Particularly annoying to me is youtube and its "upload" link. No matter how many times I visit youtube to upload a video (which is fairly frequently), it takes ages (at least, internet "ages") to find that upload link. For the sake of my pride, I'm going to insist that it's strangely and inconveniently located. Here's a screenshot:
this is at the very top of my profile page. Reading from right to left, "upload" is the last item on the list, and this list of links is very small and not very noticeable when compared with the bright colors and giant buttons on the rest of the page. The drop-down list under my username is also completely unhelpful, as it leads to items that are located on that main page anyway. This seems silly, and maybe I'm splitting hairs, but it drives me crazy every time I try to navigate my youtube page. This, I think, illustrates my point. Possibly I should bring my brains when I'm online, but I (apparently) don't always. The internet has made us impatient, and we want websites to do our thinking for us. Good, bad, or indifferent, web designers would be wise to take this into consideration.
Your reading posts seem complete, contain examples, and contribute to intellectual conversation. Yay!
ReplyDeleteThe comparison made between the internet and overlooking an obvious button, or pushing a door that says pull, is interesting. We attribute missing the obvious in our daily lives to having a "bad" day, but we expect not to think, when using the internet, on all days.
I agree, it's funny how people have become so accustomed to have everything readily available. I like the term “internet ages”. Have you ever seen someone stand in front of a door thinking it will automatically open for them? Or people who didn’t realize coffee was hot and sued McDonalds for spilling their coffee when they didn’t write “CUATION HOT” It’s almost the same deal. If it’s not obviously present than it may as well consider itself invisible to the general public. I’ve never had to upload a video, but I fall into similar patterns and think of how I would reorganize websites so the buttons are where I believe they should be. Maybe one day a website will make those options available? Who knows!
ReplyDeleteps; You seem to be up to date.
ReplyDeleteThe links at the top of the home page are still under construction, but do not contain classwork.
good job.
You would think that the upload button would be somewhere easy to find, since that is one of the primary functions of youtube.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy how you use screen shots in most of your posts. It really strikes home your examples, and gives the reader some real concrete evidence as to what you're saying. Your posts altogether seem to be there, with some very good thoughts and discussion for every one to read up on.
I was skeptical of Weinberger's projection of a Wikipedia reader for some of the reasons you talked about. He assumes a thoughtful reader whereas Krug emphasizes that web users don't want to think. How do we reconcile these two? Through mandated digital literacy education? To the extent that digital literacy is visual literacy--which McCloud and the poemsthatgo folks say has been undervalued as anti-intellectual....then what position does that leave in? That was not a very elegant construction. What does that "admission" do for my credibility? Should I have put a box at the top of my response to you that says: "Warning: this blog comment is a little inarticulate."
ReplyDelete