Blog Post VII

Do you intend to follow all 10 tips that Smashing Magazine suggests? Why or why not?

I intend to follow 9 of the 10 tips that Smashing Magazine suggests. The only tip I probably won’t incorporate into my website is the blogging tip because I feel that showing my recent work in my online portfolio rather than blogging about it would be more beneficial to viewers and myself. It would save me time and sharing my work in a more visual format would help potential clients to actually view my work as well. Besides, I’m not big into blogging… unless it’s for my DTC 355 class of course 

Also, make sure to explore the “40+ beautiful personal portfolio websites. Which sites are your favorite and why? What would you need to learn/know in order to make this type of portfolio?

I personally enjoyed viewing Alexandru Cohaniuc portfolio because I felt his website interface was creative, visual and still easy to maneuver around. I felt the colors were bright but not overwhelming and I like the contrast of the white on the black background. In addition to this site, I also liked website that had a visual element in the middle, with navigation at the top but also incorporated picture links at the bottom. I think Digital Mash (Rob Morris) does a great job of adding personal graphics that promote his skill and creativity. Although the color scheme of the website apart from this main graphic is rather plain, the simplicity keeps it professional. Lastly, I like Cartonblanc because the site is out of the box and imaginative. The graphics are fun and inspiring and the few words used support the visual images rather than take away from them. 

Unfortunately, I chose sites that seem the most complicated to me in terms of design templates. Considering my weakest point is CSS, envisioning these sites, adding my personal twist and implementing this into my portfolio seems rather discouraging. But considering 6 months ago I didn’t even know how to use photoshop, I think I can pull something like this off. Especially with Alexandru Cohaniuc, I would need to learn how to incorporate more advanced placement since this site includes work, contact info and an about section all on one page. Plus, I would need to make a lot of customized graphics for backgrounds and learn how to add the tab effects on the portfolio side. 

Blog Post VI

View the literacy narratives listed above and evaluate them (what do you like about them? what don’t you like? why?). 

1. Scannell: I like that this literacy narrative involved her parents reflecting on her childhood while also showing past work and experiences by flashing examples and additional videos. However, it was way too long. While six minutes can be a length that doesn’t bore an audience, nothing new was being said beside her accomplishments. It was the same speakers talking about the same topic that simply became repetitive and uninteresting.

2. Andfull: I like that she introduces herself and her voice follows the timing of the video perfectly. However, I found her comments to be tedious. The length was okay and while the effects were unrelated to the actual topic, it gave the audience some interest at the beginning. Unfortunately, the book covers had awful resolution so the titles and pictures were unreadable, and paired with her uninteresting voice feedback, it left me feeling bored and slightly annoyed.

3. Truaman: Out of all the videos, I enjoyed this video the most merely because his words were interesting and the video is simple. It was him, a blank canvas and slight background noise that wasn’t distracting. While occasional examples of work he refers to through pictures would have been helpful, I found this video to keep me interested throughout its entirety.

4. Peyton: My first thought when watching this was that the film strip action seems to be a popular choice for amateur videos. My next thought was how I didn’t appreciate squinting at a blurry phone screen in a failed attempt to read what he was texting. I also did not like the loud music that was making my current headache worse. The only things I liked were that it tried having some direction and that the length wasn’t unbearable.

5. Wooten: While the music seemed out of place, it almost helped add to the humor of the video. It was a lame story to say the least and he only had the same effects of screen shots and captions, but after seeing other videos, I appreciate the simplicity and clarity of the video. It led to a conclusion and was easy to understand.

What criteria do you think we should use for evaluating these types of texts?

I think the criteria we should use for evaluating these types of texts is keeping audience interest in terms of length of the video and how well viewers are able to follow along with the narration. Also, how well the special effects, like pictures and words work together, and how well these effects aid to the topic, is another criteria we should incorporate.

Blog Post V

Part 1: Summarize what you learned about what makes an effective text in what situations and why. Refer specifically to the projects you looked at.

Courteney Dowd: This analysis explains that an effective text needs to be eye catching in order to perform the uniform purpose of any movie poster, which is to sell tickets and accumulate avid fans. Once the author has caught the attention of an audience, incorporated modes hint at the characters, the movie content and simply encourage seeing the movie once it’s been released. Overall though, each purpose may be the same, but the strategies authors use are based on the film content in order to hint at the story and inspire the audience to see it.

Haley Elder: Depending on the chosen medium, an effective text depends on the organization and modes used within it. While an older book may focus more on linguistic modes and a lengthy sequence of wording, a website may emphasize calming colors and the organization of links in order to surround and compliment the main content. Both are potentially effective in a chosen situation because the incorporated features may uphold audience expectations due to past experiences with that particular medium.

Nick Gourlie: An effective text requires strong linguistic use for any kind of media, but especially within books and websites. As long as it is clear and easy to understand, an audience will not leave the site due to lack of clarity. If videos are used, these are more effective depending on both the amount of modes incorporated and how well these modes interact. But overall, combining linguistic text and visual features through the use of alignment and organization, will ultimately allow a text to be extremely effect in any situation.

Brief overview: Overall, a text can be effective when all modes and formating compliment each other. The content must be easy to understand and the visual elements need to strengthen that text. Any text within a chosen medium, online or in hard text, can be effective, it just needs to organize information well enough to meet audience expectations. Most likely, this will then spark further interest in pursuing the purpose of that topic.

Part 2: Now, quickly explore every student’s Project 2 (no need to read in depth, just poke around). Describe which web text is your favorite and why.

Personally, I enjoyed viewing Megan Hitchen’s analysis. It was different from any other student’s regarding design and was extremely easy to move around. Ultimately, I like the creativity and personalization she incorporated into the site so it represents her while also meeting the requirements of project 2.

Blog Post IV

Blog post 4: Describe the topic you plan to use for Project #2 and provide at least 3 texts you are considering using. What key strategic differences or simiarities do you note thus far in your texts? Why do you think these differences and/or similarities exist?

I plan to use the topic of “How to Make Sushi.” This topic appears fun, interesting and educational.

http://makemysushi.com/

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-make-sushi/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dPMaid87Es0

Key similarities and differences among my 3 potential texts are the amount of words, visuals, interactive graphics and videos incorporated to help viewers of varying cooking experience. The first website is extremely visual and interactive. There aren’t a lot of words on the homepage like there are on the second site. The second site is a bit overwhelming and nothing stands out to me; although, there is a video towards the top, which is rather helpful. However, the third text is entirely a video that uses all five modes to help the audience follow along and understand. I believe these similarities and differences exist due to the intended audiences and prove there are a variety of ways to show how to accomplish the task of making sushi. For example, the target audience of the second site might be for more experienced chefs while the other texts appear to inform viewers visually and use larger fonts as a way to explain. Overall though, each text offered new information that can easily contribute to my project.

Blog Post III

Emphasis

1. Describe where your attention is visually drawn in this text. What strategies does the author use to emphasize this element? Given that this text is essentially a title page for a larger project, does this emphasis seem effective to you? Why or why not?

My attention is initially drawn to DRM but once she crosses out her first line explaining the abbreviation and writes maniacs instead, you can tell it added to the emphasis of the word and increased my curiosity as a viewer. However, unless the first minute of the project is just as interesting, I don’t think this was effective enough to prolong my attention for the entire video.

2. Between composing the two different pages (“Digital Rights Management/Digital Robbing Maniacs” and “Criminal”) the woman disappears from the screen and the jumpy stop-motion effect ceases. Describe how this moment of stillness can be understood as “emphasis” and explain if it seems like an effective strategy? What is emphasized by stopping the movement?

I believe the stillness puts emphasis on her drawing and the word criminal since the majority of the video was so jumpy. It let me focus on the image better since I was trying so hard to pay attention to the jumpy video in the beginning.

3. Consider the role sound plays in emphasis. How does the soundtrack to this clip help to (a) emphasize certain moments in the clip, and (b) place a particular emotional emphasis on the meaning of the clip?

With the sound, the words written become more important from the increasing intensity of the music. The sound brings on a feeling of alertness and therefore causes the viewer to pay attention to the linguistic communication.

Contrast

1. Watch 0:22-0:36 of The JUMP’s “Call for Papers.” Notice the words, the gray box, the cartoon background, and the sound. Do you think any of these elements contrast? If so, which ones and how so (specifically, what makes them different from one another)? What effects do you think this use of contrast has on the audience and the purpose? Consider how the text’s effectiveness might change if these elements did not contrast.

They all contrast and compliment each other because all modes are being used but the colors and placement allows them to work together. The gray box works with the cartoon background due to the similar tones, while the words contrast the images. I think the effects this use of contrast has on the audience and purpose is rather to increase engagement and therefore, interest of the production. While I’d like to watch the video, I’m drawn to the words and the video aids in grabbing my attention because there’s a moving background. It would lose effectiveness without the contrast because the words would blend with the video and it would simply be too hard to read. The gray box does a nice job of breaking up the content so the contrast works together rather than against each other.

2. First, describe what elements are contrasting. Next, explain why you think the cartoon background was deleted from this section. What happens to the contrast now that the background is black? Which element is now the most emphasized, and how do you think this helps convey the purpose of the text?

The text, plain background, the colors and sounds are contrasting. I believe the backgroudn was deleted because this section needs to be read clearly by viewers regarding what the author expects from them once this video is over. It’s the most critical part and therefore, the black background boosts the contrast to make the words stand out strongly so it is emphasized and understood correctly .

3. Imagine you’ve been asked to design a flyer to post around your campus advertising The JUMP. What would the flyer look like? Which element(s) would contrast and to what effect?

The flyer would be similar to the video, with images and the heading, plus a brief explanation of the project. However, the requirements would have a darker background to emphasize the words regarding expectations and what the project has to offer to participants.

Organization

1. Make a note about each of the 5 photos to explain what each one signifies, and how one leads to another. How does your organization convey your purpose?

For me, this sequence starts with a girl looking through a door as her looking into her future. She’s introduced to school and the importance of education. As a teen she experiments with partying and living in an increased social atmosphere. Later on she gets married and perhaps has a family. Lastly, I added the milk and food to represent her becoming the caregiver for her family and supporting her loved ones. I believe this organization conveys my purpose of my personal familiarity with what I’ve experienced and what I expect. Perhaps the traditional process of life for a woman.

2. Are there different arguments that you could have made by organizing your 5 photos in different ways?

By putting the woman looking out the door in the back, she could rather look into her past. By placing the woman painting last, it shows she could have found what she loves doing for herself as a personal hobby or career.

3. Are there other elements you could add to make your argument stronger—for example, playing music with the slide show or adding text?

Adding descriptive text would certainly have allowed the viewer to understand clearly, rather interpret the meaning of the pictures based on the order they are placed in. Upbeat or melancholy music would have made the transition of her life seem as a positive or negative direction as a woman.

Alignment

1. How would you describe alignment of the words “murmuring” and “insects” in the opening scene? How does the unusual alignment (reflected on screen and timed) add to your interpretation of the text?

Murmuring falls and is initially staggered on the left side. However, once it straightens out, the right side is replaced by insects. Then it fades away and repeats. It adds to my interpretation of the text because each word appears separate, yet connected. The falling makes me think of the ground and the transition encourages thoughts of how these two concepts are related to one another.

2. Now watch the “Earth” scene. What other elements are aligned in this scene? How does the consistent alignment of elements across screens (and also across some of the scenes) affect how you read these scenes? What elements do you end up focusing on? Would the scene seem as effective if all of the elements on the page (upside-down moon, contrails, words, background color, etc.) had no shared alignment?

The alignment of “in the weeds” and “murmuring” occurs from the falling, fading and right hand placement. “Insects” then replaces “murmuring” further to the right but the capitalization makes the word stand out regardless. Alignment makes these words easy to follow and I focus on the similar connection these words have to one another. I feel the scene wouldn’t be as effective because the elements would appear disjointed and the words wouldn’t be as powerful or easy to understand.

3. Now watch the “Air” scene, paying attention to the lines of poetry and the audio tracks. The poem doesn’t settle on the same horizontal axis as the other scenes do, and the two phrases in the audio track are aligned (synced) to appear with each line of poetry. Why do you think the alignments of the words are different between the Earth and Air scenes? What is the significance of the audio track’s content in relation to that difference?

They’re different because the author intends to enforce a different meaning for each element. The audio content is significant because it reflects the progression and direction the words lead toward, which are specific to the air element.

4. Now watch the “Water” scene. How does the curvature of the words, aligning with the background image of an eye, relate to what the man in the audio track is saying?

I believe the audio is speaking about the man’s past and he therefore because emotional and begins to tear up at the end. By making the words fall from an eye, it reflects his feels of loss and reflection.

5. Based on the alignment (or lack of alignment) between elements in a scene and across scenes, why are the three menu options (“Air,” “Earth,” and “Water”) on the main screen of this text not aligned? What does this lack of alignment tell you about the emphasis, sequence, and purpose of this text?

They aren’t aligned because they are all different and hold varying meanings within the contents of each element. They are also placed in the area of where each element resides in terms of height. The emphasis expresses each element as equal, while the sequence falls from the top down in regards to when each element is viewed. The purpose is related to the alignment because it allows the audience to choose the element they’d like to view while also reflecting how each element is unique.

–Okay, that was tough. I’m more than open to further thoughts because I’m sure my interpretations were a little off.

Proximity

1. Did you group certain categories of information together? How did you group them—typographically, by placing them closer together, or in some other way?

I chose to group the title and author together and placed them in the top, right side. The flying seagull was placed underneath this and “a novel about flight” beneath that.

2. What do you think is the most important piece of information on your cover? What choices did you make about typeface or size to convey that sense of importance? How does the layout of your book cover reflect your sense of how the information should be organized?

I think the most important piece of information on the cover is the book. I intentionally look for this information when browsing. However, if the author was more famous, I’d make that the center of attention because people know and recognize his work. However, I chose to convey the importance of the title at the top since we read from the top down. I feel the layout reflects how the information should be organized because it groups together topics that relate in terms of importance and also appears pleasing to the eye.

3. What are some limitations you’ve encountered in laying out visual elements in a traditional way? What are some other ways you might want to organize the information on a book cover that might work better in a non-traditional format?

The limitations I encountered in laying out the visual elements in a traditional way was making the cover stand out amidst other books. This reflects the font and sizes offered. As well as a generic seagull against a white background. For a non-traditional format I’d like to add a seagull patterned background that works with large found words. Perhaps the words themselves could form related images to create further interest about what the story within is about.

Blog Post II

The XKCD comic in Figure 2.5 is funny because it’s often true. First, look at the “things people go to the site looking for” list. Do you agree with this list? Why or why not?

As a student who’s experienced this issue, I partially agree with what the comic is saying. Current students and faculty use any school’s website as a resource to find general information. However, because school’s use their homepage to put their best foot forward, they’re clearly trying to impress more than students and employees who are already involved at the university. Therefore, I believe the true intended audience may be more for soon-to-be high school graduates and their parents, those looking for employment or anyone else curious to learn about the school itself. So while I may consider the purpose of the site as a tool to contact a professor, the author may feel that it’s more important for the rhetorical analysis of the site to persuade tough critiques (parents and competitors) and potential customers (students and the unemployed) of the credibility of the university. To summarize my point, the overall rhetorical analysis of a university website doesn’t fit me as a student because I’m already a loyal customer and dedicated to taking classes by paying tuition every semester, which means I am no longer the target audience and my use of the site is different from those the school is marketing to.

Second, visit a University website homepage and see if it follows the patterns listed in this comic. If so, why do you think this is the case? If not, what differences do you see and how do you think they matter when it comes to the purpose and audience for a University’s homepage?

I chose the University of Notre Dame – http://nd.edu/ – and found it to be extremely helpful and easy to use. The overall look and context of the site immediately appears clean and simple. The moving graphic is rather refreshing and encourages viewers to read about the student experience. There are also general links at the top with an interactive menu that slides down, while resources for frequent users resides underneath next to the news and spotlights. Personally, I think the author did a good job of following both sides of the comic because it seems to meet common needs while also maintaining credibility of the school and its values.

Multimodal vs. Multimedia

While multimodal and multimedia are undoubtedly connected, I believe there is a difference between the two. Multimodal describes the reasoning behind our choice of combining particular communication modes in order to best explain an idea to an audience. However, multimedia focuses on the technology to create captivating illusions for viewers. Both multimedia and multimodal are made up of similar content forms and used as tools to effectively explain ideas; however, the modes implemented are selected based on the objective of the presenter. This is where the two differ because, based on my personal interpretations, I believe the core distinction between the two regards the intention behind the project. Although both are about enhancing the experience of the audience, the two differ because multimodal focuses on choosing modes to improve communication with viewers regarding the intended message while multimedia uses technical tools to create a powerful presentation for compelling entertainment purposes. Clearly, this difference is minimal and depends on internal based decision making of the presenter because when the intention is excluded, the overall appearance and finished product of either system are the same.

Blog Post I

1. I noticed a tone of formality and clarity as to show where the White House stands on this issue. By choosing either “our” or “the President,” the statement touches base with how we as a country feel, which is represented by the White House, and also includes the support of our head, public figure, the President. However, the word choice that caught my eye the most was “our Japanese friends.” By simply including the word, friend, in the statement, our positive attitude toward the Japanese is demonstrated regardless of conflict in the past. Similar to helping out a personal friend in need, we as a country will help our Japanese friends in this time of crisis.

2. Visually, I notice that the colors used are opposite one another. One profile is particularly bold due to the extreme contrast while the other is softer and gentle. Based on the visual characteristics of the profiles, as well as the chosen avatars, I instantly assume that the account with the bold colors has an outgoing personality and may like attention. However, the softer profile with a panda bear rather than a personal picture for the avatar seems like the user may want to hide or have the focus directed more toward posts. Therefore, to go with outgoing, I picture the bold profile to be used for social purposes while the softer profile might be for personal use, as in brief blogging or writing down private thoughts. I personally have a Twitter profile but I stuck with a dark blue template because I like to stay simple. I’m not a fan of bright colors and perhaps that reflects my personality as well.

3. I hear music that gradually becomes more upbeat throughout the video and a speaker who consistently uses an encouraging and positive tone while also pausing when necessary to follow along with the graphics of the video. Since this video is working to encourage further innovation and creativity, using a classic, old school and rather irrelevant song would instead distract rather than work with the speaker.

4. My eye is first drawn to the crimson band on the top of the page because it loads first. Then I am drawn to the three changing pictures. The elements are laid out surrounding the center tile and the page uses all four corners of the screen with varying links. The layout encourages me to look around the page but that causes the grouping of topics to blend together and nothing really sticks out beside the changing photos and WSU icon in the top left. If this information was swapped, the importance of the bottom links would increase but the photos would also demand attention. Perhaps the bottom information would appear more significant and memorable.

5. I do find his use of gestural mode effective because he’s very professional and while he appears stern and rigid, his hands are gesturing to viewers, which makes all the difference. By doing this he appears open and it demonstrates that his decisions are what’s best for the country and what the people want.