Social Psychology of Web Architecture:
Becoming a Web Designer
Table of Contents
- Instructions for this report
- Introduction: Learning about Web Pages
- Generational Reports: Their thoughts and Experiences
- Web Designer Principles As I see It: Thoughts of Jeff Glover
- Psychological Aspects to Web Design
- What It's like to Become a Web Designer: My Experiences
- Annotated Index to Web Design: Where to Look
- Navigation Table
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Creating a web page for the
first time appears to be scary. This was how I felt when I first attempted
to create my first home page last semester with Dr. James. However, with
time, practice, and effort I gradually began to grasp the fundamental aspects
in web design.
Learning HTML was like learning how to speak
a new language. But once I got the basics of HTML I was able to apply it
to other aspects of web design and thus, increase my abilities and confidence
in creating a web page.
The hardest thing that I encountered in creating
a web page was being organized and creative. It takes a lot of time and
effort to produce an appealing and eye catching web page that would attract
web surfers. The goal of a web page is to attract visitors and provide
information that would be useful and entertaining that visitors will want
to return or recommend it to others.
This report will explore some of the issues about
web design. I will visit the web page of two prior generations alumni who
have similar experiences with me in creating a web page. Then, I will discuss
the contents of Jeff Glover's web page which is filled with information
about how to create a savvy web page and what you should avoid if you don't
want a sucky page. Also I will explore the psychology of web pages through
the words of Dr. James. Lastly, this report will include a brief description
of my experiences as a web designer and how it has influence my life.
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Ryan Shintani, G6 stated "When I ask myself the question "What is it like to be a web designer?" I have to say that it is an interesting concept to behold. I never would have thought of myself as a web designer before I took this course from Professor James. If I learned these skills in the real world and not in a classroom environment I would have just shrugged it off as one more learned skill. I guess you could say that I am viewing these skills in a different light because I am associating them with a title of "web designer." This is an example of how a person's mind can change how a skill, person, or object is viewed by just learning it in a formal setting."
I found this quote to interesting because Mr. Shintani took a different
approach when describing his experiences as a web designer. Although he
experienced the same difficulties that other students experienced when
creating a web page, this quote emphasize the importance of labeling ourselves
as a web designer (something hardly mentioned by other students) and accepting
it as part of our identity. I agree with Ryan in that if I learned how
to create a web page outside of this class, I would not easily assign myself
the title of a web designer. Being in this generational community and receiving
the reinforcement from Dr. James and other students contributes to the
willingness to adopt the role of web designer. Learning how to become a
web designer through a formal setting makes it more legitimate to adopt
the title of web designer.
May-Rose Isnec, G5 stated "I started off last semester knowing nothing at all about web designing. From last semester's Psychology 409a class, I not only learned how to construct a web page from scratch, but I also learned about search engines and saw the fruits of my perseverance. Anyway...I thought I had the hang of this Internet thing at the beginning of this semester. Lo' and behold, there are many more things to learn. For instance, newsgroups and web architecture. I know I have just scratched the surface of what the Internet has to offer. I'm still learning. I had spent countless amounts of hours in front of a computer in numerous places and until late hours of the night. I said more than my share of badmouthing the Internet and I also had nightmares about HTML files. It might seem far-fetched, but it's all true. I remember seeing my home page for the first time up with icons and its live links - I was so relieved and happy. And after that, I was no longer striving only for a good grade, but I also wanted to make my web page really work and I gave it my best. Though it was still hard labor, it was a labor of love."
I chose this quote because it is similar to what I am going through as I take on the journey of creating my own web page. Becoming a web designer is a learning process that continues every time you create a new page. When creating a web page we want to give it our best and every other web page we create we want to improve on it and make it better than before. As a web designer we can only learn the basic and use such skills to further enhance the work of our labor. Although creating a web page takes a lot of time, effort, and headaches, it all seems worth it when you see the fruits of your perseverance, something that May-Rose associates with creating a web page. I have observed how my peers have changed their web pages as they get the hang of things. The pages become more sophisticated with icons, frames, and more elegant format and arrangement of the entire page. The more exposure to creating a web page, the more the page reflects the style of the person instead of just a report for this class.
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The purpose of Jeff Glover's web site is to provide information and guidance to people who want to create a web site. Mr. Glover offers suggestions on ways to improve your web site to make it more pleasant and appealing to your visitors. He has a list of items that he feels will make a web site look sucky; as well as a list of items that is considered to be savvy. The information within Mr. Glover's we site is the result of 2 years worth of research and feedback from internet users and web designers on what they think makes a web page look sucky or savvy. On e advice that Mr. Glover emphasized is that designing a good web page is a matter of personal taste and style. I totally agree with this statement because no matter what people consider sucky or savvy, you are the creator of your web site. Let it reflect who you are so that you will proud of your own creation. By creating a web site that reflects your personal style, people who view your web site will have a sense of the type of person you are.
The format of Mr. Glover's web site is quite easy to follow and understand.
For every item in his sucky and savvy list, he divides it up into three
sections: 1). what is it?, 2). why is it sucky/savvy, and 3). what you
can do to improve on a sucky item. This format is very helpful to new web
designers seeking guidance when creating a web site because Mr. Glover
defines the elements and then provides suggestions on ways to improve on
that element so that it is savvy and not sucky.
The sucky list includes:
Construction signs serve a purpose. They inform viewers that the
web site is still in its infancy and improvements are still being made.
I prefer seeing a construction sign instead of clicking on a link and finding
an incomplete site and wondering if this is all that the site has to offer.
The savvy list include:
Graphics! Graphics! Graphics! We all love having graphics on our web site. It adds a sense of style and make a web site appear more elegant or interesting. However, graphic could be irritating if they take forever to download. That is why it is important to make sure that your graphics re thumbnail sizes so that down loading time won't take long. Thumbnails are smaller, lower resolution versions of a larger image that allows your visitor to choose which image they would want to view.
As a final note on Mr. Glover's web site, I encourage you to visit his site if you are looking for ways to improve your web page. Mr. Glover does not intent to instill his ideas on you, rather he provides guidance and information base on his own experiences. I hope that you find his site to be helpful. Remember be unique and creative when designing your web site.
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Dr. James' article on the social psychology of home page architectures
consisted of many topics relating to the psychology of home page architectures.
Dr. James compares home pages to actual houses and mentions that web designers
consider home pages as an extension of their home. The psychological aspect
incorporated into creating a web page parallels that of defining and decorating
an actual home to express your own unique personality. Out of the topics
available, the three that I found most interesting were 1). Information
Content of Home Pages, 2). Psychological Characteristics of Hypertext Links
and 3). Cyberspace Home.
Informational Content of Home Pages
"We
need to look at our Home Pages with an objective eye. In general, we try
to achieve two important results with a Home Page. One is that it should
be clear (unconfusing), informative and useful. The other is that it should
be beautiful, with a creative and entertaining style. These two aspects
can be discussed as the informational and stylistic features of Home Pages.
Whether long or short,
we want our Home Pages to be, above all, clear. Clarity and orderliness
greatly help the fight against confusion. Look at your Page and ask yourself
how visitors would react, where their eyes would go, what can they conclude,
what clues can you give them, what are they to do next, and so on. Therefore
you need to take charge of your Home Pages. You need to manage the visitors,
choreograph their steps (or hops), so to speak. Make them feel guided,
rather than left alone in an impersonal system."
The content of a home page is very important. To attract visitors
and entice them to read the information on your home page, you must make
sure that your home page is objective and clear. I agree with Dr. James
that we want our home page to be informative and useful. I want to my visitors
to enjoy surfing through my web page. I want them to gain something useful
out of my home page. Hopefully by reading the articles on my web page,
my audiences will relate it to some aspect in their life. I want my home
page to appeal to people. This topic of informational content of home pages
helps me to keep in track with what are my goals and intentions of creating
a home page.
Psychological Characteristics of Hypertext Links
"From
the psychological perspective, hypertext links in a virtual super-document
created by members of a cyberspace learning community have three characteristics:
affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor.
A link is a communicative
act by which a member of the community transmits new information or new
meaning by connecting two independent ideas which have not been related
before. Links in a virtual learning community are thus motivated actions
or behaviors responding to members' wishes to exchange and communicate
their mental life to each other.
The affective feature of
links refers to their motivation. It answers the question, Why the link
was created, or, What was the person's purpose for putting a link there.
The cognitive feature of
links refers to their argument or implication. It answers the question,
What new information or knowledge is being created through the link, or,
What is the new idea that is communicated by the link.
The sensorimotor feature
of links refers to their location and appearance. It answers the question,
How the link was created, or, What is its physical appearance.
The study and analysis
of linkage structure is the study and analysis of communicative acts in
cyberspace by members of a virtual learning community. It is the natural
history of culture (ethnography), language (ethnolinguistics, sociolinguisitcs,
and psycholinguistics), and behavior (social psychology).
Here in my own internet
domain, I express myself creatively, physically and emotionally as a member
of the human race and internet society."
This topic was interesting to me because I never really thought of
hypertext links as possessing an affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor
feature. I only thought of hypertext links as links to other sites or other
sections within the document. In analyzing this topic, I realize that links
are extensions of an individual thoughts. Since web designers are not there
to guide you to where they want to take you next, they uses links to be
a guide tour for you.
Cyberspace Home
"I find that Home Pages are always under construction for those owners who are personally involved. Constructing Home Pages on the World Wide Web is an exciting activity! Just think: you have the world at your finger tips. Because you determine what the browser sees and has access to, you are acting like a virtual god -- building a cyberspace architecture through virtual pathways to people's minds."
I found this quote from Dr. James to be very impressive. Imagine being a virtual god whenever you create a web page. Indeed, when creating a web page, you are in control. You do decided what information gets published and what animation and icons symbols will be used to spice up you web page. Being a creator of your home page allows a person to construct the page according to his/her preferences. It makes the creation of a web page more exciting and it also challenges the talents and abilities of the creator. A web page is your home and you want your home to look as beautiful, elegant, and appealing that people will be amazed at your distinct style and creativity.
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My Personal Experiences |
My first experience with
creating a web page was last semester when I took Dr. James psychology
409b class. I was nervous and scared because I did not know anything about
web design. The only experience that I had with computers were word processing,
e-mail, some games, and the Internet. I did not know any specific programs
so I was really intimidated by the requirements for the class. I did not
know any HTML and I was ready to drop the class because of my fear of not
understanding the basics of web design. However, I decided to face the
challenge and began the journey on becoming a web designer.
The first thing on my agenda was to learn about
HTML and how to upload and down load information into the browser. I tried
to read the required text but it all seem so foreign to me. Then, I decided
to ask help from my peers in hope that they would enlighten me in any way.
To my surprise my peers were very helpful. They helped me to understand
HTML and got me to create a simple home page. I learned that the best way
to learn HTML is through trial and error. Learn from your mistakes because
once you get the basic steps of HTML you are on your way in becoming a
web designer.
Currently, I feel much more confident about my
abilities to create a simple web page. I still have so much to learn because
a semester in this class is not enough time for me to learn all the I could
about HTML and web design. The more exposure and experience a person
has in creating a web page, the more the person will learn and he will
become a better web designer.
In the future I want to continue to learn more
about web designs and how to create better web pages that consist
of elegant icons and interesting information that web surfers would be
impressed and want revisit it again.
My advice to future generations is to challenge
yourself. Go beyond what is expected from you and try to think of ways
to better improve the works of past generations. As a generational community
we want to extend the work of past generations. The reports of past generations
are reference points in which you must build upon and improve. It is easy
to just paraphrase what was said by other students, but it would be more
rewarding to be able to go beyond what other's have achieve.
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Some resources of web designs |
It was not an easy task trying to find web sites that discuss the psychology of web designs. However, I did manage to find two sites by using two different search engines. The first search engine that I used was AltaVista. I typed in the word psychology + forces + web designs + navigation and found the site Web Page Design for Designers. The second search engine that I used was webcrawler. I typed in the words psychology + web + design and found the site INSTITUTE DESIGN.
Web Page for Designers can be found at: http://www.macam98.ac.il/wpds/wpdnav.htm.
This site offers information on the importance of understanding the process
of navigation when surfing the net and visiting someone's web site. The
Internet makes it easy for viewers to click on links and go from one site
to another. Thus, it is the job of web designers to create a web page that
will maintain the attention of the viewer. The web designer must pay attention
on what is on his page as well as what is off his page. It is important
to be aware of why viewers click on a link and don't return back to your
page. What does the other web page offer that your web page lacks. Web
designers must be creative and stylish and yet create a web page that is
user friendly. Use hypertext, buttons and image maps to help your reader
navigate through your page. Click on the above link to find more about
web designs and web navigation.
The institute Design web site can be found at: http://www.dh.umu.se/programmes/interaction.html.
This site offers information about an online course that offers a Master's
of Arts in Industrial Design. This online course "deals with the relation
between people and machines with particular focus on the exchange of information
between product and user". The discipline of Interaction design emphasize
the ability to design both the cognitive and physical interface and integrate
them into a successful whole. This site offers information for people who
want a career in industrial design. This relates to the psychology of web
architecture in that the course emphasize the relation between people and
machines. When creating a new product, the designer must take into consideration
how people will interact with the product and what the product will do
for the individual. There would be an exchange of information between user
and product and this form of interaction must be taken into account when
designing new machinery and equipment. For those of you who want a career
in industrial design visit this site and check out the course program.
