Author: bpcst322

RMU Junior
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1st questions HTML

The w3c standards help designers and developers make there sites as viewed and functional as possible. They provide knowledge for web design, web devices, architecture, tools and much more.

Markup is how the content of the page is described. They can be standard generalized markup language, SGML or extensible markup language, XML. These are how the document is marked up. They are both very similar, however XML is slightly more precise than the other.

Using the standards will make smaller file sizes, increase portability, better accessibility and precise control. having smaller file sizes will increase download time and you can reach people quicker. With an increased portability one can easily scale from a large monitor to a small phone screen. giving you more control allows for you to change things such as line-height or padding properties that can be very helpful.

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Terms and Conditions May Apply

In this documentary, they pursue exactly what it means when we check the terms and conditions box on many websites. They go into detail about many of the major points of large websites. After the first viewing of each point they go into extreme detail of exactly each point means.

Before watching this movie I knew about some of the things they were doing. I had the idea that “If I’m not doing anything wrong and it helps national security what do I care if the government listens to my phone calls.” I think I would still keep this thought-process if it were just that. However, I have learned that the government can access every single time you press a key on your phone. This rose the question to me, why in the world would the government need to know every time I press a key? That is not ok with me.

Another point that aggravated me was that these large companies are selling my information. I don’t even want the websites to know  as much about me as they do, never the less sell it to someone for a prophet. To me, that seems wrong. I can some what understand websites wanting to know information to better serve you, but that should be encrypted information that is safe. It seems like a responsibility of the company that is taking so much information to keep it safe from others, not sell it.

After this movie I wanted to through my smart phone off a cliff and go back to the good ol days of a flip phone. I think companies and the government have way too much of a foot hold in our personal lives. I understand when the government says its for national security but national security doesn’t need to document every time I add bills up on my calculator. As for the companies, I truly believe that they would be out of business if only 50% of there users fully read and understood there terms and conditions. It is intrusion of ones personal matter and should not be kept on file.

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Ch. 6

In this chapter they discuss the skeleton plane. The book goes into describing interface design, navigation design and information design. A skeleton plane defines what form the functionality of a product will take. Interaface design is important for overall design. It is responsible for the buttons, fields and overall interface components. Navigation is how one gets around a cite. The design is tailoring the interface to a space for information about controlling and moving around. Information design is all about the meat and potatoes of the cite. This part of the design is for the information and making it as effective as possible to bring the communication across.

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Chapters 3, 4 and 5

  • What information can ethnographic tools give you to improve the interactivity of an online banking website? (pp. 48-54) Ethnographic tools can help to identify user needs to may have not been yet made. Testing for marketing demands so they can make products are not on market yet. Also they can search for opportunities to expand through differences that between them and there competitors.
  • At what point is a design finished? What makes it a success? What is its purpose? (pp. 54-62) A design is finished when it has met all of the goals and astheicly can not be improved. It is then a success once it has met the goals for the user and the user doesn’t even think about the design because it make sense that it is that way and no other way. The purpose of design is to make something pleasing to the eye and as simple as possible for the user.
  • Identify a product family you use regularly (can be anything from technology to consumables except for coffee). How has its branding effected your use, relationship and experience with the product? (pp. 78-84) A product that I use every day is my truck. The branding of the vehicle has not had as much of a effect as the quality of the vehicle. However, because of the quality my relationship, experience and loyalty has been excellent.
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Objectified

How do they define design?

The designers in the movie defined design in many different ways some as form, mass production, and others as how we interact with a product.

What makes good design?

Things that make a good design are products that improve things without the user knowing. Also little design/less is more or innovative with pleasing aesthetics. Lastly  sustainability of the product/design is necessary.

What should designers do?

They should make a change in the world or market they are in. They should tell people what to do without them knowing. Also they must look into the future and find better with use for things.

Do you agree or disagree?

I agree with what these designers have said about design and what makes it good. I have always believed the least amount of design the better.

change how you see design?

This movie did not change how I saw design because I agreed with most of what they said already.

What is design? has your idea changed.

Design, good design at least, is the things we don’t think of as design at all. Something should make so much sense as how it is that it wouldn’t make sense looking or acting in any other way.

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Chapter 1-2 Response

What makes up interaction design and what are some of the industry’s challenges?

A interaticion designer used to be responsible for images and text on a computer but in today’s world there responsibilities have grown. A designer is responsible for every aspect of the computer. Any functioning piece is a part of the interaction design realm. Some of the challenges of the industry are that it is not a growing industry but rather a shrinking one. It is becoming more and more of a branding “thing” rather than a functionality.

What is interaction design, how its evolving. What fields does it draw knowledge from?

Interaction design is a interaction between technology and people and technology to technology. Through these medias, in good design, is a clear path, message and objective. It is important for a good design to be successful that it is clear and concise. It draws knowledge from a lot of different fields. You can’t point to one field for recruitment of a quality interaction designer. It pulls from just about every media arts field. You need graphic designers, web designers, fine arts, and marketing people. Each one of these people adds a different view to the product to enhance the user experience. A lack of diversity would tailor the item or product to a very specific demographic which would not be productive or lucrative.

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Elements of the user experience

What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook? (pp. 41-56)

The goals of Apple’s website would be to provide their products but also to make money. Apple has many support systems on there site. They have troubleshooting, helpline number and store locations to help any of the issues that may occur.

What are the functional specifications of Facebook’s wall? If you are not on Facebook what are the specs for the signup page? (pp. 72-75)

For the sign up page you must enter either your email or phone number for conformation and security purposes. Also you must enter your age, however there isn’t anything checking and confirming your actual age.

What are four architectural approaches to information structure? Find one example of each. (pp. 94-106)

Hierarchy, organic, matrix and sequential. RMU.edu, Wikipedia.com, BestBuy.com, and check out section of Amazon.com. (in order)

What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (pp. 116-134)

The majority of the Huffington Post is navigation. This helps you to find what you are looking for and articles that are similar. A small percent of the site is actual content. Google would have the most navigation because when you do get to the content it is no longer the Google site. Wikipedia is almost all content because it is organic and there isn’t really any navigation to certain pages but they use hyperlinks for navigation. Etsy is mainly navigation, using the matrix format you have to click through things to get to the content that you want.

How does http://www.landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (pp. 144-155 )

Landor uses jQuery and flash to keep what is important in front of you. You must scroll to see new content and it uses visuals that will appear and disappear depending on the part you scroll to.

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Review 4

In this review I used carrabbas. There use of color and texture were very good. It has great depth with the background image and foreground image. layout is also good but is not a traditional and could get confusing. They do a good job at navigation but could use more features to make it pop and easier on the user. in our website we use excellent navigation with clear information.

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review 3

The two sites I choose where Bravo and Six Penn. I think both sites were very well designed. Bravo put the most emphasis on there logo where as Six Penn decided to put the focal point on the location image at the top of the page. Six Penn’s unity works better than Bravo’s because of overall texture and color usage. I also think Six Penn’s layout works better than Bravo’s because it looks more interactive and interesting than Bravo’s very basic look. However, I think both sites are very usable and easy to navigate. Six Penn is defiantly more effective at grabbing my attention. They use a variety of images that show a many different aspects of the restaurant. The color choices were also much better with Six Penn than Bravo. They show a very elegant style but also very approachable. In conclusion both sites are successful but Six Penn steals the cake with style, elegance, and approachability.

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Review 2

The site I choose was a proposal for the McWhopper. This website used a lot of earth tones along with the colors of both McDonalds and Burger King. I thought the use of texture on this website is the best I have ever seen on a webpage. To go from one segment to the next all one would have to do is scroll down. However, it felt “glitchy” when scrolling and inconsistent. The site uses a lot of movement and its strongest element being contrast.

I think overall the site does well with the design. The movement through-out the site keeps the users interested. The use of contrast for the type makes it easy to read and relays a clear message. They use a good use of imagery, type and video to convey a number of different elements for the same message.

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Web Review

One could say that I am almost addicted to audio and finding the best out there for audio. I have recently been doing research on finding a portable speaker that could meet my specific needs and wants in such a product. A commonly known store and site for all thinks electronic is Best Buy. For this reason the website that I choose to for my purchase was BestBuy.com.
Like I said before, the product I am looking for is a portable speaker. When I go to the site it is easy for me to find the bluetooth/portable speaker selection. This is in a drop down menu from the top. Once, I got to the selection I had the option to sharpen my view. I could do this through the side bar on the left of the screen. A problem I ran into with this is that every time I selected something such as price the page would refresh automatically. Now, this would not be a problem if someone did not know exactly what they wanted but I did and had many different boxes I wanted to select. Instead of selecting all the boxes I wanted then submitting it, I would select a box then the page would refresh, then select another one. This was frustrating but was the only problem I ran into. Once I decided on the product I wanted I could either add it to my cart on that page or click on the product and add it there.

Overall, I would say that there site works well with ordering products. The only issue I ran into was selecting multiple boxes to lower the search at once. This automatic reload option would work well for a person only checking one box.