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Social Psychology of Web
Architecture:
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| Introduction |
In this report I will discuss the methods
I used to create my own web site and what I think makes up a good web site. I still
consider myself a novice when it comes to web design and feel I have much to learn.
Since this is my second semester in Dr. James' cyber-psychology class I do have a little
web design experience but I am not, by any stretch of the imagination a veteran of web
architecture.
Also in this report I will analyze some comments from previous
generations who have written on this topic. In addition I will give you my take on Jeff Glover's site. Jeff Glover is a web
designer who has compiled a list of what makes a good page good and a bad page bad.
Finally, I will comment on Dr. James' article on the social psychology of home page
architecture and then give my biography as a web designer.
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In searching through past generations, I found a few that
reported on the topic of web architecture. One of the main topics of past
generations was the difficulty in designing the first home page when the person has very
little experience in doing so. Craig
Kawamura from G10 had these things to say about web design:
"I
started this class with some computer background with basic word processing, databasing,
and knowledge of what the internet is. The hard part was the fact that I did not have any
knowledge of HTML or hypertext markup language. HTML is a programming language which
allows all computers to download information. So I had to learn how to actually create the
web page.
With the knowledge that I did not know
how to create a web page I had to start early and figure out what I was doing. I did not
really want to ask questions which was a bad move. It was a bad move because I took even
longer to figure things out. The way which I figured things out was to look at the help
section of netscape which provides some information. The other things I just tried to do
by clicking and finding that it was similar to using a word processor".
What Craig describes is
probably typical of most students who enroll in a cyber-psychology class for the first
time. I think most students in the class for the first time have little or no web
design experience for the simple reason that most are psychology majors and computer
literacy is not a core requirement. I think the conclusion that Craig came to was
that if you perserver and experiment anyone or most anyone will be able to design a decent
web page.
Another topic of past generations who did reports on web design
issues was that of Jeff Glover who tells
whether a web page is "sucky or savvy". Students had numerous opinions on
Mr. Glover's suggestions. I will give my own personal opinions of this topic in the next
section. One student commented on the Glover site was Scott Chang of G6 who said " I would agree with most of his top ten list except for number eight
and three. Personally, I find pictures of pets very amusing. I may be a bit bias because I
love pets. Jeffrey Glover has many pictures of his loved ones. People love pets like their
children. If people want to show pictures of their pets, they have every right to. Animals
have a personality of their own. I feel that this adds to the personality of your home
page. Maybe a lot of users may disagree, but I'm sure some will agree.
As for number three, I disagree with him totally. Hey, the
internet is up there and it is very advantageous for many people. One way of advertising
or getting people to know you is through the internet. I'm sure that if companies see that
you are able to write beautiful home pages, they will see that you have talent. In the
land of oppurtunities, you should use whatever media you can to get ahead. Hey, for people
who want to do this, I say, "Go For It".
There were alot of students who had something to say about the
Glover site probably because it was one of the requirements. Scott disagreed with
two points on Glover's top ten things that make a sucky page. I disagree with Scott
on point number 8 because personally I really don't give a rat's ass about someone else's
pet pictures and I do own a pet. I also do not agree with Scott on point 3, which is
making a home page your own resume. I doubt whether a person is going to get a job
from an online resume but I could be wrong. Needless to say, Scott agreed as
did most other students on almost all of Jeff Glover's suggestions.
I feel that Scott's comments did advance the topic of sucky and
savvy web pages even if I didn't agree with all of them. Some people may find it
easier to simply agree with all the points Jeff Glover makes, but this doesn't really
advance the topic any further.
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The purpose of this section is to go to Jeff Glover's site and give you the reader,
my take on what is presented. The purpose of this site is to give novice web
designers tips on what makes up a good or "savvy" web site and what makes up a
bad or "sucky" web site. Glover accomplishes this task in two ways.
First, are Glovers' "top ten ways to tell if you have a sucky home page".
These are ten fairly basic things to avoid when creating a home page, such as and obnoxious backrounds. The second section entitled "sucky
to savvy" is devoted to tips to take your web site from bad to good supposedly.
Glover tells you things to avoid and things to include in making your home page.
As far as principles found on the Glover web site most of them
are really just common sense. Basically it comes down to what most people find
annoying about a bad web site are listed as things to avoid when making your own site.
Helpful things like alt tags and thumbnails are things which should be included
when creating your site.
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In looking at Dr. James' article on the social psychological principles of home page
architecture I found three ideas that I feel could be useful to novice web designers.
First, a home page should be clear and easy to understand. I know this sounds
like common sense but I have come across quite a few pages that were not organized in a
clear and consise fashion and thus made the experience an unpleasant one.
"Above all, be sure that visitors don't
end up waiting impatiently for your Page to load. No spiffy background effect or
spectacular images will be appreciated by cybernauts who have to wait precious seconds for
you to load just so you can show off!! So how much is too long to wait? In my opinion, the
shorter the better. As a rule of thumb, I would say that anything more than 10 secs. is
too long to wait for a Home Page. This rule is different for long text files with no
images. These can be tolerated since they yield text or content, not just
appearance". Dr. James I like this rule or
suggestion, how ever you want to take it. I've seen alot of pages that take so long
to load and when it is fully loaded, the viewer ends up with a page full of cheesy
animated gifs. I think if graphics must be used, its always better to use a
thumbnail photo, that way the viewer can decide whether or not he wants to view the
graphic.
" 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".Dr. James Virtual god?
Maybe but probably not. I doubt people will be worshiping at my web site
alter. This is a good point however, I've found that building web sites is quite
addicting. I'm always thinking of ideas and ways of improving my site. Lets
face facts, there will always be room for improvement. I guess there is some kind of
ego boost to know that others have the ability to view whatever you put out on the
internet.
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My biography as a web designer is pretty simple. I
started last semester in Psychology 409b with absolutley no experience in web architecture
up to that point. Myself and my classmates were kind of lost for the first part of
the semester as most of us didn't know exactly what we were doing. Slowly but surely
I began to learn more and more about web architecture by asking my classmates lots of
questions. As for my level of expertise now, well it's getting better. I learn
more and more each time I attempt to refine my site.
My advice for future generations would be to ask questions if you
are unclear on some particular point. I always found it helpful to ask a classmate
who was maybe in their second semester of Dr. James' class or had prior web experience.
Another recomendation I would have is to get a good web authoring tool. I use
Microsoft Frontpage 98 which I find very helpful and time-saving. Frontpage 98 cuts
down on alot of the more advanced tasks such as framing and table making. Need a
table? Just click a button. Framed page? No problem, again click a
button. Frontpage 98 is great but you should also know some HTML. Sometimes
you might need some HTML that Frontpage doesn't recognize, for example Netscape only
codes.
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| Annotated Index to Web Design: Helpful Sites |
In my search for helpful web design
sites I came across Windy's
Design Studio. This site has an abundance of useful tools for web design
including, javascripts, fonts and backrounds as well as useful information for novice
designers. If javascript is your thing, one of the best sources for java I found was
the Javascript Source.
This site has over 300 javascript codes that you simply cut and paste into your site.
There are many sites on the net that are very helpful for designers just starting
out, you simply have to look for them.
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