Archive for April, 2007

Elements of Good Storytelling

April 27, 2007 at 10:01 am · Filed under reading

As Kimberly Appelcline reminds us, we have all probably heard plenty of bad storytelling. I can think of one acquaintance in particular who begins to tell a story, but will start to give background information and then go off on a tangent causing a simple story that could be told in about 30 seconds to go on for about three minutes. It’s a good reminder that everything in a story should have a purpose for being there, even if the reader doesn’t discover the purpose until much later in the story. It also emphasizes the need for editing. What might seem important at the time may later become useless with a change in plot or focus.

On the other hand, it’s important for the reader to be able to visualize where the story is taking place. A detail here and there, especially those that appeal to the five senses, can help to place the reader into the story. If my character passes a bakery, maybe he or she catches a hint of cinnamon and yeast wafting through the window. Mmm, I’m getting hungry. Setting makes readers more involved in the story and they become more vested in the conclusion of the story.

Appelcline also points out that a story needs to have build-up to keep readers’ attention. When there is some sort of tension in the story, readers want to know what is going to happen. They need to get that pay-off at the end of the story for continuing to read the story.

These can be more difficult with nonfiction writing, but definitely not impossible. Sometimes it just takes paying more attention to the way people act and describing the setting they are in – rather than using their words only – to create a scene in readers’ minds and help develop the character of the person being interviewed. There are plenty of tensions in real life and it’s easy to find out a person’s backstory just by asking. (People love to talk about themselves!)

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April 23, 2007 at 3:49 pm · Filed under assignment

Please note individual project draft under pages

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Visual Design Methods

April 23, 2007 at 3:41 pm · Filed under reading

When I think about design, I usually think about something that is born from the creative region of the brain. But like so many creative things, design usually is based within some sort of framework – even if the framework is used unconsciously.

Jean Vanderdonckt’s “Visual Design Methods in Interactive Applications” lists various visual techniques that can be used to make information accessible to readers. Using a framework, it is easier to determine if the technique being used will indeed reach the audience that it is expected to reach. Whether it’s physical techniques such as balance and symmetry, or photographic techniques such as stability or stress, we as users are comfortable and find harmony when certain techniques are used. We feel comfortable when designs are balanced and symmetrical, and when we can predict where items will be.  

Vanderdockt makes the point that the target audience will help to determine the impact a screen has on the users. If the target audience is a “traditional” audience then visual techniques in the domain of harmony should be used. If a more “nontraditional” audience is targeted then visual techniques may be more effective if they create contrast.

The tradeoff between usability and the desired visual impact should always be considered. As we have learned in previous readings, people like conventions. When we try something new to create contrast it’s possible to violate conventions and decrease usability. It is possible to be creative while still following conventions.

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Digital Asset Manglement

April 16, 2007 at 12:51 am · Filed under Coursey, reading

As we have heard so often in this program, people are almost never willing to pay for online content. Here again, David Coursey recommends providing content for free.

I think there are several reasons for readers’ unwillingness to pay for content. One is that people can probably find similar information for free somewhere else if they find they have to pay for it on one site. Another is that people aren’t used to paying for something intangible. Magazines and newsletters that people are willing to pay for in their hard-copy forms can be saved and flipped through at a later time and at any place. It’s easier to forget about digital content and it doesn’t feel like you’ll have the content forever if you want to go back and refer to it. While there are several ways to save digital content, I very rarely go back to anything that is more than a month old, even though it is something I might find interesting.

I thought Coursey made an interesting point about Web users not taking the time to upgrade software they are currently using, like Acrobat. I often see messages that tell me a new version of a program is available for me to upgrade, but I rarely take the time to get the updates. If something seems to already be working for me OK why would I want to take the time to learn something different? However, if I had a chance to use the upgrade without taking the time to install the update right away, I might be more willing to upgrade if I liked what I saw.

I’m going to use another Answers.com example. I learned about the one-click application because of a Web site that used the application with a little note that told me to double-click any word. I tried it, I loved it, I downloaded the application to use in all my programs.

Discussion questions:

  1. Why are people willing to pay for tangible content, but not digital content that is not as tangible?
  2. When should sites require registration?
  3. Will content providers ever be able to charge for content? If not, what are some other ways they can make money?

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Hypertext assignment

April 10, 2007 at 8:10 pm · Filed under assignment

I like the way the Sideways site uses flash. While on the main screen it’s a little bit difficult to figure out what is clickable, the site does a good job of differentiating what is clickable in subsections. What look like buttons at the top do go to different sections. I like that it is easy to toggle the sound on and off. The visitor has a lot of different options to choose from besides looking at the trailer, which is what I would expect coming to a movie site. I can learn about how to taste wine, what wines go best with what cheeses. They’ve really taken the topic of the movie and expanded on it so much. The goal of the site is to make me want to see the movie and while I was interested in seeing the movie before, I want to see it more now. One thing that I didn’t like was that the studio drop-down menu kept coming down when I would accidentally mouse over it and it wouldn’t go away. I like the Life Uncorked vignettes.

The IMDB site has a lot of links and unless I’m looking for something specific it’s probably not going to be very helpful.

I couldn’t believe how much stuff was on the Grey’s Anatomy Web site. I haven’t watched any episodes this season, but I watched it religiously last season. The links across the top are self-explanatory and it’s easy to see what is on each tab without looking too closely at it. Although there is a lot of material, it’s categorized well and I don’t feel overwhelmed by the site because everything seems to branch from main categories and it’s easy to go to a different category.

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Patterns of Hypertext

April 10, 2007 at 2:38 am · Filed under Bernstein, hypertext, reading

It never occurred to me to relate hypertext to literary technique. I also have not thought a lot about the organization of links and how they relate to each other in patterns. Reading Mark Bernstein’s “Patterns of Hypertext” helped me to recognize some of the patterns at sites that I see regularly but take for granted.

 Most Web pages seem to use some variation of the “cycle.” The most important information is on the home page and no matter where you go from the home page you will likely be directed back at some point. On e-commerce sites, every visitor will eventually be directed to a check-out page. This seems to fit the pattern of “split/join.”

While reading about the “split/join” pattern, I was reminded of the Choose Your Own Adventure books I read as a kid where you read the introduction but at an essential moment in the plot, you, the reader, must make a decision. If you choose option A, turn to page 11; if you choose option B, turn to page 15. Your choices affect the eventual outcome of the story. However, there may be several choices that lead you to the same outcome. The reader is able to have some control over the direction of the story, but the author still controls the boundaries of the plot.

I think there is a lot of potential for the “montage” pattern to be used more in hypertext. An example that I came across recently is the answers.com application that allows users to click on any word and have a balloon open, on the same screen, that gives information about the word or name. I use the downloadable version of this all the time now when I’m editing if I want to double-check the meaning of a word. I have found that it works in any program I’m in, from Word to QuarkXPress. Another example of “montage” is the Snap previews on WordPress that show you a screenshot of the link before you actually click on it. I love not having to actually leave the page to do this sort of thing. I don’t have to worry about getting “lost” if I follow another link or open another window.

 Discussion questions:

  1. How much information about the organization of the site should users understand before trying to navigate the site?
  2. Do patterns make navigation easier?
  3. Is there ever a reason to try to disorient the reader?

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Individual project

April 10, 2007 at 12:37 am · Filed under proposal

“Sustainability” has become a commonly used word of late as concerns about global warming and peak oil become more widespread. The word sustainability might bring to mind hybrid cars, energy-efficient appliances, water-saving technologies or local produce. Less likely to come to mind are the clothes we wear. However, the insecticides, herbicides and fungicides used to grow cotton, in addition to synthetic fibers such as polyester and nylon, which are made with nonrenewable materials, make our choices in clothing as important for the environment as other sustainable choices.

Concerns about the environment have meant changes in attitude for consumers. Many are switching from clothing made of materials such as conventional cotton, polyester and nylon to clothing made out of organic cotton, hemp and even recycled materials. I want to look at the reasons people are buying sustainable clothing. I also want to see how materials such as organic cotton, bamboo, soy and hemp, and recycled materials, can become something people can wear.

Teresa Remple, owner of Bellingham company Texture, designs and creates her own clothing using organic cotton, hemp and Lycra. I want to follow Remple through the process of creating her clothing to see how raw material becomes clothing at the farmer’s market. I would take photos of the process. I would also record audio to use with the photos and interview Remple to better explain the process. I want to take a broader look at the attitude toward sustainable clothing by talking with people at the farmer’s market to find out if and how they became interested in sustainable clothing. The change from conventional cotton to organic cotton is likely a difficult transition for some people to make because organic cotton tends to cost more.

I don’t know of anyone in Bellingham who uses recycled materials to make clothing, but there might be a company in Seattle or Vancouver, B.C. I know there is a company in Portland, but I’m not planning a trip there anytime soon.

My project would explain what options are available for sustainable clothing, why they are sustainable and where someone can find their own sustainable clothing. This is a fairly new topic to me so I expect to learn a lot in the process as well.

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Group project ideas

April 9, 2007 at 2:48 pm · Filed under assignment

I was trying to come up with ways to tell a story about media ownership without using a lot of text. It seems like the best way to do this would be through interviews with people who have a role in the media. Some people who might be good to interview would be Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen, who is a critic of the consolidation of ownership of the media and crosscut publisher David Brewster, founder of Seattle Weekly and Town Hall Seattle, and editor Chuck Taylor, former editor and writer for The Seattle Times and Seattle Weekly. They would likely have some good insight on what the dangers of media consolidation are and what is likely to need to happen for media to diversify. We could do a timeline of media in Seattle for a visual look at how things have changed.

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Testing Flesch-Kincaid readability

April 3, 2007 at 7:28 pm · Filed under assignment

Jonathan Alter’s long narrative story on Life With Cancer registers at a 10.3 grade level on the Flesch-Kincaid scale with 10% passive sentences.

“The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry  is a short story that has a reading grade level of 5.4 and 7% passive sentences.

News stories can vary greatly on reading level: 

The Bellingham Herald’s front page news story, “Man dies in city shooting; police seek 3,” was written at a 9.6 grade level with 5% passive sentences.

 The Seattle Times news story, “UW shooting suspect proved elusive,” came in at an 11.2 grade level and 33% passive sentences.

In comparison, The Seattle P-I’s, “Stalker finds victim at UW, kills her,” is written at a 7.8 grade level and with 9% passive sentences.

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Content creator

April 2, 2007 at 3:51 pm · Filed under assignment

While I would normally read a long narrative piece like Jonathan Alter’s My Life With Cancer in Newsweek’s hard-copy form, I was able to read this story, chunked into six sections, online because of the moving writing.

Jonathan Alter, a reporter at Newsweek, shares his own experience with cancer in light of the revelations that Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow both have recurrences of their cancers. He shares his own insight on what the medical community could do to improve treatments and ways the medical community was invaluable to his own treatment. 

I enjoy reading this sort of narrative content and I also enjoy writing it. The reader and the writer can share an experience – whether it is the experience of the writer or of someone else.

Another type of content I am interested in is the audio slideshow. In this Seattle Times audio slideshow the reporter recorded audio clips of people who were waiting to audition for American Idol. The photographer took several pictures of people and the audio was edited in so that their pictures were showing while the audio was playing. Audio slideshows are a great way to combine powerful visual elements with audio that tells a story. Another audio slideshow, After the Tsunami by Betty Udesen, uses photos and text together with the haunting sounds of Indonesia after the deadly tsunami.

I have also been experimenting with podcasting lately. It has gotten me interested in creating my own podcast. I enjoy Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, a short program that covers one rule of grammar each week.

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