This site is designed to peel away the layers of theory that come between teachers
and students and show what students are capable of when given the opportunity.
New technologies should enable learning, and it is a teacher's job to make that
happen.
Embedded visuals are just the first step. As other elements become available, instructors must be
prepared to address their integration into hypermedia projects. For example, I am
extremely interested in interactivity on the web. How would an interactive element
that the student created function in an argument? Questions like this will continue to
emerge as the Internet metamorphoses into something *completely different.*
I would also like to note why I didn't discuss use of video or sound as
rhetorical elements in design (though the topic is embedded visuals).
I agree that video clips and sound are just as important as a good image
when used appropriately. However, our lab disk space is limited and those
formats can be very large. I am currently teaching an American Literature
(American Literature: The HyperNarrative) course
where I am emphasizing hypermedia development. The class builds in
the multimedia authoring
environment of Macromedia
Director and we will be burning a CD of the project at the end of the
semester. Part of the project will be converted to Shockwave for the web.
I have included a list of recommended sources. I also have an annotated list of external links mentioned within this article.
Enjoy.
- Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten
Mistakes in Web Design
- Patrick Lynch's Web Style
Manual. It contains
a terrific annotated bibliography (and I don't want to repeat his work here).
- Teaching Critical Evaluation Skills for World Wide Web
Resources. Two librarians
at Wolfgram Memorial Library at Widener University put this together. Great Resource.
- Reader as User: Applying Interface Design Techniques
to the Web. An article in
Kairos by Karen McGrane Chauss that clarifies some of the theory behind design.
- User Interface Design for Sunsoft's Site.
- Net Tips for Writers and Designers.
- Rethinking More of Web. Daniel Schwabe's response to TidBITs redesign.
- Garzotto, Franca, Luca Mainetti and Paolo Paolini. "Hypermedia Design, Analysis and Evaluation Issues." Communications of the ACM. August 1995: 74-87.
- Gould, Eric Justin. "Empowering the Audience: The Interface as a Communications Medium." Interactivity. Sept./Oct. 1995: 86-88.
(He's written some terrific articles in Interactivity magazine although I may be a bit biased since he's on my dissertation committee).
- Hawisher, Gail E. and Paul LeBlanc, eds.
Re-Imaging Computers and Composition: Teaching and Research in the Virtual Age. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1992.
- McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993.
- Mullet, Kevin and Sano, Darrell. Designing Visual Interfaces. NJ: Sunsoft Press, 1995.
- Bieber, Michael and Tomas Isakowitz, eds. Hypermedia Applications. Communications of the ACM. [On-Line Journal]. (http://www.acm.org/siglink/) August 1995.
- Wurman, Richard Saul. Information Architects. (Peter Bradford, Ed.) Zurich, Switzerland: Graphis Press, 1996. This is a new book
that contains a number of excellent examples of design for informational purposes. One of my favorites, the Agfa Digital Color Prepress Guide is mentioned in here.
There is one major drawback to this text-if you are visually impaired, it may be difficult to read. Most of the backgrounds are black with
unemphasized type in the foreground.
- Edward Tufte is another must read. Most of the publications mentioned above owe a great deal to Tufte's groundbreaking works.