the future web – May 30, 2010

It was interesting to read about (and watch) predictions about future web trends from 2007 and then weigh those thoughts and ideas against more recent predictions from 2010. Much of “the next big things” from 2007 have since became realized and a part of our daily digital lives, i.e., mobile web devices like iPhones, AI development with music apps like Genius and search engines like Bing, Internet TV with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, the Internet replacing print as a preference for information, the Internet becoming more personalized, real-time and interactive, an increasing interest in virtual worlds, etc.

I’m interested in seeing if micro-payment for content quality continues to grow in popularity with most information on the Internet being free. Also, it was interesting to learn that predictions about SEO likely becoming less important in the future with an increase in social media sites. And search engines becoming more intelligent and capable of discerning usefulness of web content.

May 10th, 2010

I’m not exactly sure how my “personal technology toolkit” compares to others. I feel that I’m on par with most of my friends, in that I use the Internet regularly as an information and news source, I do online banking, I have an iTunes library and create playlists and burn cds, and I engage with colleagues, friends and family on social networking websites like, LinkedIn Facebook and Twitter on a daily.

I own a BlackBerry so I have web access all day long, no matter where I’m, I use Google maps and use Viigo to check the weather, check for breaking news, and check my horoscope daily.

I am taking this class in hopes of adding web design to my “toolkit”. In today’s digital age, it just feels necessary.

Saturday, April 24th

Blog: Personal web footprint

Joy introduced us to a website called namechk (namechk.com). It seemed to be a useful tool to track availability/use of your name on 2.0 websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and so forth. Interestingly enough, when I searched my name full on namechk registered my name as being available for use on Facbook, Twitter and LinkedIn. That’s odd! I have accounts with all three of these networks and I am registered using my full name. Of course when I Google my first and last name the first three links that pop up are my LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Not sure why the namechk didn’t work for me, it sounds like it worked out fine for other students in the class.

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Tuesday, April 20th

After much deliberation, I’ve chosen to switch from Blogster to WordPress for my NMS520 blog. This is my first time blogging, well unless a Facebook fan page can be considered a blog. I mean, I post updates on a daily basis. We have fans that interact with the page and leave comments. That’s an interesting question: Does maintaining a Facebook fan page constitute as blogging? What about Twitter? I don’t think a series of status updates really qualifies asa blogging, but Facebook, perhaps.

Regardless, Blogster felt a little cheesy as far as the aesthetics go and it didn’t have as many tools in the toolbox so here I am.

So beyond discovering WordPress this week, I’ve been working with a small group from NMS520 this week on evaluating news websites. We graded/evaluated each site on five criteria: usability, design, content, currency and interactivity. CBS News was the winner, getting the most points from the group. While evaluating the 20 different news sites on came to these conclusions.

1. Sites that offered up-to-the-minute breaking news were key.

2. The aesthetics of the site greatly influenced my impression of the quality of news.

3. I really felt it important that the news sites had visible links for social media sites Facebook and Twitter since these sites are so ingrained (currently) in our cultural fabric.

4. Too much white space is bad.

April 12 2010

Monday, April 12th 2010–

Class is off to a good start. I am engaged in the assigned readings in Universal Principles of Design (UPD) and look forward to diving into Build a Website for Free on my lunch hour tomorrow. I particularly enjoyed the chapter in UPD on Aesthetic-Usability Effect which states:

–Always aspire to create aesthetic designs. Aesthetic designs look easier to use and have a higher probability of being used, whether or not they actually are easier to use.

–Early impressions influence long-term attitudes about quality and use. (First impressions of people influence attitude formation and measurably affect how people are perceived and treated.

–Personal and positive relationships with a design evoke feelings of affection, loyalty, and patients (this makes people more tolerant of design problems)

–Negative relationships result in an interaction that narrows thinking and stifles creativity. Stress increases fatigue and reduces cognitive performance.

This is one of the challenges the publication I work for is currently struggling with – although we feel that the content of our publication is superior the our competitors, the look and feel of the magazine is very dated. The article confirmed some thoughts and fears that I have about the long-term effects that can have on readership and usability. We have a re-design meeting scheduled for the end of the week. I’m hopeful that the person that would be implementing new layouts and design elements is open to new ideas. Fingers crossed!

I’m also excited about getting started on our first project which is a collaborative rubric which will be used to evaluate existing websites for a certain set of criteria that we decide upon.

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