WRT 350 Course Guide: Responses to Readings I

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Responses to Readings I

1. In the Yale Style Manual's summary of Visual Design for the User Interface Part 1, Patrick Lynch declares that human interface design will shortly become the activity of many biocommunications professionals.

2. In the introduction to the Interface Design section of his manual, Patrick Lynch states that it took years after the year for page numbering, tables of contents, and title pages to become routine features of printed books.

3. Of the dream jobs listed at the Hot Wired site, which one sounds most appealing to you? What’s one qualification for that job that you don’t have now but which the WRT 350 course may move you toward?

4. In Revealing the Elephant, Alan Kay talks about three kinds of thinking. List them, please.

a.

b.

c.

5. Take a look at Figure 7 in Section 4 Objects / Actions Interface Model of Schneiderman’s Web Usability. Compare the Task side and the Interface side of the model. As you go from left to right along the steps, note how the intention gradually gets accomplished. Here are some applications:

If you intend to win a basketball game, these are the steps to take.

If you intend to help a client, these are the steps to take.

Note that every couple of steps moves you to the next stage (the middle ovals) of your intention. Please complete a sentence in the same pattern for the interface side:

If you plan to …

If you

And apply it to the Web site you took us on a tour of. Don’t try to write a statement that applies to the whole site. Pick one specific click and work your way back up the model.

Here’s an example of what I want you to do. If I answered this question in terms of our course web, I’d say:

If you plan to learn information tailoring, you should click on the link for Patrick Lynch’s manual to read about how to integrate text and graphics.

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last update: May 02, 1998
by Douglas Anderson
http://toLearn.net/infodesign/cdstexts.htm