been stronger and prevailing, more and more people started to shop online including some of my friends, so I was imperceptibly influenced by what I constantly sees and hears and then began to experience online shopping. I realized why there were a lot of people crazy about that, because of some advantages: easy to conduct, convenience and fast. The interfaces of most e-shopping websites like e-bay and YAHOO are so human-based that everyone can follow the introduction to complete the transaction step by step; furthermore, consumers can purchase what they want at home as long as they have the internet and computers. Besides, e-shopping breaks the boundary. I can order some books that do not sold in Taiwan via Amazon; I can also buy some A&F clothes through their website. It was impossible before consumers can go online shopping. In addition, the delivery is faster and faster than before. Via courier, it only took 2 days to get my i-Pod nano after I ordered it.

Because of buying the i-Pod, I started to use i-Tunes to buy songs. It is also a kind of on-line shopping. It saves a lot of space to store songs, but the quality is as good as CDs; moreover, I don’t have to buy the whole album, so I think it is cheaper and more diversity. Above are some advantages of purchasing songs online. Why people adopt e-shopping? U&G theory can explain the motivations related to continued and increased use. According to U&G for the Internet theory, people enjoy the process of searching, gain gratification form context and interaction. People can gain the potential Internet gratification—social gratification via the Internet for interpersonal communication and social networking. Furthermore, buyers enjoy browse tens of thousands of products on various websites. It is like window shopping (process gratification). Consumers are attracted by the images of products and words described by vendors. The crucial factor is other buyers’ evaluations. Thus, the networking and community are formed and the new technology is gradually adopted.

In the United State, the e-shopping has been the trend for several years. Before I came here, I think shopping in a brick-and-mortar store is still the main trend for consumers, because Taiwan is a small island, so it is easy to go anywhere. However, in the United State, it is not easy to go anywhere unless you have a car or the mass transportation is so convenient. E-shopping, on the contrary, is more beneficial for consumers. Some products even only sold on the websites instead of a real shop. There are the most completed commodities on the official website (for example, Victoria’s Secret). It is also easy to refund if you are not satisfied with your goods. That’s is so interesting to me!

(For the Blog Assignment #2, I think I didn’t change my communication way in these snowing days, I think it is because I am too relying on the Internet usually ^^”.)