Week Five Blog Assignment

An article in the New Yorker states, "The world, we are told, is in the midst of a revolution. The new tools of social media have reinvented social activism." The growth of social media in our world has grown to astronomical proportions due to one simple fact, it allows people to take back the power of swaying the consumer. For too long, products were allowed to lie, cheat, and steal their way to the top self in our pantries. Now, consumers won't let that happen and businesses know it all too well. With the invention of social media, critiquing a product, person, or company because simple and packed a significant power. From the comfort of our own homes and behind the anonymity of a computer screen, the people have the power to group up and take down or give praise to anything they want. With the increase in advertising people began to see the evil side of consumerism and banded together to try to stay one-step-ahead of the curve. Now with people able to review other real people's input, we value that input far more than what a twenty second sound byte tells us. 

Here are some examples of important Social Media websites:

Social Networking:

1. Facebook Approximately 700million users

2. Twitter Approximately 200million users

3. Bebo Approximately 120million users

4. MySpace Approximately 100million users

5. Friendster Approximately 90million users

6. Hi5 Approximately 80million users

7. Xanga Approximately 30million users

8. LiveJournal Approximately 12million users

9. StumbleUpon Approximately 11million users

10. Tumblr Approximately 10million users

Week Four Blog Assignment

A podcast is an mp3 or video file that can be downloaded and played on a computer or portable media device. Individual podcasts appear as episodes that are updated daily or weekly. By subscribing to a podcast you can receive automatic updates. You can also listen to podcast episodes here on this page. To subscribe, you must have podcasting software installed on your computer such as iTunes. I've never been the biggest fan of podcasts, in my experience they are never made well and there is always background and white noise in the background that makes listening to them unbearable. An intricate part of a podcast is the audio bed. Audio beds are background music that make podcasts more interesting than just someone talking. Another facet of making a podcast more interesting are ambient sounds which are random sounds that we encounter in everyday life, and are used in interesting, creative, and funny ways. A wonderful place to find ambient noises is PacDV. A great program that is used to make podcasts is called Audacity. Audacity is a free software cross-platform and recording application. It is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and BSD.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://portfolio.wikia.com/wiki/Music_bed
http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/

Week Three Blog Assignment

This week we learned about Robin Williams and her book, "The Non-Designer's Design Book". I'm quite familiar with Williams as her book was a required reading in my Event Planning class that I was lucky enough to take last quarter. In this book we learn about four elements that Williams highlights as vitally important to designing anything, C.R.A.P., Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity.
Contrast: Elements that aren't the same should be very different so they stand out, making them "slightly different" confuses the user into see a relation that doesn't exist. Strong contrast between page elements allows the user's eye to flow from one to another down the page instead of creating a sea of similarity that's boring and not communicative.
Repetition: Repeat styles down the page for a cohesive feel, if you style related elements the same way in one area, continue that trend for other areas for consistency.
Alignment: Everything on the page needs to be visually connected to something else, nothing should be out of place or distinct from all other design elements.
Proximity: Proximity created related meaning: elements that are related should be grouped together, whereas separate design elements should have enough space in between to communicate they are different.
But don't take my word for it, here are three very handy websites that can guide you through these steps. The first being Basic Webpage Layout and Design, though the page itself isn't much to look at, the way it guides you through step-by-step makes the creation process a breeze, and it really lets you see how those elements that Williams talks about come together. The second great website is one that goes over grid design and layout. Grid Design Basics is a neat webpage that talks about your conceptual design and ties into Williams' description of alignment and proximity. It goes over in depth how to start laying out your webpage so that users find it "user friendly". The final webpage that I find useful is The 5 Basic Rules of Webpage Design and Layout, its a nice over view for the begging or ending of your design process, a good way to take an outsider's perspective and make sure the design is cohesive.

"5 Basic Rules of Web Design by Grantastic Designs. "Logo Design, Graphic Design, Search Engine Marketing and More from Grantastic Designs. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.grantasticdesigns.com/5rules.html>.
"Basic Web Page Layout and Design. "University at Albany Libraries. Web 19 Jan. 2012. <http://library.albany.edu/imc/webdesign/>.
"Grid Design Basics: Grids for Web Page Layouts." Dev.Opera. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/grid-design-basics-grids-for-web-page-1>.
Rundle, Mike. "How C.R.A.P. Is Your Site Design?" Think Vitamin - A Blog for Web Designers and Developers. Think Vitamin. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://thinkviatmin.com/design/how-crap-is-your-site-design/>.

Week Two Blog Assignment

This week we started working with Photoshop. Its a pretty simple program with a lot of flaws, but it is generally considered the best in photo editing, and its a plus that it kinda looks like Microsoft's Paint program. The overall design and layout are fine, but its the initial kinks and quirks that it has that will drive you up a wall. In class we only did a few basic things, coloring a background, adding text, and adding images. From there I've learned that trying to move anything around will result with you have to remove random new layers and having to unlock layers that weren't previously locked. Too many problems for just trying to change the justification of an image in my opinion. Moving on from my diatribe, Photoshop does make life a lot easier in a number of ways and one of those is the handy Photoshop Help Center. They answer lots of questions that will have you searching the internet for hours. A good sign of a good product is a good help center.
Another resource you always have available to you are videos on YouTube. They offer a visual route to learning the program which can be very beneficial what with it hiding a lot of its brushed under other brushes and other simple yet difficult to find tools. Here are two great videos that I found, there are plenty more, but these will get you on the right track.

Adobe Photoshop 101

Basic Photoshop Tools

Richmond, Johnathan. "Adobe Photoshop 101: The Basics." 21 May 2009. Online Video Clip.  
YouTube. Accessed on 11 January 2012.
"Tutorial #1 - Basic Photoshop Tools." 27 April 2008. Online Video Clip. YouTube. Accessed on 11 January 2012.
"Adobe Help Center". Adobe. Web. 11 Jan. 2012. <http://www.adobe.com/support/photoshop/>.

Week One Blog Assignment

Part One:
Hello, my name is Alexandrea. I currently attend Western Washington University as a Communication Major, with a double Minor in Business Administration and Psychology. I am scheduled to graduate in Spring, and I am currently taking Jason Lind's Emerging Communication Technology course which is the reason for this blog. Each blog posting will cover an assignment which is due weekly.
Part Two:
I wanted to come up with the Top Ten Rules of Website design, these are the most basic and most important things that people either do amazing, or completely fail. After some research on the internet looking at good, bad, and most visited website, as well as other articles written about this subject such as Business Week and Sharpened Products, here are the Ten Commandments of Website Design.

1. Never Abuse Flash
Flash is everywhere and a neat tool, but overusing it will destroy your page and confuse your visitors.
2. Never Hide Your Content
We've all been there, no one wants to go searching for hours to find one thing. Make your page easy to navigate.
3. Never Clutter Your Page
Too much is just too much, remember, less is more, and adding another page is not as difficult as you may think.
4. Don't Overuse Glassy Reflections
Apple is famous for this, and while I'll admit it does look sleek, over doing it look cheesy.
5. Don't Use Weird Nomenclature
Flickr, Smibs, and Meebo? Speak English please.
6. Don't Underestimate Simple Text
Imagine doing your whole report in WordArt, it would suck right? Then don't do it with your webpage.
7. Think About More Than Aesthetics
Looking good only gets you so far, remember, brains my friend. Make sure your Website has good content.
8. Make Your Page Social
Facebook maybe taking over the world, and whether you want it to or not, its a great way to get your name out there.
9. Embrace Proven Technologies
Wikipedia, facebook, and Youtube are daily parts of life for most people, make sure your website it compatible with them.
10. Have Good Content
Simlar to #7, make sure your website actually does something and isn't there to just look good.

"Ten Rules of Web Site Design." Sharpened Productions. Web. 05 Jan. 2012. <http://www.sharpened.com/web/about/rules.html>.
Vella, Matt. "The 10 Commandments of Web Design - BusinessWeek." Businessweek - Business News, Stock Market & Financial Advice. Web. 05 Jan. 2012. <http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2008/id20080623_750025.htm>.