Reflections

It is very easy to create a weblog but it is very hard to keep the consistency of writing the blog. The author of the blog must be careful on the writing the blog. Thus, it is very important to know the requirements of setting up a blog. Here are some of the document design considerations that I have encountered previously:

• Why blogging?
• Who are the intended audience?
• What are the contents of the blog?
• When to update the blog?

The production of this blog has given me a very good experience in writing a professional weblog where it helps me familiarize with the web interface. Furthermore, in order to create a good weblogs, a lot of good document designers or authors have given some guidelines on it. One of the prominent author on document designs – Jakob Nielsen , which I applying his theory- Weblog Usability:The Top 10 Design Mistake into the weblog layout. However, there are some restricted issues due to the assignments requirement which is the photo and biography of the author did not publish in the weblog.

Furthermore, according to Parker (2003) also agree with Reep’s idea where it is harder to read on screen because of the contrast problem on the screen. Therefore, in this case, the background colour of the weblog is lighter with a strong contrast font colour which is black. Therefore, it is easier for the readers to read.

However, ‘pictures speak more than a thousand words’. Therefore, Kress and van Leeuwen theory do apply in this weblog as well. This is because according to Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) asserted that writing no longer become the center of attractions where the principal of compositions plays a crucial role in order to have a good designs not only wit pictures but also with composite visual. This statement also agreed by Schriver (1997) where a good document designs should have combinations of words and pictures to help the readers understand easily. Therefore, in order to let the readers understand easily, some of the pictures as well as vlog were inserting in the blog.

Through following this guidelines provides by document designers have gave me a good experience on creating a good blog in the future not only for myself but for the readers as well. There are certain rules that need to be addressed in order to communicate effectively with the readers.

Reference Lists:

Kress, G & van Leeuwen,T 2006, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, 2nd edn, Routledge, New York.

Nielsen , J 2005, Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes , Jakob Nielsen Alertbox, viewed 5 May 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html>

Parker, RC 2003, ' Chapter 14" in Looking Good in Print, 5th Edition, Scootsdale, Arizons.Reep, D 2006, ' Chapter 3 & 7' in Technical Writing, 6th Edition, Pearson Education, Inc.

Schriver, K 1997, The interplay of words and pictures, Wiley Computer Publications, New York.

Facebook-ing Issues

Facebook Website

I’m sure that this template is no stranger to those Facebook worms . It is fascinating that Facebook can be connected through mobile phone. iMedia Connection (2005) reported that ‘facebook has become a must-have’ for every students. This online social community getting more popular among the youngsters because with a lot of applications in it. According to Nielsen (2007) asserted that ‘ Facebook is the Iron Chef of the Internet’ because of the sudden hyped where everyone has an account for it as well as Nielsen also in Facebook.

Walsh (2006) affirms that multimodal text is referring to electronic, digital texts and visual which have more than one mode. Facebook has come with a lot of features such as sharing photos, videos and others interactive applications with java games.

According to Nielson (2006) readers using the “F-Shape” movement to read on screen materials. Facebook’s template with the F-shape . furthermore, Facebook also applies Parker’s Theory.According to Parker (2003,p. 273) asserted that the placement of the logo must be on top of the left side and it must be consistent in every sites. Furthermore, he also further explained that avoid multi column layouts. In this case, Facebook is using 3 columns where it is easier for users to use and read .Furthermore, there are still ample of spaces besides the contents where Parker’s agreed that need to be generous to the margin and line lengths of the web. Parker further elaborates that the hyperlinks can be included in the left column which serves as a navigation tool bar. This is to assists the users to locate certain applications easily. Nielsen (1997) further explained that the navigation toolbar plays a crucial role where it helps to link from one page to another page. Furthermore, this applications enable the users who share the same interests can be connected easily through hyperlink (Schriver 1997). Nielsen (1997) also agreed with Schriver’s statement where the hypertext links will increase the credibility of the web.

Facebook design layout is simple and yet effective. Using the multi column and frames divided accordingly to the contents allow the users to navigate themselves which application to read first. Therefore, Facebook can be commented as good web usability because of the simple applications in the websites and it also applied the publications and document designs theory.

Reference Lists:


iMedia Connection 2008, ‘How to Get in College Students’ Faces’, August 17 2005, viewed 1st June 2008, < http://www.imediaconnection.com/news/6542.ASP>

Nielsen, J 2006, 'F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content', Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 17, viewed 1st June 2008,< http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>

Nielsen, J 1997, ‘How Users Read on the Web', Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, October 1, viewed 1st June 2008,< http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html>

Nielsen, J 2000, ‘Is Navigation Useful?’, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, January 9, viewed 1st June 2008,< http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000109.html>

Nielsen, J 2007, ‘Web 2.0 Can be Dangerous’, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, December 17, viewed 1st June 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/web-2.html>

Parker, RC 2003, ‘Designing documents for web distribution’, Looking good in print, 5th edn, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale AZ, Chapter 14, pp. 269-293.

Schriver, KA 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures’, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, Chapter 6, pp. 361-441.

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. 24-37 , viewed 20 May 2008 <https://my.unisa.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://catalogue.library.unisa.edu.au/cgi-bin/scandoc.cgi?app=11%26folder=11439%26doc=1>

Moblogs- Mobisodes- Are you ready for this?

Mobile devices have become an essential for our daily life and it has been transform into a more function on it. We can get connected anywhere and anytime without missing out the latest gossips or information unless the reception is out of service. There are getting more mobile services such as MMS ( Multimedia Message Service) which is for sending photos, video clips and sound files to the other mobile phone users through WAP (wireless access protocol), Moblog is also known as mobile blogs and Mobisodes is mini episodes of TV shows to store in the mobile phone( iMedia Connection 2005). These are the latest trend in the market. Mobisode such as Fox’s “24” which is taken into account was created to suit to mobile space.

However, it is undeniable that multimodality does play a crucial role in mobisodes. This argument from Walsh (2006) was also supported by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) where the paradigm shift has taken place ever since multimodality was introduced. According to BBC (2006) reported that the producers do not create the content based on the television mindsets but created base on the feeling that can entertain you. As lot of people was wasting their time stuck in the traffic congestion and waiting for their friends in the café, this is the best time for them to fully utilize to watch the latest movie in their phone. It can be shown below where the quality of the series “Lost” .

Source: Spoilerslost 2008

However, this is only they gist of the movie because a lot of scene and detailed information was cut out. Therefore, the document designers’ or director need to edit the video in the highest resolutions which is best for viewing through the mobile phone.

Through this, it also can create awareness among the other people who has no time for television. Some of the companies using this strategy to turn the mobisodes advertisement into everyone topic where all the mobile users will send this mobisodes to their friends and relatives to share this information. This is also known as viral mobisodes. Schirato and Yell (1996) asserts that this new communications such as mobisodes, weblog, internet can reach the mass audience effectively.

Well, it is still a question where how long can a mobile phone last while watching all this mobisodes or playing games through the phone and you always need prepare extra battery for emergency call.

Source: Sony Style Malaysia 2008

Source: Appple 2008

Mobisodes can be played in iPod, Sony Walkman and others mp4 players. Users now do not need to watch the gist of the movie , they can download the whole movie into their prefadable MP4 players. Using Sony Walkman can enjoy the clear bass technology and also using QVGA to create the screen (SonyStyle 2008). For iPod we need iTune to transfer songs, whereas Sony Walkman A820 , we can directly drag and drop. However, rmvb format is not supported. The software converter can be purchased at the price of $14.00 USD if you wish to convert the format from rmvb to mpeg4 format.

Reference Lists:

BBC News 2008 , Future of TV: The production company , 27 November 2006, viewed 4th May 2008, < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6143350.stm >

iMedia Connection 2008, A-2-Z Update of Wireless Tech & Terms (2), March 16 2005, viewed 4th May 2008, < http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/5255.asp>

Kress, G & van Leeuwen,T 2006, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, 2nd edn, Routledge, New York.

Schirato & Yell 1996, Communication & cultural literacy: An introduction, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonard’s, Australia, Chapter 3: Communication as social practice, p.43-65. (handout)

SonyStyle Malaysia 2008, Personal Audio, viewed 1st June 2008,
<http://www.sonystyle.com.my/product/productinfo_peraudio.asp?Subcategoryid=122>

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. 24-37 , viewed 20 May 2008 <https://my.unisa.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://catalogue.library.unisa.edu.au/cgi-bin/scandoc.cgi?app=11%26folder=11439%26doc=1>

Saving the Trees by Using E-books?

VS

hgjhg Source: Sonystyle 2008

It's inevitable that e-book has becoming real that parents keep on complaining on how heavy is a school kids bag few years back. And the solution for this was the trolley school bag. How I wish I have one of those during those of the days. However, government has implemented that the e-book is going to use widely in year 2020 where school kids do no need to bring any books to school anymore. Well, how many people are accepting this kind of technology? What about the power consumption? Recently, the electricity rate has increase to 18 percent for household (The Star 2008).

Ways of Reading an e-book:

According to Nielsen (2006) research, readers read the on screen materials in “F Shape” movement and therefore users do not read words by words on screen .There are 79 percents of users scan it thoroughly of the screen content because reading on screen is 25 percent slower(Nielsen 2006; Reep 2006). This is because the projected light in the monitor contrast causes constraint to the eyes (Parker 2003; Nielson 2006). However, Sony has take into considerations Nielson’s Theories and come out with the e-book that will not constraint the readers’ eyes.

However, there are also advantages for it. Such as using the hyperlink which can be link easily where normal books we need to search it through the indexes. It is also saving a lot of spaces for the bookshelf because everything is just in your palm. By just one click all the relevant information or paragraph for that book will appear on the screen. Furthermore, Nielsen (1997) also found that, if there are good quality images, good writing and outbound of hypertext links’, the credibility can be increased. He also further his research where navigation is also very useful where it helps to link to another page. Therefore, it is still up to the users whether they are welcoming this technology to be part of their life.

Source: Youtube 2008

Reference Lists:

Nielsen, J 2006, 'F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content', Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 17, viewed 1st June 2008,< http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>

Nielsen, J 1997, ‘How Users Read on the Web', Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, October 1, viewed 1st June 2008,< http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html>

Nielsen, J 2000, ‘Is Navigation Useful?’, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, January 9, viewed 1st June 2008,< http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000109.html>

Parker, RC 2003, ‘Designing documents for web distribution’, Looking good in print, 5th edn, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale AZ, Chapter 14, pp. 269-293.

Reep, DC 2006, ‘Document design’, Technical writing: principles, strategies and readings, 6th edn, Pearson/Longman, New York, Chapter 6, pp. 133-172.

The Star 2008, ‘Petrol to cost RM2.70 from midnight (updated)’, viewed 4th June 2008,<http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/4/nation/20080604175025&sec=nation >

To blog ,or not to blog , that is the Question

Blogging has become a trend not only to the X and Y Generations but also to the baby boomers. This is the channel that they can voice out their opinion in the public. However, under the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Act of 1998, the internet content must be regulated and controlled where provided a clear prohibited in the publication contents (Bernama 2008). Furthermore, OpenNet 2007 (cited in The Star 2006) reported that our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in August 2006 asserted that “bloggers who publish seditious, malicious or defamatory content will be reported to the police.

Two years ago, a student who is studying in Taiwan , name- Namewee who rapped the National Anthem “Negarakuku” and posted it to YouTube has made a big issue in the country. Yet he said that he wanted to contribute to 50th Merdeka Anniversary but he used the wrong way to express it. Although we have the freedom of speeches, there is always a limit for it. Furthermore, Namewee posted the video clip in YouTube where easily can be shared .This is because according to Birkerts (1994), web contents travel along from one network to another through hyperlink. Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) theories applies where text and images exhibit multimodality. This is also further elaborate in Schriver’s (1997, p.166) theories where use both visual and verbal language can easily connect with the ‘readers knowledge, experience, beliefs and values’. If just the visual of his clips, it would not show a meaning for it but when with his lyrics, it is defaming the country.

However, there are still lots more of issues such as the recent one Raja Petra issues. Therefore, in order to avoid this kind of situations, UiTM may introduce courses for blogging to train bloggers in a more professional and ethical way (The Star 2008).OpenNet 2007 (cited in The Star 2006) reported that the Prime Minister said that the 'government will not censor the internet bloggers but it is their responsibilities'. However, according to the Deputy Energy , Water and Communications Minister Datuk Josehp Salang Gandum affirmed that government has not set up a specialize body to monitor irresponsible bloggers (Bernama 2008). Nielsen (2006) affirms that it is the bloggers responsible to blog because bloggers might write for the future boss. Therefore, for bloggers out there, your destiny is in your hand aware of what sorts of topics you are going to blog.

Reference Lists:


Bernama 2008, ‘No Plans to Set Up Special Body to Monitor Blogs’, May 26 2008, viewed 1st June 2008, < http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=335412>

Birkerts, S 1994, The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age, viewed 3rd June 2008 , < http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/bdbirk.htm>

Kress, G & van Leeuwen,T 2006, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, 2nd edn, Routledge, New York.

Nielsen, J 2005, ‘Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes’, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, October 17, viewed 1st June 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html>

OpenNet Initiative 2007, ‘Malaysia’ ,May 10 2007, viewed 1st June 2008, <http://opennet.net/research/profiles/malaysia >

Schriver, KA 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures’, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, Chapter 6, pp. 361-441.

The Star 2008, ‘UiTM may introduce courses related to blogging’, viewed 3rd June 2008, < http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/14/nation/21236817&sec=nation >

New Form of Media Publishing

Thank's to the Technology that has given to us. Without Technology all these sorts of blog, vlog, internet and others would not be here. The new form of media publishing is more likely not only for the professional journalists or reporters but also citizens who are concern over the matters.The Age (2005) reported that the latest news not reported by the reporters but was reported by the local citizens where in an hour time all the news and photos, vlog were circulate around.

It is inevitable that YouTube has becoming popular machine where users can just by one click , the video or short clips will be shown.People using camcorders, camera, mobile phones for clips editing and posted it to the websites so easily.

Moreover, Facebook not only become the new media tools that connected with social networks but also successfully to help the police to catch the suspect that attack the student in Georgetown University ( Digital Journal 2007).



Reference Lists:

Digital Journal 2007, Victim uses Facebook to finger suspect, 29 September 2007,Digital Journal.com, viewed 7 May 2008,
<http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/234716/Victim_uses_Facebook_to_finger_suspect>

The Age 2008, How citizen reporters get the news out first , 12 January 2005 , The Age, viewed 7 May 2008, <http://www.theage.com.au/news/Opinion/How-citizen-reporters-get-the-news
-out-first/2005/01/11/1105423482230.html >

Designing for online vs print

So, what is so different between designing online and print? Well, according to Reep (2006) asserts that 79 to 81 percent of users scan web material and the purpose of the users to visit the website is to get information. It would be an advantage for the websites with background music and also interactive java script. Furthermore, Parker(2003) also agreed with Reep’s idea that it is harder to read on screen as compared to print. This is because of the lighting problem on the screen. Therefore, the online publications must be in bullet points so that the readers can read easily.

Nielsen (2005) also affirms that the text in the web should be concise and scannable as users will read 25 percent slower than on the paper. He also further his research on Weblog Usability:The Top 10 Design Mistake where it gives a real guide for the newbie to start writing a good website or web log.

Below shows the example of Online and Print Document

Online Document

Print Document

Print material is static when once it's printed out the author cannot change the informations. Whereas for Online, the author still can change the content of the information after posting up to the web. Furthermore, Nielsen (2006) also further his researches that viewers read the web content in a F-shaped pattern. which is read the heading and scan through all the informations.On the other hand, Gutenberg Diagram shows that the pattern of reading a print document is unlike Z-shape. Therefore, the different of print and online documents has it's own unique different.

Reference Lists:

Nielsen , J 2005, Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes , Jakob Nielsen Alertbox, viewed 5 May 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html>

Nielsen, J 2006, F-shaped pattern for reading web content, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, viewed 3 May2008,

<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>.

Parker, RC 2003, ' CHapter 14" in Looking Good in Print, 5th Edition, Scootsdale, Arizons.

Reep, D 2006, ' Chapter 3 & 7' in Technical Writing, 6th Edition, Pearson Education, Inc