Usability Test

Usability Test Questions 1. Is the purpose of the website clear? 2. Does the color scheme and background picture match? 3. Is the background picture distracting? 4. Is the content of the site easy to read? 5. Do you have any suggestions to make my portfolio Better? After having peers look over my portfolio, I found that the purpose of my portfolio is clear. They also like the color scheme of the page. Everything is easy to read and navigate. Some things that I need to do for the future is add links to my projects, twitter, and facebook, change the footer, and write more about myself and what I am majoring in.

Blog 9: Project 3 Story Board

Blog 8

My literacy narrative will be about how I learned how to read. In order to tell my story of how I learned to read I am going to talk about how my parents would read me stories and then I ended up memorizing the from hearing them so many times. Then I am going to talk about how I moved onto reading books like Junie B. Jones, and then talk about the kind of books that I like to read now. I think that I might do a slide show of pictures and maybe some audio and text. I really liked the last literacy narrative that I watched in class. So I think that I will try to follow a similar structure for my project.

Blog 7

After getting feed back on my web text from my peers, I plan on changing the text in the body paragraphs from gray to a dark gray or navy blue. I also plan on changing the picture on my home page to something a little more interesting and matches better with the color scheme of the page. I also need to delete the read more links under each picture of the candidates. My peers liked the overall layout of my page and my analyses of the ads.

Blog 6

PART ONE: These ads are credible assets for my project because I am doing my project on what Romney and Obama’s televisions ads focus on. The candidate that put the ad out has approved all of the videos I have chosen to use in my project. The ad Failing the American Workers lets the audience know that Romney is determined to bring jobs back to the United States. The purpose of this source is to get the audience to believe that China is to blame for the economic and unemployment situation that America is in and Obama could have stopped it, so clearly he must not be suitable to lead the US anymore since he will not stop China even though they are “cheating”. The video appears to be credible because at the end of the video is says “Paid For Romney For President, Inc. Approved by Mitt Romney, so clearly these are his ideas since he approves the video. I think that the information is believable since at the end it says approved by Mitt Romney and especially if a Republican is watching the video I think they would be quick to believe it since cheaters is used multiple times. This makes the audience feel like they need to support the US and also to stop China from cheating. The medium of this source is through the television or over the Internet. Public Venue: YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58pq658byzI The ad Believe In Our Future, Mitt Romney is a credible source because its purpose to inform the audience of Romney’s accomplishments as a businessman, leading the Olympics, and as Governor of Massachusetts. It tells the audience why he is qualified to be the President of the United States of America. I think that the information is believable because there are quotes from people and articles that are used to support the claims made in the video. Also the ad appears to be credible because at the end of the video is says “Paid For Romney For President, Inc. Approved by Mitt Romney, so clearly these are his ideas since he approves the video. The medium of the source is television and the Internet. Public Venue: YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hFEL1-bO2M The ad Ian’s Letter: Dear Mr. President focuses on a child and the hard times he has faced since his father went on two tours to Iraq. The letter that he wrote to Obama is a thank you letter telling him that he is so grateful that his dad was able to return safely to the US since, Obama was able to end the war. It definitely plays with the emotion of the viewer since the ad is through the point of view of a child. It also informs the audience that ending the Iraq War is one of Obama’s accomplishments as President of the US. This ad was found on Obama’s campaign page, so it seems to be a credible source since the President chose to put it on his website. The medium of this source is television and the Internet. Public Venue: YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRkKL8_-R9M The ad Women’s Voices-Join Women for Obama there are many celebrities in this video. All of the celebrities are women and they discuss why they believe that Obama is a stronger advocate for women’s rights than Romney. I think that this information appears believable since Beyonce is in it and is on the BarakObamadotcom YouTube channel. The medium of this source is television and the Internet. Public Venue: YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=Ae2lnhQQPD I do not think that my sources are diverse when they stand alone, but each source shows how each presidential candidate would like Americans to see them and also informs the audience about their accomplishments and their stances on political issues. PART 2: All of my sources are Original Assets and all fall under Fair Use since I am using this for educational purposes and I do not need permission to include the videos in my project. PART 3: I chose to cite my sources in MLA format. Obama, Barack. "Ian’s Letter: ‘Dear Mr. President’." 1 Oct. 2012. YouTube. 33 Oct 2012. Obama, Barack. "Women’s Voices – Join Women For Obama." 1 Oct. 2012. YouTube. 3 Oct 2012. Romney, Mitt. "Believe In Our Future." 31 Jul. 2012. YouTube. 3 Oct. 2012. Romney, Mitt. "Failing American Workers." 13 Sep. 2012. YouTube. 3 Oct. 2012.

Blog 5

What I like about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty Project is the color scheme. It is easy to look at and I also liked how the design of the background, the framing, and the text are all the same color. Even though it says to click on the images to look at the next ad. It is helpful, but I don’t like how I had to read click on the page in order to know how to navigate to the next ad. What I like about the Life Based Web Comics Project is that Ariel’s whole project was on the first page and that the arrows led you to the next slide. I did not like the color scheme the colors were sort of boring and since her project is on comics I think that the color scheme should have been more upbeat. For my project I would like to use a format that is similar to the Life Based Web Comics by Ariel’s, but I would also like to have a color scheme that is appealing to the eye and goes well with my topic. Since, I am doing the presidential election my choice of colors will most likely be red, white, and blue.

Blog Post 4

After doing research on the 2012 elections, I would like to do my project on Mitt Romney's campaign through the use of television ads. The videos I would like to look at are: Believe In Our Future Strong Leadership Stand Up to China The Romney Plan Failing American Workers

Blog 3

EMPHASIS 1. The author uses capital letters to emphasize DRM, and also the world "MANIAC!" because it is also in all capitals and followed by an exclamation point. Also, on the next page the word "criminal" is emphasized because it is the only word on the page of what seems to be a robot/person. There are also arrows pointing directly at the word. 2.When the picture is still what the author has drawn on the notebook is emphasized and the viewer can read her message I think that this is effective because the writing on each page would just seem like part of the video and I do not think the audience would feel like it would be important to read what has been written down by the author. 3. The music emphasizes that the video is serious. Certain aspects of the song informs the audience that a point has been made. CONTRAST 1. Yes, I think that elements contrast. Even thought the cartoon is still playing in the background the white scrolling text against the grey background drew my attention to the text instead of the cartoon. It also stands out because the text is what the narrator is saying. This use of contrast causes the audience to listen and to read what is being said. 2. With the white text against the black background the text is obviously what the audience's eyes are being drawn to. I think that the cartoon was no longer playing in the background so that the audience would pay even more attention to what is being said because it seems to be the most important information in the video. 3. If I were to design a flyer for JUMP I would put "JUMP" at the top of the flyer, then blow it I would put a brief description of what JUMP is and how to get involved and also a contact number of someone who is responsible for coordinating JUMP. ORGANIZATION 1. Flowers- are beautiful Girl painting- people paint as a way to express themselves Barcode on feet- not everyone is the same Crowd- you have to stand for what you believe in Graveyard- everybody dies 2. Yes, I believe that if they were arranged differently that a different argument could have been made. 3. I think that adding text could make the argument stronger because the audience would know exactly what the intended message instead of trying to interpret it and determine what message the author is trying to convey. ALIGNMENT 1. Girl- Afica Film- pictures Britain- imperialism in Africa Levis- American Jeans Car- technology Penny- money 2. The words ""AMERICAN" stand out to me because they are in all capitals and in bold and it is repeated twice in one of the texts. The African girl seems most important to me because she is the biggest part of the collage, then the words "American", 501, Kodak, Britain, and then Levis. 3. I think that photography's role in respect to African Culture and American business interests is that Americans can use their technologies to further advance and make America better whereas, all Africans have is their culture. PROXIMITY 1. I placed the title and the author at the top of the page. The picture of a flying seagull in the middle of the page and then "A Novel About Flight" at the bottom of the page. I organized the cover typographically. 2. I believe that the title is the most important piece of information on the cover that is why I chose to put it at the very top and in the biggest font. Then, in the same font directly below the title I placed the authors name since that is the second most important piece of information. Then I chose the picture of the flying seagull because of the the book is about flight, so I thought that the picture matched what the book is about. 3. The limitations of laying something out in a traditional way would be that the designer could not show creativity when creating a cover. Whereas, if an author created a non-traditional way to create a cover they could become insightful and set the mood of the book by the way that they decide to design the cover.

Blog 2

The college website that I choose to visit was the University of Florida’s. The modes of communication that were used to inform the audience about the university are linguistic, visual, and special. This makes sense for the context of the website since the University is choosing to share information about their school over the Internet. The author of the website used the linguistic mode by including the University of Florida on the homepage so that the intended audience automatically knows that they are looking at the University of Florida’s website. There are also important links at the top of the screen that say “About UF, Academics, Admission, Campus Life, Research, and Services”. These all are useful for the viewer In order to be able to navigate throughout the website. Also, there is an alert bout the Tropical Storm Isaac. This is important information for the students and any other person who is involved with the University of Florida to get information about their safety. The visual mode was used by incorporating the schools colors, orange and blue, into the website. It seems to me that the most important aspects and information about the school are at the top of the screen. The University of Florida is also located at the top left corner of the screen. This is the first thing that I noticed when I looked at the website because it is in the top right corner and it also is in a larger font than anything else on the page. There is also a slide show of pictures with captions in the middle of the screen to inform the audience of the types of things that the University of Florida is involved in. The spatial mode is used by grouping things under tabs. For example, there is a tab that says “for students” and under that tab there are links to pages that are resourceful for students. The location of the picture is in the middle of the page. This draws the viewer’s eyes automatically to the pictures. The purpose of this website is to reach out to perspective students, students, alumni, and anyone else who may want to seek information about the university; because of this everything that is in figure 2.2 from the reading under the section “things on the front page of a university website” are included on the University of Florida’s website. The things that are more difficult to find can be searched for in the search bar that is located in the top right corner of the homepage. I do agree with this lost of things people go to the site looking for because this is general information that one may need that is extremely relevant to campus life at the university and also from personal experience I know I have visited my universities website for some of the reasons listed in the ven diagram.

Blog 1

I do not think there is a difference between the terms “multimedia” and “multimodal”.  I believe that multimodal is a term that is a more modern form of the word multimedia.  They both use more than one form of communication to send a message to an audience.  I think that multimodal is a broad term used to describe more specific qualities that makes something a form of multimodal communication: linguistic, visual, aural, gestural, and spatial.

Linguistic Mode To Do

I think that the first sentence “our thoughts and prayers remain with the people of Japan” stands out to me because it shows that America was there to support Japan after this crisis.  “Offered” also stands out to me because it shows that the President volunteered to help Japan with whatever it is that they need in order to rebuild and take care of its citizens. 

Visual Mode To Do

When looking at the two profiles in Chapter 1 I noticed that the obvious difference is the choice of each profile.  The one on the left is navy blue, white, and green, which might be because those are his favorite colors or maybe the colors of a sports team that he likes.  The twitter profile on the right is light blue and white with a picture of a panda.  This makes the profile seem as if the person uses twitter to communicate to a lot of people or that they really like pandas. 

Aural Mode To Do

The music playing in the background of the attached video is upbeat.  I think the reason why they chose upbeat music because it lightens the mood of the clip and since they are trying to get people to work together could put the audience in a positive mood and associate the music with being positive and therefore be more willing to hear and like the message that the video is trying to get across.  I think that country or bluegrass music was not used because a lot of people do not lik that type of music so f that music was played then the certain members of the audience would not even listen to the message of the video because they associated not liking that type of music to not wanting to watch the video.

Spacial Mode To Do

When looking at the WSU my eye is instantly directed to the middle of the screen where there is a group of three images that are constantly changing every few seconds. The crimson stripe at the top of the screen with three links to the A-Z Index, zzusis, and Contact Us.  This is probably because those are important links for students that attend WSU or prospective students.  Then there is also a search box.  These links are also on the right of the screen where everything else on the homepage is located in the middle.  Directly underneath there are links to each campus of WSU which are noticeable, but do not take away from the visual appeal of the page.

Gestural Mode

I choose to watch the President Obama Speaks at the 2012 Kid’s State Dinner.  Obama’s gesturers were effective.  When he was addressing the audience as mothers, fathers, and grand parents he pointed to all of them while he was talking so it made it seem as if he was having a conversation with all of them.  Throughout the speech he makes subtle gestures that make him seem alive and not like a statue.  He also looks at his wife and it seems like he is doing this for confirmation of the points that he is making since she actually knows him personally.  I think that he used gestures effectively.  He gave the speech right before a dinner so it was light in mood and his facial and hand gestures went along with the tone of the speech since it was not formal.