Write Stripes

Welcome to our blog, Dr. Yancey. As everyone has already mentioned, we are working on a class project to highlight some of the issues current to the upcoming election. There have been several concerns that have come up when dealing with the project. One of those concerns is apathy among our student body. We feel that most students don't care enough about politics to get involved and be well informed. So, while doing our project this will be something that we will have to keep in consideration. Another cocern that we had was the actual bringing of the whole project. We want to make sure that each of our individual group sections of the project are brought together cohesively as a whole. This is the reason for our group liasons, as communication will be very important to the success of our project. There will be a lot of research involved with the project, but once the project is complete hopefully all our work will pay off.

Google

The website I chose is Google. I don't think that our site should look like google, nor do I think our site should be a search engine. But, discussing google can bring out some very important aspects of how our website should be. First of all, being the extremely powerful search engine that it is, Google has a very simple and clean, with an uncluttered layout which is very easy to navigate. It is nothing fancy, but it is very effective at what it does. They layout remains consistent throughout the navigation of the site. The colors remain the same, the font is consistent, the logo is sometimes obscure but visible. It doesnt have any fancy pictures or flash, yet it is still an extremely effective website. So the point is that for our website, we can keep it simple, consistent, and professional looking and it will still be an effective site. With a good basic layout, the focus can then be put on the content of the site and not the site itself.

www.thesimpsons.com

My objective when looking for a website, to sort of mimic, was to find something not too serious and something everyone could relate to. I figured that by using a cartoon, students' attention would be more able to be grasped. The mainpage opens with an enticing/captivating display for a Simpson's viewer. This display proves to be a simple way of relaxing the web user. It also forms as a simple intro where some music could also be played. Next the web user is taken to a site map which is literally a map. I thought that this was a clever way of bring together different topics to be examined. This would be where we brought together our four different topics. Once a topic is selected the web user is taken to a different page where pictures and text elaborate on the topic. I think pictures would be a great way of keeping the attention of the students. I like the relaxing environment (font, color, and theme) this website portrays.

Dr. Yancey,
Welcome to our class. The project we are working on, as I'm sure you already realize, is dedicated to informing students about what we feel are the major issues of the upcoming election. Since the previous blogs have focused on what we will be writing I will explain how we will be writing. We are divided into four groups each concentrating on its own issue, Patriot Act, HIV/AIDS, No Child Left Behind Act and campain finance reform. While each group researches and reports on their individual topic, the entire class will be designing a webpage to convey all our ideas to the student body. Each group has a liason and they meet periodically to discuss the progress of the final work. Things can get messy with all the necessary organization needed but these blogs can help in ironing out any fringes in the progress and allow Dr. Fishman to locate any possible problems. With the addition of you to our blog, I assume the entries will be more reflective and also more useful for the success of the project.

Hey Dr. Yancey, it’s great to have you here. I guess the class project is, as you’ve probably gathered, an attempt to take some of the more obscure and misunderstood political going-on’s and present them coherently and fully on a website. From the posts below it seems we’re starting to look for a template or hero website for to model after.

On our site we’re going to have a lot of information and links on our topics, so a search option would be efficient, if anyone knows how to set that up. The fractal approach used by the ESPN website seems super well suited to our project too. The people our small group project sends there will have been sent by quick fliers or radio PSA’s, so I’m not sure how long they’ll click around before leaving if they don’t find some good dirt on someone quick.

Moving icons are always nice, so long as it doesn’t make the page look like a seizure. I’d love to see dancing donkeys or elephants, but I guess we’re supposed to stay more serious than that. Shucks… ::kicks dirt::

~tripp

Dr. Yancey, I would like to welcome you our class blog. We are currently working on a big class project that is dedicated to informing the students of Clemson University of some important issues of the 2004 presidential elections. Our group goal is to show Clemson University how different topics such as the Patriot Acts, No Child Left Behind Act, HIV/AIDS research, and campaign finance are important to college students. We plan to complete this goal by developing a voter's guide that will integrate all the projects into one big informational webpage. So far we have completed the development of small group proposals, a large class proposal, small group timelines, a class timeline, and group contracts. At this time in the project we are working within small groups collecting information on individual topics in order to contribute to the final webpage. The most important aspect of the project is the reaching our target audience and convincing them how our selected issues are relevant to them. Our webpage is the main way of accomplishing this goal but we are also planning to use other types of media such as flyers and PSAs in order to reach our audience.

Kristian Gordon

I was recently on espn.go.com and realized how easy it was to navigate through the web site. Because of all the sporting news that has to be covered, if the layout isn't user friendly than the site would be imposible to search. The main page is made up of the main topics, baseball, basketball, sports shop, college sports, womens sports....etc. Then after selecting a topic, for example baseball, you are directed to a new page that contains headings such as today's games, yesterday's scores and each team's site. I happenned to be looking for a particular game a found it in minutes. The graphics are also appealing and remain consistent throughout the search. I think it is important to bring up that I was on another website and found it cluttered and extremely difficult to navigate. This was the Clemson webpage. Try picking a destination and starting form the home page to find it. I was looking to apply to a job through the career center and needed to use a "help" icon to find what I was looking for. The site is vague and lists numerous links on each page. If our webpage resembles anything like the Clemson homepage no visitors will remain interested long enough to receive any information that we are putting out there.

http://www.cde.psu.edu/News/

After searching for some websites that would best represent our future website I came across Penn States Outreach webpage. I think that we should try to have a similar page. Although is doesn't have the fancy music or major JavaScript enhancements I think it colorful enough to catch the viewer's eye and lead them to further explore the page. The best aspect of this page that I would really like to see in our webpage design is how they list the title of a topic with a brief description below it and have the title as a link directly to another page where the actual article is found. Also, after clicking the link the next page with the actual article is formatted like a typical research paper, but I would suggest that we get away from the research paper look and make it more "reader friendly." Another aspect of the page that I think would look nice on our page is how they have links off to the left of other sites that people who visit the page might be interested in order to find more information on a subject. I think that having such options in our page will be a nice addition. The buttons that are listed across the top of the page are also cool ways that we could put in some information about the general topic of why it is important for college students to vote. Although, the graphics are slightly boring I think we could improve that aspect on our page by adding Clemson colors and icons. The tone of the page is fairly inviting, but I think that our page would need to be more catchy and have an introduction/welcome. When thinking about our webpage design abilities within the class I feel that we really could have a page that is similar to the page represented by Penn State.

Hello Dr. Yancey. Welcome to our class! Since these posts are supposed to build upon each other, I guess I can start by giving you a basic overview of our project. We are attempting to create a voter's guide for the upcoming 2004 elections. This guide is to target the students of Clemson University and address issues that are both relevant to them and important in the national/international scope. Included in our list of topics are the Patriot Acts, the No Child Left Behind Act, HIV/AIDs research, and campaign finance. We have divided into several groups to research each of these topics and will eventually put all information together into one collaborative work in the form of a class website. Currently, our primary concerns seem to be the collection and organization of the needed information and finding ways to integrate the project into a cohesive work.

harrypotter.warnerbros.com/home/html

I researched several different harry potter websites when I was looking for the one to add to my favorites list. This site defines engaging. It's the official website so of course the webpeople have more access to certain things which keep them on top of the news, but they did a good job of arranging it. Of course it is like a typical movie website; news, plot, character information, cast and production crew etc. The thing that I really enjoy is that it is really easy to get around. And of course all the pages have the same basic motif, but the individual pages are also well, individual. For example, the news webpage has the basic background but the news is presented with the links on a scroll, so it applies to news and writing and stuff. This website is a good example of how the designers kept everything really integrated but also let things be what they were (really different). We could utilize something similar in our website by having all the pages have the same format (like everybody has said) and then having the individual pages have a graphic component (I don't actually know if this can be done) that is similar but different (if that makes sense). As far as appealing to Clemson students visually, I agree about the Clemson colors and stuff like that. Cartoons always seem to draw people in too but I don't know how doable that is.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/waltdisneyworld/index?bhcp=1

Even though I had never been to this website before, for some reason it popped in my mind to look at it (Walt Disney World). Afterall, this website is funded by millionairres. And while our website will have a more serious tone, I think that it is an example of a very catchy website. As silly as this sounds, I was enthralled (slight exaggeration) by the way the way that the wand glitters as you move your mouse over the screen. My whole point in this is that it is catchy and well organized. And while our website won't have nearly so many links, Walt Disney's website provides links to just about anything related to Walt Disney. I think that it is also cool how you can choose the link that would most apply to you (past guest, recent guest, new guest, etc.). In other words, someone visiting the website would enter in a way that they are reading material relevent to them. I guess this would come to play in our website as we have separate links for Democrats and Republicans. As Kelly mentioned, color and graphics can play a good role in our website. As we are trying to make this appeal to Clemson students, it might be good to throw in some Clemson colors, etc. I know that the graphics on the Disney website really caught my attention. I wish that I had more time tonight to look for some more websites, but I will keep my eyes open.
-Ashley

Greetings all,

As promised (at your urging), I have invited Dr. Yancey to participate in this blog as a way of allowing us to benefit from her expertise in reflection. Since she is arriving "in the middle" I thought it would be good for you to address your second post this week to her, to help introduce her to us and our project. I ask that these posts build upon each other and that they try address what you think are the most important things about the project. Thank you.

http://www.clemson.edu

Ok, so it might seem a little lame to use the Clemson homepage as a model, but I think that it fits the format we are looking for in several ways. For example, the target audience for the Clemson page is primarily current or prospective students. That being said, the site is filled with graphics that illustrate all those things that might actually interest someone from that audience. Our site might do the same with graphics showing active college students or depictions of the awaiting future. Also, the Clemson homepage serves as a link to almost every phase of Clemson life (classes, scheduling, financial aid, recreation, deparments, meal plans, the list goes on...) and yet it manages to maintain a consistent feel for the site as cohesive unit. This is done through the obvious use of constant colors (namely orange, purple, and white) and a continuing theme of Clemson as school on the rise (2002 Public College of the Year). We could do the same with the color formatting and perhaps by having an overriding theme to the project (something along the lines of "The more you know..."). Finally, the actual format of the site would also seem conducive to the short attention spans of our target audience. The pages on the Clemson site are not large and filled with massive amounts of information. Instead the information is broken down and divided into hundreds of other small and more specific pages. This seems like a good idea for us because, as we all know, its extremely tedious and overwhelming to be confronted with 10 or more pages of information at a single time.

One of the things that several people have voiced concern about is the problem of making this site seem like a unified whole rather than a collection of 4 disparate web pages. There are several obvious things that can be done to address this including using uniform colors, fonts and layouts, but there are some less obvious (but just important) methods that include things like choosing a few "controlling metaphors," including graphics that have similar styles, and adopting a uniform tone. For this week, I'd like you each to identify a web site that has the kind of graphics, style, and tone that you think would be a good model (and explain why.) Since we didn't talk about this in class, I'm going to give you an example, but I want you to really think about what you would like, so I'm choosing one that would probably *not* be a good choice for your project. (Note that the comments I'm making are not applicable to your project either.):

http://www.lionhead.com/index2.html

This is a good model because the target audience would be drawn in by the music and opening graphic and may identify with the ninja metaphor. Once there (in the site), the controlling metaphor becomes space exploration and the promise of the future, which both appeals to the audience and relates to the subject matter. Moreover, the color schemes of blues and greys is comforting which balances out the tension created by the space guy in the Hawaiian shirt.

Again, this is just a starting place. When you identify sites that would actually be good models, you should have more in-depth comments about what exactly you would like to emulate.

In order to successfully inform students on our topic, it has to affect students on a daily basis. We feel that if students are not affected by our topic dramatically, the student will just brush off the issue as if it does not exist. The plan is to grasp the attention of the students by opening with a statement such as "Big Brother is Watching." Once the attention of the students is obtained then our group feels that our topic is relevant enough to maintain their attention. We feel this is the key to successfully informing on our topic. The problem is that it is difficult to obtain the attention of students because of the many other things they have going on. Our objective is to show that our topic should influence their daily activities and that they should take a stand on how our topic influences these activities.
Curtis, Matt, Robert

I never saw the post regarding what surprising information we have learned about our topic, so here is my response. As a Food Science and Human Nutrition major, I have learned quite a bit of surprising information throughout some of my classes. We had the only HIV/AIDS nutritionist specialist in the state conduct a presentation for my Medical Nutrition Therapy class last semester. This presentation encouraged me to later follow up with this woman through job shadowing with her at the HIV/AIDS clinic in Greenville. Through these experiences, I became much more informed about recent issues regarding the disease. For instance, nowadays HIV and AIDS are not solely viewed upon as terminal illnesses. If someone is diagnosed during the early stages and they are disciplined in terms taking their medications on time each day, it is possible for them to live for many more years than in the past. As AIDS is a fairly new disease, researchers are only beginning to see the effects of those born with AIDS in the generation that is being born right now. As of 2002, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that in the US, there are somewhere between 850,000 to 950,000 US residents with existing HIV infections. To make matters worse, about 25% of these people are unaware that they even have the infection. In addition, about 40,000 new infections occur each year in the US (70% men/ 30% women). Of these newly infected people, half are younger than 25 years of age.
-Ashley