Thurs, January 25th, 2007

A quick note of introduction:
My name is John Donohoe and this is my first semester in the ITEC program. My background is in interactive marketing/design (websites, cd-roms, browser based application interfaces, etc.). Over the last few years I have primarily been project managing but I got into the industry during the .dot boom as a designer/developer.

Case studies of some former work can be found at my resume website www.johndonohoe.net.

Currently it is my goal to step back from the project/client management side of interactive media and get back into the hands-on creative, specifically in user-centric and educational development.

During my time in interactive marketing I had many opportunities to work with “usability designers” and “information architects.” Seven years ago “information design” was a brand new profession that was born out of a need for user-centric thinking that neither designers nor developers came equipped to deal with. Many people in this profession organically grew into it with no real academic foundation. Many times their skill set was more in their ability to successfully argue their point-of-view rather than have a fundamental understanding of best practices on how to design for end-users.

I look at the ITEC program as an opportunity to concentrate on the theory/psychology of how to best serve the audience when presenting educational content online and in other media. At the end of my time with the ITEC program I hope to be equipped with a deeper understanding around the learning process and how people become engaged and absorb information.


Lecture Summary for Thursday, Jan 25, 2007:
Today was our introduction into the instructional multimedia seminar. The highlights of the session were:

• A high level review of the syllabus and course expectations
  
  
  
  • Need to review a variety of Web 2.0 technologies with the expectation that I will choose one specific function to research
  
  
  • Will have a group project later in the semester with the output of the work to be usable by a non-profit organization that the group will be collaborating with.


• A general discussion around interface design
  
  
  
  • What is Interface Design?
    
    
    
    • Usability
    
    
    • Accessibility
    
    
    • Visual Design
    
    
    • Information architecture
    
    
    • I was pleased to hear about the concentration of the course around usability design and human factors. This seems directly in-line with the subjects I wish to pursue. The required reading looks fascinating.
    
    


• An in-class exercise focusing on individual’s unique “word-to-image” perception.
  
  • Divided into teams, the first person in a line of people was given a word/phrase. That person was to then draw a visual representation of the text. The image was then shown to the next person in line without revealing what the original text was. The second person had to write down what word/phrase they thought the image was trying to convey. The next person received the text and drew an image that represented that text, and so on. At the end of the process we then lined up the progression of words to image to words and saw how based on individuals unique perceptions of words/images can alter the intention of they received from the previous person in the line.
  
  
  
  • Being aware of this phenomena should be applied to any aspect of user interface design (the decision to place a button in a certain piece of screen real-estate, or the color of a image, or the metaphor used to create an icon that represents a function) all could have different meanings to the end-user than what the creator intends.