HW #6 – Article 3

Article title:

Facebook, Google, and the data design disaster

Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10206053-36.html

As the title said it all, the article is about the problems of the information design that Facebook and Google were facing. In Facebook case, the issue was about user experience (UX). The new redesign interface was too much for the majority users to digest right away. While Google on the other hands, wouldn’t change the look of its products for the approval of a design professional. The author, Miss Caroline McCarthy pointed out both companies have the same problem — seduction by information, and the resulting disconnect between data and design.

Commentary

I think the article is a great example of the challenges that information designers might need to face in the real life. “How to get the balance between data and design?” — That’s the question that I had in my mind when I finished the story.

Also the part that really hit me hard is the case of Google’s missing “delete” button when it launched Gmail. The response from Google was there was a gigabyte in each Gmail account, so the clients did not need one. Whitney Hess, a UX designer, pointed out that Google did not understand the real reason for the people delete their emails is to make space on their mind. They didn’t want to look at something that they might have an emotional response to.

What Miss Hess said is very inspiring, it make you understand how important the users’ experience can be if you want to build a successful website.

P. S.: Comments on the style, the structure, anything you do not like about the blog are welcomed and thank you!

terms and definitions - Week 5

Terms selection - 3

Vertical search

Also known as domain-specific search. It is a relatively new tier in the internet-search industry consisting of search engines that focus on specific slices of content that are based on the information type.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_search

XML

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages. It is classified as an extensible language, because it allows the user to define the mark-up elements.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML

JavaScript

is a scripting language widely used for client-side web development. The script usually embedded in HTML source code, providing interaction for the user. JavaScript is not related to Java programming language

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript

IP address

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical identification that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol for communication between its nodes. The role of the IP address has been characterized as follows: "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there."

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address

LAN - local area network

is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide-area networks (WANs), include their usually higher data-transfer rates, smaller geographic range, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_network

P. S.: Comments on the style, the structure, anything you do not like about the blog are welcomed and thank you! 

terms and definitions - week 4

Terms selection – 2

Information design

the detailed planning of specific information that is provided to a particular audience to meet specific objectives. It includes information content design, page design, Web site design, illustration design, typography decisions, and so forth.

Ref: http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid11_gci214367,00.html

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)

An XML-based, end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. This architecture consists of a set of design principles for creating "information-typed" modules at a topic level and for using that content in delivery modes such as online help and product support portals on the Web.

Ref: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita1/

Metadata

Metadata is structured data which describes the characteristics of a resource. It shares many similar characteristics to the cataloguing that takes place in libraries, museums and archives. A metadata record consists of a number of pre-defined elements representing specific attributes of a resource, and each element can have one or more values

Ref:http://www.library.uq.edu.au/iad/ctmeta4.html

Semantic Web

the extension of the World Wide Web that enables people to share content beyond the boundaries of applications and websites. It has been described in rather different ways: as a utopic vision, as a web of data, or merely as a natural paradigm shift in our daily use of the Web. Most of all, the Semantic Web has inspired and engaged many people to create innovative semantic technologies and applications.

Ref:http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Main_Page

Web content management system (WCMS) is content management system (CMS) software, usually implemented as a Web application, for creating and managing HTML content. It is used to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of Web material (HTML documents and their associated images). A WCMS facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and many essential Web maintenance functions.

Usually the software provides authoring (and other) tools designed to allow users with little or no knowledge of programming languages or markup languages to create and manage content with relative ease of use.

A WCMS allows non-technical users to make changes to an existing website with little or no training. A WCMS typically requires an experienced coder to set up and add features, but is primarily a Web-site maintenance tool for non-technical administrators.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_content_management_system

P. S.: Comments on the style, the structure, anything you do not like about the blog are welcomed and thank you! 

HW #5 – Article 2

Article title:

Web 3.0: When Intelligent Applications Take Over

Link: http://www.olivarkamprojo.com/web-30-when-intelligent-applications-take-over/

The author, Olivar Kamprojo, thought that Web 3.0 would be a transition phase and introduction of "intelligent Applications" — the applications that knew how you work, adapted to your workflow, came up suggestions of website that you might want to visit for ideas. He then actually showed the following examples:
Baspin by Mozilla, Lovely Chart, iWork from Apple, bubble.us and etc.

Commentary

I strongly recommend the class to read this article and find out the examples that the author listed. This is because if you want to study the Web, you need to know what is the newest trends in the industry, or what might be the next thing that everyone will get into.

P. S.: Comments on the style, the structure, anything you do not like about the blog are welcomed and thank you!

HW Assignment 2-2

Title:

Explanation of my research process

It depends on what is the research for, and definitely the time that I have to finish the project.

First of all, I go to YouTube website, looking for some short video lessons in order to get a quick understanding of the title. For example, there are several short interesting video clips about Web 2.0, in YouTube. The one with the title "What is Web 2.0? — from ZDNet, hosted by Andi Gutmans from ZEND was a good one. He brought up the following terms: RIA (Rich Internet Applicatin), SOA (Search Oriented Architecture), and Web Services; in order to explain the principles of Web 2.0. They were: Web as a Platform, Harnessing Collective Intelligence, Data is the Next Intel Inside, and Rich User Experiences. The other recommended clips was "What is a Mashup?" from ZDNet as well, it really helped you to have a better understanding of what was going on in the web.

Secondly, I look for the definition of the terms from Wikipedia website, the great thing about this website is, there are links for each corresponding terms that lead to their own definition page, that really help me in understanding some "long tails" complicated terms. Then, if I need more references, I continue the research with Google or sometimes even del.ico.us. website.

P. S.: Comments on the style, the structure, anything you do not like about the blog are welcomed and thank you!