10.15
2009

After reading an article The best websites are useful and ugly published by Gerry McGovern in 2007. Here are some of my thoughts and comment.

So what defines a website’s usefulness? I would say the contents of a website defines its usefulness. That is why websites like Ryanair, eBay, Amazon etc are successful because they are providing a huge database for the users to access. And of course their primary objective is to ensure functionality and user accessibility of its contents and service. But what if someone ask you to create a website with contents that can be print on two 8.5×11 sheets? What should the web designer focus on when they are facing this type of problem?

There are dozen types of websites on the internet and each has its own objective. Some websites provide useful information and others are for promotion. A promotion website relies on the first impression of a user’s experience (e.g. A home page for an upcoming movie ) while a “useful” website relies on returning users. (e.g. YouTube, Amazon etc) The real question isn’t about one method is better than the other. It is about how a web designer identifies a problem first before he/she choose the correct method to solve the problem. Functionality and aesthetic are two different things and i don’t know why we should compare them.

However, i do agree with author about text’s visibility on a web page.

09.19
2009

After reading the article “Losing The Me in Multimedia” written by Jim Gaines. I have to agree that there are differences between print media and multimedia. For print media, the deliverable contents are usually in a format of long and thorough article with details. However, the same method does not work with multimedia contents because the huge varieties of audience. Here are few opinion i have with Multimedia Communication.

1. Internet provides a wide variety of method to deliver contents to its user. It can be in words, videos, or a highly interactive application. It is like a cluster of magazine, TV and remote control all together.This also means it is highly competitive between you and your competitor in choosing the correct method to deliver your content to users.

2. Internet users expect short answers. If you state a problem in one sentence, they expect the solution in the following sentence. Especially with Iphone users, nobody will enjoy reading a 5000 words article on a 320 x 480 screen.

3. Internet user expect to have fun during their visit. Keeping their interest should be the primary objective for multimedia communication.

In conclusion, developing multimedia content for internet is not just about creating it, but also need to consider the experience the user is going to get when you deliver it to them.

09.19
2009

Welcome to my blog. This blog was created for the purpose of upload my classwork for my Web Design Class.