Extreme Makeover: "Wired for Writing" Edition

As previous visitors to this blog have undoubtedly noticed, I've made some drastic changes to its appearance recently.  After using my own variations of a basic Blogger template for almost a year, I've decided to update my blog's layout with Blogger's new Template Designer feature.

(image source)

Template Designer comes preloaded with an assortment of layouts, background images, and color schemes.  While I would like to one day create my own images from scratch, for the time being, I'm content to work with what Blogger has given me.

Originally, I tried to find a background image that was directly related to writing, technology, or psychology, but I couldn't find one that really fit the tone and subject matter of this blog.  I like the energy of the current background image, and it coordinates nicely with the color scheme of my portfolio.

Looking for a job, taking a course in Social Psychology (fun stuff), and finishing up my graduate work have taken much of my time recently, hence the lack of blog posts in recent months.  But I do enjoy blogging (and writing, in general), so I will try to stop being an absentee blogger.  In fact, I have just written a post, which will be published later today after I proof it.

I really like what I've done with the place, but what do you think?  Leave some feedback below.

Editing for Design: The Happy Meeting of Editing and Creativity

 
In an earlier post, I talked about how the primary principles, support principles, and elements of design can be analyzed in a creative visual work.  Here, I will discuss how those same concepts can be applied in the editing of printed documents and web pages, creating a compelling intersection between art and practicality.

Here's a list of the aforementioned aspects of design:

PRIMARY PRINCIPLES

• Unity
• Hierarchy
• Variety
• Proportion

SECONDARY PRINCIPLES

• Scale
• Balance
• Rhythm
• Repetition
• Economy
• Proximity

ELEMENTS OF DESIGN

• Shape
• Space
• Line
• Size
• Color
• Texture
• Typography

(image source)

(How many principles of design can you identify in this set of way-finding icons?  What sorts of edits would you make, if any?)

Some of these ideas overlap, and some are more applicable to our current discussion than others.  Specifically, the following questions should be asked by both designers and editors when creating or analyzing documents on paper and the web:

Unity: Do all the aspects of the work toward the same purpose, or are some of them "at odds" with each other?

Hierarchy: Are elements of the image or document arranged in such a way that suggests that they should be interpreted in a certain sequence?  Is that sequence intended by the creator?

Scale: If diagrams or figures are used, is there a point of comparison to a known scale (such as a human scale) provided?

Balance: Is any asymmetry that appears in the work's layout intentional?

Rhythm: Do the elements promote reader/viewer eye movement in a desired manner and direction?

Color: Do the colors used convey the emotions intended by the creator?

Texture: Do the textures used in the images have the dramatic and aesthetic effects that the creator intended? Will the intended textures be perceivable in the work's medium? Do the textures used obscure the meaning of the image or document?

Prior to my work in usability and design, I had never given much thought to the overlap between aesthetics and usability/practicality.  I'd be interested on hearing your theories about why this intersection exists.

My Voyage of Self-Discovery using Google Sites

If you have a Google Account (and if you don't, you should consider getting one), you probably know that Google offers its users the opportunity to create sites (called Google Sites), for free, using its server space and web design tools.

Before I launch into my explanation about how much I learned about myself during the design process, as well as a description of my experience with Google Sites, I should really give some background information on why I designed the site the way I did.

I started out by taking this quiz on learning styles.  The quiz assesses you on four scales: active vs. reflective, sensing vs. intuitive, visual vs. verbal, and sequential vs. global.  Try taking the quiz and seeing what kind of results you get.

Here are my results:

My results make sense to me, especially when I consider them in combination with my Myers-Briggs type (INFP).  Perhaps I'll explore the connection between learning styles and Myers-Briggs types another time.

Based on my results, a person familiar with the scoring system (or someone who, at least, read this overview of the learning styles) would correctly say that I:

--  prefer to work alone, and I also like to take time to think about any topics presented and to process them sufficiently before taking action.

--  enjoy discovering connections between concepts and thinking about possibilities rather than merely learning facts.  I deal well with abstractions and appreciate innovation, and I don't like repetition or going through routine steps or calculations.

--  don't have any strong preference for visual presentations (videos, charts, illustrations, etc.) or verbal instruction (written or spoken words).  I appreciate both types of communication.

--  work best when I can see the "big picture" with regard to the topic at hand.  Then, I'm better able to understand the details and what those finer points do to "complete the picture."

Put it all together, and what does it spell?

I'm a very conceptual thinker who may not always pay attention to or appreciate the finer points of the topics presented.  I like to have time to absorb the material at hand before acting on it, and I also enjoy connecting concepts across disciplines and having the opportunity to structure my own "learning path."  Being exposed to the "big picture" before delving into a topic can be helpful, as well.

True, true.

So after I processed both the details and the overview of my learning style, I tried to figure out how a website designed specifically for someone like me would look.  I'd like to think that I did a pretty good job of not only coming up with a list of factors to consider, but also addressing those factors in the design of my new website, Before You Tweet…

Here's how I went about it.  Appropriately enough, I've included a screenshot illustrating each of these nine design factors.

-- To address my impatience with details, I put some quizzes on my site to compel the viewer to take some extra time to look over the finer points of the material covered on each quiz's reference page.

-- Reminders to attend to certain details, like saving one's changes on their Twitter Settings page, are also offered.  I find that I also benefit from receiving similar reminders in real life (more on that later).

-- I put important terms and main ideas in bold, allowing a global learner like me to quickly scan a page and get an overview of the major points covered on that particular page.   Bolding these items may also help the viewer to remember them, whether they be main ideas or details.

-- Because I have almost-equal preferences for visual and verbal presentations of information, I tried to include both in my site.  Illustrations are offered, along with written descriptions, for the step-by-step instructions, and videos are shown, where appropriate, as they can offer both visual and verbal representations of information.  Even if the video does not actually illustrate ideas through pictures, the audio portion of it does satisfy the word-related requirements of verbal learners.

-- Since global learners benefit from having the freedom to construct their own "learning path," I wanted to make sure that all subpages of the site were easily accessible from any page.  Thus, I put links to these pages in the left-hand sidebar of every page.

-- Global learners may also find it helpful to look at an overview of what they can expect to learn in a particular section.  Therefore, I made sure to include such overviews at the beginning of sections including multiple pages.  An overview of the entire site's contents is provided on the site's homepage.

-- To address the needs of reflective learners, I wanted to ensure that viewers did not feel rushed through the tutorial.  I encouraged them, at certain points, to take some time to play around/test out the featured aspects of Twitter before moving on.  At the same time, I tried to get viewers to see the benefits of looking at other sections, as well.  I also recognized that reflective learners prefer to "lurk before they leap" in online settings, since they like to think about things before speaking up or taking action.  Because of this, I reminded the audience that they can use Twitter as a strictly information-getting, rather than information-giving, resource.

-- On the "About This Site" page, I encouraged viewers to take notes, which help can help reflective learners to retain information by putting it in their own words.  In this way, they can take "ownership" of the material.

--  A right-hand sidebar, containing "Related Resources," is included on certain pages to address intuitive learners' need to imagine possibilities and discover relationships.  This sidebar can also be helpful for global learners, who appreciate seeing topics from different perspectives and discovering how they relate to things they are already familiar with.

To accommodate the thinking style of intuitive learners, I planned on having information about the theories behind a topic be linked to that topic's page but appear in a separate window.  That way, the supplemental information would be optional reading rather than part of the lesson, itself.  However, I decided not to implement this design factor in my site, since I thought that having extra information in both a sidebar and an extra window might result in "information overload" and, possibly, viewer confusion.  Furthermore, I felt that such an approach would be more appropriate for a site covering a broader topic, like social networking as a whole.

I also wanted to give users the opportunity to take notes directly on the site and save them in a private account, but Google Sites doesn't support this functionality.

While I was designing and creating the site, I, by necessity, had the results of my learning-style quiz very much in mind.  As I mentioned before, my results definitely made sense to me, and I related to the provided descriptions of my four scores.  However, these traits were never at the forefront of my thoughts, and I didn't have specific names for the ways in which I think, work, and learn.  As I reflect on my experience with discovering my learning style and designing my Google Site, I was reminded of the idea of "you have to name it to claim it," which basically means that once you have a name for some aspect of yourself or your life, you're in a better position to address it.    

As I worked on my site, I became more aware of how much my learning style affects how I complete tasks.  For example:

-- I took some time to really think about what I wanted to accomplish and how I was going to accomplish it, which is typical of a reflective learner.  I also made notes about possible layouts and things to include,  which helped me to map everything out before taking action.

-- I really enjoyed the process of looking for content for the "Related Resources" sidebars.  As I was adding those links to the site, I thought to myself, "I *would* actually like a site designed like this."

-- I had some frustrating experiences with retaining the changes I made on the "Manage site" page.  Why weren't the edits I made being reflected on my site?  Thankfully, it didn't take me too long to figure out that it was because I wasn't saving my changes before navigating away from each editing page.  I don't know what gave me the idea that I would just have to hit "Save changes" once before clicking "Return to site."  (Maybe it's because I'm a conceptual/global rather than detail-oriented thinker?)

-- I was also reminded of how helpful I've always found it to read the "In this section" overviews in my textbooks.  I just took it for granted that everyone benefited from such previews, but it's probably more accurate to say that some people find them more helpful than others.

Now that I have a greater awareness of my own personal way of going about things, I can do more to make greater use of my assets and compensate, where necessary.  I'll keep you posted on how these revelations affect how I go about doing the rest of my work.

I'm afraid Google Sites provided a few bumps in this road of self-discovery:

--  Finding an appropriate gadget for my site was harder than it should have been.  There are *so* many Twitter gadgets, and yet only a small percentage of them had any real practical use or relevance.  Does there really need to be a gadget for every celebrity (or "celebrity," as the case may be) with a Twitter account?  And every time I pulled the scroll bar down in hopes of revealing a useful gadget, the bar crept upward a little bit, indicating that there were still more gadgets to evaluate.  Google could have at least provided a count of how many gadgets matched my search criteria.  I know they can: they can count up how many millions of hits things get when someone does a search on Google's main page.

--  I had problems viewing my customized background image when I was logged in as the site's owner.  It's not that I couldn't see it: it's that I couldn't see it the way that I visitor would see it.  After I had finalized and uploaded my background, I panicked when I couldn't see the cute little birdie that was supposed to appear at the top of the page.  It turns out that the header that appears on the Editing pages encroaches on the background image, thus covering up the bird.  Much to my relief, when I selected "Preview page as user," the bird reappeared.

-- I had another problem with my background image.  When I tried to upload it, the "Custom" option for the background image was grayed out, making me think that I couldn't upload my own image when using the particular theme I had selected.  I then went through most of the other themes to see if the "Custom" option was available on them.  It wasn't.  I then went back to my original theme and hit the "Browse..." button.  It turns out that I could upload a background image under my original theme, after all.  Why would Google imply that that particular option wasn't available when it really was?

-- While creating quizzes was easier than I thought it would be in many ways, the directions for how to create one could have been more clearly written.  For instance, they should have covered the issue of permissions (i.e., how to allow or restrict access to the quiz), and they could have given the reader a more complete idea of what a "Form" is on a Google Spreadsheet.  I was left to figure out those details on my own.

-- I also didn't like how I couldn't change the font of the page header.  I could change the color and the header background, but not the lettering appearing in it.  Why?

I don't mean to trash Google Sites.  It's just that there are some frustrating aspects of using it.  But when I navigated through all the features and ways you can edit them, I thought it was pretty incredible that Google allows you to do all that without knowing any code whatsoever, and the WYSIWYG interface is incredibly helpful, as well.  I guess they do have to make some site features off-limits, since giving users any more power may compromise the security of Google's servers.

A few things that I particularly liked:

-- Editing the navigation sidebar was very simple.  I could indicate that a page was a subpage merely by pressing a few arrows on the "Configure Navigation" screen.

-- Google Sites has a special feature that makes it very easy to display YouTube videos on your site.  All you need is the code that appears next to the video.

-- Typing content on the pages was very easy, thanks to the word-processor-like interface.

-- Creating a new page for your site takes less than a minute, although I'm not quite sure why attachments and comments are enabled by default.

So that's my Google Sites story.  Be sure to check out the site and let me know what you think.  Or you can even Twitter about it.

What's in a Typeface?

Typefaces (or fonts, as they are more commonly known) are an important but often neglected part of visual design.  Each typeface brings something different to the table, since every typeface has its own distinct personality and degrees of readability ("how easily a line of text can be read") and legibility ("letter recognition") (Yoshida 2).

(For the sake of being technically correct, I should clarify that a "typeface" is “a particular style of type design including the full range of characters, in all sizes," while a "font" is "a specific variation of a
typeface in a specific point size" (Yoshida 1).)

In selecting a font to examine in more depth, I decided to go off the beaten path (as I often do) and look at Matisse ITC, a font that comes standard on most systems but is not often seen. 

Matisse is based on a typeface created by designer Gregory Gray, who worked on a special Matisse-focused issue of Madame Figaro, a supplement to Paris's Figaro newspaper.  Using an X-Acto knife, he cut the letters out of paper and scanned them into a computer (source: the "About This Font" tab on this page).

I'm going to outline my analysis of Matisse according to the three traits I mentioned earlier: legibility, readability, and personality, as Kathleen Burke Yoshida did in her article "Avoiding Typeface Terrors."  Since these characteristics, particularly personality, are subjective, I will provide some rationalization for my judgments.

Here is what the typeface looks like (18pt.) in Microsoft Word:

(do you like it?)

Legibility:
Yoshida advocates the use of a simple test to determine legibility: you cover either the top half or the bottom half of a line of text and see if you can still read it.  Try it with the text provided below, which is taken from Yoshida's article.  Click on the picture of the text to expand it to its full size, and use a piece of opaque paper to cover either half of the letters.  Again, the text is written Microsoft Word in Matisse 18pt.

How did you do?
Me, I didn't do so well.  When I covered the bottom half of the letters, the r's, d's, and p's looked alike, and it was difficult to tell the difference between e's and f's.  It was also hard to make out the n's.
I had an even harder time when I covered the top half of the letters.  Since many of the letter bottoms consist of very similar sharp points and angles, the letters are hard to distinguish when their top halves are covered.  For example, o's look like n's, which would probably also look like v's even though there aren't any v's in the text above.
So Matisse gets low scores on legibility. 

Readability:
Matisse is probably not the most readable typeface out there.  While it does have a tall x-height, the letters are narrow, and the default letter-spacing (or tracking) settings on Microsoft Word make the letters appear very close together.  Also, upper- and lower-case letters are not easily distinguishable in this typeface, which may make lines of certain texts difficult to read.
As in any other typeface, increasing the point size of Matisse increases its readability, as the picture below illustrates.

(Matisse in different point sizes.  Source: the Waterfall feature on Fonts.com)

Personality:
The variations in stroke weight, from very narrow to very heavy, give the typeface a very human, organic feel.  The letter elements look as if they could be carved or created by applying different levels of pressure to a brush.  Since most of the letter elements are created with heavier stroke weights, one could say that Matisse is a rather "loud" or "bold" typeface," and whimsical touches, like the dotted capital I and wide angles in the lower-case m and n, give it a "funky" and distinctive flair.  Like most other sans serif typefaces, Matisse is on the casual end of the spectrum, but it takes the casualness to another level with its lack of uniform sizes of ascenders, descenders, and other letter elements across the typeface.

My conclusion?  Matisse is really fun and distinctive typeface, but it would be reserved for headlines or really short blocks of text that you want to stand out.  It can also be used to provide initial caps, as suggested by Gregory Gray, himself (see the "About This Font" tab on this page).

What are your thoughts?  Do you have any experience using Matisee?

Sometimes Age is More Than Just a Number

The age range of a product's intended audience is certainly a major consideration for usability professionals.  To illustrate this concept, I chose two web sites offering tutorials on using the Internet: one aimed toward elementary-school children ("Get Your Web License" by PBS Kids) and one geared toward adults ("Internet Basics" by the Goodwill Community Foundation (GCF)).

"Get Your Web License" by PBS Kids

This site offers a hands-on way for kids to learn the basics of Internet use, including Internet safety, Net etiquette, and the syntax of web site addresses (all of which were phrased in more kid-friendly terms, of course!).  Upon entering the site, the visitor is asked to provide his or her name so that it can be printed on their Web License upon completion of the tutorial.

(Note: The first screenshot for this site shows the page as it appears in my browser.  The remaining shots will have much of the empty space surrounding the main images cropped out.  The excessive blank space is offensive to my developing designer sensibilities.)

(home page / starting point for "Get Your Web License)

The visitor is then presented with a map featuring various stops along a circular path, with each stop offering an opportunity to allow him or her to either show what they know on a particular topic or learn more about it.

(map for getting the Web License)

(question about website privacy policies) 

(I got it right!)

 
Upon correctly answering a quiz question at that stop, that area on the path will appear in color to designate it as visited.

(and the hills are alive...)

When the visitor has correctly answered all questions along the path, he or she will be told that their Web License is ready for pick-up and asked to chose the road appropriate to their gender.

(my license is ready!)

A personalized, printable Web License is then provided.

(yay me!  I just wish getting my actual driver's license was this easy, but that's a story for another place and time)

Based on my reading and research, this site effectively addresses the need of child learners.

First, the quiz/tutorial can be completed quickly, which satisfies the desire for instant gratification that is common in most young children.  The cognitive skills required to delay gratification and to think "long term", which help to sustain attention for long periods, are acquired and developed in children as they grow (Gleitman 611).  The incentive of gaining a tangible reward, which, in this case, is the printable license, serves as an external motivator to obtain and prove knowledge.  Such a motivation is essential to foster a desire for learning in children.  According to Prof. Clifford Madsen, "Motivation must first be external before it can be internal," and psychologist Kim Dolgin is also quoted as saying that external motivators are effective because "it feels so good to succeed" (Cook 41).  Thus, the printable license offers its earner a physical representation of his or her success in "passing the Internet driving test" and provides a crucial sense of accomplishment.  

The site also addresses the usability analysis dimensions as defined by Jennifer Turns and Tracey S. Wagner in their article "Characterizing Audience for Informational Web Site Design."  In their study, Turns and Wagner delineated six factors to consider when evaluating web site usability:

1.  Role of the user

2.  User's goals

3.  User's knowledge

4.  Human factors

5.  Circumstances of use

6.  User's culture

Most relevant to our analysis of the "Get Your Web License" site are "user's knowledge," "human factors," and "user's culture."

"User's knowledge":  According to Turns and Wagner, "Information about users' knowledge can influence a variety of system design issues, such as the vocabulary used in the text, the range of topics covered, the information provided about a topic, and the technical capabilities made available in the system" (72).  The creators of "Get Your Web License" site evidently had this principle in mind when choosing the topics to be covered, as no topic addressed on the site could be described as "very technical and complex," and the information provided on the site can be readily understood and used by elementary school students.

"Human factors":  Turns and Wagner quote Marlana Coe as saying that "the field of human factors is devoted to the study of human capabilities and limitations (both physical and cognitive) as they affect the user's ability to accomplish his or her goals" (72).  It is fitting, then, that the designers of the site chose to provide simple and straightforward ways for the young user to provide their responses: typing is only required once, and all that the child is required to type is his or her name.  The rest of the interaction with the computer is conducted through "pointing and clicking" and providing answers via radio buttons.  It really doesn't get much simpler than that, making the site easy for children to use.

"User's culture": "Culture refers to shared beliefs, language, practices, traditions, and values of a group of people" (Turner 72).  The site appeals to the "culture" of children, making references that apply to kids' everyday lives, such as asking parents and teachers for help.  Some answers to questions, like the one in the "Be Nice" area of the map, address children's desire for social acceptance ("Saying mean things is never helpful. Nobody likes mean people.").

Other elements of the site's design, such as color and typography, also appeal to the target audience.  The bright colors used throughout the site are eye-catching and help to sustain the child's attention throughout the quiz/tutorial.  It is interesting to note that the license itself appears in black and white (with the exception of the "OFFICIAL" stamp, which is in red), giving it the feel of a "real" and "adult" document.  Also, the typeface in which the questions are presented is large enough for children to see them without strain or effort, thereby facilitating the learning process.  The font used to present the title at the top of each page of the site is unconventional, casual, and "fun," helping to convey the idea that the quiz/tutorial is meant to be enjoyable.

"Internet Basics" by the Goodwill Community Foundation

This educational site is designed to "provide quality, innovative online learning opportunities to anyone who wants to improve the technology... skills necessary for them to be successful in both work and life. GCF believe[s] there's freedom in the ability to learn what you want, when you want, regardless of your circumstances."  Thus, it can be used by adults of all ages, but it is meant to accommodate the needs of people with little Web experience and who may have physical disabilities (according to their Accessibility page: "To enable people, regardless of disability, to access the content on GCFLearnfree.org, we have designed the site to meet the current United States federal guidelines on accessibility as stated in Section 508. Where interactive content is used on the site to convey concepts that are inherently visual or auditory, we provide alternate content in an accessible format.")

(the "Internet Basics" home page)

In a podcast on the topic of audience analysis, Prof. Ken Ronkowitz states that adult learners tend to want practical application, rather than theory, presented to them first.  While GCF's course in Internet Basics does begin by presenting some history and definitions, it provides some real-world examples of the terms presented (e.g., in a discussion of clients and servers: "Your web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) is client software.").  In this way, the adult learner's desire to apply what they're learning to their current situation is satisfied.

Furthermore, research in the field of andragogy shows that adults learn best when they can relate new knowledge to what they already know or have learned previously.  Although users are free to click on lessons in any order, GCF's site is structured in such a way that lessons build on what was presented in prior lessons, thus addressing the general preferences of adult learners.

We can apply the six factors of website usability outlined by Turns and Wagner to this site, as well.  "User's goals," "User's knowledge," and "Human factors," are particularly relevant to our analysis of GCF's Internet Basics tutorial.

"User's goals": "Information about user goals can guide decisions about the scope, character, and organization of a site's content" (Turns 69).  While the main goal of likely visitors is obvious (i.e., learning about the Internet and how to use it), each user might be looking for different types of content (information on Internet security, a tutorial on how to use a web browser, etc.).  Dividing the overall content of the site into separate lessons and clearly listing the topics of the lessons helps users who are looking for specific information as well as those who want to track their progress as they progress through the entire tutorial.  Furthermore, links to articles are provided for those users who want to go beyond the tutorials and learn about a topic in more depth.

"User's knowledge":  The site successfully caters to both novice Internet users and users who have some experience but want to enhance their understanding of certain topics.  Thus, the only knowledge the user is assumed to have upon entering the site is how to "point and click," and a broad spectrum of skill levels can be served by the site's content and layout.

"Human factors":  To address the needs of colorblind users, the color scheme of the site consists largely of gray, black, and white, with some accents in blue and orange.  Thus, the information provided on the site can be easily read by people with this handicap.  Also, a lesson on adjusting the Accessibility options in web browsers is offered in the tutorial.  Since minimal physical movement is required to navigate through and interact with the site and its lessons, the site caters to the usability requirements of those users who have limited mobility in their hands and wrists.

      

Works Cited

Cook, Janice. "Motivating through Extrinsic and Intrinsic Rewards." The American Music Teacher 53.2 (2003): 41-2.

Gleitman, Henry, Alan J. Fridlund, and Daniel Reisberg.  Psychology.  6th ed.  New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2004.

Ronkowitz, Ken.  "Audience Analysis."  PTC 605: Elements of Visual Design.  New Jersey Institute of Technology.  15 Sept. 2009.  Web.  20 Sept. 2009.

Turns, Jennifer and Tracy S. Wagner.  "Characterizing Audience for Informational Web Site Design."  Technical Communication 51.1 (2004): 68-85.  Print.

Whose "Fault" Is It, Anyway?: Analyzing the Design of "It's Not My Fault"

Since the disciplines of usability and user-experience engineering have their foundations in the principles of design, I thought it would be appropriate for me to learn more about design in general, since my familiarity with the fundamental concepts of design is rather limited. To start with, I decided to examine how the various aspects of a YouTube video (since I seem to be on that site every day, anyway) work together to communicate to the viewer.

Check out the video I chose, "It's Not My Fault" by Claire Mason, below.



(Let me preface my analysis by saying that what follows is only my own interpretation.  I look forward to hearing if others agree or disagree with me.)

One of the most prominent aspects of this piece is the way in which it employs repetition.  While the repetition is not used to create an actual pattern on the screen, it does help to create unity and establish the theme of the video.  Similarly, the lack of variety in the images -- particularly in terms of relative size, color, and shape -- emphasizes the monotony of the "narrator's" voice, which may have been meant to convey the inherently expressionless and emotionless nature of technology.  Computers are devoid of emotion because they are mechanical, and it is their mechanical nature that makes them vulnerable to malfunctions, or "faults."  Any corruption of the data, or disruption of a stream of data, used to communicate a message results in a distortion of that message and a change in its meaning, as illustrated in this video.  This idea, I think, serves as the theme of the piece.

Also helping to convey the mechanical "flavor" of the video are the geometric (read: inorganic) shapes that appear throughout.  Indeed, only rectangular shapes are seen, which is fitting since all computer windows are rectangles.  The way in which these windows overlap, with no space in between the top and bottom windows, is also reminiscent of how computer windows overlap on a screen and help to create a "flat" texture.  Furthermore, the black text on the white background is identical the default color scheme used in word processors, thus adding to the "generic" feel of the visuals. 

There are, however, some features of the video that temper its computerized nature.  The artist could have chosen a much more technical- or mechanical-looking font, such as OCR A Standard, but, instead, elected to use a font that's more similar to Arial or Calibri.  Such fonts are frequently used in print and other media that are not related to computers.  The haphazard way in which the windows pile on top of each other also creates a sense of tension and, particularly as time passes, a feeling that things are spiraling out of control.  This impression is reinforced by the red background that pulsates as the "narrator" says "It's my fault," which can be seen as an alarm of sorts that's alerting the user that something's gone wrong.  The various shades of red, green, and gray that appear in the absence of any text suggest (at approximately 1:16) that the computer may be trying to reset itself in order to rectify the "fault."  

The rhythm in which the windows are presented on the screen matches the rhythm of the "narrator's" voice, so this feature of the video, along with the mechanical or seemingly automated nature of many of its other elements, make the voice an enhancement to the piece but not an essential part of it.  The emphasis, or focal point, of the video changes according to what word has just been narrated, as the words appear on the screen at the exact moments they are spoken.  In a similar fashion, the auditory "focal point" of any narration is the word that is currently being articulated.  Thus, the voice only serves to highlight the other features of the video.

If any of you are more experienced in the field of design and find "fault" in my analysis, do enlighten me.

Blogs, Inc.: A Look at Two Corporate Blogs

Because I'm new to blogging, I thought it would be useful to check out the blogs of some other inhabitants of the blogosphere, and since corporate blogs are the most authoritative (at least in theory) and offer some context for me to place their content in, I decided to start by looking at a few of those.

As I've stated previously, one of my main areas of professional and academic focus is usability, a field that is becoming increasingly rich and compelling as technology becomes more integral to our everyday tasks. With some electronics, usability standards can become a matter of life and death, in the truest sense of the phrase, as is the case with GPS units. As a starting point in my survey of corporate blogs, I thought it would be interesting to see if the blogs of companies that produce GPS units reflect their commitment to design and ease of use, as well as what sort of impression the blogs give about the companies. What follows is a brief analysis of the blogs of TomTom and Garmin, two manufacturers of GPS units with which I am familiar.

Upon comparing these companies' blogs with their main websites, one can see that the Garmin blog is, visually, an extension of the company's homepage, with the same header being used on both.

 

(the Garmin homepage)

 

(the Garmin blog)

While the TomTom blog's appearance isn't radically different from that of TomTom.com, it does vary enough to easily distinguish it from the company's homepage.

 

(the TomTom homepage)

 

(the TomTom blog)

Also of note is that Garmin's blog contains no non-Garmin links, but TomTom's blog features a collection of external links, called "Points of Interest," that visitors might find fun or useful. Furthermore, TomTom's blog has polls and a list of most popular posts, while nothing of the sort appears on the Garmin blog. Just by scanning the layouts of the blogs, one gets the impression that the Garmin blog is very corporate focused, whereas the TomTom blog is more oriented to the visitor and what might be of most interest to him or her.

The initial posts of these blogs also give some idea as to the intended tone, or "flavor" of the sites. Such posts on the TomTom and Garmin blogs indicate that the intended audience is the customer base of the respective companies. Both blogs were also created with the intent to deliver company/product news and to elicit feedback from customers in a fun way. However, both the initial post on TomTom's blog and a later post called "About Club TomTom" (perhaps posted after a redesigning of the site?) emphasize the "fun" aspect of its blog more than the first post on the Garmin blog. The name of the TomTom blog, itself, suggests the leisurely nature of the intended user experience, as well as the company's wish to provide a way for its customers to form a community of sorts. No explicit references to a "community" are made in the first post on the Garmin blog.

Also of note in the "PR aspect" of the blogs is the way in which comments are received. When a visitor tries to comment on a post on the Garmin blog, he or she will see a note saying that "Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this weblog until a moderator has approved them," as well as the following warning: "READ BEFORE POSTING: If you have a question about product support, investor relations, or media relations, click on those links. This blog isn’t designed to handle those requests, and your comment will unfortunately go unanswered." At the bottom of the comment box, the visitor sees a reminder: "By submitting a comment for possible posting to the Garmin blog, you specifically grant permission to Garmin to publish your name, story, and/or testimonial, along with any associated photographs or digital images, on the Garmin blog and in Garmin's internal quarterly newsletter, in Garmin's marketing materials, and on the www.garmin.com website." No such warnings appear when a visitor attempts to comment on a post on TomTom's blog, reinforcing the notion that the Garmin and TomTom blogs fall at opposite ends of the corporate-oriented/customer-focused spectrum.  Also revealing is the number and frequency of comments left by visitors: of the 149 posts on the Garmin blog published in the past three months, only 5 (3.36%) were commented on, with an average of three comments for each of those posts.  While the writers of the TomTom blog post much less often (only 5 posts in the last three months), a greater percentage of the posts were commented on (1 post, or 20% of the posts, which had 2 comments).  In other words, for every post published on the Garmin blog in the past three months, there are .1 comments.  For every post published on the TomTom blog in the past three months, there are .4 comments.

Of course, in determining the character of a company and its blog, it is imperative to analyze the posts themselves.  Here is a breakdown of the word-count statistics for the most recent 10 posts on the blogs:
Garmin:
--Most words: 744
--Least words: 166
--Average word count: 317.3 
TomTom:
--Most words: 191
--Least words: 43
--Average word count: 121.9
These statistics suggest that the Garmin blog caters to customers who are sufficiently invested in the brand to read through some relatively lengthy posts, whereas the TomTom blog is written for customers who are, perhaps, more casual users of the products and don't necessarily want to read through long postings.  Rather, they prefer that the writers "get to the point" quickly so that they can move on to either the next post or to something else entirely.  The posts on both blogs almost always include some visual element, whether it's a picture, a serious of pictures, or a video, with Garmin making more frequent use of video content.  The typeface, which is another revealing visual element, used in the Garmin posts seems to be in the Arial family, often considered standard for professional presentations.  The writers of the TomTom posts use a font that is similar to Arial, but there is not the great difference between the width and height of the characters that is typically seen in the Arial font family.  This choice may have been made in order to convey a more informal tone to the blog. 

The topics featured in the blogs also tells a great deal about the company and its intended audience.  Although the Garmin blog does discuss the company's products, it also devotes much of its attention to the events in which the products are used, such as the Tour de France and various triathlons.  In contrast, the TomTom blog focuses more on products and their features, as well as on company news.  Thus, there are far fewer testimonials and endorsements on the TomTom blog compared to Garmin's, further suggesting that Garmin caters to a high-performance customer base who see using Garmin's products as having an edge over the competition.  While TomTom users may be competitive in their own right, they are most likely not competitive in ways that are relevant to their use of TomTom's products.

As for overall corporate image (as interpreted by me through my reading of the blogs and through the analysis above):
Garmin: Focuses on meeting the navigation needs of its customers through a variety of products.  Strives to maintain its image as a professional, reliable company and an industry leader.  Geared toward high-performance users.   
TomTom: Focuses on ease of use, convenience, fun, and its customers.  Is open to suggestsions and feedback.  Tries to be accessible to its customers and to bring them together.  Geared toward casual users.

What are your thoughts on what I've just written about?  Agree? Disagree?  Discuss.