Week 9B

WEDNESDAY

Final Project : User Testing - Artifact

At the beginning of class, each student presented their artifacts that they designed. For my final critique I had small groups give me feedback on corrections and adjustments I could make on my book. From their comments I was told to change. 

• On pg.3 & Table of Contents - Spelling error "Intension should be "Intention"
• On pg. 3 - try to bring last work from last sentence back over to 1st paragraph gets confusing stating out in the 2nd paragraph. 
• On pg. 6 - Under time length, it should be "depends on how long" (get rid of "of")
• On pages 11-12 - very text heavy
• On pg. 14 - Quoting yourself isn't right for book format, try using on attributed quote from a professional or reading.
• On pg. 16 - Text is filling unnecessary space
• On pg. 27 - Shouldn't quote yourself. Same comment as pg. 14
• Point of gaze is a great way to show a complex idea but your blues could be more opaque, it's too dark. 
• Page numbers at bottom of page are very large. Consider shrinking them down.
• Consider keep the "key" on each image that has gaze tracking. 
• Blues on black background kind of blend together. 
• On pages 5-6 - lines of text are not exactly aligned between the left and right columns
• Sometimes page number slightly go over yellow bar which is awkward, possibly get rid of yellow bar all together. 
• Include page number on every page. 

Video

Nicolas Carr's "The Shallows" What the Internet is doing to our brains?"

Below are a few of the comments I took away from the video we watched in class. I really enjoyed watching this video because over the past year I have noticed that my concentration level as well as focusing on one task has become very difficult and at first I did not think it was caused from the Internet. After watching this video I downloaded the app called Lumosity which practices small tests like memory skills by using matching games to test and train your brain. 

• By constantly using Google we lose the ability to concentrate and technology is changing the way we think.
• Google has trained our brains to multi-task but we haven't been training our brains to contemplate or think more deeply into a conversation or subject matter.
• We've been losing the attention span to engage in deeper conversations or critical thinking. 
• Our brains will only evolve, depending on how technology evolves. 
• Our patiences while performing tasks has decreased
• We need to practice and train our brains by reading books that aren't on a nook. 

Project 3 - User Experience Design Process

For the third and final project over the next few weeks we will be finding poorly organized websites and constructing a new organizational structure for the website. A poorly organized website is not the same as a ugly website. The project will consist of taking photos, interviewing people, a writing segment and a final artifact. The purpose of this project is to understand the amount of research it takes to organize a website. Unfortunately, we will not be redesigning the website but we have the chance to create a designed artifact to showcase the final research. For example, someone could create a 11 x 17 poster, create an online article or hand coded webpage to showcase the research. 

The website we choose needs to be able to "tell a story". Some of the criteria we need to follow is the website we choose must be poorly organized, be able to talk to the website creators, and the website must be a non-profit organization in Lancaster, PA. 

When choosing a website, we must take into consideration the following:

• Make sure the website is not too small
• Preferably a local non-profit organization.
• And had a difficultly answering the following questions.
• What is the site for?
• What is the main purpose?
• Are there too many links/choices?
• Do you find yourself struggling?