Western Washington's Website

The XKCD comic is pretty accurate, but that is because most people who regularly venture onto a university website have these specific reasons. I think the designers of these websites understand that and think that these consistent users will know how to navigate the page and ignore the “junk” that litters the homepage. For example, I know to either use the search toolbar (now that WSU has improved it) or one of the links which quickly directs me to the area I am wanting. 

I looked at Western Washington University’s website and was rather surprised. For one, our WSU website is much more appealing to the eye and to someone who is searching for an important looking school. However, Western’s site is very straight forward. It appears to be kind of cluttered with links, but each link actually has significance relevance to the main users of the site. Right away a person can find where to pay bills, register for classes, academics, job postings and school news. With all of this on the home page the user is not left trying to find ways around a littered website. Everything is right at their finger tips and in plain sight. WSU’s website does a good job of concealing a lot of this “clutter” to make it look appealing and professional, but just by first glace I would assume that Western’s website would be easier to navigate.

Responses to Chapter 1

1.       Visual Mode: The two main visual differences I see between the two Twitter profiles are the color and the profile pictures. I find that the color layout of the profile on the right is more eye catching and more efficiently directs my attention. The profile on the left, makes my eyes wonder a little bit and makes the profile seems choppy. Neither pictures give me a sure sense of confidence; however, between the two I would say the real life person picture (on the left) seems more creditable. In the same breath that might allow audiences to judge, where the panda picture has the idea of anonymousness, which helps me understand the idea of having a pen name. I can’t really guess what either of these two accounts could use twitter for nor why. I’m new to twitter so as of right now I don’t have a picture, but the idea of a “pen picture” so to speak seems kind of alluring. I chose the travel template just because that is my main goal. I think once I have time to mess with the website I might change it up to something that appears more attractive to my senses and something that suits my personality.

2.       Aural Mode: I listened to this video without watching it. I simply hear almost elevator music and a calm, yet informative woman’s voice. Honestly, it really bored me and I started to zone out on what she was saying. I’m really not sure what kind of music should have been used instead; however, I can say that getting the right human voice for some kind of add is huge! Even with things like documentaries I think the voice can either make or break it. My favorite voice is Morgan Freeman.

3.       Spatial Mode: My eyes would immediately go to the pictures changing on the home screen. However, then I would see that none of those have anything to do with what I’m searching for and would quickly look through the main links, which then would lead me to a direction I was intending (and further on) until I reach what I wanted. Honestly, how WSU has their website layout, it is pretty easy to try and get to where you want to go. It almost breaks it down into a tree. The trunk would be the home page and then whichever link you click would be the major branch you follow up until you break off again and again until you find the particular leave (in this analogy). If things were switched up, I would simply have to get used to it and redirect the path a laid out in my head and follow the new one set up for me.

4.       Gestural Mode: I watched Obama’s Weekly Addressed from August 20, 2011. I find Obama very reassuring. His face is calm but engaged. He does not blink to much where you would mistrust him, and he has a slight smile on his face. Nothing that would make him seem like a brown-noser or an idiot, but someone who is confident with what he is saying and personable. His hand gestures are kind of cut off; however, you can see him using them and it makes you engaged, because he is making his talking more animated and welcoming. It is nice to have a president who is competent and who does not look down and say um every other sentence.

Multimodal vs. Multimedia?

Before reading: I feel like there has to be a difference between the two words, because you grouped the two together and they sound/appear so similar. I also think that they are correlated in some manner. (And I love the picture, lolcats!)

I think multimodal is similar to multimedia; however, multimodal seems more like something that could be depicted in every day form of communication. By talking to a friend, writing a blog, listening to music or watching a dancer. It is connecting the style of communication to something more along the lines of human emotion. We might not understand exactly how someone’s tone can either raise our spirits or leave a stinging mark, but majority wise a person’s human nature can pick up on these slight cues. Maybe that is more how I would describe multimodal, as an awareness to everyday cues around you and how you first instinctively react to them (and then if you’re a major girl) then try to explain the rational as to the behavior and what your reaction should then be. (Could be quite a mess! But I think we do it every day and in every waking scenario, I’m sure some people might think there are ways we even do this in our sleep, etc. dreaming, sleep walking.) However, one thing is for sure, one multimodal form might not work as well as others. Thankfully there are plenty of forms to use!

Multimedia is somewhat simpler, because I think it is an idea that is thought out before being delivered. There are plenty of multimodal interactions that go on behind just one form of multimedia. Multimedia has a direct audience they are aiming at. It uses the idea of human emotion and tries to manipulate that to whatever way works best. Overall, I think multimedia uses/overlaps with multimodal methods.

I’m not sure if there is a way in which these two roles could be reversed?