Discussion Leader Reflection

Online credibility is an interesting topic, and the article I read is more interesting. Just like what I said, I haven’t thought that trust can be measured. So I had a good time reading the article. Unfortunately, that article is just a research report and didn’t get any conclusion about the trust. In my opinion, that article is not really useful for us, but the concept is still interesting. At least, there is an online trust model for me to realize the theory.

The presentation this time was a good experience for me. After all, I can say what I want to say though there weren’t many stuffs, but I felt there was good interaction with the audiences. The outside article is the easiest part actually, because credibility is a hot topic of the online safety. I just picked up the article with the most interesting title: What makes Web sites credible? It was lucky that the article had its conclusion of how to make site look believable.

It is good to let everyone know what you have found out. So I shared my point of view, and others shared theirs. I think this is discussion leader’s mission.

Week 8: Online Credibility

“Measuring Online Trust of Websites” is an interesting article for me because I haven’t thought that “trust” can be measured. In the article, I find the credibility doesn’t just indicate the information is true or not, or I can say, what we trust doesn’t equal to what is true. However, if we want to tell the truth, we should get users’ trust first. Even if the content is true, users may not trust it when the website design makes them feel uncomfortable.

So, the author used the model to show the relationship between each factors.

The external factor mean the wrap of the content such as the design, structure, or interface of the website. It affects the ease of use directly, and then influences how users feel about the site. Finally, they decide the site is believable or not.

The author conducted the survey to gather the data of how people trust the website with this model, but he didn’t tell how we improve the design. In the other article I found which title is “What makes Web sites credible?,” it also did an experiment and got several factors that affect the credibility. They are real world feel, ease of use, expertise, trustworthiness, tailoring, commercial implications, and amateurism. So, if we convey the real world aspect, make website easy to use, include expertise and trustworthiness, tailor experience, and avoid commercial element or amateurism, we can make the website be more believable.

Reference
B. J. Fogg, Jonathan Marshall, Othman Laraki, Alex Osipovich, Chris Varma, Nicholas Fang, Jyoti Paul, Akshay Rangnekar, John Shon, Preeti Swani, Marissa Treinen. (2001) What makes Web sites credible?: a report on a large quantitative study. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems CHI ‘01. 61-68. Retrieved May 12, 2007, from ACM Digital Library http://portal.acm.org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/citation.cfm?id=365037&
coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=18434106&CFTOKEN=11067319.

My comment to Flash

I agree that Flash has its power to make webpage more beautiful than HTML. When I use Dreamweaver to edit a HTML webpage, that is really a hard work because HTML is not based on the graphic interface. To make a HTML webpage like Flash, it takes a long time and many efforts. As an editor, maybe Flash is better than HTML. (Because I haven’t used Flash before.) However, as an user, I like HTML more.

Do you know what I hate Flash the most? I cannot right click on it!

Do you know what that means? If I can’t right click, I can never know where the page actually is. I cannot get the individual page’s URL. I cannot quote the text in the page. I cannot save the graphics which I like. My action will be limited all the time. And what more, every flash page needs to download before viewing it. When I come, it downloads. When I click a tag, it downloads. If the page is very fancy, it may take another time to show its effect. That bothers me so much!

In this case, I will say Flash is not able to build a large scale website. Because each Flash page doesn’t have its URL, we cannot get into the certain page immediately. Once we leave the page, we have to search it from entrance again. This means that the use of Flash is limited too. If the scale of Flash website is large, user must get lost and unable to use “last page” to get back.

So, here is my discuss question: In what genre do we need to use Flash? In which case Flash is better than HTML?

About storytelling

Recently, I created my new blog and I’m trying to make it look interesting. I don’t view webpage very much, so it is hard for me to know how much viewers like my blog, but I know the tempo of the page is very important for viewing. I would like to tell lots of my story, so there is my own style of the text stucture (in Chinese.)

I have to say, I like to tell story very much. It is like to explain some phenomenons in the world, and that is interesting for me. But sometimes I don’t know what to say if I’m not really understand it, so I think that it is important to know more about what one wants to say. Many people say that talking is a kind of art, and I totally agree with this point. Because it is art, so there are some people like one’s speech, and some people don’t. If we cannot satisfy everyone, then we will choose what most people like, and that could be a good storytelling. The point in the article is useful. However, I don’t think everyone can be a good storyteller with just read these points. To improve the writing skill, one should read more and more. My uncle tought me that if I want to be humorous, pretent the ways what humorous people do. So I think that to be a good storyteller, learning the article or people that is interesting is the best way.

So, here’s my discuss question: What is the way you learn to tell story? And can the way be applied to the web storytelling?

Details of my site

I think the research on the change from Google is interested for me, so I will take this topic. What I am thinking is that it is some kind of the introduction in the cyberspace, so maybe it is hard to present by video. (Or I can find some films from youtube.) Basicly, the content of my site will be most of text and some pictures. There will be three or four pages to show the past, present, and future; that is B.G., A.G., and what it wants to do now.

Actually, Google now is not just a searching engine. It tends to do everything, just like Gmail, Google document, Google scholar, Google function bar, Google blah blah…. And also, Google bought the youtube and Blogger. There is a Google kingdom in the cyberworld and it is going to control anything. I think that Google is so powerful that we cannot ignore the other function now. In this case, I’m affraid that doing every change from Google will be to large, so I will focus on the searching method.

First, I will depict how people get their information, from guides or their friends. Second, I will introduce  a little about what Google is and its history, and how it changes people’s searching behaviors. I think I will talking about the other Google functions, too. The number of page depends on how long it will be, but I expect it will be three or four pages. Every page will have pictures or photos.

If the content above is not enough, I can change the topic from “how Google changes the searching behavior” to “how Google changes everything,” and that could be an introduction of Google history.

Analyze Assignment

Entertainment Promo :
Sideways
The navigation is clear and the design looks funny. However, I don’t like it make me have to click “↓” button to read all contents. Especially the window for the story is small so that we have to click it many times. There should be a way to show them all without making reader scroll it. In my thought, the promotion website shouldn’t make the text too hard to read, or I will say, this site use too much animation. This design very bothers me, but I won’t get lost in this site.

IMDB
I don’t like this kind of design because I totally don’t know what to do when I come into this page. There is a poster of Spider Man 3 so I thought that this may be a page for it, but I’m wrong. I even don’t want to click any link because I may get lost. I will say that this webpage is too complicate for me to use.

Grey’s Anatomy
As a promotion webpage, I think this site is very great. The navigator is clear and the structure of the page makes me feel comfortable. In the story telling part, it lets reader control the length of the article. I can find all kind of data here, and it is more functional than last two sites. I have a good experience with this site.

What are these patterns?

When I saw the pictures in the article, I thought that they are maybe some patterns about the content. I didn’t think they are the patterns of a kind of design. That’s interesting. But I cannot figure out how to apply them; I may need some examples because I don’t know some of the patterns really work or not.

The website I see usually has it’s topic, has navigators, and put the content in the center. Maybe this design becomes the stander that makes it in everywhere. When a website use some unique patterns, I’m not sure if they confuse the reader or not. Just like the pattern Montage, the small window looks like the bothering popping advertisement. The pattern Tangle also seems not necessary for me. In the four entrances example, I will hesitate about which entrance to click and what are the differences. Of course I just mean it’s not necessary but not mean it’s useless. If the website want to make some different, these patterns may be interesting ideas. But, they shouldn’t influence the reading.

I have this opinion because I have totally used to the pattern now. Or say, it has been developed. Maybe this article is old so they have many ideas different from now, or I just didn’t find out these patterns. If there are some examples, it will be easier for me to understand if these pattern are useful or not.

Individual story proposal

About the ifdividual story this quarter, I have two ideas. One is the changes from Google. Before Google (or B.G.), people found their information from TV, radio, and other media. Sometimes they used internet, but it wasn’t faster than asking their friends. At that time, the library was the most efficient way to find out any data or information. But now we have Google, and the way to search changed. Besides the searching engine, Google tries to be more functional and change everything. The other idea is how blog or wiki brings the personal publish period. With blog, anyone can show himself to the world, and it change the way how people know each other.

I have these two options, and I will pick one up for my individual story. I’m not sure the story will be like a fiction or a research, but I will try to let it be readable.

The choice of the group story

In the group project, I would like to choose “Seattle,” because I’m more interested in what Seattle has. I think telling the food or restaurant in the Seattle is a good topic. Introducing the scenery or scenic spots is also a good idea. I want to do this maybe because I want to know more about this city. I can visit these places and have some stories about them, but I’m not sure if researching on all spots or restaurant in Seattle will be too hard or not. If so, we can narrow down the places. Anyway, I’m interested in this kind of topics.

Readability assignment

1. The Gift of the Magi
     http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/magi.html
     Passive Sentences                 7%
     Flesch Reading Ease             72.3
     Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level     6.4

2. Glut of cute films fails to animate audiences
     http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/glut-of-cute-films-fails-to-animate-audiences/2006/10/03/1159641324205.html
     Passive Sentences                 8%
     Flesch Reading Ease             52.0
     Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level    11.0

3. Viral strategies for content creation
    http://www.aftrsmedia.com/digimedia/?p=52
     Passive Sentences                29%
     Flesch Reading Ease             53.3
     Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level    11.1