Abundant Byte Content Design (ABC and D)

I believe there is a tendency to deliver an abundance of content quantity in online design projects. Numerous websites are filled to the brim, and there is no ability for the viewer to breath (not enough while space provided). This is a current issue in relation to the class project I am involved in. The client we are working is creative and a visionary and has turned over volumes upon volumes of material to be incorporated into the final website design. It was so overwhelming I initially thought it was a mistake, or a joke. At first it did not seem that there would be much ability to negotiate this with the client, even though our entire team felt similarly about the situation. But thankfully, in the past weeks the client has apparently realized how counterproductive such massive byte inclusion would be for the overall design.
The same issue is often evident in public speaking. When presenting a talk or a sermon there is a temptation to put everything in to one presentation. You wouldn't want to miss anything. My first real sermon took place 25 years a go while still in college, prior to my seminary training. I tried to cover the entire Christian faith in that first talk! At least 45 minutes nonstop. Now I must admit that I can listen to someone talk from 45 minutes or an hour ... if they know what they are talking about, if they know how to talk about the subject, and if there presentation is interesting. On the other hand 10 minutes after violating any of the above three is my natural limit for a poor presentation. Although I have a good deal of public speaking experience I am not an expert and so I should not often push the limits of the audience.
In Web Design, too much, unless it is exceptionally done, drives people away rather than draws them in. A little is often better than a lot. There is no mandatory audience attendance requirement, site visitiation is mostly optional, and often fleeting. It is not wise to introduce a person to swimming by throwing them in the ocean, a shallow pool will do much better for those first few laps. A website with interesting graphics and useful information serves as a door through which an audience can enter further into the web house. But sometimes the exterior of the house is so cluttered you can't find the main door.
The client initially suggested what could have been 10 or more pages of complex technical text on the opening page. 99.9% of visitors would flee from the sheer volume alone.

Keep it simple. Keep it uncluttered. Keep it clean. Provide opportunities for self discovery. Provide the means for personalized exploration. This concept is often forgotten but is, I believe essential for discussions on successful design.

The Good, The Bad, and the Gestalt

Assignment: Find both good and bad examples of digital communication aesthetics, based on this author's perspective and prior readings on Gestalt theory.

Tim Greenzweig's article "Aesthetic Experience and the Importance of Visual Composition in Information Design" offered several helpful guidelines in evaluating website design. The feel, the aesthetic, is often ignored in the development process. Pieces are brought together but the larger "whole" is often overlooked. The author's hypothesis, "I would like to suggest that experiencing information and information structures is as much aesthetic and in no way different than viewing a painting, experiencing a play, listning to a piece of music, or reading a poem. Information design requires the same devotion to the creation of visually pleasing compositions as any other form of communication." Greenzweig would like to inject the passion, creativity, and eye of the artist into the heart and soul of web design.

I evaluted several websites based on criteria laid out by the author: grid system, ABA, rule of thirds, typography, juxtaposition, combination and Gestalt. In my search for examples I found most were average to poor. Only a couple were fair to good. None of the six I investigated were aesthetic winners.

1. http://disney.go.com/home/today/index.html. I chose this site because Disney is self-billed as "the happiest place on earth." The website was one of two I grade "good." The intial visual impression was aesthetically pleasing. The main layout brought back pleasant memories and the feel of Disneyland's physical layout. "Typography" was well integrated especially in the advertising header for "Robots." There was an excellent example of "combination" in the monorail menu bar. While "ABA" (Top to Bottom) and the "Rule of thirds" did not seem to be followed there was a grid system. The site broke down on the second page I clicked to. Visual appeal and logical order seemed to disapper. Grade "B" Homepage, "C-" Second page.

2. http://www.landroverusa.com/us/en/Vehicles/home.htm. This site was selcted due to my longterm desire to drive a landrover. It symbolizes freedom and adventure. It has a continental look and feel. The opneing page was clean. It seemed to followed several basic principles, "The Rule of thirds," "typography," "Grid," to some extent "ABA," There was a sense of unity, a "Gestalt" feel to the site. What was missing was "freedom and adventure." I clicked on the word "adventure" and was taken to a second page without any adventure. Text alone with a few still photos thown in, does not convey energy and excitement. I would have appreciated some opening motion and second page motion (even a simple picture of a Landrover in a beautiful location with the sun setting in the distance). Landrover should communicate motion, and beauty. Overall I graded this site a "B".

3. http://www.southwest.com/. Hoping to find a aesthetically pleasing and fun site I turned next to Southwest airlines. What a disappointment! For a company that puts life and humor into its onboard safety announcements the website was as dry as a simple reading of the preflight emergency card. No "Rule of thirds." Only adequate "Typography." Simple "Grid system." No "combinations." Overall Aesthetic appeal was less than fair, barely above poor. No art and little life here. Tragic. Grade: "C-".

4. http://www.discoverwashington.com/. When you include the word "discover" in your web address you are implying travel, excitement, new locations and new ideas. None of that was evident here. This turned out to be a website offering domain names for sale. It violated almost every prnciple mentioned, with the possible exception of following some version of a "Grid system." Pieces not a whole. Anti-Gestalt! Grade: "F".

5. http://www.rvamerica.com/. This domain name conjured up images of motion, adventure and distant places. I was eager to see an interactive map showing hidden or interesting places to RV to. I anticipated seeing beautiful pictures of RV'ers on trips around the country and around the world. Families together camped by a lake. Camping next to the beach. Passing by the Lincoln Memorial. Nothing! Some helpful links to RV dealers and repair sites. Not a piece of art, more like a classified ad. Some good use of "Typography" and some use of a "Grid system" but apart from that there was little to add to this site's visual appeal. A Slide show of member's recent trips, even 3D tours of current RV models would have been welcomed. Site grade: "D+".

6. http://www.usatoday.com/. Which major newspaper organization is accused of being light and easy to digest? USAToday that's who! The website departs from this light approach and attempts to enter into competition with the heavier news sites. Colors are too stark. "Typography" is only adequate. "Rule of thirds," "Combination," "Juxtaposition," all seemed to be missing or misused. It seemed to be a website of pieces and not a unified whole. Gestalt failure! A few interactive artsy pie charts or graphs would have been welcomed. The site organization did not seem consisent or appealing. It did have some relevant photos and an abundance of stories and links. Overall grade: "C".

RSS and Digital Communication

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) offers a defined XML grammar for cross site content sharing. This common vocabulary allows for simple content transfer from one website to another. Not only does RSS aloow for text based exchanges but also provides for the sharing of audio and other media content. If an individual or company develops a website and provides access of their propietary news or information to another website RSS can, with minimal effort, allow each site to harvesty and display each other's content. RSS is currently being promoted as a means of alerting interested parties to new or modified news content on any or all RSS adopted sites. RSS is cited as a real XML success story. RSS allows advanced and entry webusers access to the most significant asset on the Web, content.
One of the co-creators of RSS adapted this cross communication grammar to include MP3 files, opening the door for "Podcasting." Now, using RSS, anyone with today's simple media enabled personal computer can "podcast" (broadcast to ipods and other MP3 players) on what is most passioonate to them (religion, politics, relationships, technology, travel). These podcasts can be downloaded from a podcaster's website onto a personal listening device for delayed or repeated listening by using an application such as Macintosh's iTunes.
In less than a year, this "common man's radio station" has grown in popularity. There are at least 800 active regular podcasts currently and that number is expected to grow significantly in the coming months and years. No longer dependent on traditional radio transmitted for content and entertainment, each individual can deliver and preserve their ramblings, or well thought out arguments.
I believer Podcasting will catch on quickly as an alternative form of information-reception. Podcasters are well ahead of the censorship mechanism. The question is, who has time to listen to so much individualized content? Will the volume of personal opinions and private position projectile vomitting overwhelm the ability and desire of consumers? Does it make the podcaster feel better about herself/himself believing someone may be listening? What standards or credentials qwill podcasters have? Will people care about the qualifications of the micro-broadcasters? As with our PVR, there is not enough time to digest all of the recorded programming. Currently, my wife and I use our iPod to time-shift shows from NPR and also sermons downloaded from certain trusted church websites.
RSS seems to be providing as common framework for greater content exchnage. It is an interesting development that will definitely chanllenge traditional radio wave content providers in much the same way that VCRs and PVRs challenged television contnet providers. RSS opens up the poissibility of egalitarian access to significant and current news and information.

Online experiences with Gestalt Principles

Gestalt principles of design stand in reaction to the schol of atomism (the importance is all in the minute details). Gestalt principles stress the importance of understanding each piece in the context of the whole.

"To Gestaltists, things are affected by where they are and by what surrounds them...so that things are better described as "more than the sum of their parts."

"Gestaltists believed that context was very important in perception."

"It is the relationships between the notes that give us the tune, the whole, not which notes make up the tune."

1. Figure and Ground:
The first website I turned to, the National Park website for Mount Rushmore, "http://www.nps.gov/moru/start.htm", did not stand out to me in any way except potentially as an example of a complete lack of awareness of this principle, or any principle of a pleasing interactive sight. The site opens with a photo the cover of their printed brochure. What I wanted was the opportunity to click on the opening image and access numerous photos and video offering angles and facets of the monument I would not have typically seen. The opening visual did not use any intentional aspect of "figure and ground."

I also looked at an ocean information website, "http://www.abc.net.au/oceans/alive.htm", hoping for a helpful example of "figure and ground." What I discovered here was the use, unintentional I presume, of waves as "ground" but an ambiguous "figure" in the center. The contrast was evident but did not cause the "figure" to stand out in a way that enticed the viewer.

I did find a decent example of "figure and ground" at "http://www.beaches.com/" The ines used to identify the beach constrated nicely with the figure of the happy vacationer and the Beach logo.

2. Similarity: Proximity and Continuity

"The principle of proximity or contiguity states that things which are closer together will be seen as belonging together"

"The principle of continuity predicts the preference for continuous figures"

Exploring several websites, I stumbled across "http://www.waterski.com/index_en.php3" as an example of proximity and continuity. I liked the immediacy and flow of photos and stories related to waterskiing. What demonstrated this Gestalt principle was the webpage packground. The potentially randowm brush strokes combined to create the image of a skiier in motion. These strokes as individuals might have had some interest, but due to their close proximity they invited the viewer to fill in the gaps and visualize a continuous image.


3. Closure: Area and Symmetry

"The principle of closure applies when we tend to see complete figures even when part of the information is missing."

"Our minds react to patterns that are familiar, even though we often receive incomplete information."

"The principle of area states that the smaller of two overlapping figures is perceived as figure while the larger is regarded as ground."

"The principle of symmetry describes the instance where the whole of a figure is perceived rather than the individual parts which make up the figure."

The website "http://www.alaska.com/" offers several nice examples of Gestalt principle 3, "closure: area and symmetry." The banner across the top of the homepage presents a sillouette of a moose/caribou against a beautifully cloudly sky. I bring this image to closure, providing area, by providing information that this animal is in the foreground of the picture and not cutout from the image. In addtion, the globe and highlighted state of Alaska on the right side of the top banner provide opportunities for me to mentally complete the globe, to provide symmetry, even though only a portion is presented.

These 3 principles are obvious (once they were described and presented I saw them instantly) and yet they are helpfully stated, clarified, experienced, and reinforced through this exercise.

Individualized Information Presentation.

"Multidimensional Analysis for Custom Content for Multiple Audiences". Although the title on the eReserve article differed from that on the downloaded text, its content applied directly to issues we have discussed during our team meetings. The client we are working with is well read, deeply committed, and abundantly productive. She has delivered to our team volumes and volumes of information relating to her project. She has a clear vision of what she hopes to accomplish and what she wants to communicate. Our team discussions have identified an area of clear need as we proceed with this project: how to identify the target audiences and convey the right information to the corresponding audience segments.
This article recognizes the severe limitations of a static “one size fits all” approach to communication. As our ability to convey information changes with technological advances, our tradition of offering the same content to every person should be abandoned. XML, single sourcing, text databases, and dynamic text generation holds the promise of individualizing the data delivered to each individual. This would not be a simple selection of limited choice options for novices, mid level, and advanced users. The content would be individualized to meet their personal knowledge level, detail desire, and cognitive ability. This desire to match each individual with what they want and need to know, in a way that they can understand is very exciting, but also potentially over ambitious.
The level of data gathering required to isolate the identity and needs of each individual user presents a significant challenge. Information is not static, and individuals and their personal information is also in a constant state of change. Each individual adapts and changes in real time, as a result of seen and unforeseen forces. Exposure to the presented information creates a different individual than the one who began the information gathering process. The complexity of the process of bringing the specific information needed, together with the current and evolving needs of the individual user, can not be currently addressed.
The flexibility and adaptability suggested by this article is very exciting. The reality of implementing this approach seems like a daunting and potentially impossible task. The closest I see technology taking us in the future will be to individualize “groups” of users. But with this are assumptions that miss the specific needs of individuals within each group. Groups are not homogeneous. Regardless on how far along the process we are able to go, the principle of working toward individualized information is extremely helpful.
Returning to our team project, matching the vast amount of information offered by the client with potential individual users is the greatest challenge. This is a challenge that must be a priority. Too much unwanted information will drive away individuals who may have been won over if presented with information that matched their individual needs. The use of scenarios and personas will help us but they will not address each specific user as would be ideal.

Standards and Protocols

This article is afflicted with acronym overload (thank goodness for the keyword section). The saving grace is found in the opening paragraphs. In those initial paragraphs the author(s) related a helpful analogy as an artifact: “When different groups met, they could not easily communicate because of the different standards of speech that had emerged. In many cases, communication was conducted—and still is by some foreign travelers— through sign language when people spoke different languages.” This analogy helps set before the reader the importance of the issues defined in this article. Most of us have been in a situation or setting where we did not speak the same language of another present. I recall a time in Mexico when I organized a team of people from the U.S. to work alongside a team from Mexico. The translator mysteriously disappeared the second day. My rudimentary Spanish language skills became the primary means of communication. We did well during the week but had a few interesting episodes along the way. Speaking with my main couterpart I thought I had communicated quite well the need to order carpet for a large meeting area. Instead, he drove me out into the lonely desert where we stopped at a small home, it was then I discovered we had just hired a carpenter. The carpet (Alfombra) came later. Communication, with language as a barrier, requires finding a common vocabulary, or an easy means of instant translation.

This article highlighted the importance of having a common language. Considering how random and independent technology enthusiasts are, even within a single country let alone the world, it is amazing there is as much success with standards as evident today. Somehow the larger picture and purpose has remained central to the evolution and expansion of CMC (Computer Mediated Communication). Without compromise and a willingness to let go of nationalistic standards virtual borders would exist all along the internet. The vast amounts of information that is communicated, and understood across the borders of soveriegn nations and hostile entities is a marvel of cooperative wisdom and effort. Often the larger picture is understood by a small subgroup but fails to penetrate the thinking of the larger techno society. In this instance standards and protocols were discussed and adopted in the early stages. This colloboration has led to innovation and rapid adoption.

From a business persepctive, to increae revenue one would want as broad a communication of the comapny's products as possible along with complete acceibility. A limitless customer base is much more appealing than a marketplace that has difficult entrance barriers. Potential customers have little patience or desire to exert more than minimal energy to find out about what you are selling. Accessibility should be the goal, in design, promotion, and ease of use.
The only reason a business or market sector might have in adopting non-compatibile standards would be in the area of security. Protection of trade secrets, customer lists, internal communication require a different language that is not easily understood by those beyond the corporate walls.

Interesting quotes from the reading:
“For users to communicate with one another in a meaningful fashion on the Internet, they must send messages in a manner that can be interpreted by the receiving entities.”

One of ISO’s goals “and a world in which electronic communications have dramatically increased human collaboration in every field and between all countries.”

“The W3C’s charge is “to lead the WWW to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability.””

“Interoperability is a necessary condition for Internet data sharing.”

“Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). This set of protocols was developed in the early 1970s and, as will be discussed later, continues to evolve. This is called a reliable protocol because delivery of all data is guaranteed.”

“The portability of Java programs, because of the virtual machine component, made it a natural and popular tool for designers of Web-based applications. This portability feature of Java is commonly referred to as write once, run anywhere.”

“Protocols are necessary for these devices to work interoperably. In January 1998, some major companies (Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Unwired Planet) joined together to develop a wireless protocol. Together they proposed and developed the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). This protocol is targeted to bring Internet content and advanced services to digital, wireless devices.”

“Many standard-setting bodies have been criticized for cumbersome processes that do not provide timely solutions. On the other hand, private vendors in a rush to bring their products to the marketplace have developed similar, yet different specifications.”

“Government agencies worldwide connected to the Internet face a double-edged sword—they want increased connectivity and increased security.”

Team Roles

Based on class discussion and reading, which team role most appeals to you? Which least appeals? Why?

In the course of my professional post High School life I have filled a variety of roles (officially and unofficially) in numerous settings. From assistant manager of a petroleum exchange corportation to page layout designer, from a focus on straff training and operational manual development to negotiator I have enjoyed the variations and challenges. I have worked in sales, in manufacturing, in hospitals and classrooms. I enjoy learning, and when necessary, mastering new technologies.
The two role that most appeals to me is that of either project manager or QA Engineer. These two roles tend to keep before them the end goal and the larger overall project and picture. There is a requirement in both to know some of everything but not all of anything. It is a role that involves research, patience, team communication, problem solving, and attention to detail.
The role I am least suited for is that of developer. While I believe I could operate in the world of HTML development, with some further training, I am not gifted or able to acquire the skills necessary for the vast coding knowledge this position requires.
I am willing to try any role needed and have no need to be upfront or in charge. I can serve a team in leadership or in support. My goal, which is not always possible, is to see each member of a team contribute and enjoy the process on the way.