Information Design Critique

Interface design critique site: www.gcast.com

Screen shot of front page of site:

Screen shot of site with registered user:

Information Design

Regarding the information design of this page, it is very straightforward and concise in getting its point across to the visitor.  The tuturials on the left and numbered steps indicate that their main target are first time podcasters.  The front page keeps the amount of information to a miniumum by introducing what a podcast is, saying that their service is free to basic users, and mentions what their company is all in a very simple, non technical, and casual matter.  Probably what best demonstrates a podcast is the player in the left of the page loaded with the ONE Campaign podcast. In the step by step tour of their site, screen shots are provided to show the new user what to expect as they go through the process. With this approach, information is provided in small portions at a time to pull in a potential user with very little technical knowledge.  

Interactivity

The links regarding what you need to do within the site is very easy to get around and direct in terms of navigation.  Even in the registered user area it is very simple in the layout and function -- if you want to go to your podcast account you click "Podcasting Home", if you want to upload your audio file you click "Upload new audio", etc..  One thing about this site which makes it a bit frustrating to use is that not all of the links go to pages within the gcast.com site.  Gcast is another part of a company that runs two other sites called Garageband.com (podcasting site for musicians) and iLike.com (social community site for music fans) so there are links such as "Podcasting FAQ" and "Find pod-safe music" that take a user to those sites with no link back to Gcast.  The only way back is use the reverse navigation arrow on my web browser.

Screen Design

The overall look of the site is very plain and unobtrusive with a black, orange, gray, and light blue color scheme.  In terms of aesthetics, it is not very eye pleasing, nothing really "pops" out of the screen and makes it look really exciting.  However, this plain dull look could be something the creators of site had in mind to compliment the simple lay out and readability of the site. With the knowledge of the site being the same company that runs Garageband.com and iLike.com I think that it would be beneficial to them if they made the overall look of all their sites the same so that that they could have new users of their site to crossover easier to all of their services.

Donald Norman on Interface Design

During this class we discussed the first chapter Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" which covered these several concepts:

• perceived affordances = perceived functionality
  
• causality = cause and effect
  
• visible constraints = limitations based on the obvious appearance of the object, the more constraints the more obvious the appearance of function
• mapping = set of possible relations between objects
  
• transfer effects = the transfer of knowledge of previous, familiar objects towards newer ones
  
• idioms & population stereotypes = how some populations of people within certain cultures will determine certain cues from an object’s physical appearance.
  
• conceptual models =mental models of how things work
  
• individual differences = not everyone thinks the same so a designer can not make something for everyone.
  
• why design is hard = a designer has to take in many considerations such as marketplace pressures (brand recognition, cost, etc.), the increased amount of controls on one thing, and how much more serious / costly errors in the function of a product is
  

Just by going over these points I can not even begin to imagine what kind of process goes into desigining something such as a cell phone which has to compete with other designs in areas such as those very things that indicate why designing is hard.   The cell phone market is VERY competitve for price and value, there are so much more different features on a cell phone today than ten years ago (phone, camera, web browser, etc.), and people nowadays depend heavily on the use of their phones instead of landlines.  With that in mind, I now have a great deal of respect for the designer of my cell even though I do not like the functionality of it.

Final Project Proposal

For my final project, I will be working in conjunction with Brian on the one he proposed in his blog entry -- for the sake of not repeating what Brian already posted, you can refer to the details here.

Since we are both in the same group at work (he's my manager) and that the project is relevant to my job I would like to take part in developing it. I think by approaching is project from both angles as a manager and a subordinate it will be an effective way in creating a well rounded final product.

Rodney Dunican and Project Management (4/19/09)

For this class we had the pleasure of having Rodney Dunican, a former ITEC graduate talk with us on project management. Through his presentation, Rodney really shed some light on what I thought project management was and passed on what I thought was really sage like advice in approaching the mangement of a project.

To me, when I first heard the two words project and management together I pictured a world full of headaches, conflicts, arguments, and frustration -- I'm sure those aspects are part of it from to time however Rodney brought up some positive qualities to balance out my interpretation. He mentioned about how much he enjoyed the comeraderie involved in working with an effective group, friends he sometimes gets to have involved with on his projects, and the celebrations at the end of a project. The human connection seemed to be what kept him so involved in project managing.

In his advice what I really took away as being valuable were his five phases of every project he takes over:

• Initiate = Identify the key stakeholders and those primarily affected by the project and lay out a Statement of Work (SOW) to show everyone involved what needs to be get done, by what time, with how much cost, etc..
• Plan = Go over schedules, timetables, and resource with a kick off meeting.
• Monitor and Execute = conduct team status meetings, task updates, go over change requests, bring up issues, look at risk logs, look where milestones in the project are, sign off on documentation, do Q and As sessions, alpha and beta testing, and report project info to the finance department.
• Close = Celebrate when the project is done to end things on a positive note with everyoone involved

In conclusion, I am really appreciative of Rodney's presentation on what really deals with in magaging a project. It really helped me get a clearer picture of what I could expect if I should ever take lead in future projects and brushed away a lot of negative qualities I usually associated with the job.

Web 2.0 Conference

During April 2nd, we attended the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco at the Moscone Convention Center in which we got a glimpse at what is making a buzz within the Web 2.0 world.

Upon surveying the exhibit / presenter booths I was amazed at how little educational based / online community based groups were there compared to the amount of large corporation / enterprise solution companies there. With the user-empowerment features of Web 2.0 I was under the naive impression that more developers who were more concerned about such things "voices of the minority" or "bringing knowledge to the masses" were going to be there. I guess I was expecting more of a Lollapalooza for web developers for some reason.

I did spot at least two exhibitors that did catch my eye and fit that criteria:

• Open Educational Resource Commons = an open resource site that allows educators and learners all over the world to openly share and collaborate on learning materials (lesson plans, syllabi, assignments, etc.) for whatever they may need it for (K-12, training, universities, whatever). For me, this was the true representative of what kind of empowerment Web 2.0 can provide.

• Meetup.com = group site that allows users to create groups of interest on their site so that others may join and have discussions on their favorite topics within that group. What I thought was really interesting about this site was that groups were categorized along with locations where most of their members were to allow members to easily meet face to face -- it is a mash up of meeting virtually along with meeting up in person in the safety of being with others in the group. Even though they make some of their money from advertisers I still felt that the spirit of community is still predominantly there based upon what I gathered from the site.
  

The overall impression I got from the exhibitor area was that in order for the grass roots / open source movements to grow and evolve in the web developing community, large corporations will have to commericalize and sell the concepts and ideas of web technologies in order for things to progress. It's sort of a symbiotic relationship -- corporations need the ideas from the grass roots folks to make money and the grass roots folks need the corporations to market and imbed their concepts into the public conciousness.

Joseph Khane (Civic Potential of Video Games)

For March 19th's class we attended a talk by Mills College professor / researcher Joseph Khane in which he presented his findings on the benefits of video gaming in teaching civics to teens 12 to 17 years old. According to his research video gaming can promote such points as team play, care or giving aid for another player, learning about problems in society, exploration of social issues, morality / ethics, and decision making in how a community or world should be run.

This is something I never really thought about too much since video games are not usually marketed as "educational" due to the stigma it usually carries being labeled as such -- meaning boring. However when I look back at successful games I have played in the past such as Warcraft or The Sims series, those games did do most of those previously mentioned points pretty well without the "educational" label. These games immerse the players in worlds in which they can pick sides, interact with others, and collaborate in missions, construct buildings, and even build upon relationships. If video gaming is truly to be part of the classroom experience, in my opinion these games are the primary models to refer to.

What needs to be looked at closer is when is it enough? Being a casual gamer, I do sometimes get sidetracked in my day whenever I really get immersed in a game. When I do this I tend to put some important things aside such as sleep and even homework! I am not saying that all teens will do the same as I do but there will be a significant contigency that will.

Another point I ponder is that how entertaining do these exercises / programs have to be in order to interest teens in the materials? In the future, will educators have to stand in the middle of the classroom and ask: "Are you not entertained?!" like Russel Crowe's character Maximus asked of the Roman mob in the move "Gladiator"?

ITEC 830 Dr. Wagner Reflections (re-edit)

I was not that satisfied with my first post of this so I decided to re-edit it so the voices are heard a bit better...

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3/12 Class Reflection

For this class we did a good variety of things, first we went into a discussion about 21st century learning tools and the Net Generation, witnessed presentations on virtual reality, and went to work on our podcast speeches.

In our discussion on the Net Generation and 21st century learning tools, what stood out for me was the topic on figuring out how to use these new technologies at our disposal today (Internet, multimedia, personal computing, etc.) in an effective manner in the classroom. Being a child of the 80s I got to witness the how teaching was traditionally done and witnessed how technology rapidly grew and changed up to now. At the present it's really a "here and now" world when it comes to information and if we don't act even faster than these changes are happening then we will be certainly be left in the dust by those who did act faster.

With the virtual reality presentations, they brought me to see the benefit for those who can not be somewhere in person but I still think the technology has a long way to go until VR makes it's way into mainstream use. There's still touch and smell to work with!

For our podcast recording session, we split up into two groups to record our speeches based upon Dr. Wagner's talk. With what we all recorded, I found that it was a bit difficult to put together a focused and balanced piece since the topics varied widely and some topics like web 2.0 and beyond were talked about more than other topics. Just in my opinion, if more specific subjects were used like the future of Web 2.0 or views on the Net Generation then I think a much more focused and powerful piece would result out of a project like this one. Overall, it was a fun project to do nonetheless.

Podcast Script Revision (Actual One Used)

With Dr. Wagner, even though she talked a lot about the future she even mentioned that we should not forget to leave our elders or late adopters behind. With this, my concern with the late adopters of today is that they are going to be left even farther behind than the late adopters in the past since the pace of change is getting faster and faster as technology improves. I think a main cause of this is that technology in the past never changed over as fast as it does today. Take the land line telephone for example, it’s basic function has never really changed for about the first 100 years of its existence then with the inception of the cell phone in the early 80s it took only about 20 years to add a camera, web browser, gps, and more to it…

Points from Dr. Wagner's Talk

So what did I take away from Dr. Wagner's talk?

Basically I got authoritative and multifaceted viewpoints and opinions from someone who has been involved with many different areas of instructional design and technology.

• In the area of teaching, we need to be more aware of our dependence of technology for our resources. For example, if teachers use free web resources they need to make sure that they do not fall into any type of pitfalls such as limited functions and being entirely dependent on the free resource for teaching.
• With our communication infrastructure, the US is 17th in the world in broadband use which indicates we are not entirely ready to move towards it being a mainstream technology.
• At the moment the trends in e-learning are in the development of rich internet applications such as Google Earth and the movement towards using more green technologies.
• In the world of Web 2.0, since so much more communication is out in the open and recorded, we need to be a bit more personable and willing to share more. With that being the case, we also need to be much more aware of what we state and exclaim or else it may come back to bite us.
• Ubiquitous computing will be something to look forward to into our future, technology will be more transparent in use and be more of an afterthought.
  
• As we go further into the future, we should not forget to leave our elders or late adopters behind. If we are make more advancements we should try to get as much people involved or else progress will take even longer.
• In regards to the present, Dr. Wagner suggests that we should think about technology in the now since we have so much to sustain us for the future.
  

Dr. Ellen Wagner Talk Reflection (3/05/09)

For this day in class we had the pleasure of having Dr. Ellen Wagner of talking and discussing with us her views and opinions of the role of technology is playing in education today and for tomorrow. With her years of her major involvements and experience in numerous institutions and companies such as Macromedia, she definitely is an authority on the topic of instructional technology (for more on her history and background, look here). It was great to hear and even discuss with someone who is actively intertwined and connected with the area of our studies because I felt she really gave us a real world or grounded viewpoint.

This opened up my mind on the topic since she brought up so many different angles to ponder about such as infrastructure to support new technologies, the trappings of being dependent on technology, the need for technology to be transparent for our elders, ubiquitous computing in the future, and havning to live your life more in public in the Web 2.0 world. All of these varied topics regarding our lifestyles just reinforces how much of a major role instructional technologies play in our present environment and will be in our future. We need more leaders like Dr. Wagner who can see the "big picture" from many different sides so we can have a more defined roadmap of where we are going with all of this before it is too much for us to make any sense out of it.

Lost in the Supermarket (of information)

Emerging Technologies in E-learning

In our reading of Emerging Technologies in E-Learning by Delich, Kelley, and McIntosh, we are given a brief history on the evolution of the web, a tour of popular e-learning technologies being used today, an examination on how those technologies are being used in our daily lives, and a brief glimpse into the future of e-learning. This was a great introduction to the world of Web 2.0 since it gave a broad snapshot of what was being used today with all of the relevant links and glossary definitions to explore and refer to.

The article describes social computing as being the essence of Web 2.0, with that not only does the author of the message or information has a voice but so does the participant or learner -- that potentially doubles the amount or more of sources to explore through. There is no doubt that by having someone to participate in the discussion brings out more critical thinking than a one way version but I sometimes wonder if it is necessarily more effective if we have to spend time and energy in sorting through long threads of irrelevant content. Sometimes I waste time in sorting through responses in blogs and forums that just say things like "That was cool" or "I know how you feel" or "That's true". It's great that the responses show an enthusiastic audience but it holds very little or no value in getting more out of the content being discussed.

In reference to artificial intelligence of computers such as those depicted in science fiction, maybe some sort of brain can be implemented to sort and maybe delete or put aside the irrelevant information so that a visitor to the site can explore and get right into the relevant material. However, I am afraid that has a possibility of increasing a type of fear also often portrayed in science fiction and that is the fear of computers taking control of humans.

Fourth Week (2/19)

For this fourth week of class we touched on a good array of topics within the Web 2.0 realm, starting with identifying the basic types of technology adaptation groups, then on to examining the effects and issues associated with Web 2.0 technologies, and closing with a discussion on what kind of direction should we look towards as educators.

Regarding the technology adaptation groups there were three basic types mentioned:

1. Pioneers or early adapters
2. Users who jump on the bandwagon when the technology becomes mainstream
3. Late or non-adapters

As educators utilizing digital technologies, there is no doubt that we need to be pioneers -- especially now since technology evolves at a much more rapid pace than ever. They need to adapt early so that their students can can adapt at the appropriate times.

In examining Web 2.0 technologies, we started off with a great presentation by Zack, Jeff, Jonathan, and Brian on the use of blogs, wikis, and twitter. This led to quite an interesting discussion on issues such as:

• Non participants (lurkers).
  
• Problems with your idea becoming everyone other people's ideas.
  
• Your thoughts and expressions being seen by others such as present or future employers and being detrimental to your image.
  
• The convergence of all the technologies presently offered and actively used.

With Web 3.0 lurking somewhere in the near future, a big question about it is that will it address these issues or create much more to deal with?

In looking where educators need to go in utilizing the massive flow of information available online, we need to define how to put all of that into some kind of context that can be formed into knowledge,and figure out a way to apply experience to that knowledge so that wisdom can be gained. I believe a probable solution to that lies within the advancement of virtual technologies that will immerse the learner of the future much deeper into replicated situations and environments.

Eugene Lee of Socialtext (2/12)

For this class we had Eugene Lee, CEO of Socialtext which builds and supports enterprise wikis used for large corporations. We got a good background history of how he got to where he is now, a introduction to what Socialtext is about, and basically how he is living within a state of "connectedness" as he so called it with Twitter.

With Eugene's background of being educated at Harvard and MIT and as an executive with a highly respectable history of working with large companies such as Cisco and Adobe I honestly expected him to talk down to us at least a little. However, I could not have been more wrong. As soon as he stood up, he immediately broke the ice with us with a few jokes and got right into his talk. I was surprised as to how quickly and naturally he brought everyone in the room to the same level. No ego, no condescension, just straight talk. It seems that this obvious trait of his is what allows him to succeed in the world of colloaborative technologies -- he knows how to pull you in and make you feel part of the conversation.

Regarding his company Socialtext, he was already preaching to the converted since I already am aware of the value of wikis. Having one central point of reference where everyone in an associated group can contribute and revise is extremely convenient especially in a work environment where basic rules, hierarchy structures, laws, and regulations can change from year to year. Wikis not only save time on updating relevant information but also alleviates the burden of someone being the chief editor of company documents all of the time.

Finally, when Eugene talked about how he used Twitter in his daily life I was totally changed around from my previous standing view of how it was used. Before I thought Twitter was this useless intrusive online tool that catered to narcissists -- I mean, who the heck in their right mind would care about when someone is getting their coffee or feeding their dog? However, when Eugene alluded to using Twitter as being in a constant conversation with a large group of people such as subject matter experts (SMEs) to pull information or bounce ideas off of I immediately got it. Now that I am aware of Twitter's capabilities I plan on taking part in it, but before I do I still want to do more looking into it since I still have concerns about how to sort through the fluff on there and privacy issues. Like with anything on the web though, probably the only way to figure those issues out is to just log on and participate -- I just sure hope I don't end up with a stalker!

2nd Week Reflection (2/5)

For this week (2/5), we focused our attention to the concept of connectivism. Instead of the way learning theories such as behaviorism, cognitivist, and constructivist focuses on an individual's process of learning, connectivism turns the attention on how in the digital age the infrastructure and means through which we get information from is becoming much more prevalent in the analysis of teaching and learning today. Basically in connectivism the information and knowledge we accumulate is delivered via a series of networked machines and users. Within this network, information is immediately shared with others to absorb and sometimes to be shaped and corrected by other experts within that particular community organized by it own needs and means.

After discussing in separate groups in class about the various points that author George Siemens states in his article "Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age" (http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm), we compared amongst each other what we thought were the most important thoughts and concerns about this emerging way of learning / teaching. After all the groups had their say, it seems that that there were three topics that came up quite often:

• Media literacy or the concern of users having access and being knowlegeable in the operation of modern technology such as cell phones, personal computers, and web technologies.
• Critical thinking or the ability to discern what is important to learn.
  
• The validity of information stated and posted within the networks.

In regards to media literacy I believe that it probably ranks as the least to be concerned about. I think it was brought up by somebody in class that as technology advances the easier it will be utilize (the increasing ease of composing a web site was an example of this). To add, as technology advances, the cheaper and more acccessible more devices become such as in the case of cell phones -- it is getting more difficult nowadays to know someone without one.

With critical thinking, before the digital age there was not much of a need for it largely due to the limited amount of sources you could access. Now with the Internet, getting vasts amounts of information is immediately accessible so now there is a greater need for it so you can determine what to look for. As a learner, how are you supposed to know what is enough to learn and what is important enough to learn? As a teacher, how are you to instruct your students to do those things?

Finally in the area of validity I think it is the most important to be concerned about since there not many safeguards online to determine the source you are accessing is absolutely legitimate. Wikis and blogs have the online community at large to help weed out what is valid but still you have no absolute way of determining what to trust other than reputation and history. When it comes to entries based on facts and for education should we not at least implement a way such as a license to verify identities and associations so that we can trust what we are looking at is real?

In easing or resolving these and any other concerns, lawmakers could step in to regulate the way we operate in a connectivist society however changes online occur that so quickly and frequently that there can be no way the political process could keep up and be effective. The answers will have to come from within the network communities in order to come up with the proper and timely solutions.

Learning to be blog savvy and reflecting upon our first class.

With this being my first post to my first blog, I have to admit that I am pretty excited and geeking out over the experience.

At the risk of sounding ignorant, I thought a blog site was a fairly simple and straightforward setup -- boy was I wrong!  As I was surveying the various blog sites out there I came to realize that there were many different ways to setup, customize, and edit your own blog site.  There were so many settings and ways to navigate through certain domains that it was making my head spin.  I decided to go with Blogspot since it was the most convenient to use with a gmail account and there were not too many settings to get lost in.  

As I get more comfortable with this I plan on experimenting with the different features and add-ons this site has to offer.  When the semester comes to a close, I would like to end up being knowledgeable and savvy in picking what works for me in a blog so that I can start one for my own personal interests and passions.

Regarding our first 830 class, it was really interesting in seeing the different ideas and concepts of what Web 2.0 is.   When the concept of it being a collaborative tool came up, it led me to think about something that has always bothered me about being online:  validity.  When someone posts a comment or reply on a blog how do you know or be sure that what is stated is from someone with the appropiate credentials or experience?  It is the same thing with Wikis.  How can you be sure that what you are reading is from a realiable and authentic source?

With big company sites such as Yahoo or the New York Times I can trust those are valid sources of information because they are held liable by law.   With blog and wiki posts, just about anyone can post something without much accountability.  It is often very difficult to verify what you are reading is the truth.

I am fairly certain that the specific and serious blogs and wikis are created and discussed with people with the appropriate credentials however the lingering possibility of not being so still disturbs me a bit.