My Title (Joseph'S eJournal)

Joseph's eJournal

		Friday February 2, 2007 INTERFACE DESIGN This is my favorite and most frequently used interface. Windows Media Center TV. I have it installed on my computer. You can pause, rewind, forward, and record LiveTV. Using the TV guide, you can even schedule recordings up to 2 weeks ahead of time. You can resize the skin to fit any size. But the beauty is that you can resize it so you can watch TV while working at the same time. I tend to place it in the upper right hand corner as shown in this screenshot. I can then read my Emails or fill out invoices for my clients and customers, and I won't miss any TV program. Very functional and I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up. The only thing I would recommend is that it gives the user a chance to save a TV program under a specified filename as opposed to saving it under a number on the harddrive. That can always be changed after the recording so it is not much of a problem. Once you retrieve the recorded file, you can then use any DVD burning software, pop a blank DVD in the tray, and then, Burn . . . Baby . . . Burn!!!

		This one below, is very well thought out interface by Animal Planet with vivid colors and relevant content. I like the navigation which is on top of all pages and the drop down menu is very effectives when searching for a past show. Daniel McCracken and Rosalee Wolfe in their book User-Centered Website Development on page 83, suggest: "Make related items look the same. Putting a navigation bar on the left or right or top of every page is an example of consistency. Making all of the buttons the same size or color is another example." From last week's discussion I also said that it is important to create a title that is relevant to the content, and one thing I've learned from last week is that all these interfaces do just that. The graphics and photography are first class. I am currently working with a studio affiliated with them as an intern, and I've seen for myself how every element of this interface is executed with precision. The only draw back is that when I tested it using Dial-Up after I tested it with Broadband, it took almost 3 minutes to load since it has a lot of video and multimedia elements on the first page. Other than that with high speed Internet access, it shouldn't be a problem.

		The BlackBerry is perhaps one of the most famous electronic items. I use my BlackBerry to surf the Web, read and send Emails, it has a GPS system for navigation, and as you can see from the interface, the icons are very user-friendly. You can even use the Blackberry to update your Website inventory. It even has the ability to access the Web even when you are traveling overseas. I use its phone for business purposes since I have 6500 Monthly phone minutes that carry over to the next month. The pricetag could be the only inconvenience if one is on a strict budget.

		I use 3D Studio Max to create my 3D Website templates. I also use it to create 3D models and animations for my internship program so I put it to use very frequently. I find the interface very easy to use and when you have a widescreen monitor, you can leave almost all the pop-up windows open without interfering with the workspace or workflow. I use this program on my 21 inch flat screen monitor so I have lots of room to maneuver the software. As you can see from the template below, I created it for my internship class and also for Interactive Multimedia II. If you're a gamer, or a Flash artist, this is a program that comes in handy in creating a Web site shell. On that very same page 83 in User-Centered Website Development they suggest: "Place related items along an imaginary line. Align items of equal importance. Indent subordinate items. Indenting the items that belong to a main heading is an example of using alignment to clarify." 3ds Max has those lines (a grid) that helps accomplish that task to align objects and text, that's why I enjoy using its interface immensely. However, it will require time and dedication to learn the software, and the pricetag might set you back an extra $3K for the full unrestricted version. On the upside, you can always buy a 1 year license for a very reasonable fee.

		This last interface is the site of Conservative Talk Show host Sean Hannity. Very informative and uses my kind of colors. I tend to prefer the dark grays and charcoals or the dark blues. There is a message board that allows visitors to post their opinions and you can stream his entire radio show live, right from his site. The navigation is well thought out with a horizontal bar on each page. It is also a fast loading site on both Broadband and Dial-Up. Once again, based on what I've read in McCracken & Wolfe, Contrast is important. They recommend to make different items look different. The large, bold lettering of a chapter title sets it apart from the smaller lettering in the body of the page. This interface applies that principle beautifully. The only thing about this interface is that he uses frames on his homepage which is not a search-engine friendly way of getting indexed. For example Google's spider named GoogleBot will bypass pages that use frames, so I would recommend that frames be placed in the inner pages as opposed to the home page. But hey, he is rich and famous and plugs his site on Fox News and ABC radio. He doesn't have to worry about search engines.

	RESOURCES: (Windows Media Center) http://www.microsoft.com Daniel McCracken & Rosalee Wolfe: User-Centered Website Development © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc. Discovery Networks http://animal.discovery.com BlackBerry: http://www.blackberry.com 3Ds Max: www.autodesk.com/3dsmax Sean Hannity: http://www.hannity.com
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