Web Design

While trying to find some poorly designed websites I came across Aurga Music. This site was pretty much repulsive. The first thing I noticed was the background. It was animated, busy, and distracting. Another horrible aspect was the lack of usability. In the, “9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design” is usability. A website should be a tool for a person to use. This website is confusing. I couldn’t tell what the purpose of the website actually was.  The website also picked horrible coloring. It has green writing on a blue background. It has a low contrast rate when one of the most important aspects in web design is contrast. The navigation aspect was also horrible. When I was looking at the website I didn’t know where to go next. There were a whole bunch of links but I couldn’t figure out what the site was actually about. Also some of the links didn’t work, which is frustrating. When I am browsing a page the links better work! If the links don’t work I usually just “x” out of the site.  The links that did work didn’t have any similarities. They should have the same template, so a person knows they are related. The links were all different colors also. Links should all be the same color.  There were also a lot of animated clip art that was not necessary and just looked like clutter.

One website I think has really good design is Mozilla. They have a very simple layout that is centered orientated.  I think that when a site uses center orientation it shows simplicity and balance. The background is a soft neutral color. I think that when a website uses a plain non-complex background it shows that they care more about designing the content of the page rather than the background. A good principle with Web Design is using bold colors sparingly. When you do this it grabs the attention of the viewer. Here Mozilla uses bold coloring for their logo of the fox and the world. There is plenty of white space. According to the article, “9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design,” white space is used to give balance, proportion and contrast to a page. I think that when a user goes to a site with a lot of white space they don’t feel overwhelmed with all the information that is being thrown at them. If there is little white space the page make look unfriendly and too complex and cluttered.  There font size is a bigger size so that everyone can read it.

 Another website that is designed well is Nine West.  Nine West is very good at navigating the eye. In the upper left hand corner they have their logo Nine West. This is the first place the viewer will look. It’s important to have the logo up there because it allows the viewer to know immediately what they are looking at. They then have your eyes follow to an image. This image is very large and takes up the entire home page. It shows you their new Faux items. Their navigation buttons are also easy to find. They are right on top. The text is also clear to where it is taking you. Another important aspect is it has a search bar so I user can find exactly what they want immediately.  They also have two small access buttons to Facebook and Twitter on their homepage so someone could easily follow them. Another good aspect they used is that each of their website pages has the same background template. This interlinks all their pages together. They also have plenty of white space, which makes the page seem balanced.  The page is easy to use. 

Facebook Time!

This project was definitely not my first time using Facebook.  I basically just use Facebook for socializing. It is a great way to keep in touch and know how all my high school friends are doing. Before I came to college I also used Facebook to help me meet people. I found a few people that I met from orientation and became friends with them. I guess I could say I rarely use Facebook for anything besides socializing...although I have used it to contact my boss and talk about work related material before and have also used it to stay in contact with group members during school projects. 

As the article stated, Facebook could be used for promotion of a business. A business manager or staff worker could make an official group on Facebook and use it to post anything they wanted to about their business. They could post business’s specials, information, employment opportunities, or anything. The possibilities are endless. Facebook could help business’ find out what their consumers think about their products by posting a poll or something similar to their page.

Facebook can also be used in an education manner. Some professors actually make groups that their students must join. In the group they have class discussions and interactions. The professors’ usually have listed their assignments, office hours, questions/concerns, etc.

I think it was acceptable for our Professor to require us as friends. I think being friends with him makes communication a lot easier.  I think if people really had a problem with it, they could of just created a “fake” Facebook (meaning a Facebook created just for the class) and after the assignment was over delete it.  I know a lot of professors’ don’t make it mandatory to friend them (even when they have group discussions on Facebook) but instead make them only have to join the group. In our case, we were all making our own group so that wouldn’t have worked. I think it’s fine that I am a friends with him. If someone has a problem with it after the semester is over you can simply click “delete friend.”

The information I post on Facebook is private. I make sure that no one can see it except my friends. I also have it so that people can’t even search for me. I know there is a chance that someone you do not want seeing something could see it so in a sense I guess it could be public.

I think there are rules of etiquette that people should follow on Facebook but don’t. One rule I think people should follow is do not post awful pictures of other people and then tag them! Come on people! How would you like to be seen like that? I think another rule people should follow is do not post important news as your status instead of calling people individually. For example there was a girl on my Facebook that announced she was pregnant through her status. All of her close friends commented on it asking if she was serious since she hadn’t come to them in person to talk about it first. Another rule don’t send someone a million application requests, if I denied your Farmville the first time, don’t ask me to do it again! I think another rule should be only post pictures you wouldn’t mind having your grandma see. It’s disgusting when you have pictures of people with little to no clothes on or a couple ALL over each other. (I’m not talking about the little kiss pictures, there are disgusting ones out there!)

I have never posted something on Facebook that has left me in an awkward position or situation.

So far I think this was my favorite assignment this semester. :)

Facebook?

Just testing this to see if it posts to my Facebook as it should. :)
*fingers crossed*

Facebook Interview

youtube.

Facebook Interview from meaghan o'connor on Vimeo.

Pretty much everybody has a Facebook.  What people use it for and for how long people use it in a session varies. I figured Facebook would be an interesting topic since almost everyone can relate to it.

Let me start of with some basic information about Facebook. Facebook is a social networking site that was created by Mark Zuckerberg and launched out of his Harvard dorm room in February of 2004.  At first the site was just for Harvard college students but in March of 2004 he expanded it to Yale and Stanford Columbia students.

By December of 2004, Facebook reached nearly one million active users.  In May of 2005, Facebook supported 800 network colleges. In August of 2005, Facebook officially becomes the name of the site. (Before it was thefacebook.com) In September of 2005, Facebook expanded to allow high school networks.  By December of 2005, Facebook had 5.5 million active users. In April of 2006, Facebook launched their mobile feature. In September of 2006, Facebook allowed anybody to join. By December of 2006, there are more than 12 million active users on Facebook.  By April of 2007, Facebook had more than 20 million active users and by October of that same year Facebook had more than 50 million active users. Every month more and more people are joining Facebook as of February 2010 there were over 400 million active users.

During my interview I asked Brian if he has every used an application on Facebook and as he stated he only used the bumper sticker application. According to Facebook Statistics there are more than 500,000 active applications on Facebook.

I also discussed with Brian the various methods of accessing Facebook besides using the computer. There are currently more than 100,000 million active users accessing their Facebook through their mobile devices.  There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products.

As I was researching what questions to ask Brian, I found some interesting facts about Facebook. (Maybe, I find them interesting because I consider myself addicted to Facebook but either way I’m sure most people reading this log onto Facebook daily to distract themselves from doing something productive.) The average user has 130 friends on Facebook, and sends about 8 friend requests a month.  The average user spends about 55 minutes a day on Facebook. So I guess Brian was right considering himself an average user when he said he was on about one to two hours a day. The average user comments on 25 Facebook content each month.  The average user becomes a fan (or now it is called like) of 4 pages a month. As I was doing this research I realized I am way beyond the average user and should probably cut back on Facebook!

I also talked to Brian about Facebook and work and whether a person should be judged by their profile. I found something similar while I was researching about Facebook and college. I found that 10% of admission officers have looked at an applicant Facebook before accepting them into college and 38% of them said they saw the applicant in a negative manner afterwards.  Basically, be careful what you put out there it could literally affect the rest of your life.

Creating a BufWiki

Making a Wiki was a rather interesting process.. I have never created a Wiki or added to a Wiki site, so obviously I was very nervous when I heard that we would be creating one. When I met with Nick, both of us had no idea on what our Wiki should be. I feel like I’m not really an expertise in anything. We both talked about what we liked doing, and a common interest was going out. We then decided to do a BufWiki on the local bar Third Base on Main Street since it’s a popular college kid’s bar. 

We used Facebook in order to communicate with each other. I think using Facebook is very efficient since I am always logged on, and if I am not logged on then I receive instant notifications via text messages when I do receive a message on Facebook. It’s quick and easier than an email. (Well at least for me anyways, because I rarely check my email)

I think this group project has definitely been easier than past projects. Since everything can be done online it’s easy. We didn’t have to set up a time we could both meet and work on it (since everyone’s schedules are so hectic, this would be rather difficult) instead we used Facebook. This also made it easier to share file information. We could just send it through a message rather than having to put it on a flash drive or anything to that sort.

I liked doing this project more than any other project because we didn’t have to worry about meeting before or after class because everything was online! If I added something to the Wiki page and Nick thought it needed a little revising then he would just go to the page and fix it, vice versa. It was much easier than finding time when we could both meet, because as expected we both have different schedules.

We decided in class who would do what section of the article. After I found all my information and wrote it out, I just messaged it to him on Facebook. This way he could make sure our information didn’t overlap and anything he thought I was missing he could tell me and I could research more on that topic.

Before actually creating the Wiki page itself I wanted to learn more about the Wiki neighborhood. I found an interesting page which had a lot of facts about Wiki.  For example, there are over 75,000 “hot authors” which are people who constantly add and update information on the site.  Wikipedia also contains about 684 million viewers every year. It’s interesting how many people actual use Wikipedia verses how many people actually add to the site.

Making a Wiki is really not as easy as it sounds, and honestly I’m not so sure if I will ever make one again.  I must have read the create a Wiki page a million times. Luckily in class we went over it, which made it a little bit easier to understand, that is until I went in and tried to add information to our page.

As I was adding information to our page, I noticed everything was moving around, and I thought I did this by error (since I was unsure of what I was doing as it was) so I just copied the information I had and moved it back to the way I wanted it. This happened a few times, I didn’t understand how I kept switching it around. I was getting frustrated. Then I went to click the edit button for the millionth time and an error occurred. Mr. Wiki Man (my made up name for him- whoever he may be) LOCKED my page!!  Apparently, I kept undoing what he was fixing. I didn’t know! I thought I was accidently moving everything around! That was really annoying. So it took about 20 minutes before he decided to let me back in to edit our page. If that was not annoying enough he decided to take out some of my information. I was very mad at him.

After all the confusion was over with I learned that making a BufWiki was not really that hard, as long as you stick to Mr. Wiki Man’s rules. [WARNING : DO NOT TRY TO MESS WITH THE TEMPLATE] It took me back to the days of MySpace. I was one of those crazy girls that constantly had to change her background and font size and color so doing it on here kind of brought back memories.

The next day I decided to log back on and see if anything was changed on our page. I logged onto Buffwiki and looked at my creation and I had one file contribution. When I looked on the page I realized they just moved our photo from the bottom to the top right, but it still seemed exciting knowing that someone took the time to look at the page and change the page that we created!

All together, I would have to say that it was a project that I actually learned from. I feel like with a lot of past projects I have done I do it and that’s it. I don’t really take anything with me. This project gave me experience and it’s something that could actually be used again in my lifetime. For example, if I know someone that opens a restaurant, a bar, a club, or anything in Buffalo I could create them a Wiki page so that it could become publicized.  I think it is very useful information to have. I also think that with this experience I can add information to a Wiki. I am not sure I will ever make a Wiki again (unless like I stated before I know someone who needs help or something like that) but I do think that if I am using the Wiki neighborhood I should add information here and there. If I know something on a topic that isn’t on the Wiki page yet I will add to it. I feel more comfortable doing this now since I actually know how to and because I have already added a site to the neighborhood.

All in all I had a great time working with Nick. We definitely got a lot of laughs during the process of creating a Wiki. Here is our page on Third Base.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is not a word that can be easily defined. Even though it does not have one set definition there is criteria, which a website must have in order to be considered Web 2.0.

Tim O’Reilly and Media Live International created Web 2.0. Web 2.0 basically has more applications than ever before. Tim O’Reilly said the most important thing is to figure out how to make the databases easier for the user. He was implying that what users want is what Web 2.0 sites have to give them.

Before Web 2.0 websites, people visited html based websites. The information was first transmitted and then consumed. Today Web 2.0 sites information can be created, altered, and shared. Web 2.0 seems to be an upgrade from earlier. It makes websites user friendly. Web 2.0 can fulfill any need of any user. The user can customize the website to fit their needs exactly.

There are different types of Web 2.0 sites. There are programming, video, music, chat, images and photos, blogs, bookmarking, VOIP (voice over IP), games and sketching, wikis, office tools, RSS(really simple syndication), emails, news,  file sharing, and other Web 2.0 sites.

An example of a popular Web 2.0 site is YouTube. It is the number one Web 2.0 video site. Other common Web 2.0 sites include: Pandora, Flickr, Blogger, Skype, Wikipedia, Gmail, Facebook and many more.

There are eight core characteristics of Web 2.0: user centered design, crowd sourcing, web as a platform, collaboration, power decentralization, dynamic content, SAAS, and rich user experience.

User centered design means that every possible need of a user is fulfilled. A good example of this is iGoogle. A user can set their iGoogle homepage to receive RSS. Many people set iGoogle to see the weather, news, popular videos and so forth so they only have to go to one page rather than many.

Crowd sourcing means that a lot of information is posted in a short amount of time due to bloggers. Web 2.0 sites get more information faster than traditional news stations and sites because there are a lot of people adding information.

Web as a platform means that programs will be free.

Collaboration means that information can be edited and shared. A good example is Wikipedia.  On this website a user can add more information on a topic, add pictures, links, and edit text. A person can go on Wikipedia to get a basic understanding of a topic that they know little about. Users trust that the contributors to the site are posting honest information.

Power Decentralization means that the users have the power and there are no administrators.

Dynamic Content means the Internet must always be changing and keeping up with current technology and the wants of their consumers.

SAAS is if a program like iWorks opened up a free version online and people no longer had to pay for such programs.

Rich user experiences means it must be fast, less cluttered, and more appealing. Those are the eight core characteristics to determine if a website is Web 2.0 or not.

As everything in life there are “dangerous” sides of Web 2.0. People should be reluctant to put out too much personal information due to hackers. Also companies need to make sure their websites are safe in order to protect their consumers.

Web 2.0 is constantly in change. Web 2.0 is a website that is designed with a user in mind. Web 2.0 sites allow a user to use the site to their full potential.  

My First Time Using the Internet

I remember my Dad carrying a large box into our living room. After hours of setting it up, I finally got my chance to use it.  I remember we had AOL and the sound of the connection, is a sound that I will never forget.

The Internet was very slow at this time, but I couldn’t have cared less. I found it fascinating to be able to log onto a website. I remember AOL instant messenger was very popular. The biggest contest was coming up with a better screen name than all of your friends. After much time, I came up with the name Loveablebug232.  I laugh at the name now; I’m not even sure where I came up with it. It’s not like it was fascinated with bugs or anything to that sort. I actually hated bugs.

After creating the screen name, I remember having to sign off the Internet so that I could call my best friend Katie and tell her that I finally got a computer and my AIM screen name was Loveablebug232. Immediately, I hung up the phone and logged back on…again the buzzing noise of AOL will never be forgotten.

After logging back on Katie instant messaged me. There she preceded to i/m me everybody’s screen name. I thought I was so cool, having an AIM screen name.  Even though my parent’s strictly told me “NO CHAT ROOMS!” I remember logging onto one. I kept turning my back to make sure that my parent’s weren’t coming into the room. I loved to make up who I was… I remember people would ask me “asl?” (age, sex, location) I always lied, I would say I was 18, female, and from Florida. (Kind of funny, what 18 year old would be in a chat room?) It was fun living in a fantasy world. 

Oh, the days of fake names, ages, and locations... It still makes me laugh, how i thought i was so awesome :)