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Never Draw a Pig in Clay

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Never Draw a Pig in Clay

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    Slide 1:Never Draw a Pig in Clay (and the Ticket Taker in the Tutu)

    Wayne MacPhail, Web Coordinator, Centennial College October 3, 2002

    Slide 2:What well be doing 1 hour 30 minute talk Lots of questions welcome Challenge and engage

    Slide 3:The Good News You already know a lot about creating online content. Why? Because you live in the real world. I hope.

    Slide 4:The Bad News Online content creation has been dominated by MBAs, graphic designers, and software engineers - not writers.

    Slide 5:The Problem? ADD Attention Deficit Disorder

    Slide 6:Attention Deficit Disorder Not enough attention paid to the:

    past world user words structure audience purpose results experience lessons And too much attention paid to the wrong things

    Slide 7:The State of the (Too Much) Art

    Complex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good atComplex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good at

    Slide 8:Medium and Memento

    Complex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good atComplex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good at

    Slide 9:The Selfish Medium

    Complex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good atComplex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good at

    Slide 10:The Ticket Taker in the Tutu

    ADMIT ONE ddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddd

    www.120seconds.com www.klan123.com www.twinkies.com www.cbc.ca

    Slide 15:Years ago Lord Reith, director-general of the BBC, gave the right reply to those who would dumb down Web media today. An interviewer asked: Will you give the people what they want? No, he replied, we shall give them something better.

    Martyn Perks - Create Online March, 2002 Complex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good atComplex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good at

    Slide 16:When MBAs rule the Web Thats not an org chart, thats site architecture

    www.bayer.com

    Slide 18:Computers and the Beauty Myth

    The Joy of Complexity

    www.slashdot.com

    Slide 20:When MBAs Rule Newspapers Citizens, Audience, Eyeballs and Customers

    Slide 21:The Dirty Truth about Online Canadian Content

    Slide 22:More good news

    www.ofoto.com www.ofoto.com iPhoto

    Slide 26:What We Can Learn

    Complex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good atComplex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good at

    Slide 27:The Willful Web

    Slide 28:Never Draw a Pig in Clay

    Slide 29:Never Draw a Pig in Clay

    Slide 30:Rabbis, Monks and Blind Guys with Harps

    Slide 33:Book Larnin

    Slide 34:Lessons from the Real World

    Slide 35:Whats Your Handle?

    Slide 36:Lessons From Other Media

    Slide 37:Tell readers where they are Provide a convenient map of the work (TOC, index) Provide a title page Let users mark their spot and progress Show users how long the text is Break the text into standard pieces (chapters)

    From Books

    Slide 38:Keep visuals interesting Make screen graphics readable Tell a story with pictures Online cannot compete as a rich media experience

    From Television

    Slide 39:Social relationships do not depend on bandwidth Completion is a powerful tool for engagement Tell a story with pictures Keep dialogue crisp Tell a human story

    From Comics

    Slide 40:To think of character as response to conflict Figure out whose story it is Provide tension and release Break story into fractal units (acts/scenes/beats) Give the story a dramatic arc

    From Movies

    Slide 41:Keep the front page fresh Tell human stories Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them Keep writing short, muscular and active Provide surprise and a sense of discovery

    From Newspapers

    Slide 42:Story Space

    Slide 43:Stories can have a geography Objects can contain stories Space can replace time as the axis of storytelling Stories, objects and memory have resonance In the absence of forward momentum, story dies

    From Hypernarrative

    Slide 44:Being Human

    Slide 45:Being Human

    We often experience only what we expect to experience We often miss the obvious We can be absolutely blind to data we don't expect We are creatures of paradigm We all respond to human stories Our short-term memory is fragile, limited and easily taxed Our long-term memory compresses events and is unreliable

    Slide 46:Being Human

    We have limited bandwidth, especially when we're busy or focussed We are easily distracted We could always use more time We understand symbols, conventions, narratives and scripts We often believe other people experience the world the same way we do

    Slide 47:Being Human

    We easily form social relationships, especially under stress We need feedback We tend to blame ourselves for errors when confronted with new technology We find our own uses for technology We are fragile, frightened and flawed

    Slide 48:The Media Equation

    Slide 49:The Media Equation

    MEDIA = REAL LIFE

    Slide 50:Being Human - Part Two

    We are helplessly social especially when stressed We cannot tell true praise from flattery Other praise is valued higher than self-praise Expertise can be easily conferred We more easily criticize to a third party We want to be polite and expect politeness We like people most who are most like us and like people best who become more like us

    Slide 51:Know Thy Users for They are not You

    Slide 53:The Birdfeeder Lessons

    User Goal User Interface

    Slide 56:What We Can Do

    Complex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good atComplex and self-absorbed Not task-oriented Not user-oriented All about ME Over written - too long Most popular sites most uninteresting content Immature No sense of the medium or too much Hasnt figured out what its good at

    Slide 57:We can listen well and watch intelligently

    Slide 58:We can learn that no user cares about our code, our graphics or jargon. They only care about their task. And so should we.

    Slide 59:Our job is simple. Get out of our users way so they can achieve their goals.

    Slide 60:The user as hero

    Slide 61:Listening and Watching Well Stakeholder input Paper prototyping Usability testing

    Slide 62:Discontent, Content and Microcontent

    Slide 63:Create Clear Microcontent

    Slide 64:Head Subhead Byline Story Summary Part One Part Two Part Three The Story Begins

    Slide 65:Banish Happy Talk

    Slide 66:Hello. Welcome to our new, improved site about gardening in Canada. Were sure glad to see you and hope this site provides you with the tips, message boards and catalogue guides every Canadian gardener needs! Enjoy your visit and thanks!!! New Message Boards Tips Catalogues

    Slide 67:Be Clear Clarity of writing starts with clarity of thought and intention

    Slide 68:Write Tight

    Slide 69: Say what you want to say. Cut it in half. Cut it in half again. Write it. Cut it in half, twice. Write. Cut. Twice.

    Slide 70: Rewrite Exercise

    Slide 71:Think of Buttons as Doors

    Slide 72: Youre in a strange room full of doors. Youre rushed and searching for something. The only way you know where to go next is to read the signs on the doors. Imagine that when youre writing the words for your navigation buttons.

    Slide 73:Dont bury the user in bananas

    Slide 74: Give users one task at a time. Make the task clear.

    Slide 75:Use the right word(s)

    Slide 76:

    Useful Devices for the Disabled Workshops to Help You Succeed

    Slide 81:Use Standards

    Slide 82: There are few Web standards, but heres one. The term is look for something on the Web is: Search Not Find Find It Find it Now Go Get Look it up etc.

    Slide 83:Designing for Disability

    Slide 84:Tag content for meaning, style for presentation Use style sheets, but make pages legible without them Don't rely on colour alone Images and image maps must have ALT text labels Use concise link names Scripts must have a nonscript alternatives Applets must have alternative text Allow users to freeze moving or blinking text Provide synchronized text transcript for audio, and audio Provide text transcripts for video Give clear titles to acronyms and abbreviations Frames are optional and titled and contain documents, not images directly If all else fails, link to an alternate page and give alternate contact information

    Disability Design Tips

    Slide 85:Let Users Participate

    Slide 86: Searching Trading Education Content Building/Issue Oriented Scheduled events Subscriber-based E-mail and Listservers Support Customer Relations Management Multiuser Dimensions or Dungeons (MUDS and MOOs) 3D Worlds WebLogs Chat SMS Instant Messaging Walled gardens

    Types of Online Community

    Slide 87:Planting Marigolds

    Slide 88: Summary Learn from the past and the world. Dont get fancy. Write tight. Be clear. Use the right word(s) Listen. Tell human stories. Stay out of the way. Be helpful.

    Slide 89:Wayne MacPhail wmacphail@centennialcollege.ca Web Coordinator Centennial College

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