Web Design Student
Millikin University

Sarah Scharnett

Learning Review

User Knowledge:

When I came into this class, I was not only unfamiliar with Dreamweaver and Macs, I felt as if I had a technological learning disability. Before, I only used my computer for what I absolutely had to like email, research, writing papers, etc.  In fact, I put this class off until the last semester I had before student teaching because I was so nervous about not being able to get through it with a passing grade. I still feel like my user knowledge is sorely lacking, but I do know how to create a basic website and even what types of expectations different groups of people have for a site (informational versus interactive, etc.). More than the knowledge of the software itself, I found some much-needed confidence from this class. For while I may have to work a little harder and ask for extra help a few more times to remember how to do something, I know that if I push myself, I’m capable of creating a site worth showing off.

Design Knowledge:

Before taking this class, I had a few pet peeves when it came to site design issues.  For example, I never could stand it when it wasn’t obvious for what reason a page was created or where to find an integral piece of information to that page’s content.  I didn’t like very busy sites, and I had very little appreciation for sites without plentiful content.  However, now that I know more about orientation, navigation, and so forth, I can actually sound like I know what I’m talking about when criticizing a site I could never create myself—and that makes me happyJ  Furthermore, I know some standard rules of thumb when it comes to making a design relatively user friendly, such as using a consistent setup for all pages in a site, providing good titles for links, and even using colors and fonts that are easy to read without being unnecessarily large.

Project Development Knowledge:

Perhaps the most recognizably valuable asset of this class for me was working in teams on projects. As in most of the group projects I’ve done with others in school and at work, good time management, consistent and honest communication, as well as humble acceptance of constructive criticism and early conflict management were particularly important to creating successful projects this semester. While I may never create a website again, I will certainly have to communicate with people every day for the rest of my life as a teacher.  It’s nice to have groups where everything goes smoothly, but it is a richer learning experience to encounter different personalities with different opinions than my own. I had good and bad experiences this semester (with clients and with peers), but I learned a tremendous amount from all of them and wouldn’t take them back (now that they’re over!!!).

Tutoring Knowledge

I am a teacher.  I’ve come to realize teaching as a part of everything I am and all that I do; helping others, offering advice, and giving directions generally comes out of me quite naturally, even during the simplest of tasks.  As a result, my status in this class as an obvious novice was very difficult for me to get used to.  Instead of providing help and being there for others to turn to, I was most often the one begging for it.  In fact, I had such a hard time in the beginning that I had to hire a tutor (Jimmy) and get special help just to finish a simple page—with none of the “bells and whistles” my peers’ had.  However, this was also a good learning opportunity for me.  It’s really important for teachers to step back every once in a while and look closely at what it’s like to be a student who relies on their teacher for help in so many small ways.  The frustration I felt so many times this semester will help me to remember the place from where many of my students may be coming.  Also, the grace I was shown by those who did help me renews my pride in my future profession.

Hands On Training Tutorial Responses

Client Case Review

EN 202 Online Casebook
URL: http://students.millikin.edu/~justinmiller/beloved

Site Features
Because you wanted a site that users could visit to find relatively comprehensive information about Beloved, in addition to the scholarly papers on the six theoretical perspectives you provided us, we created the following featured pages:

• Home: A basic introduction to the casebook and what it has been designed to do

• About the Class: A page featuring pictures, short personal biographies, and brief individual statements in each student’s own words about the value of this project

• Theoretical Perspectives: An informational page for viewers about the essence of each of the six theoretical perspectives featured in the site and links to more information

• Essays: A page dedicated to publishing the best papers of the class using each of the perspectives

• Historical Context: An informational page for viewers about the essence of the historical context of the novel and links to more information about the era

• Toni Morrison: A brief description of the acclaimed author, her other famous literary contributions, and links to more information about her and her life

Page Design
After discussing some general ideas with the class editorial team, we decided on a very basic, clean design for the site that reflects the cover of the red and gold version of the novel. The background of a field and the woman featured in the banner were an obvious choice to coordinate with the novel’s plot.

User Expectations
Since the site was created as an online casebook, we created it to be used just like any other casebook, only with a little more personalization and flavor. We think users will find it highly informative and will appreciate the balance made possible with scholarly information in a basic, understandable format.

Updating Guidelines
The site will prove very easy to update. Aside from the links pages (which can be very quickly and easily modified), most of the content deals with the class, the student authors, and basic information related to the novel, which needs no consistent updating!

Thank you for all the continued help and hard work on your end of the project. We hope our site meets all of your class’s needs and expectations for the online casebook!

Web Design Team: Rachael Cummins, Justin Miller, and Sarah Scharnett

Team Management Debriefing:

Because we knew from our first meeting with the client that we would be creating a primarily informative site, our strategy from the onset was to offer users of the site as many relevant resources as possible for analysis and interaction with the many sides of Beloved. As a result of the novel’s many complexities, we discussed several possibilities with the client about what supplementary information could be included in addition to the students’ papers written on the novel, each considering one of six theoretical perspectives (Psychological, Reader Response, Historical, Deconstructive, and New Criticism) on literature criticism. The client’s chose to give us the class’ best six papers, one chosen for each theoretical perspective. Also, students were assigned to write introductions to each theoretical perspective in order that visitors to the site understand the background of these six main critical analytical approaches before reading the students papers.

What works best about our casebook site is the variety of information we have included. We chose to include as supplementary information pages identifying the class of authors for the papers written, which gives both their pictures and a brief autobiography of each student. Additionally, we chose to include information about Toni Morrison and her life, including primarily links to websites with more thorough analyses of her biographical information as well as information about the wide recognition she has received for Beloved. Finally, in addition to the papers themselves, we also chose to include a page providing visitors with a brief historical background of the novel in order that they understand better history’s important role within the novel’s plot.  Finally, after some gentle prodding from Dr. Brooks, we also included a page giving viewers a brief overview of the work done on our end as well as a brief explanation of the process we went through working with Dr. Braniger’s class to complete this project.

The client was not concerned as much with design as they were with content, giving us a lot of creative freedom. With the need for so much information to be contained within the site, we chose to keep the design simple, mirroring the colors and structure of the cover of the book that our client showed us during our first meeting. Because the novel deals with several disturbing issues resulting from its setting during the days of slavery in America, we chose the simple picture of a sad slave woman for our banner, representing the novel’s protagonist. As a final added touch, we asked the class to vote on a memorable quote from the novel to include on our home page. Given more time, there are several design issues that we could address, including perhaps the inclusion of more animation and interactivity for users. However, one convenient aspect of our page is the fact that the design is very simple and straightforward—giving the client an easy means for adding and removing information and links with the passage of time.

Our team worked very well together. We all communicated with one another as well as with the client, but had well-defined individual jobs that complimented each of our interests and talents. As an English Education major, I probably communicated most often with the client simply because I was most familiar with the students (with whom I have had many classes before!). Additionally, because I had taken Writing about Literature before and contributed to Millikin’s first online casebook for Dr. O’Conner writing about Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, I led the content related and writing tasks, while Justin and Rachael worked together with the client to make more design related decisions. Before including any element within the page, however, no member of our team had any problem discussing ideas and gaining approval from the rest of the group.

Client Case Plans

Information versus Entertainment Values:
One reason the online literary casebook we’re creating for Toni Morrison’s Beloved will undoubtedly be very useful is simply because online casebooks are so rare. I settled on Dr. O’Conner’s casebook for Attwood’s Oryx and Crake because having written one of the student articles in it, I knew what it contained and for what purpose it was created. Dr. O’Conner deliberately chose a novel for the casebook that hadn’t been written about much previously. Because the main point of the casebook was to provide readers and researchers of the book with more information about the novel and its content, it is not surprising that the level of entertainment and interactivity is quite low on the Oryx and Crake Casebook. However, for a researcher struggling to find supplemental material on the novel for a research or scholarly project, the high level of information would surely be appreciated. The website contains very few graphics and a lot of text, but within the text viewers can find anything from individual chapter summaries of the novel to student papers including extensive use of outside critical research. While it is obviously important that the information level of an online casebook is quite high, I think ours will benefit from a few more interactive touches. --Sarah

User Personality Concerns:
While an online casebook is definitely bound to more attractive to students, teachers, or any other readers of the novel it is created for (versus the general public, who may not even know anything about the book or its author), it can be attractive to all personality types of this audience if done well. For both of the first two personality types, it is important that the casebook contain pertinent information in a highly organized format. The first personality will feel confident using our site, knowing that there are few other sites with the same type of information, making that personality the leaders and innovators they want so badly to be. The beaver will enjoy our site because while we have a lot of information to present, we will keep each page simple and allow for links to lead interested readers into further information without guiding them into all of it at once on the home page, but still giving them the opportunity to get detailed information that can be analyzed and assessed within their research. For the otter, it is important that we don’t overdo the informational obvious and add at least a few interactive or entertaining features (such as pictures of the papers’ creators, a little animation or audio interaction from the author(s), etc.) to keep their attention and focus. Also, I think our site will automatically be attractive to the golden retriever because their desire to make deep emotional connections with people will be satisfied by getting to know the characters of Beloved better and by getting to know both Toni Morrison and the students who contributed to writing in the casebook better. I think if we keep all of the personalities in mind, we can set a new standard for the online casebook which is both entertaining as well as informative and organized.

Chapter 10

“It is fair to wonder whether the late age of print may also become the late age of prose itself.”

I think Bolter makes an excellent point with this statement, appropriately the very last statement outside of the brief, disappointing one page of Chapter Eleven in the book. While it is impossible to say whether or not this day will come, I (an obviously biased future English Language Arts teacher!) certainly hope this is not the case. It is difficult and almost painful for me to imagine a world where writing is seen as a last resort, only to be used when face-to-face technologies fail. The premeditated, easily editable, and then relatively permanent nature of prose is so far superior to the spoken word in my mind that I certainly hope—as I assume Bolter (an author!) does—that people will continue to use writing as a form of reflection, an exercise in mediation, that simply can’t be replaced by the spoken word. My only consolation is that I’m pretty sure I’ll never live to see the late age of prose:)

Chapter 9

“At least with their current interfaces, these electronic environments do not seem well-suited to the complex or abstract discussion. Spontaneous, playful, and personal, these technologies seem to lend themselves more readily to the construction of the self as a social agent rather than as a reasoning machine. In writing about the cultural significance of these communications technologies, educators talk about the self rather than the mind.”

As we discussed during the presentation of chapter nine in class, this chapter deals with very complex historical, psychological, and social issues with respect to the writing process and its changing relationships with the wide use of modern writing technologies. The topics are so complex, in fact, that it is difficult for me to concisely write a paragraph about any of them. With that said, I do think that these “interfaces” (MUDs, MOOs, chatrooms, etc.) are helpful for students (and all people) as a tool to transition them into the “complex,” “abstract” discussions that most teachers strive for in planning their curriculum. Most current research on writing pedagogy suggests that students learn best to write when they are taught to view all writing as a process. Students need the “spontaneous, playful, and personal” as a starting point. As young writers and thinkers, students love to talk about themselves and see themselves in relationship to others. It is only moving through this relatively immature stage—writing about themselves and their own limited perspectives—that they can learn to relate effectively to abstract, complex subject matter. While this “postmodern” way of teaching is relatively new (although it’s been around in theory for decades!), researchers effectively argue that students have always learned this way. What is important, then, is that teachers don’t look to these types of writing interfaces as an end rather than a means to a greater end, which is teaching students to use what they have learned from these personal perspectives to move out confidently into the impersonal, academic, and abstract writing forms.

Chapter 8

xxxxx

Web Design
Links Page Critique

Jimmy Thompson has done an exemplary job with his bookmarks case as well as his (“still developing”) personal webpage. Most striking is the overall design quality on his site. He has gone into Photoshop and created several colorful buttons directing viewers to all of the major projects of the semester as well as personal information about him down the left-hand side of the screen. The page seems interesting and inviting at first glance. Additionally, he has used simple but vibrant pictures and background colors, and clear fonts and font sizes, making everything easy to distinguish and read.

Jimmy’s navigation is also done well—it is easy to see from his personal page where every link is leading and why a viewer would want to see it. It would be hard to get lost within his webpage too, because Jimmy’s main links remain on the left side of the bookmarks page in addition to several links available within taking viewers back home, back to the top of the page, etc.

Finally, while Jimmy has actually done a great job with his orientation (all of the categories of his topics are clearly organized and explained, etc.), this is the only design area I could find to offer some constructive criticism. It is easy to see from his personal homepage what the bookmarks page is about, but it isn’t explained in any more detail or repeated on the bookmarks page itself. Of course, this isn’t a huge deal, but if a viewer happened upon this part of his site, she could become confused as to why he has this list of links or to what exact addresses the links themselves lead (the titles are there, but the actual urls are not). With the exception of these minor details, though, Jimmy has done a great job.

resume critique

Bad example: http://www.bestsampleresume.com/sample-technology-resume/sample-technology-resume-1.html

(This isn’t super bad, but it isn’t exactly what I think of as a web resume. This person has followed a very, very basic format with some links included, but there are no colors, no graphics, and there is no link to a printable version [which I assume would be almost identical]. Also, there are some minor grammatical and structural issues—“responsible for” instead of active verbs for some of the experience points, etc.)

Good example: http://reslady.com/PK-bio.html (This isn’t technically a resume, but very similar, listing the credentials of a woman who actually writes resumes professionally.)

Chapter 7

Sadly, I had no idea that interactive fiction even existed before reading this chapter. And I have to admit that I probably would have had the same arguments as those the opponents described by Bolter had I heard about interactive fiction before reading the chapter. On the contrary, his descriptions now make me want to find these stories and start reading. Also, I think they could actually serve as great activities for students in my future high school English classes. Teachers are always looking for something fun and different that will get students’ attention, but still have the ability to teach valuable lessons about literary concepts. We already know that students almost always respond to any type of technology activity better than straight reading from a textbook (novel, etc.). How much more effective could it get to teach about point of view than to have students read an interactive piece of fiction online, one that switches point of view based on the reader’s preference, and compare the experiences? What I really wonder about is how long it will be before interactive fiction becomes mainstreamed, especially since I had never even heard of it. On the same note, I wonder how interactive fiction would be sold in the future to prevent the ease of pirating and loss of money for authors who have created the works. I guess we’ll just have to see.

Chapter 6

Where to start? Chapter 6 was so full of information about embedded and external CSS—I know that much, I guess. I also know that I will be able to use all of this over and over again, both within my new bookmarks page and within my web resume, and probably also within every other project from here on out during the semester. What I’m still somewhat confused about is how to change things and back up if I make a mistake in the changes. For example, there was a part in the fourth section of the tutorial where the instructions were to go in and create a new CSS rule, call it #tdNavigation, and then make sure to define it in CSS. I don’t know what I did wrong, but there was no way in the drop down menu to select the style.css that they directed to select. Of course I tried to go back and re-do the previous steps in exercise 4, but nothing left me with styles.css as a selection. I guess in trying to understand the bigger picture, I would like to know what kind of problems a small issue like this causes for my pages. It was extremely frustrating because I couldn’t move on to any of the later steps without having first done this one. Also, I noticed within the tutorial that whether or not I had all of the pages opened, it was supposed to make changes in them all when I made changes in the styles.css page. All of the changes I made did show up in the abouttea.htm page that I had open for the exercise, but when I looked at the other two, it wasn’t there. I’m just confused as to what I did wrong because I don’t want to cause the same problems in my projects’ pages.

A Favorite Website:

Web Address: http://www.richland.edu
I think that Richland's website (www.richland.edu) is an excellent example of a well-done site. I took an online class last semester, so I had the opportunity to get myself familiarized with Richland's homepage, as well as with several different links within the site. What I think is most impressive about it is the ease I--someone practically devoid of any technological proficiency-- have with navigating the many different links within the site. Even without instructions, I was able to figure out how to access all of the essential links such as grade information, faculty information, schedule information, specific class availability information, Blackboard, email, and so on. While I think that the site could be improved with respect to some of the visual elements (some of the links on certain pages seem strangley arranged or unbalanced, although still easy to find within the page), I don't think there is anything more annoying than searching within a site forever before finding what I'm looking for. With busy schedules, it is essential that students are able to sign in and feel confident that it won't take forever to find whatever information is needed for the task at hand. Thus, Richland has done a great job creating a site that meets the demands of its users.

"Site Analysis"

I originally chose Richland Community College’s website for review because I was always impressed with how easy it was to navigate, even though it’s a huge website with extensive content. While I still think it’s not bad for navigation purposes, I didn’t realize before engaging in class discussion that there are other elements of web design in which the page is slightly lacking. Having learned more about orientation, for example, I think that there are some ways that the site could improve.

The main page is set up okay visually, but it is sometimes difficult to know exactly what the links themselves suggest because their descriptions are very brief. Also, the links to get back to the homepage, email, etc. are always across the top and bottom of the screen, but they are in very small font and separated form the main text within the pages. What’s more, once the viewer navigates to a certain main block of information (prospective students, current students, etc.), there is no way to get back to another category without hitting the “back” button. This never really bothered me before, but now I can see that if the descriptions were better and the links were more visible within the main content and place more consistently, it would be helpful and simply more attractive. Additionally, the overall the pages have a tendency to look somewhat imbalanced, especially with respect to the way the text is set up.

It is interesting when considering how navigation, orientation, and content work that a site can be strong in one area and weaker in another. However, it is more important, I think, to be able to see how interconnected all of these aspects of web design truly are. If your content is great, but your audience can’t figure out how to access what content they want because of poor orientation or navigation, it won’t get the credit it deserves. If your navigation is great, but your audience can only see a few relevant items within your page, everything suffers. I have to constantly remind myself of these interdependent factors as I move on in the semester and create my own pages.

Chapter 5

I feel a lot better about my abilities in this class in general after having completed this tutorial. I felt like this tutorial was easy enough and I could see how I would be using the information within my own work very obviously. On the other hand, I know I have a tendency to just mindlessly follow the directions when I’m completing the tutorials because when I first tried to apply links to my bookmarks page, I forgot exactly what the steps were. It’s easy just to follow the steps without reading what is in the gray typeface, which is what really helps to make all of the steps relevant in the overall process. Once I got into it though, it wasn’t long before I remembered, and it really helped that I had to do so many different links and so many different anchors as a requirement for the page because the more I went through the steps, the more comfortable I felt with the process. The only thing I don’t really like about my page so far is how boring it looks in comparison to many other students’ pages. I don’t know how to create any of the elements they have in their pages that makes them look so great. As intimidating as chapter 6 sounds, I am anxious to find out about special features I can include in my links in order that my pages can have more visual appeal and my links change color with rollover, after visiting, etc. like I saw many other students’ pages do.

Chapter 4

It’s amazing, as well as scary, to me the level of intricacy involved in creating even the simplest changes to web pages. For example, I never would have realized while doing the tutorial that when I pressed return to separate information there were two lines of space that separated my paragraphs. I may have looked like too much if I weren’t actually separating two paragraphs as I was in the tutorial, though. If I wanted to have only a line break, with no extra space, I would have to press shift + return. Plus, I’m really supposed to know that the code of the former versus the latter is <p> to <br/>. That’s a pretty important piece of information because I’m quite sure that I’ll be doing both much of the time. But how am I going to remember these tiny details on top of putting together all of the information with alignment, link creation, and tags (meta tags, the differences in the code for these…)? I’m catching on, I think, but I’m still really nervous about all of this.

Chapter 3

Thank God for Jimmy. Even without the correct book, I was able to learn a lot from these tutorials by looking at his book and having him explain in more plain English what the heck we are doing exactly. Right now, just navigating through all of the different files and figuring out shortcuts on Macs is confusing enough. But once I followed the tutorials in the book for a few minutes, I could see that the directions were actually pretty clear and straightforward--although they will take some serious getting used to for someone like me.

What I think was valuable from these chapters was seeing how you can create logos within the websites and access my files within the local folder--it's all getting a little easier. Equally as valuable as the specific tasks, though, was just getting more familiar with the book itself and Macs. I think that just like anything else the more time I spend in here, the more comfortable I will get.

Chapters 1 & 2

We are just supposed to email you with our honest reaction to the first reading assignment, right? Well, my sincere reaction is that of horror. Not to be melodramatic, but I am really scared of this class. I forced my way through the reading assignment, thinking all the while how difficult it is going to be for me to make it through the semester since its surely going to get much harder and I have no background knowledge about web design whatsoever. If I don't understand the "background" chapter, how am I going to make decent grades on actual assignments? I have to take the class as required of my major (or take computer aided publishing--which I already dropped once), so I will work very hard and do my best. I only hope that you won't think I am stupid or get annoyed as I am constantly begging for your help in class. I guess I'm just asking that you be patient with me--whine, whine.