DTC 355 Post 11 Usability Testing

So I redesigned my webpage into more of a web portfolio. The Website can be found here.

I also conducted usability testing on my classmates and asked the following Questions, and I have followed each with the responses of the participants.

1. What do you think of the color? Is it complementary? (I am partially colorblind so feel free to correct me) The testers liked the bright colors, and felt like it would make people  happy, and they also agreed that the colors were complimentary.

2. What do you think of the arrangement of the pages? Where do your eyes tend to focus? 
The testers greed that it is well organized and easy to find the vital info of the pages. The three testers seemed to agree that their eyes first land in the center of the page and then move to the top left towards the logo, and then move along the storm cloud background to the right and then back to the center of the page 

3. Was there anything particularly difficult about navigating through the pages? Did you find what you were looking for?
All three testers agreed that they were able to find links to my pages, as well as outer links to my twitter, blog, and youtube channel. The only bit of criticism was that I needed to add a link to my drawings page and my video page to the list of links at the bottom of the page.

4. What type of audience would you say this website is directed towards?
This question lead to a little disagreement. One person said it was directed to people who might want to hire me, while the other two said it was directed towards someone who wants to know more about me, and for silly people.

5. What is the purpose of this page? 
They agreed that it was to showcase my work.



6.Do you have any suggestions for my portfolio? 
The testers agreed that I should add a few more drawings and add subtitles or descriptions to them as well. They said it would make it more interesting. Additionally they put forth the idea of having someway to view the images from a thumbnail and expand them into a full sized image. They also agreed that I should add some more info about me and my brother on the about me page.

  

DTC 355 Blog Post 10

This blog is back with a vengeance from Thanksgiving!

So in response to 10 Steps to the Perfect Portfolio Website I think this is a great set of tips for anyone who is building a portfolio website.  I really can't see any reason to ignore any of the tips, because they all make perfect sense if your website is designed with the purpose of being a portfolio and showcasing your work.

I think I will definitely make a flashy logo in the top right corner of the screen, with a link to the homepage, a catchy tagline, large high quality pictures of my work, a list of what I do (services), an about me, a link to my blog, a call to action, and friendly yet concise language.

Of the "40 beautiful portfolio websites" the ones I enjoyed the most were those for Nine Lion, Miki Mottes, Pedro Lamin. The first oe by Nine Lions, I enjoyed because it had a very nice, smooth, clean cut visual style. Plus it had a huge picture of a lion, and a very nice cut out logo of a lion, which all caught my attention, it made it stand out in my mind because the logo was very memorable.
I enjoyed Miki Mottes website mainly for the fun cartoon characters that covered the pages. I enjoyed it because the author used a fairly creative layout, but dressed everything up very nicely with a little animation, and fun characters. It probably wasn't a lot of work, but it really paid off.
 Pedro Lamin used cartoons and animations as well, but in a more cinematic style, the author made a great use of the aural mode and made the whole website almost like it was part of a larger flash movie.

While I will not be able to create a website with so many flash animations, I know that I can create an attractive and memorable logo for Brotherly Dove, and I am sure I could add in a few cartoon doodles to spruce up a  simple layout, and make it much more fun to view.

DTC 355 Storyboards! Better Late then never...

And there they are!

DTC 355 Post 8 (or 9) Project 3 proposal

I think my literacy narrative will be about the visual mode, and more specifically how I learned to draw.From a young age I have always loved doodling and drawing cartoon characters. I have actually kept a lot of my old drawings, so I am thinking of making a video that sort of shows the evolution of my drawings, and maybe even animate them in flash or some other program, and have them literally evolving from like a fish coming out of the ocean and growing leg, then turning into a lizard and so and so, while I narrate and describe the stories I was trying to tell with my drawings. However the evolution sequence may not be the greatest idea, so another idea I have is putting my drawings into an animated story book, and show the progress from my early drawings to my later ones, and have the pages turn as I tell the story of each drawing, and maybe even weave them into an overarching story.

I am looking forward to hearing feedback!

DTC 355 Post 7

I actually did not have time to have anyone look at my webtext because just before class I decided to make what I thought would be two minor, quick fixes to my project, but ended up almost ruining the whole thing. Thankfully by the end of class I was able to get it functioning properly again with a little help from Arola.

I imagine a person looking at my webtext analysis would notice that I did not have any part of my written analysis included in the rough draft, so to calm that fear I will in fact be adding a rhetorical analysis to these pages, and not just have the links youtube videos. 

Right now everything could use a little work.It is getting there, but everything needs some polish. It definitely looks like a rough draft. I plan on updating the header picture with the names of the candidates: Rob Mckenna and Jay Inslee with a big "versus" in the middle so the people will know who the candidates are. I also plan on changing the colors of the template a bit into a more, green and yellow, Washington state colors that would match with the picture of mount rainier. Additionally I plan on adjusting the background image, although I do enjoy using the Washington state flag as a backdrop. 

I also would like to change my intro and conclusion tabs into drawings of the state of Washington, the intro would be on the left hand side of the page under Jay Inslee's name, and would have the west side of the state highlighted in green, while the east side of the state would be left dark gray. I would do the same for the east side of the state, under Mckenna's name having the east side of the link highlighted as green, while the west is left a dark gray. 

This project is a lot of work but I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out! 

DTC 355 Project 2 Sources

Hello!

I am going to talk about my sources for Project 2 in my DTC 355 class.

Part 1: Asset List

1. Rob Mckenna (or his staff), "Family" TV Advertisement found on Youtube
This video is meant for TV audiences, but also Youtube viewers, shows Rob Mckenna interacting with every member of his family, telling them about how he is going to fix Washington state. This video uses the same argument as Jay Inslee's "Get to Work" ad, which shows him as being a family man, but also shows that he intends to work for Washington.

2. Jay Inslee (or his staff), "Get to Work" TV Advertisement found on Youtube
This video is also intended for TV viewers and Youtube users, but generally anyone who lives in Washington. It is basically the Jay Inslee flip of Rob Mckenna's "Family" Ad. It starts off by showing his family, and then shows how he plans to lead Washington state. It will provide a good

3. Rob Mckenna (or staff), "Job Creation" TV Ad on Youtube 
This video is intended for Washington voters watching TV or on Youtube. Literally talks about what the title says, it shows Rob talking about job creation in the private sector. Then it shows images of him walking around in what look like different factories and company spaces. This video basically outlines Rob Mckenna's plan to create new jobs in Washington state.


4.Jay Inslee (staff), "Built" TV Ad on Youtube
In this video advertisement directed at Washington voters on TV or on Youtube, Jay Inslee talks about how Washington State has a history of creating large companies like Boeing and Microsoft. He then goes on to say that he will focus on creating "green" jobs in a "new energy economy". So it sounds like he will be focusing on creating jobs that are more energy efficient.This video is a good contrast to Rob Mckenna's "Job Creation" Ad, because they both outline their approaches for creating jobs in Washington.

Part 2: Rights

1.Rob Mckenna (or his staff), "Family" TV Advertisement found on Youtube
Rights: Existing. Falls under Fair use because it is being used in both a non-profit and educational analysis. It is basically just being analyzed, and the link will lead the viewer right to the Youtube page it is posted on by the original creator. It would basically be the same as me writing my analysis in the comment section on the Youtube page.

2.Jay Inslee (or his staff), "Get to Work" TV Advertisement found on Youtube
Rights: Existing.  Same as before, Falls under Fair use because it is being used in both a non-profit and educational analysis. It is basically just being analyzed, and the link will lead the viewer right to the Youtube page it is posted on by the original creator. It would basically be the same as me writing my analysis in the comment section on the Youtube page.

3. Rob Mckenna (or staff), "Job Creation" TV Ad on Youtube 
Rights: Existing, Same as Previous

4.Jay Inslee (staff), "Built" TV Ad on Youtube
Rights: Existing, Same as Previous

Part 3: References

I think since I am only using Youtube videos, the videos themselves act as a link to the Youtube page, so I don't need to add a link. I think I will just introduce the video and tell which candidate this ad is representing. Any other sort of reference seems a little strange for this medium.

1. This Advertisement for Rob Mckenna entitled "Family"...(And then go on with y analysis)
2. This Ad by the Jay Inslee campaign entitled "Get to Work"...
3. In this advertisement by Rob Mckenna called "Job Creation"...
4. In this advertisement by Jay Inslee called "Built" ....

They maybe wont follow that exact wording, but it will probably be something along those lines. I'll try to mix up the wording a little bit, but this should be sufficient, because they can find the source easily just by cicking on the Youtube video.

Have a nice day!

DTC 355 Blog #5

1. What I liked about the sample webtexts, were how neat and professional they looked. I enjoyed how on the Dove project, the author put all of the webtexts at the top and bottom of the page. It framed the main content well and made it very easy to navigate through the text. I enjoyed how the author of the Life based web comics chose to make her project like a comic, I thought it definitely made things more exciting. However, the one thing I would have changed is maybe adding a page counter, or something to show how much further you had to go, because towards the end, there was quite a bit of text on each page, and it took all of my will power (haha "will power") to keep on reading. Maybe because when I am reading a real comic, if I don't find the joke after a few seconds, or I don't find it particularly entertaining, my brain gets bored. So maybe I was subconsciously expecting a joke to come up, but I wasn't getting there, so my brain got impatient and wanted to stop. Who knows. In any case I thought it was a very creative way to present the topic.

The third link however was broken so I did not get to see that one.

2. My original idea for my webtext was to put the two videos side by side, and then analyze difference aspects in columns and rows below them, looking for similarities and differences. Now I am thinking that wouldn't be the most visually pleasing way to present it. I am thinking of maybe having two rows of links at the top, on the left would be the democratic candidate links, and on the right the pages for the republican candidate. Then I would put a big "VS." in the middle, and maybe have a picture of mount rainier with American flags or something in the background. Then the actual content would come below that, with the video being towards the top of the page, and the description below it.

DTC 355 Project 2 Pitch

For my project 2 topic, I chose to focus on the Washington State gubernatorial race between Republican Rob Mckenna and Democrat Jay Inslee. Having seen some of their political ads on TV, I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast two advertisements by each of the candidates. Oddly enough they try to depict themselves in similar ways, but their approaches are a little different, and sometimes pretty funny once you notice them.

I would like to look at Rob Mckenna's "Family" and "Job Creation" , and Jay Inslee's "Built" and "Get to Work" advertisements. In both Mckenna's "Family" ad and Inslee's "Get to Work" ad, they use the tactic of showing the candidate with his family. Mckenna goes a little overboard, in rapidly jumping from each and every family member, while Inslee talks more about his family, and portrays himself as a regular working man. Each of these ads were their candidates first TV ad to air, so they have similar purposes,but they take it in different directions.
In the next pair of ads, the two candidates talk about making jobs, and again, while they have the same subject, they go in different directions.

Given the similarities of the content and purpose of these ads, but the differing styles, I think they would make for an interesting topic to analyze. For my final project I will create a webpage with side by side comparisons of each of the rhetorical categories for the coinciding  pairs of ads. This spatial organization will help the viewer to be able to spot the differences, and similarities of the rhetoric used in each advertisement.

Dtc 355 Post 3

Emphasis:

When the video starts playing my eyes are immediately drawn to the note pad becuase it is sitting front and center of the screen, then as the person begins to write, my eyes stay on the notepad and more specifically follow the hand as it writes so that I can read what they are trying to say. However I noticed that my eyes kept wanting to look around the screen, because the area around the notepad is really disorganized and it there is so much to look at. In addition to the jerky stop motion it seems like the author is trying to emphasize something being a big mess. It could just be a hint that the rest of the movie is going to be a muddled mess, or more likely, they are probably trying to say that the whole process of Digital Rights Management is a huge mess. As far as this emphasis being effective, I cannot really tell for sure because I haven't seen the rest of the film, but I believe they get their point across well. I am not very knowledgeable on  the topic of DRM, but it appears the author is against it, and thinks people who support it are maniacs.

When the camera freezes after the first page has been completed, this makes the viewer pause, and then read over and consider what the author means by "Digital Robbing Maniacs". This seems like an effective strategy because it forces you to think about what has just been written, because there is nothing else happening on screen. The freeze frame emphasizes the statement that the author thinks DRM should stand for Digital Robbing Maniacs instead of Digital Rights Management.

The disjointed sort of jerky music definitely helps emphasize this feeling of something being wrong. It goes along perfectly with the jerky animation, and actually kind of adds to a feeling of stress when I watch the clip. I can feel my heart beat pick up as I listen to the music, and in combination with the mess on screen, and the disjointed animation, it just makes you feel like it is a tense situation, as if there is something wrong and this film means business.


Contrast:

The "Call for Papers" video is basically one big contrast. Just about every element in the video contrasts with another. The lighter words contrast with the dark gray box, and the dark gray box contrasts in color with the light gray background. The sort of futuristic techno music and the robotic voice both contrast with the old fashioned cartoon becuase of their difference in time periods. The effect of these contrasts for one make the words easier to read and understand, otherwise they would just blend into the background. However the contrast from the sound and the video is a little odd. The contrast between having a futuristic voice and an old cartoon just make for a weird effect. I would have liked it better if they had a sort of 1960's style announcer to go along with the cartoon. I feel like it would have been a better fit, and maybe have seemed more effective, becuase the use of the robotic voices almost just sounds like they couldn't get an actual voice actor.

In the section from 0:55-1:08, the light colored text is contrasting from the black background. I think the background was deleted from this section because they are now speaking directly to the students on what the requirements are for their entrees. Additionally, they probably didn't have any cartoon clips of the little character that would apply to what they are talking about, so in order to emphasize the requirements, they decided to go to a completely black background. Now that the background is black, there is a much greater color contrast between the background and the text, however the sound no longer contrasts with what is going on visually. The element that is now most emphasized is the text, and what the voice is saying. The author didn't want the audience looking at anything else other than the text.

 If I were asked to design a flyer for The JUMP I would probably use a style to match the video and use the little cartoon character. I would make the words The JUMP very large and in contrast to the rest of the flyer, maybe in a black color since the character is mainly a light gray. I would do this in order to make the name very prominent and make it stick in people's mind. Other information would also be written in a darker color to contrast with the rest of the page, however they would be in a smaller font and possibly even lighter color in order to keep the emphasis on the title of the journal.

Organization
For my series of photos I chose to put the American Flag with the fist, the married couple,the wall full of groceries, the crowd of people and then the stacked cars in the dump. The reason I chose the American flag first, is that I was to basically represent the American dream, and use it as an opener for the rest of the slide show. The next picture of the married figurines further represents the American Dream of getting married, having a little house and 2.5 kids. The wall full of groceries represents what it takes to feed the American Dream. In order to live out the American Dream, we need a lot of resources. The crowd of people represents the sheer amount of people wanting to live that dream. The picture of the crushed cars shows the cost of that dream. The overarching story was that in order to have every person live out the American Dream, it requires a ton of resources and makes a lot of waste.

If you flipped the order and had the trash pile first, and the American flag last, the meaning could change so that America is proud of its garbage and excessive consumer lifestyle. You could maybe even say that it is what makes America great.

If you added music, such as the Star Spangled Banner, or the National Anthem, the hopeful sounding music could be a nice contrast with the message. Another idea would be to play patriotic music throughout the slideshow, and then as it hits the picture of the large group of people have the music fade in to something ominous to emphasize that the pile of garbage is a bad thing.

Alignment:

While the alignment between the two words is disjointed, they end up aligned horizontally halfway in between the two words' animation cycles. The word "murmuring" has two alignments which are aligned horizontally every other letter towards the left side of the screen, while "insects" is aligned more towards the center of the screen.This unusual alignment sort of leads me to think that the words are meant to be less literal and more metaphorical to be left up to the interpretation of the audience. It definitely gives it a more poetic feel.

 In the Earth scene, the words "In the weeds" and "murmuring" have a matched alignment, slightly to the right of the center just below the moon. The word "Insects" is aligned just right of the moon, leaving a nice little side-subtitle for the moon. I may be over-analyzing this, but the words "In the weeds" appear, they take on an arrangement similar to uncut grass, or a field of weeds. The consistent alignment of the moon and the streaks in the sky make it seem like all these scenes are connected into one story. I usually end up focusing on the moon, and the words near the moon because the words seem to fall near the moon. I don't think the scene would be as effective without the alignment between the elements on the page. The alignment itself almost ads to the poetry, so instead of the words just being a poem, the placement on the screen makes for a sort of visual poetry.

The Air scene has its words aligned to the left, and I think the author chose to align them there because the moon is nearer to the right side of the screen, meaning there is more empty space on the left. and in this scene, there were longer phrases, so in order to keep the words from covering up the moon, the author aligned them to the left. The audio content is sound clip of a lady describing how she saw people jumping from the Twin Towers during the attack on 9/11. In relation to the alignment of the words, the sound clip starts playing just as the words "In the Sky" fade in and fall into place.

In the Water scene, the words align with the curvature of the eye and fade to form the tears of the eye. The man in the audio is hard to hear, but it sounded like he was reciting poetry, and one of the lines includes the words tears, and it sounded like he was getting choked up at the end. The whole alignment of the words in combination with the mournful sound clip create a feeling of sadness and mourning in the viewer.

The three titles in the menu are not aligned because the author wanted to tell three different stories. The fact that the words Air, Earth, and Water are all aligned differently shows that they dont want this to be a uniformed  thing, but a more poetic project. The lack of alignment leaves a bit of a choose your own adventure to the sequence, since typically we read from top to bottom, left to right, but these word are arranged so that we cant go from top left to bottom right. The purpose is probably to have the audience pick one of the scenes, watch it, think about it, mourn for the loss, and then move on. This project is as much a memorial as a poem, intending for the audience to sort of just wander through at their own pace and take as much time as they need.

Proximity

In my creation of the cover for the book, The Seagull I grouped elements together mainly by placing them close together. I placed the title in big bold letters at the top, with a subtitle directly below it. Then I placed a picture of a seagull in the middle and the author's name at the bottom of the screen.

I thought the most important element of the cover was the title of the book, which is why it is in large black letters at the top of the page. I also thought the author's name was important, so I chose a large font and typeface for that element as well, however it is at the bottom of the page, so it is less important than the title.

In laying out the elements in a traditional way I found that it can be limiting because you cannot really rotate your wording, or play around with the layout as much. It seems like the Title has to go at the top of the page aligned in the center, with a subtitle underneath it and the author's name at the bottom. If you could change the alignment so that the wording is running vertically down the page, it could stand out enough to effectively catch people's attention and make them give the book a chance. Or if you have all the words rotated at a 45 degree angle, it could also attract attention if done in a way that is readable.

DTC 355 post 2

I really enjoyed the XKCD comic about the difference between what university websites put on their homepage and what people are actually looking for when they go to the site. I thought it was funny and accurate. I remember being frustrated as a High School Senior looking at colleges because the websites seemed to hide all the information that actually applied to me. Students go to university websites looking for applicable information, like the majors they offer or how to get into the school, but most school websites just wanted to show off pictures and talk about the recent awards they had won. I felt like they were neglecting their key intended audience.

I decided to look at the University of Washington's website (boo!) at www.washington.edu and see if it bared any resemblance to the type of webpage described in the comic. The UW's website does follow along with the comic a little. The first thing you see when you load the page is a bunch of scrolling pictures with links to press releases on how the university is working on research to stop global warming, cure autism and other scientific discoveries. If you scroll down you will see some links mentioned in the comic, such as campus events and tours. However I will say there are a few spots where they actually do provide useful information for students. Along the right side bar they have links to information on transit and parking, a staff directory, and directions to the campus. Additionally along the top bar of the page, they have links for current and future students, faculty, and alumni. I actually think this is a pretty well designed front page. The author clearly knew they would have a variety of people in their intended audience, and they didn't just direct the page at alumni so they could get money for the university. They actually include pertinent information for all the groups who might be looking at the school.

The page looks up to date, and the author laid it out in a way that each section of the page is small enough to be viewed on a mobile device. The use of the color purple is disgusting, but I suppose it is appropriate for this website. Since this page has links to all the information the audience would need, and it gives a positive image to the university I think this website does a good job of fulfilling the dual purposes of serving as a portal and putting their best face forward.


See ya'll next week!

Dtc 355 Blog post 1

Multimodal and multimedia sound like very similar things, however I think there is a difference in the  meanings of the words. According to the textbook, multimodal "describes the multiple ways we combine various communicative modes in everyday life." As the book describes it, multimodal includes any mode of communication such as pictures, words, video and audio. However when I think of the word multimedia  I think of something a little different. As the text describes, medium is the way the message reaches the audience. So multimedia might technically mean that a message is reaching the audience through different forms of communication.

In regards to the White House statement on the earthquake in Japan, I think they did a great job. They used good word choice in calling the Japanese our "friends". It avoided a mishap like the BP chairman made by calling the victims of the oil spill "small people". By calling the Japanese "friends" and saying that the U.S. would stand with them as they recover, it almost is as if the White House is saying "we are going to get through this together buddy, if you need anything we'll be there." I also liked how they kept it short and sweet, just under one paragraph. It got the point out without over dramatizing the event, but still said all that was needed.

Regarding the two Twitter profiles, I can tell that Cheryl Ball likes darker colors, while Kristin Arola, seems to lean more towards lighter colors. I also noticed that Cheryl Ball uses a picture of herself for her profile picture, while Kristin Arola uses a cute panda for hers. Cheryl seems to post more intellectual and professional posts, while Kristin does make posts for her class, it would seem that they have a more fun and laid back style. These facts lead me to believe that Cheryl is a professional, intellectual person, who enjoys her work and enjoys posting about work related things, while Kristin is also a professional person, it seems like she takes a more lighthearted, fun approach to things. For my twitter account, I chose a background with birds flying because I thought it fit me well, since my last name is Dove (a bird). I also chose lighter colors because it seemed to give a more lighthearted feel.

The video Wanna Work Together? uses a young, hip sounding lady voice and a sort of modern techno beats behind a looping track of bells. These aural modal elements all work together to make whatever it is this person is talking about seem like it is a new and cutting edge idea that could change the world. If they had used a country Bluegrass song instead of the techno beat, it would probably have sent some weird mixed message, and would have maybe made it sound more like an "old fashioned" tried and true kind of idea, instead of the new and exciting idea they were trying to spread.

When I look at the WSU homepage my eyes are immediately drawn to the center of the screen, because there are three bright interesting pictures in the center of the screen. The webpage designers seemed to have put the most interesting and eye catching information right in the center of the page. It is not really the information you are probably looking for, such as the majors offered, or what campus life is like, but they are impressive things about the university that you might not have known, and might encourage you to either apply here if you are a student, or give money if you are a wealthy investor. This causes you to look right at the center, get the idea that this is a really advanced, interesting university, and then look down below to see what you came to the website for. If the information at the center of the page was switched with that on the bottom of the page, it would probably be ignored for the most part, because people would just zip right past the fluff and go on to look up the information they need.

The video I watched of President Obama was from the 2012 kids state dinner, and right off the bat he is throwing out gestures that kids can relate to. As he comes to the podium, he tells everyone to sit down, laying his hand flat and lowering them, just like the librarian at my elementary school used to do when she wanted us to sit down and be quiet. He begins to talk with his hands, using gestures that make him seems like he is in a more casual mode than usual. He is smiles a lot after his statements and generally has a friendly attitude. Towards the end he takes up a more presidential posture, and begins pointing at the kids as he says how proud he is of them, for being healthy eaters.

That's if for this week! See ya'll next week!