So our first task of the new Semester is to begin creating a website for our student newspaper - Canvas. Before that, though, I will take a look at some other websites that come under the category - RIVALS!
Firstly, I found Nouse. This is the University of York's website for their newspaper and I have to say, in general, it comes across as a very well laid out site, not dissimilar from The Guardian website and in fact, might well have been modelled on this.
It is not clear, at first glance, whether it is actually the website for their student paper, but scrolling down the home page you will find the archive in PDF format which suggests it is.
The site has some of the features that we talked about in class. The navigation bar has, I assume, the same categories which appear in the paper version, which allows someone to go through the site in a similar way as they would the paper. Another thing we had previously discussed was adding multimedia as an extension to the paper - this has been done on Nouse with the inclusion of Podcasts. They can add news this way allowing another dimension which is worth looking at for us I think.
A downside to Nouse is that by including a lot on their homepage, it becomes very cluttered and, in my opinion, are better off confining most things on this page to their relevant section - keeping the home page for the latest updates perhaps.
The second website I looked at was Varsity. This is the website of the Cambridge students' paper. It is Cambridge so of course I expect big things from this one.
I was right to, I guess the huge range of subjects on offer at Cambridge allows for a large combined effort, so I think for us, we can learn a lot from looking at this site.
What first stood out for me, was the much more concise home page, with just a few articles/features on display, it immediately becomes much more pleasing to look at than Nouse.
The individual categories: news, sports etc, are laid out with the main story surrounded by the rest, which I like a lot and it seems as though lots of effort has gone into planning the design of the site.
The stories throughout the site are laid out in columns, like they would be in print, which suggests they want the website to be kept close to the paper, more or less as an add-on. After our discussions in class it seems as if we want to be a lot more than our paper, so perhaps columns would be a good feature to avoid.
Both sites have the pages on .pdf - making me think it is a good idea to do this from the InDesign files rather than spend time typing them all up, allowing us to re-purpose some of our articles and not all of them.
Sunday 10 February 2008
Thursday 4 October 2007
Analyse a Website - lovefilm.com
I chose to analyse Love Film because I think it has a good level of interactivity and is simple to work your way around if you only want a quick visit.
It is important for a site to be easy to use and.... OK the real reason is because I like to rent films, but it does actually work very well. It uses the 'inverted L' that is so commonly used on websites and, with subtle red and white colouring make it very easy on the eye.
The site is consistent throughout, i.e. clickable links are in light blue and underlined so you can spot them straight away, reducing un-necessary time.
Another interesting feature of this site is when you hover over titles on the home page it brings up a brief synopsis so there is no need to navigate away from the page.
The site is split into five main categories which are always at the top of the page: Home, Browse Titles, My Rental List, Magazine, Shop. These are then split into many sub-categories, which means that you never have to go through more than three pages to get to what you want, making a very simple, yet well organised structure.
Overall there is nothing that really stands out on lovefilm.com but it all comes together to be very easy to use. I hope to be able to incorporate some of the ideas that make it so user-friendly when it comes to making my own website.
It is important for a site to be easy to use and.... OK the real reason is because I like to rent films, but it does actually work very well. It uses the 'inverted L' that is so commonly used on websites and, with subtle red and white colouring make it very easy on the eye.
The site is consistent throughout, i.e. clickable links are in light blue and underlined so you can spot them straight away, reducing un-necessary time.
Another interesting feature of this site is when you hover over titles on the home page it brings up a brief synopsis so there is no need to navigate away from the page.
The site is split into five main categories which are always at the top of the page: Home, Browse Titles, My Rental List, Magazine, Shop. These are then split into many sub-categories, which means that you never have to go through more than three pages to get to what you want, making a very simple, yet well organised structure.
Overall there is nothing that really stands out on lovefilm.com but it all comes together to be very easy to use. I hope to be able to incorporate some of the ideas that make it so user-friendly when it comes to making my own website.
Thursday 27 September 2007
New Yorker: Journalism Reality TV
My first impression when looking at this article was that it had simply been 're-printed' onto the web from the print version. Although I don't read The New Yorker it is obvious from the layout that the lack of features tell me this hasn't been made 'web friendly.' For example it is simple black on white in a Times font, most likely the exact same format as used in the print version.
The use (or lack) of embedded, or indeed, any links suggest that not much effort has actually gone in for this to take advantage of the features available online. There were plenty of chances for this article to link to pictures or previous articles to break up what is rather a long piece online. The text would not even need to be changed, a mere enhancement by using the services available on the Internet would have sufficed.
The text does have a picture half way down then first page which updates each time you refresh (which couldn't be done in print), however this is a cartoon which is irrelevant to the story and must just be an attempt to advertise the magazine. It is clear the focus of the website is to sell more issues of their magazine and there is no real attempt to convert it to anything like Monkey magazine which uses almost every web element you can think of.
So it seems that for whatever reason, this is just another example of a print company not using the full benefits of the web and not showing any plans to do so in the near future. Perhaps they feel safe that print will not be replaced?... But perhaps they should at least begin precautionary measures...
The use (or lack) of embedded, or indeed, any links suggest that not much effort has actually gone in for this to take advantage of the features available online. There were plenty of chances for this article to link to pictures or previous articles to break up what is rather a long piece online. The text would not even need to be changed, a mere enhancement by using the services available on the Internet would have sufficed.
The text does have a picture half way down then first page which updates each time you refresh (which couldn't be done in print), however this is a cartoon which is irrelevant to the story and must just be an attempt to advertise the magazine. It is clear the focus of the website is to sell more issues of their magazine and there is no real attempt to convert it to anything like Monkey magazine which uses almost every web element you can think of.
So it seems that for whatever reason, this is just another example of a print company not using the full benefits of the web and not showing any plans to do so in the near future. Perhaps they feel safe that print will not be replaced?... But perhaps they should at least begin precautionary measures...
Nora Paul and the 'Reality' of Online News
While Nora Paul raises some interesting points about what, in 1995, was expected of online news, the fact that they have not, perhaps been as expected, may not be such a bad thing. I think it is most likely in the ten years before her article was written, people's expectations of the medium have changed. For example the 'limitless newshole' notion could well be because readers do not want an unlimited amount of text to read. In this case the perceived 'failure' may not be such a bad thing after all.
Having said this however, I agree to a certain extent that online news isn't what we expected ten years ago but I feel the Internet has taken news to a level some mediums can't. As a way of physically 'reading' news, online brings with it the advantage of constant updates as days go on, an advantage it will always have over traditional print methods. This isn't really touched on but is important as people who read news online often do so in order to check the latest goings on.
A couple of commenter's brought up the issue of money and news organisations investing in specialist online reporters/editors. This could be a major factor as to why articles online have the tendency to be like their newspaper counterparts, with often the exact same edits. It could also be part of the reason why Paul claims the expected change in reporting styles hasn't happened. Personally, I think blogs (in which style is much different by the way) are important to online news but must be kept separate from the actual articles. It is essential that journalists keep the formal writing style unless expressing opinion.
All in all this is an informative piece, some points I agree with and others I don't. But generally it is interesting to look back at what people expected ten years ago and now to see what direction online news has actually gone in.
Having said this however, I agree to a certain extent that online news isn't what we expected ten years ago but I feel the Internet has taken news to a level some mediums can't. As a way of physically 'reading' news, online brings with it the advantage of constant updates as days go on, an advantage it will always have over traditional print methods. This isn't really touched on but is important as people who read news online often do so in order to check the latest goings on.
A couple of commenter's brought up the issue of money and news organisations investing in specialist online reporters/editors. This could be a major factor as to why articles online have the tendency to be like their newspaper counterparts, with often the exact same edits. It could also be part of the reason why Paul claims the expected change in reporting styles hasn't happened. Personally, I think blogs (in which style is much different by the way) are important to online news but must be kept separate from the actual articles. It is essential that journalists keep the formal writing style unless expressing opinion.
All in all this is an informative piece, some points I agree with and others I don't. But generally it is interesting to look back at what people expected ten years ago and now to see what direction online news has actually gone in.
Wednesday 9 May 2007
YouTube Review
For my YouTube review, after a quick scout I decided to take a look at this:
Now, I'm not entirely sure what to make of it and can only assume it is some sort of take on the recent dove commercials that have become some sort of fashion in the video editing world.
In basic terms, this video is 40 seconds showing 85 years of a person's life streamed together. Being interested in this sort of technology I appreciate the effort that must have gone into this.
Having said that, I am struggling to find a purpose to the video, aside from someone simply showing of their editing expertise, and so can only look at it in terms of personal talent as opposed to any wider meaning that perhaps was intended. The lack of option to comment with just the one, presumably from the maker telling us to visit a website confirms this view.
The soundtrack that runs alongside this video is, in my opinion distracting and probably un-necessary and without knowing any background of whoever made it cannot say why it was added. Taking a closer look also shows every few seconds a slight glitch in the shape of the face showing where a new image was added, picky maybe but this is a review.
With 40,000 plus views it is definitely popular, but again the lack of comment box doesn't allow feedback to the maker.
Although intriguing to watch, it seems this video is simply someone using YouTube to promote themselves or a website with cleverly edited videos and does in a way reflect how important such sites are in every day life.
Now, I'm not entirely sure what to make of it and can only assume it is some sort of take on the recent dove commercials that have become some sort of fashion in the video editing world.
In basic terms, this video is 40 seconds showing 85 years of a person's life streamed together. Being interested in this sort of technology I appreciate the effort that must have gone into this.
Having said that, I am struggling to find a purpose to the video, aside from someone simply showing of their editing expertise, and so can only look at it in terms of personal talent as opposed to any wider meaning that perhaps was intended. The lack of option to comment with just the one, presumably from the maker telling us to visit a website confirms this view.
The soundtrack that runs alongside this video is, in my opinion distracting and probably un-necessary and without knowing any background of whoever made it cannot say why it was added. Taking a closer look also shows every few seconds a slight glitch in the shape of the face showing where a new image was added, picky maybe but this is a review.
With 40,000 plus views it is definitely popular, but again the lack of comment box doesn't allow feedback to the maker.
Although intriguing to watch, it seems this video is simply someone using YouTube to promote themselves or a website with cleverly edited videos and does in a way reflect how important such sites are in every day life.
Friday 30 March 2007
Eason Jordan
Eason Jordan, former head of CNN was forced to resign in 2005 due to pressure from right wing bloggers.
He was reported to have said (off the record) that journalists were being killed in Iraq by the American Military on Rony Alboritz' first ever blog for forumblog.org.
It was pointed out that the mass media, presumably because the comments were made off the record originally let it slip but had to take notice when numerous bloggers started calling for Jordan's head.
It goes to show how blogs can make a huge role in how the news media look at a story and was perhaps a turning point for the impact of online news.
He was reported to have said (off the record) that journalists were being killed in Iraq by the American Military on Rony Alboritz' first ever blog for forumblog.org.
It was pointed out that the mass media, presumably because the comments were made off the record originally let it slip but had to take notice when numerous bloggers started calling for Jordan's head.
It goes to show how blogs can make a huge role in how the news media look at a story and was perhaps a turning point for the impact of online news.
Thursday 22 March 2007
Feeding Me Information
OK, so over the last week I have been asked to use Rojo and Google News to see benefits (if any) and just generally compare how I got on with them both.
Rojo... well initially I made a big error by ticking the boxes for feeds that I'd be interested in, giving me something in the region of 100,000+ posts/news stories to read... I've only got a week and it updates as well! So I had to go through all the feeds I had subscribed to and narrow it down which took AGES. It now has just 5 categories, yet still about 15,000 to read. In hindsight (what a wonderful thing) I would ave skipped the automatic feeds that Rojo chooses and selected them individually, but this may also have been time-consuming... On the time front Rojo doesn't score too highly.
As far as the feeds shown are concerned it was OK, they are displayed most recent first so if you use the site regularly you'll catch the latest ones. There is also an option to display by 'relevance'... huh? Relevant to what? How would it know what I think is relevant?
When all is said and done, I did find some more blogs about my interests and so in tat way it was a useful tool.
One more thing which I haven't found so I'm assuming it's not a feature - it would be nice if there were links to the respective sites where the feeds have come from... Not that hard
Next up is Google News..
I must say out of the two I probably used Rojo more this week, although Google did start to become more useful as i went on. Basically, I customized my Google Page and cut out all the irrelevant stuff (like most US news..) So my top 4 links to news were: Sport(UK), Men's Style (I'll come back to this), World News, and UK News. This helped to just check things that I wanted to find out about and I'm not quite sure how the top results were calculated but it seems to be a 'most popular' sort of thing - possibly a problem if I need the most up-to-date news.
OK, now back to the men's style part, there is the option to add a custom news section, and I went for men's style. This ended up being pretty much a Google search and there really wasn't much about style, apparently I want to find out about basketball...
All-in-all, this was helpful for finding out news, but not so much for interests.
So there we have it, my experiences with Rojo and Google.
Rojo... well initially I made a big error by ticking the boxes for feeds that I'd be interested in, giving me something in the region of 100,000+ posts/news stories to read... I've only got a week and it updates as well! So I had to go through all the feeds I had subscribed to and narrow it down which took AGES. It now has just 5 categories, yet still about 15,000 to read. In hindsight (what a wonderful thing) I would ave skipped the automatic feeds that Rojo chooses and selected them individually, but this may also have been time-consuming... On the time front Rojo doesn't score too highly.
As far as the feeds shown are concerned it was OK, they are displayed most recent first so if you use the site regularly you'll catch the latest ones. There is also an option to display by 'relevance'... huh? Relevant to what? How would it know what I think is relevant?
When all is said and done, I did find some more blogs about my interests and so in tat way it was a useful tool.
One more thing which I haven't found so I'm assuming it's not a feature - it would be nice if there were links to the respective sites where the feeds have come from... Not that hard
Next up is Google News..
I must say out of the two I probably used Rojo more this week, although Google did start to become more useful as i went on. Basically, I customized my Google Page and cut out all the irrelevant stuff (like most US news..) So my top 4 links to news were: Sport(UK), Men's Style (I'll come back to this), World News, and UK News. This helped to just check things that I wanted to find out about and I'm not quite sure how the top results were calculated but it seems to be a 'most popular' sort of thing - possibly a problem if I need the most up-to-date news.
OK, now back to the men's style part, there is the option to add a custom news section, and I went for men's style. This ended up being pretty much a Google search and there really wasn't much about style, apparently I want to find out about basketball...
All-in-all, this was helpful for finding out news, but not so much for interests.
So there we have it, my experiences with Rojo and Google.
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