Reception: new medium, new readers

Reception: new medium, new readers session 7 (08/10/03)

today´s plan • Placing today in the big schema (from authorial intention to text to readers to context ) How do our readers read us? • Lecture: Intro + medium specific reading habits (Nielsen, EyeTrack study) • Kagepause • Lecture: reading in general + cognitive point of view (Bennett & Royle)

Social sphere: conventions, community, canon, fashion... Reader’s personality and emotions Access to text:repertoire, model reader, gaps, etc. Reading situation:where, when, how... medium Reader’ssocial status: identity, power... The Reader, by Fragonard, 1770-72

Usability Reception ? interaction cognition Can we read? How? Do we understand? How?

Jakob Nielsen “People don’t read online, they scan” • Highlighted keywords(hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others) • meaningful sub-headings(not "clever" ones) • bulleted lists • one idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph) • the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion. • half the word count (or less) than conventional writing

Writing exercise by Steve Krug I From Don’t Make Me Think, p.47

Writing exercise by Steve Krug II From Don’t Make Me Think, p.48

Writing exercise by Steve Krug III From Don’t Make Me Think, p.48

Eyetracking Project I • Context: news • Eyes go to text • Banners do catch attention • Online news readers read shallow but wide http://www.poynterextra.org/et/i.htm

Eyetracking Project II “Putting the study to good use” • Improve headlines and briefs • Edit online photos and graphics (resolution problems) • Understand your online reader (situation) • Improve banner advertisements (show logo all the time, no animation) • Deliver two versions: high-tech + bare bones

GIVE US A BREAK!!!

reception: focus Reception theory emphasizes the reader's consumption of the literary text over and above the question of the sum total of rhetorical devices which contribute to its structure as a piece of literature. literary beginnings

reception: development sides • Historical (Canon, interpretive communities, particular histories of response, histories of reading, cultural context...) • Philosophical (Theory of literary communication, interpretation, hermeneutics, aesthetic effect, phenomenology, blanks, implied reader, pragmatics...) • Sociological (Media Studies)

questions about reading • Is the reading already in the text? • Reading is not straightforward: i.e. Irony • How can we tell if a reading is valid? • Iser: text given shape in the act of reading • Themes: identity themes, community, power relations, race, gender Bennett & Royle: “Readers and Reading”

The Act of Reading Literary repertoire: “the familiar territory within the text” (p. 69), that is, the references to earlier works, social and historical norms, etc. that the reader needs to actualize in order to have full understanding of the text. Filling in the gaps (leerstellen): what happens when a reader starts from what the text says and figures out what it doesn’t say. The reader readjusts her expectations all throughout the reading. By Wolfgang Iser, The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1980

- What is the necessary repertoire here?

The Two Towers 10-minute summary HELM'S DEEP ROHIRRIM GUARD: Sire, there are some really femmy people at the gate. They have bows. ARAGORN: Those are Elves. Let them in. ROHIRRIM GUARD: Oh! Elves! Wow, I didn't expect that. PEOPLE WHO READ THE BOOK: Neither did I... GIMLI: Arr! I'm funny because I'm short. LEGOLAS: I'm funny because I make fun of how short you are! HENNETH ANNUN FARAMIR: So, who are you, exactly? FRODO: I'm Frodo. This is Sam. FARAMIR: Your...image consultant? SAM: His gardener. FARAMIR: Ohh, like in a 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' kind of way? SAM: Exactly. FRODO: Righ-What?? Gaps? By Molly Winter, http://home.earthlink.net/~ladyirony/10minTTT.html

The Role of the Reader Model reader: “a textually established set of felicity conditions to be met in order to have a macrospeech act (such as a text) fully actualized”. (p. 11). Authors make sure that their texts are communicative by using the codes that they think their possible readers share. By Umberto Eco, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1984

Personae exercise by Christina Wodtke I • -Personae are “archetypal users that exist mainly to be design targets” (p. 164) • -To create personae, start with user research (focus groups and interviews; consumer information on product usage; data about age, social patterns, etc.) • You can create a basic persona the site will cater to, plus secondary ones that can also find it useful. It will help you prioritize. • Personas can be used in scenarios or imaginary “missions” From Information Architecture, chap. 7

Personae exercise by Christina Wodtke II From Information Architecture, chap. 7

Personae exercise by Christina Wodtke III From Information Architecture, chap. 7

digital text reception • Repertoire-Gaps -Usability-Onscreen habits • Model reader-Personas

Reception: new medium, new readers