Trap. The combination of the genres of trance and rap usually through sound mixing and editing, has become a staple of parties and festival shows. They share similar use of synth, heavy base and spoken words to create music.
When we talked in class about usability and the internet, it sounded like the conclusion as to what makes a usable website is simplicity. Creating a website to serve a very obvious purpose is the key to usability.
Every day we are faced with multiple typefaces: the good, the bad and the ugly. Some help us to read faster and more clearly, some to invoke a specific feeling or emotion, all the while persuading us to do something (or buy something).
... and how clashing implications continue to shape our reactions to these colors.

Depending on the region and cultural upbringing, one may have different connotations associated with the colors black, white, and red.


In our recent discussions of usability of websites, I can’t help but want to critique the website of Pine Lake Pastures, where I take horse riding lessons.  The site, www.pinelakepastures.com, does not violate many of the top ten no-no’s that we learned about, but it does have a lot of ambiguity, typo errors, and things that just plain don’t make sense.

 Cheri, the owner and trainer, does not hide her prices at all which is a good thing according to Jakob Nielsen’s list.  In fact her prices are the first thing that opens up when you visit the site.  The prices listed are vague and confusing to the reader, however, which hinders understanding.  See the image below of her pricing section.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

More questions are raised in the site’s “The Herd” and “For Sale” sections.  “Slider”, a horse, is listed in both sections. Slider’s age is not listed however in the “For Sale” posting, and as I look at the posting of him in “The Herd” section, it says he is ten years old and the post was written in March, 2012.  That means that Slider is really now 11 years old and so her posting is miss-leading if the reader pays no attention to the date it was posted.  Furthermore, an interested buyer that perhaps saw him in the “For Sale” section would not know the horse’s age unless they stumbled upon him in “The Herd” section as well.  It is my opinion that these small issues do affect the site’s usability because a reader is not able to obtain a clear answer while browsing the two sections of the site. 


(Please note:  The last three pictures in this post will not let me enlarge them as the first one has.  I am perplexed by this and have fought with "Blogger" for a while now trying to make them bigger.  I give up.  Perhaps one could argue about the usability of this site?)
 
 
 
 
 
 
In the section of the site called “Meet the trainer”, it is stated that Cheri has a business degree, which is meant to boost her Ethos.  Cheri takes an Ethos hit however, due to many misspellings or grammatical errors throughout her entire web page.  For example above, Cheri says “Slider is one of my favorite horse at the farm”.  In the “Meet the trainer” section too, there is a grammatical error which makes the reader stumble.  The second sentence reads “…back in college when she learn to ride”.   It is ironic to me that even with a business degree, her page is far from perfect.
 
 
 
I have been going to Cheri for several weeks now for riding lessons, and have been trying to figure out how to someday mention to her that I am going to school for Technical Communication, and I could help spruce up her web page for her.  How does one make such a suggestion without hurting someone’s feelings and undermining their education or sense of concern for detail regarding their business?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
0

Add a comment

When talking about the ethics and rhetoric of data displays in class, I brought up the example of geographic information system (GIS) and their technique of interpolation.
"The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint" makes the assertion that:

The core ideas of teaching- explanation, reasoning, finding

things out, questioning, content, evidence, credible authority not patronizing

authoritarianism-are contrary to the cognitive style of PowerPoint.
When I first pulled out Tufte's packet on Power Point, it looked like one of the most boring texts on the planet. 30 pages on the style of Power Point? But as I read, I started to see his point and even found myself laughing at certain parts (talking about the “stupefied audience”).
Since media technology has advanced past the typewriter, the capabilities of visual, and eventually digital, rhetoric using images have grown exponentially. By appealing to different human attitudes and emotions, digital images have the ability of persuasion and gaining compliance alike.
Often referred to as graffiti, tagging, or more negatively as vandalism, street-art has been around for 40ish years as it was birthed in the 70 but only gained a real popularity in the mid-80’s.
Blog Archive
Loading
Dynamic Views theme. Powered by Blogger. Report Abuse.