Information/Instructional Design - Exampls

Information design is about displaying information in a suitable way for a particular kind of audience.

Any form of information can be classified as ‘Information/Instructional Design’ such as traffic signal lights. These display whether to go or to stop or slow down. This is conveying instructions to an audience, drivers, on what to do.

Other forms of Information design can include maps, diagrams and charts. With these, the information must be specifically designed to show a particular view point, so thus the design element is very important. The design must also take into account the particular audience and which it is trying to communicate to.

Information/Instructional Design - Definition

Information design is designing things in such a way that they effective communicate information. Information design does not consider how good something appears, but considers how effectively information was transferred. For example, a PowerPoint presentation could be visually appealing, yet the text on the slide was so hard to read it made the work, in terms of information design, useless.

Instructional design can be defined as:

“the process of using our knowledge of how people learn to develop effective instructional strategies that meet the needs of the learners and the desired learning outcomes.” –Instructional Design Australia

Instructional design is similar to information design, in that it too is trying to communicate information with an audience. The main difference is that instructional design is presenting ‘how to do something’ whilst information design is presenting information ‘about something’

Works Cited

Instructional Design Australia, "What is Instructional Design?", 12 March 2009 (http://instructionaldesign.com.au)

De Rossi, Luigi Canali "What is Information Design?" Master New Media, 12 March 2009 (http://www.masternewmedia.org/2003/09/14/what_is_information_design.hml)

Planning Tools for Interaction

This is how to make toast:

1. Select type of bread
2. Place bread in toaster
3. Choose toast setting
4. Is power cable safe to use? If so continue, else fix cable
5. Plug in toaster
6. Turn power on
7. Push down leaver
8. Is toast brown enough? If so continue else change the toaster setting and repeat from step 7
9. Remove toast
10. Spread with favourite ingredient
11. Eat

This is a flow chart about how to make toast:

This is a story board for an interactive design project which shows how to make toast:

This is a mood board for the persona Johnny Smith:

John is a 75-year-old retired carpenter who still enjoys hikes in national parks and ridding his Harley-Davidson. He looks forward to the local club raffle and a catch up with the boys on a Thursday evening. He also enjoys playing bingo, listening to local radio and watching old western movies with his wife Jill. As he gets older and has to visit the hospital more often, he prefers quick and efficient healthcare with simple, bold instructions and hospital signs. He aims to enjoy the rest of his life traveling a little and spending time with family, especially his grandchildren.

• Location: Hobart
• Toaster Usage: Unfortunately Johnny has never used a fancy new electric toaster
• Computer/Internet Usage: PC, Occasionally browses the Internet with the help of his grandchildren.
• Computer Skill: Novice user. Finds things too complicated on the computer to use. Has an email but doesn’t know how to use it properly.

Interactive Design - Examples

Interactive design can be made up of flash web design, flash games and animation, e-learning design and development, DVD and CD Rom interfaces.

Examples of these components include:

• Flash Website Design: McDonalds Australia (http://www.mcdonalds.com.au/) is a flash website which allows users to find out information about Mcdonalds and their products in a visually appealing way
  
• Flash Games & Animation: Mouse Party (http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/drugs/mouse.html) allows for users to intact with the flash video to learn about drug addiction and the effects of drugs.
  
• E-learning Design & Development: WebCT/Blackboard (http://www.blackboard.com/) is an example of interactive design as it allows the user to interact with learning platform to preform education tasks such as through whiteboard activities and chat rooms.
  
• DVD and CD ROM interfaces: The Learning Company (http://www.learningcompany.com) provides many education CD ROM products which allow children to interact with the program easily. They allow children to learn whilst having fun.

Works Cited
Web Upon, "10 Awesome Animated Interactive Flash Websites" 10 March 2009 http://www.webupon.com/Web-Talk/Flash-Point-10-Awesome-Animated-Interactive-Flash-Websites.229613

Interactive Design - A definition

Interactive design simply is design which is interactive. The term interactive, refers to user participation hence it is interactive. Interactive design moves from a static design type, such as print mediums and static web pages to design where an audience takes part in the medium. Interactive design is commonly seen in ‘Web 2.0’ sites, where a user is able to interact with a website.

Interactive design is not limited to the web though, but can also branch out into computer gaming where humans actually act as part of a game. For instance a GPS game where a user takes part in the game in real life and this can also be emulated on a computer with traditional computer gamers.
Interactive design can be in the forms of:

• Flash Website Design
• Flash Games & Animation
• Viral Marketing
• E-learning Design & Development
• DVD and CD ROM interfaces

Interactive design is user-centred, that is easy for the user to learn the interface, without a loss in functionality. For example, Apple computers are very user-centred; take for instance the dock, it allows user to simply drag and drop files to applications in the dock to open them. This allows for a user-centred design, without a loss in functionality.

Similarly to the internet, design has moved from being a static medium to an interactive medium.

Works Cited
Friday Media, "Interactive Design" 6 March 2009 http://www.fridaymedia.com.au/index.php/interactive-design

Web 2.0 - What is it? - Is there even such a thing?

The loose definition of what ‘Web 2.0’ really is, leads to the debate if there is really such a thing as ‘Web 2.0’ or is it simply just ‘hype’.
The internet, as what it is known as today, a two way medium, is simply an evolution of technology. The evolution of the internet is caused by rapid growth in three areas: broadband growth; web technologies; and non-web technologies (such as digital photography). The rapid growth in these areas has lead to consumer empowerment and as a result web technologies have changed to meet consumers’ needs and wants.

One characteristic of ‘Web 2.0’ is that users can interact with a website, yet Amazon.com customers have been able to comment on items since 1995. The interfaces and technology may not have been as well refined as they are today, though the simple features described in ‘Web 2.0’ are quite evident in the early days of the internet (known as ‘Web 1.0’)

Tim Bearners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium, quotes during a podcast interview with IBM about Web 2.0,

“Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. It was an interactive space, and I think Web 2.0 is of course a piece of jargon, nobody even knows what it means. If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along. And in fact, you know, this 'Web 2.0,' it means using the standards which have been produced by all these people working on Web 1.0.”

The web has always been about connecting people to each other, so therefore nothing has changed between ‘Web 1.0’ and ‘Web 2.0’. If anything it can just be said that it is done more effectively, due to evolution of technical advances. The web hasn’t changed versions, or changed perspective, just changed how things are done.

Works Cited
Andreessen, Marc. “Why there's no such thing as Web 2.0” 5 March 2009 http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/why_theres_no_s.html

Anderson, Nate. “Tim Berners-Lee on Web 2.0: "nobody even knows what it means" ARS Technica 5 March 2009 http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2006/09/7650.ars

Philippe. “Web 2.0? There’s no such thing!” 5 March 2009 http://badideaindeed.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/web-20-theres-no-such-thing/

Web 2.0 - Examples

As defined before. Web 2.0 makes use of many web technologies such as Ajax, Tagging, Blogs/Blogging, Wikis, RSS and Podcasts/Vodcasts

Examples of these technlogies include:

• Tagging: del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) allows users to create bookmarks and tag them with relevant information
• Blogs/Blogging: Blogger (http://www.blogger.com) allows users to create blogs
• Wikis: Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com) worlds largest open encyclopedia, allows anyone to update article
• RSS: Syndic8 (http://www.syndic8.com) allows users to subscribe to RSS feeds
• Podcasts/Vodcasts: iTunes application (http://www.apple.com/itunes) allows users to download and subscribe to pod/vod casts via the internet, using iTunes as the 'browser/portal'

Examples of these technologies used for the following types of 'Web 2.0' sites

• Social Networking: Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) allows users to intact with other users and add them as 'friends'
• Aggregators: Digg (http://www.digg.com) acts as a portal for news, pictures and videos and allows users to 'dig' sites or 'bury' sites and leave comments/ratings.
• Mashups: Pipes by Yahoo (http://pipes.yahoo.com) allows users to create new information from existing information.

Works Cited
Rainer, R. Kelly Jr, Turban, Efraim. Introduction to Information Systems 2– Supporting and Transforming Business Second Edition United States of America: John Wiley & Sons 2007

Web Media Solutions. "What is Web 2.0?" 6 March 2009 http://www.webmedia-solutions.com/web-development-blog/programming/what-is-web-20/300/