Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a trend within the World Wide Web. It makes use of a variety of applications and applies them to the design of a website. It is a term popularised by O'Reilly Media.

The main difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is the amount of interactivity available to the users of the website. Majority of Web 1.0 sites were primarily information based.

Tim O’Reilly definition of Web 2.0:

“Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences. “

Web 2.0 Examples

Web 2.0 comes in forms such as Wikis, Social Networking, Forums and Web-logs.
The following websites are examples of Web 2.0:

blist
Blist is an easy to use database. It is all about discovering, sharing, publishing, distributing, and subscribing to data at home and at work.


WikiSpaces
Create simple web pages that groups, friends, and families can edit together. Signing up and creating your own wiki space is fast, free, and easy.


ChatMaker
hatMaker is an easy-to-use web-service that you can use to create your own chatroom. Just type a name, copy and paste the URL to anyone you want, and click go. Free to use.

Third Week of Interactive Design

This week we looked at Information Architecture and learnt about the term LATCH by Richard Saul Wurman.



Location - on atlas
Alphabet - in a dictionary
Time - a timeline
Category - an encyclopedia
Hierarchy - By largest to smalles, by colour

In class we used Adobe flash CS3 and worked on a flash file which consisted of a gnome image and some text. We learnt about how layers and the timeline worked in the program.

Interactive Design

Interactive Design is the discipline of defining the behaviour of products and systems in which users can interact with. It is the behaviour between the user and the system

These design types can come in many forms such as electrical devices, softwares. You can tell an interactive design is good if the user can easily navigate, interact or control the system/device.

Obviously a lot goes into interactive design, the research process, finding the concept, target marketing, prototyping, evaluating and at some point implementing the designs.

Interactive Design Examples

Some great interactive websites include the wonderful Google and eBay.
These websites allow interaction between user and pc and world wide web.

Google enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages.


Ebay is The World's Online Marketplace, enabling trade on a local, national and international basis. With a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses, eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day.


There are also devices/objects which allow interaction between user and the object. Some examples of devices/objects can include cell phones, children's toys and also software on computers.

Second Week of Interactive Design

Learnt about more forms of interactive design. We learnt about how flowcharts and storyboards are incorporated in design work. We were asked to write down steps on how to make toast and then also make draw up a story board of making toast and then a flowchart of making toast. This allowed us to visualise three different approaches to explain how to make toast. The flowchart shows both the instructions of what to do along side with the decision process. Story board showed illustrations of what to do and the written instructions is just what we read.

Information/Instructional design

Information Design

Information Design is the way in which a design can give us some information and facts which would help us in some way. Information Design is very critical when it comes to the way it is delivered to the audience. Aesthetical aspects such as typography, images and information visualisation all take great part in how the audience will interpret the information. There is no purpose for information design if the user is unable to access what they want to get hold of.

Examples of Information Design

Some examples of Information Design include:

• Maps/Directories - Giving us a form of visual navigation and helps users locate a specific destination


• Street Signs - Gives users a sense of location


• Graphs - gives users statistical information that has been measured in some way


• Advertisements - comes in forms of print, signage, video, audio and web. Advertisments give users information about a product/event, visual design playing a big part in the way the information is portrayed.

Instructional Design

Instructional Design and information design are two very close things, but instructional design gives users a list of commands, steps or what has to be done to achieve a certain goal. It allows users to learn things The instructions must be precise and understandable to the audience. It would be much easier for a user to interpret instructions if they came in steps rather than one giant paragraph.

Users can be the ones to receive or even give the instructions, but that is not always the case. A user can command what they want a computer to do, like open a program, delete a file etc.

Examples of Instructional Design

Instructional Design can come in forms of programs, tutorials, books etc. They always involve user interaction of some sort.

Some Examples include:

• Instructables - a website open to the world and allows users to post up DIYs, How To's and Show and Tells.


• Recipe Books - gives users a set of commands on how to create a food type


• GPS - GPS Devices are a new level to our everyday. Interactive in many ways as well as providing the user with instructions on how to get to a certain destination