When I started this blog, I wanted it to take the form of a casual yet mature conversation with you, the reader. I wanted it to be fun, light and informative. Hopefully this has been achieved, and if not, leave a comment and I’ll be sure to keep your feedback in mind.

I have learnt so much through this journey. My previous blogging experience was limited to personal ramblings and photographs – this was of a more analytical and professional nature. It was a challenging process, but a process worth going through, if only for the knowledge I’ve gained from researching issues related to publication and design.

I have learnt about the various blogging communities, and that the most popular blogs have a core focus. I used to write in a disparate manner, but this journey has forced me to focus on one topic – publication and design. And I can now see the benefits of tightening the laser – my blog now has a definite aim and a unique selling point!

Image source: http://www.t4group.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/blogging.gif

I may or may not continue updating this space. I have a busy schedule that requires me to be away from home five days a week, without an Internet connection. However, one thing’s certain – now, I will definitely not think as blogs merely as spaces for selfish ranting. Instead, I see it as an avenue for knowledge sharing.

I look forward to engaging with you further in the future. Thank you for joining me on this wonderful journey.

Image : Same publication, different media
Source: http://www.backpackinglight.com/backpackinglight/images/items/SUBSCRIBEfinal3.jpg

These days, it is second nature for people to get their information from their Internet. Gone are the days where you’d have to walk all the way to a news agent and hand out some shillings to the newspaper man – now, all you have to do is to go to a news website to get your daily (or hourly, or up-to-the-minute) news fix.

Major newspapers (and increasingly even smaller ones) now have corresponding websites. For example, the expensive International Herald Tribune provides free news on its web site, and so does the Today tabloid. People are taking to the Internet as a source of news like fleas to honey. To capitalise on this, media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced last year [1] that he’s planning to charge for access to online news produced by his News Corporation network. Some, like The Straits Times, already charge for this.

The online versions of newspapers generally contain value-added content such as videos and slideshows. That being said, print versions generally contain additional in-depth opinion pieces. So it’s not merely a case of shoveling information from print to the web – a lot of work goes into creating distinct yet unified experiences for users.

The exploration of new media by the print industry is not just limited to web sites. More attention is increasingly being paid to mobile content. For example, the Sun [2] and The Straits Times have launched newspaper ‘apps’ for the Apple iPad and iPhone respectively. These ‘apps’ allow users to get in touch with the news via these devices.

However, this is not to say that print as a news medium would die out completely. What  is happening is that print and the web dovetail nicely, giving readers an all-rounded reading experience. In fact, a recent survey by Canada’s Newspaper Audience Databank reveals that the ‘Internet is not supplanting newspapers’ print editions’. [3]

References:
[1] Lauria, P 2009, ‘Charge for news: Murdoch plans to be paid for digital content’, New York Post, 12August 2009, viewed 16 June 2010, <http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/item_y0tbNGjATrDI2HesmwbguO;jsessionid=694D28E3E00E111A3004.531B5720D9F6>
[2] Sun newspaper App for iPad with page 3 topless models 2010, D’Technology Weblog, viewed 16 June 2010, <http://www.ditii.com/2010/06/16/sun-newspaper-app-for-ipad-with-page-3-topless-models/>.
[3] Mills, D 2009, ‘Online not replacing print news, data show’, National Post 26 March, p. A2.

Bangladesh has finally lifted the ban on Facebook [1] after blocking access to it for a week.

Facebook is a social networking giant based in the United States

The impoverished country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission ordered its international gateway providers to allow the web site on Bangladeshi internet accounts after the company agreed to remove all ‘blasphemous’ and obnoxious material.

This follows the lifting of the ban in Pakistan [2], which, in addition to Facebook, also blocked YouTube and 1, 200 other web sites.

Both countries, which are predominantly Muslim, temporarily cut off access to these web sites because the sites hosted images of the Prophet Mohammed. Thousands of demonstrators demanded Facebook to be banned for spreading ‘anti-Islamic propaganda’.

Video: Facebook ban ordered by Pakistan court, 19 May 2010
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ten-h-fBIWw

In addition to Bangladesh and Pakistan, Facebook has been banned intermittently by China, Iran and Vietnam.

The reason for banning web sites seems to be due to cultural insensitivity. When designing and managing online and print publications, all effort has to be taken to ensure cultural sensitivity [3]. However, on a social networking platform, this would be very difficult. The onus, therefore, lies on individual account holders and the web community to ensure that offensive material is properly dealt with.

However, banning publications for the sole reason of preventing dissenting views is counterproductive to the creation of a progressive, globalised society. It has the effect of feeding the populace one point of view, which may perhaps lead them to become more extreme in their way of thinking.

Read a Bangladeshi blogger’s views on the Facebook ban here.

Reference:
[1] Channel NewsAsia.com 6 June 2010, ‘Bangladesh lifts Facebook ban’, viewed 7 June 2010, <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/1061355/1/.html>.
[2] AsiaOne News 20 May 2010, ‘Pak court orders Facebook ban till 31 May’, viewed 7 June 2010, <http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20100520-217406.html>.
[3] Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for teaders, Wiley Computer, New York.

The Pearson Education business dictionary defines IMC as ‘the process a company adopts in order to integrate and coordinate its messages and media to deliver, clear reinforcing communication’.

What has this got to do with design? Simple. Take a look at McDonalds. Their brand is unified and strong, and the imagery is consistent across all media platforms (print, online and broadcast). Think McDonalds and the golden arches and the tagline, ‘i’m lovin’ it’, comes to mind.

Image source: http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/mcdonalds1.jpg

Another example is Nike. The stylised tick and ‘Just Do It’ tagline are synonymous with the company – one does not even have to see the word ‘Nike’ to know what the tick and tagline refer to.

Image source: http://www.cims.nyu.edu/~perkins/writtenF09/nike-just-do-it.jpg

These companies also use the same tone in their copy text, same colour palatte, same imagery, same vibe, etc. to communicate a lifestyle to their target consumers. It takes a long time to build brand recognition, and publication design is instrumental in ensuring that. Non uniform and constantly changing designs can lead to confusion and irritation: take, for instance, the prestigious design school Ravensbourne College’s new logo, which has attracted ire from students and faculty:

Image: Former Ravensbourne College logo
Source: http://www.studioleung.com/jpegs/New%20website/News/Ravensbourne_College_logo.jpg

Image: New Ravensbourne College logo
Source: http://learn.rave.ac.uk/moodle/theme/Ravensbourne/RavensbourneLogo.jpg

Both logos share nothing in common and communicate different messages about the college. There is no continuity, which can result in the Ravensbourne brand being confused and diluted.

See how important design is?

Think ‘school’ and images of books, lecture notes and pages and pages of essays come to mind. Hardly tantalising stuff.

But with the advent of new media, there has been a concerted exploration of new teaching methods and modalities. No longer is the student made to wallow through never-ending pages of notes and countless tomes. No longer does the student need to beaver away at taking down notes during lectures. Today’s students can easily access videotaped lectures, multimedia demonstrations and audio recordings of lesson material through avenues such as iTunes U and YouTube Education – for free. Assessment has also followed the paper-to-web trend – now, students are assessed on online platforms in addition to the traditional pen-and-paper methods.

Image source: http://nicka77.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/youtube_edu_lg2.jpg

These new forms of teaching and learning supplement the print medium and pre-Internet modes such as ‘instructional television, films, listening laboratories, programmed instruction, special multimedia facilities, transparencies for overhead projection, telephone applications to instruction, simulation…’. [1]

Not only do these new avenues educate students of the producers’ respective students, they also inform people from all over the world. One only needs an Internet connection to enjoy the lectures and audio clips. This is truly globalisation in the knowledge age.

Reference:
[1] Zumberge, JH 1970, ‘Review: New media and college teaching’, Journal of Higher Education, vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 417-419.

Ever encountered web sites which serve up broken links – links that lead to pages that simply do not exist, links that make you go ‘Arghh!’ and want to kill yourself?

We all have.

Broken links are not only annoying for the user, they also project a poor image of the author of the website and the organisation to which he/she belongs. Poor navigation design can be the make-or-break element of your web site. Imagine rushing to apply to university at the last minute, only to find out that the application link leads to one of those ’404′ pages. That happened to me, and it took me more than a couple of martinis and a few buffalo wings to stabilise myself.

If you’re a web designer, chances are that your web sites have fallen prey to this disease. Which if why I come armed with tips. After all, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!

1. Create an attractive 404 page, like the one at the start of this post. This lends a personalised feel to the web site and, in extension, the organisation. Of course, the message and form of the page should suit the tone of the web site and the organisation.

2. In the 404 page, add contact details and an invitation for the user to alert the webmaster about the page error. This would allow all such errors to be promptly addressed, and projects a good image of the web site and the organisation.

3. Test your web site constantly and create a sitemap – a page that shows how each individual page of the web site connects with each other. This would help users find their way should they get lost.

For more tips, read the following:
1. How to create a custom 404 File Not Found page

2. A custom 404 page

3. Enhance the look of your WordPress 404 page

People who blog are called ‘bloggers’, and the environment in which they collectively contribute is called the ‘blogosphere’. There are hundreds of millions of blogs that talk about a variety of topics and serve many different purposes. The blogosphere can be likened to the society of the ‘real world’, where people of all stripes and shapes group and identify with communities, e.g. the Australian community, the gay community and the business community. Some of the reasons people join these communities are to increase exposure, gain and share knowledge, feel accepted and build relationships.

Blogs can be classified by various ways: subject matter (e.g. health, travel, science), location (e.g. Singapore, Dublin, Andorra), media type (e.g. YouTube, Podcast.com, Twitter), audience (e.g. youth, middle-aged, senior citizens), etc.

Here is a small selection of blogging communities:

Tumblr: A simple microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, quotes , audio and video without any knowledge of HTML code. Example: I Love Old Magazines.

Blogger (duh!): A standard blogging tool that functions as a diary. Owned by Google, and similar to WordPress (the host for this blog). Example: Addicted to Media.

LiveJournal: A blogging community that allows users to ‘connect’ with other users by adding them to their network. Specifically created for users to form groups relating to their area(s) of interest. Example: The Natural World’s Journal.

YouTube: A video sharing web site where users can upload ‘vlogs’ (video logs) and other video recordings. Owned by Google. Example: University of South Australia.

Twitter: A microblogging tool that allows users to share their thoughts or daily activities on-the-go. Has a 140-character limit. Example: Kylie Minogue’s Twitter.

Podcast.com: A Podcast sharing website that allows users to produce, categorise and search for Podcasts according to genre and topic. Example: BBC World Service Digital Planet podcast.

Specialist blogging communities: these are communities intended for use by a specific group of people with a predetermined focus. Examples are QueerAttitude.com (for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth), University of South Australia School of Communication (for students and tutors at the university) and altMD (for those interested in health and wellness information).

The possibilities for classifying blogs and forming online communities is limited only by your imagination. Why not join a community today? (Remember to tell me how it goes!)

Image source: http://pw0nd.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/cannibalism-500×375.jpg

We have all encountered instances of bad design. Sometimes it can be an painful experience (as in the case of the Best Denki Singapore website which has been ‘under construction’ for at least three years), and sometimes it’s just baffling (ever visited the late Pope John Paul II’s official website? The constant pop-ups left me mentally scarred.)

And sometimes, well, it just makes us wonder, “What was he (or she) thinking?!”.

Nothing cracks us up as much as watching others get embarrassed. So here’s a post fully dedicated to showcasing design that’s sure to leave those responsible red-faced. See if you can spot the screw-ups!

Image source: http://www.yeah-oops.com/wp-content/uploads/_OGClogo.jpg

Image source: http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/129208040413299878.jpg

Image source: http://stevejencks.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/fail-owned-three-handed-fail.jpg

Image source: http://failfun.com/wp-content/uploads/improper-ad-placement.jpg

Image source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bzDlewLyaIY/Sz8y_k7uF4I/AAAAAAAAEK8/iwAGqgiHGh8/s400/a96802enrance6699345.jpg

Image source: http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Random/sofa_king_prices.jpg

Image source: http://gregrickaby.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/fail-owned-website-fail.jpg

Image source: http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/fail-owned-optional-required-fail.jpg

Image source: http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/fail-owned-newspaper-soggy-golf-hole-fail.jpg

Image source: http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh10/runfast800/correctionnotice.jpg

Image source: http://themortgagereports.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/newspaper-errors.jpg

Image source: http://www.failpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/massiveblowjobs.jpg

Image source: http://www.failpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/passport-center-fail.jpg

Remember, karma has a habit of biting you in the you-know-what. Make sure you don’t commit these mistakes, especially now since you’ve laughed at them!

For more of such ‘Fail’ moments, visit FailBlog and FailPost.

Online media is a relatively new platform that only surfaced some twenty years ago. However, much research – both on the academic and professional fronts – has been done on readability and design ergonomics that clearly suggest marked differences between designing for print and designing for the Internet.

The World Wide Web Consortium (WC3) has published a list of recommendations relating to web site usability, including accessibility and HTML validation. Likewise, the Neilsen Norman Group has conducted studies on usability, eye-tracking and viewing behaviours. In addition to these professional efforts, colleges and universities around the world have conducted academic research into the design of print and online media, e.g. the effects of font type and size [1], and presentation of page elements.

According to Associate Professor Maureen Walsh, the assistant head of the School of Education at the Australian Catholic University, online media is generally arranged in words, graphics and images, compared to literature texts, which are normally arranged in blocks of words [2]. Online text is enhanced with hyperlinks to point users to areas of interest, frames to group information, and navigation bars to point users to what they’re looking for. Videos and audio clips are used to provide a level of engagement and demonstration not possible in print media. The keyword for online media is ‘interactivity’. According to Gunther Kress, Professor of Semiotics and Education at the Institute of Education, London, the ‘look of the page is now not a matter only for a specialised group of producers of texts; it is a general concern’. [3]

However, good design alone would not be enough for a website to be effective. David Vogler, a digital media analyst, opines that ’web products do not have to be well designed to be popular’ and that some websites succeed ‘because of their inexplicable, emotional connection to the web community’. [4] The Drudge Report is an example of a popular website that is hideously designed.

When designing in print, a portrait format is normally used. However, if this was done for online documents, users would have to keep scrolling, which, as you can imagine, is highly distracting (not to mention annoying!). According to design consultant Roger C. Parker, readers experience a print document a whole page at a time, while they experience an online document around the limitations of the screen [5].

Professor of Writing and Editing Diana Reep of the University of Akron, opines that design principles such as balance (comparable visual ‘weight’ on both sides of a page), proportion (size and placement of page elements), sequence (the arrangement of design features) and consistency (presenting similar features in a similar style) are especially important for print documents, and are applicable to online documents too [6].

In a nutshell, for a document to be effective, good design should be married with a strong emotional hook, failing which your document would be just one in millions of others clamouring for attention. Also, you’d have to ensure that your text is culturally appropriate and does not require too much specialist knowledge – this is to enable those without a frame of reference about the topic you’re discussing to understand your text [7].

References:
[1] Gasser, M, Boeke, J, Haffernan, M & Tan, R 2005, ‘The influence of font type on information recall’, North American Journal of Psychology, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 181-188.
[2] Walsh, M 2006, ‘The textual shift: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24-27.
[3] Kress, G  1997, ‘Visual and verbal modes of representation in electronically mediated communication: the potentials of new forms of text’, in Page to screen: taking literacy into the electronic era, ed S Ilana, Allen and Unwin, New South Wales, pp. 53-79.
[4] Vogler, D 2005, ‘Design vs content: a survey of ten popular web sites that made emotional connections with the user’, Computers in Entertainment, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 1-4.
[5] Parker, RC 2003, Looking good in print, Paraglyph Press, Arizona.
[6] Reep, DC 2006, Technical writing, Pearson, New York.
[7] Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for teaders, Wiley Computer, New York.

It goes without saying that online media and communication is a core resource and tool around which people (in more developed countries at least) live their lives. From keeping in touch with loved ones to engaging in extramural studies, online media has truly revolutionised the way we communicate and share information.

One of the hottest developments in online media has been blogging. Blogging is the act of keeping a web log, which is essentially an Internet diary. Technology writer John C. Drovak suggests a few reasons why people blog: for ego gratification, antidepersonalisation (the need to be ‘different’), the elimination of frustration, a societal need to share, and to be published writers. [1]

Blogging can take many forms, from the more traditional text-based web-diary format popularised by Blogger and WordPress, to microblogging (Twitter), audio blogging (Podcasting) and video blogging (YouTube and Vimeo).

Blogging has become so popular that aside from individuals, corporations and schools are using it to reach their target demographics, for market and student assessment purposes. For example, in the book publishing industry, blogs allow publishers to monitor trends and the buzz around their publications, provide an avenue for advertising and promotion, and allow prospective writers to be noticed. [2] According to independent business and media consultant Marydee Ojala, “Blogs fit perfectly into the knowledge management framework by encouraging a well informed workforce, providing a means of best practices, and enhancing e-learning”. [3] Blog creation software have now become powerful enough to function as Content Management Systems, which are used to create and manage fully-fledged web sites. Examples are Joomla!, WordPress and Drupal.

Blogs are at the core of the explosion of citizen journalism. They can act as the ‘Fourth Estate’, i.e. the check-and-balance function of the press. Examples of this are The Online Citizen (which reports on issues sidelined by the state-controlled media in Singapore), Drudge Report (which broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal) and The Huffington Post (which has been ranked the world’s most powerful blog in 2008 and the world’s most popular blog by The Observer and Technorati respectively).

Video: ‘What’s driving the explosion in citizen journalism’ by Professor Dan Gillmor
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avyXQATlUbs&feature=player_embedded#

According to Mary Ellen Quinn of the American Library Association, to stay current, relevant and engaging, mainstream media ‘will need to adapt to the new paradigm of direct, unfettered popular expression’ characterised by blogging. [4]

We can discount, deny or whinge about the impact blogs have on us, but this online medium is here to stay and unless we embrace it, we will risk becoming dinosaurs of the new millenium.

To see what are today’s hottest blogs, visit Technorati Top 100.

References:
[1] Dvorak, JC 2002, ‘The blog phenomenon’, PC Magazine 26 February, p. 51.
[2] Nelson, M  2006, ‘The blog phenomenon and the book publishing industry’, Publishing Research Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 3-26.
[3] Ojala, M 2005, ‘Blogging: for knowledge sharing, management and dissemination’, Business Information Review, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 269-276.
[4] Quinn, MA 2007, ‘Citizen journalism’, American Libraries September 2007, p. 81.