Mariann Daniel
April 22 Readings.
I checked out all of the websites here, and they all seem to be interesting. A couple of them would not open up for me such as RICE--but I liked the other ones. I specifically liked Random Paths. Besides from its obvious beauty of it, with all of is pictures, I liked the diction and the way the new pages came up. It seems to be using a cycle system. It is just one straight line as opposed to In the Changing Room for instance that makes it impossible to explore only one angle at a time.
In the Changing Room is a convoluted story line of eight different people and their jouney through a specific instance in life. The changing story line was remenicent of Twelve Blue and the changing view points and very confusing story line there. Random Paths was very straight forward with its story line: a man visiting Rome—following his shadow.
Random Paths also did something I was very fond of. When I fist clicked on the text it opened up a page of pictures. These pictures change when you mouse is clided over them. I really liked how that was done, and if I know anything advanced about graphics, I would try to do something like that.
In Hypertext Gardens, I enjoyed the seven tips for gardening. They make sense to an average reader. Hypertext Gardens itself is a helpful tool for understanding what is going on in the Hypertext world and how you can make your website better by undestanding it. Random Paths does not do this, however, the very nature of the two websites are totally different. The navigation of Hyptertext Gardens seems pretty simple with only about one link per page allowing the creater to guide the reader through.
Overall, even though Random Paths is a simple site with simple navigation, its graphics completely make up for it. Yes, pages like Hypertext Gardens offer more information, but the purpose and audience are different for both sites.
Apr 22, 2008
Apr 21, 2008
4/22
Hypertext Gardens was a really affective site because, as has been the case with some of the other Mark Bernstein articles we have looked at, he demonstrates his idea as he is writing about it. He does this particularly well in this website. The main idea seemed to be that having a design that is both brief and visually appealing is the preferred method of web design. He also writes about the idea of not necessarily having a home page that all individual pages eventually link back to. Overall, Bernstein’s website demonstrates this and his other ideas really well.
'In the Changing Room' was a pretty interesting site to read through. I think the fact that there were eight narrators made it a little overwhelming, but as a whole the site was pretty fun to navigate through. The site’s best feature was its ability to allow the reader to stay along one story line or switch to another by clicking a highlighted word. The design was very simple and there weren’t really any pictures, but I didn’t notice this at first since the reader is only on one page for a few seconds, the focus is on the navigation and the text instead of the actual design of the page. Because of this, I thought this site was very good and demonstrated some navigational techniques that might be useful for the third project.
I thought 'Random Paths' was alright, but not as good as the first two. It had a really simple navigational structure, only letting you choose between two different options at a time. The pictures were the most interesting aspect of the piece and there was a pretty cool relationship between the hypertext and the pictures that accompanied it. Other than that, I found the piece to be a little more one-dimensional than some of the other hypertext pieces we have looked at recently, although it was still very interesting to look at from a visual standpoint
'In the Changing Room' was a pretty interesting site to read through. I think the fact that there were eight narrators made it a little overwhelming, but as a whole the site was pretty fun to navigate through. The site’s best feature was its ability to allow the reader to stay along one story line or switch to another by clicking a highlighted word. The design was very simple and there weren’t really any pictures, but I didn’t notice this at first since the reader is only on one page for a few seconds, the focus is on the navigation and the text instead of the actual design of the page. Because of this, I thought this site was very good and demonstrated some navigational techniques that might be useful for the third project.
I thought 'Random Paths' was alright, but not as good as the first two. It had a really simple navigational structure, only letting you choose between two different options at a time. The pictures were the most interesting aspect of the piece and there was a pretty cool relationship between the hypertext and the pictures that accompanied it. Other than that, I found the piece to be a little more one-dimensional than some of the other hypertext pieces we have looked at recently, although it was still very interesting to look at from a visual standpoint
4/22 Hypertext Readings
I thought that each hypertext piece we read was informational in its own right, but Hypertext Gardens was definitely my favorite. It was a fun take on something that informative, and I liked and respected that approach very much. In terms of my least favorite, the "In The Changing Room" piece was difficult for me to follow, and I did not like that you could never get "home," or at least not to my knowledge.
The Hypertext Gardens illustrated the role of navigation in hypertext and he went through the ways in which hypertext was similar to a flower garden. Immediately the color scheme and background caught my attention. I liked the black background with the flourescent/neon text in the foreground. There are a variety of links to follow after the initial splash page. Once I was following through each page, there were different colored links at the bottom to specify where I had already been. I was very happy about this "breadcrumb" effect because it alleviated some of the confusion for me. I know in other hypertext pieces in the past, I get lost and do not know where I have been because there is no distinction between the visited and unvisited links.
I also liked in his piece how he actually took into account for his own design what he was talking about in his text. For example, there was just enough combination of the familiar and unfamiliar from page to page. While the design was not rigid, with no irregularity, there was room for fluidity on each page, and the viewer was not left thrown off guard by the changes from page to page. I liked the different images included on each page; I thought they enhanced the design, as well as the message that he was trying to get across.
The pathways in the piece are both embedded in the text, but also along the bottom of each page. While on some pages there is just one link to follow to the next section, there is sometimes a few links under the text, which give the reader a few different options to follow from. He says that much like a garden path, the hypertext path must lead us along the best route, not necessarily the shortest. I thought this was important to note because so often in our society, we are concerned with the quickest way to get to the end of something, rather than taking in the beauty of it.
I really liked his 7 Tips for Gardening section (I can't remember the actual name off the top of my head). It really wraps up the ideas he presented in the entire piece and I think that helps a lot. The conclusion hits home what he was getting at with this piece of hypertext and then it also includes all the visited links at the bottom. I thought this was a great way to end the piece because it showed if everything was covered to the best of the reader's ability. If there was a link that he/she missed, now is the chance to be able to go back and view it.
Overall, I thought that this piece was a great learning resource, especially for our final project. I think that creating something this in-depth would take a lot of work and organization. I think it would be difficult to attempt at this point, but I hope to take into account some of his principles in my own final project, as well as any hypertext I might produce later on.
The Hypertext Gardens illustrated the role of navigation in hypertext and he went through the ways in which hypertext was similar to a flower garden. Immediately the color scheme and background caught my attention. I liked the black background with the flourescent/neon text in the foreground. There are a variety of links to follow after the initial splash page. Once I was following through each page, there were different colored links at the bottom to specify where I had already been. I was very happy about this "breadcrumb" effect because it alleviated some of the confusion for me. I know in other hypertext pieces in the past, I get lost and do not know where I have been because there is no distinction between the visited and unvisited links.
I also liked in his piece how he actually took into account for his own design what he was talking about in his text. For example, there was just enough combination of the familiar and unfamiliar from page to page. While the design was not rigid, with no irregularity, there was room for fluidity on each page, and the viewer was not left thrown off guard by the changes from page to page. I liked the different images included on each page; I thought they enhanced the design, as well as the message that he was trying to get across.
The pathways in the piece are both embedded in the text, but also along the bottom of each page. While on some pages there is just one link to follow to the next section, there is sometimes a few links under the text, which give the reader a few different options to follow from. He says that much like a garden path, the hypertext path must lead us along the best route, not necessarily the shortest. I thought this was important to note because so often in our society, we are concerned with the quickest way to get to the end of something, rather than taking in the beauty of it.
I really liked his 7 Tips for Gardening section (I can't remember the actual name off the top of my head). It really wraps up the ideas he presented in the entire piece and I think that helps a lot. The conclusion hits home what he was getting at with this piece of hypertext and then it also includes all the visited links at the bottom. I thought this was a great way to end the piece because it showed if everything was covered to the best of the reader's ability. If there was a link that he/she missed, now is the chance to be able to go back and view it.
Overall, I thought that this piece was a great learning resource, especially for our final project. I think that creating something this in-depth would take a lot of work and organization. I think it would be difficult to attempt at this point, but I hope to take into account some of his principles in my own final project, as well as any hypertext I might produce later on.
4/22 Readings
I thought that the changing room was pretty plain looking but was also effective. Clicking through the website you actually get a sense of who the eight characters are. The website was actually very long and I didnt feel like I kept finding things that I had already read. Some of the links were confusing, again, because there were a few links to choose from so you had to make a decision as to where you wanted to go next. The splash page and the background throughout the site is really plain and sorta boring. I did like that she added color and cool fonts to the page where the eight characters are mentioned. Also, I saw that the splash page gives the reader an option to either read the introduction or skip it and get into the text on the website.
Random paths had a cool first page and I saw it was also labeled roman holiday. The site didnt really have a splash page, because the link to the website was on another website. That page too was really colorful, and the pictures too were interesting. I actually had a hard time getting to the web site because a page came up that had tons of pictures and it was taking forever to load. The pictures came up and were blinking and changing. At first I thought this page was supposed to work this way but I think there was a problem with the browser and it uploading wrong. It was sort of frustrating but then when the page actually uploaded, I saw what the structure of the text and pictures were supposed to look like. I thought that the pictures used on this website were really cool. Some were kinda creepy, but fit well with what the mood seemed to be. The statues and the buildings too were cool to look through. I like that the text was sweet and short and there werent a ton of links to search through. Also you didnt really have to decide where you wanted to go, and could just click. I liked that he used text that was in poetry form, and also incorprated abstract pictures, in a sense he melted two art forms and put them together. The pictures make it seem like it took a lot of time to take these pictures, and organize them per page.
The hypertext garden was my favorite because of the ongoing metaphor of hypertext being like a flower. The splash page was fun and I liked that the background was black and had light blue font. Also, if you clicked on the Mark link, you got a striking difference with the change from a black background to a blue one. Again, he demonstrated good hypertext while actually writing about it within the website. The flowers at the bottom of the pages added a cute touch. He gives 7 lessons on how hypertext should be organized to be effective. I liked that he talks about how using regularity and irregularity grabs attention. He says to stay away from always doing whats expected. I think we can learn a lot from what he has to say and use it towards our final project in this class.
Random paths had a cool first page and I saw it was also labeled roman holiday. The site didnt really have a splash page, because the link to the website was on another website. That page too was really colorful, and the pictures too were interesting. I actually had a hard time getting to the web site because a page came up that had tons of pictures and it was taking forever to load. The pictures came up and were blinking and changing. At first I thought this page was supposed to work this way but I think there was a problem with the browser and it uploading wrong. It was sort of frustrating but then when the page actually uploaded, I saw what the structure of the text and pictures were supposed to look like. I thought that the pictures used on this website were really cool. Some were kinda creepy, but fit well with what the mood seemed to be. The statues and the buildings too were cool to look through. I like that the text was sweet and short and there werent a ton of links to search through. Also you didnt really have to decide where you wanted to go, and could just click. I liked that he used text that was in poetry form, and also incorprated abstract pictures, in a sense he melted two art forms and put them together. The pictures make it seem like it took a lot of time to take these pictures, and organize them per page.
The hypertext garden was my favorite because of the ongoing metaphor of hypertext being like a flower. The splash page was fun and I liked that the background was black and had light blue font. Also, if you clicked on the Mark link, you got a striking difference with the change from a black background to a blue one. Again, he demonstrated good hypertext while actually writing about it within the website. The flowers at the bottom of the pages added a cute touch. He gives 7 lessons on how hypertext should be organized to be effective. I liked that he talks about how using regularity and irregularity grabs attention. He says to stay away from always doing whats expected. I think we can learn a lot from what he has to say and use it towards our final project in this class.
Hypertext Garden
This website really had a good point about navigation. When reading a book, navigation is pretty straight-forward. There is a table of contents that tells the reader what page a certain chapter is on and so forth. With the internet, it is pretty easy to have a simple, plain navigation page, and for many things.....like organizational pages, it is essential to have easy navigation. But the internet has evolved into something so much more and with the endless possibilities that people are aware, it is more than likely that people want to come to a piece of hypertext and want it to be a different and unique experience. It is not so much about having to read hypertext than wanting to read hypertext. The analogy to the garden is a good one. We know what we are seeing and what types of flowers they are but each has a different smell and are unique and the arrangement and experience of how you can put flowers and trees and grass together can be what makes the experience. I doubt people would visit a garden for very long if the garden was just a row of one flower then another flower and they were all separated and consistent. People want to experience the different colors and smells and have them meld together.
I really liked the random path website of the Rome picture collage. I stayed on that page and messed with those pictures longer than I had with the other sites combined. If the pictures had been in order and had been the same, I would have thought it to be no different than any other site and would have probably left it shortly. The fact that the navigation changed and the pictures constantly changed made my experience that much more meaningful. It caught and held my attention and that is very important considering the vast amounts of websites and information out there to absorb and to determine which ones will stick in your mind. It made me more interested in the site, it made me more interested in the person that owned the site and what they had to say. They held my attention long enough for me as a reader to care. That is what makes a website successful.
I really liked the random path website of the Rome picture collage. I stayed on that page and messed with those pictures longer than I had with the other sites combined. If the pictures had been in order and had been the same, I would have thought it to be no different than any other site and would have probably left it shortly. The fact that the navigation changed and the pictures constantly changed made my experience that much more meaningful. It caught and held my attention and that is very important considering the vast amounts of websites and information out there to absorb and to determine which ones will stick in your mind. It made me more interested in the site, it made me more interested in the person that owned the site and what they had to say. They held my attention long enough for me as a reader to care. That is what makes a website successful.
Apr 15, 2008
Tuesday Readings
Mariann Daniel
Tuesday 4/15/08 Readings
The article, “Metaphoric Networks in Lexia to Perplexia” really did help me understand the actual website Lexia to Perplexia. The website is actually really interesting in that one has to interact with it to get anywhere. The site, on the page http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/hypermedia/talan_memmott/plex/03metastrophe.html# which has all the information piling on top of each other by the movement of your mouse over it. I personally think the reason all one has to do is slide the mouse over something and getting a reaction rather than clicking it is because it takes down the barrier of having to click and just lets the onlooker interact smoothly with the site. The termination page, http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/hypermedia/talan_memmott/plex/04extermination.html, which fills itself with overlapping green text, becomes so difficult to read that the site visitor may want to just give up or reroute actions though the links. I can appreciate what the author is trying to do, which is according to “Metaphoric Networks in Lexia to Perplexia”,
“When Lexia to Perplexia hovers at the border of legibility, it hints that our bodies are also undergoing metamorphoses. What we read when we cannot read is not so much the disjunction between us and the computer (for it is always possible to access the underlying code and hack our way into a readable version of the nonreadable text). Rather, the occluded display signifies a trajectory in which we become part of a cybernetic circuit. Interpolated into the circuit, we metamorphose from individual interiorized subjectivities to actors exercising agency within extended cognitive systems that include nonhuman actors.”
However, I do not wish any site I make to be this confusing to its viewer, or perhaps a more suitable term for Lexia to Perplexia, its interacter.
The Cracked Mirror was an interesting site with a simple design and layout when looked after one looks at Lexia to Perplexia. The Cracked Mirror seems to be the same few poems repeated in different parts of the mirror that all lead to the same end, a fully restored and non-cracked mirror—an interesting design to be sure. Chasing Our Tails becomes a little bit more complicated with multiple ways to read the story from any given page. Something I do not think I would like to incorporate into my third website if I make a creative fiction piece. Life with Father is a site that is slightly disturbing. A very intimate site of photos and essays, it is very different than what I thought it would be. Originally, for my third project I had thought about doing a photo/essay site, however, it was not going to be of such an intimate subject matter. It is a very interesting site that allows the reader to go any way they want. I think all the site we visited for today helped me understand what I want and what I do not want to be on my site and how humans and computers are connected more than on just a hardware/software interactions plane
Tuesday 4/15/08 Readings
The article, “Metaphoric Networks in Lexia to Perplexia” really did help me understand the actual website Lexia to Perplexia. The website is actually really interesting in that one has to interact with it to get anywhere. The site, on the page http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/hypermedia/talan_memmott/plex/03metastrophe.html# which has all the information piling on top of each other by the movement of your mouse over it. I personally think the reason all one has to do is slide the mouse over something and getting a reaction rather than clicking it is because it takes down the barrier of having to click and just lets the onlooker interact smoothly with the site. The termination page, http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/hypermedia/talan_memmott/plex/04extermination.html, which fills itself with overlapping green text, becomes so difficult to read that the site visitor may want to just give up or reroute actions though the links. I can appreciate what the author is trying to do, which is according to “Metaphoric Networks in Lexia to Perplexia”,
“When Lexia to Perplexia hovers at the border of legibility, it hints that our bodies are also undergoing metamorphoses. What we read when we cannot read is not so much the disjunction between us and the computer (for it is always possible to access the underlying code and hack our way into a readable version of the nonreadable text). Rather, the occluded display signifies a trajectory in which we become part of a cybernetic circuit. Interpolated into the circuit, we metamorphose from individual interiorized subjectivities to actors exercising agency within extended cognitive systems that include nonhuman actors.”
However, I do not wish any site I make to be this confusing to its viewer, or perhaps a more suitable term for Lexia to Perplexia, its interacter.
The Cracked Mirror was an interesting site with a simple design and layout when looked after one looks at Lexia to Perplexia. The Cracked Mirror seems to be the same few poems repeated in different parts of the mirror that all lead to the same end, a fully restored and non-cracked mirror—an interesting design to be sure. Chasing Our Tails becomes a little bit more complicated with multiple ways to read the story from any given page. Something I do not think I would like to incorporate into my third website if I make a creative fiction piece. Life with Father is a site that is slightly disturbing. A very intimate site of photos and essays, it is very different than what I thought it would be. Originally, for my third project I had thought about doing a photo/essay site, however, it was not going to be of such an intimate subject matter. It is a very interesting site that allows the reader to go any way they want. I think all the site we visited for today helped me understand what I want and what I do not want to be on my site and how humans and computers are connected more than on just a hardware/software interactions plane
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