For my final blog post for Comm 534, I thought I would simply let everyone know how much I have enjoyed being in this class. I can see what a wonderful thing it is to have a cohort of students to share classes with for an entire year. You are such a great group of people I think I will honestly miss seeing you every week. I hope when you are on campus you will feel free to stop by my office and say hello (ASC 301A).
I have learned a lot in this class and am very happy I took it. Sadly, I have to confess I will not miss the weekly blog postings! I may keep my blog for a while to see if I get the urge. I may find I enjoy it a lot more without the pressure of having to post something when I am not in the mood. My greatest struggle was always WHAT to write about?!
And – no surprise here I bet – I will actually continue to enjoy my second life in Second Life. Actually, I may even create a third life for those times when I want to be completely anonymous – LOL.
My next technology adventure will be the purchase of an Iphone, which I am really looking forward to. In doing my final paper, I found a great video called “Connected” that is a marketing tool for a small private college in Texas who is handing out Iphones to all incoming freshman. It is a great example of how the phone can be used both in and out of the classroom. In case you are curious, the link for the website is http://www.acu.edu/technology/mobilelearning/index.html. Right now I am torn between splurging on a Nikon D80 Digital SLR camera or the Iphone. Both require $$ so I will have to budget for whatever I choose.
Now I am off to pack for my trip to NYC while my avatar, Debbie Rubble dances in SL at the Dogglounge. At least one of us is having a good time.
Again, I look forward to seeing everyone around campus! Don’t be a stranger.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Good Advice from David Hansson - Stop Working 14 Hours A Day!
I was watching some video online tonight looking for inspiration for my final project and one of the speakers at Y Combinator (David Hansson of 37signals) closed with a startling comment – QUIT WORKING 14 HOURS A DAY! Boy, was that music to my ears?! (Do you hear that Karen North – my late-night working partner-in-crime?!)
Having been guilty of putting in at least 12-14 hours a day for the last few weeks, that is some advice I am ready and willing to adopt. Hansson said no one can be creative working 14 hours a day. He thinks the goal should really be to get in 5 solid hours of work a day and then to enjoy yourself and have a life. In his experience, he believes a person can get so much more done in a focused 5 hour day than a in a lengthy 14 hour day. The software developer he was advising confessed to having a hard time with focus and being guilty of becoming distracted and surfing the Internet.
While I myself do not suffer from “Internet-surfingitis,” I will admit to suffering from burnout and not feeling the same motivation that I know I should feel. Perhaps there is a difference between “being creative” and simply working to complete tasks, because I know I work very hard to get as much done in every day as I possibly can. I have no choice. I have deadlines that have to be met. However, I often leave work exhausted and wake up the next day feeling even more tired than when I went to bed.
It does not take a genius to realize this cannot be a good situation. However, I persist because despite my exhaustion, I love my job. I love the people I work with and this situation I currently find myself in is one that we hope to have resolved within the next few months. Yes, a faint light shines at the end of the tunnel!
And even though I do admit to working too many hours on occasion or even working non-conventional hours, I don’t think it is all bad. I work the way I do in normal times (right now is not a normal time) because I have a passion for my job and take pride in doing the best job I possibly can. If I work non-conventional hours, it is because I have chosen to do so, not because someone is making me do it. Even now, no one is making me put in the extra hours. It’s just that when you care about what you do, you want to do it well.
However, the words spoken by David Hansson, have given me something to seriously think about. It was not so long ago that I couldn’t wait to get in to work every day -- eagerly awaiting the new challenges that were sure to arise. I want to feel that way again and I know it is possible. If I weren’t on overload at the moment, I would be feeling that way right now. There are so many exciting things happening in my job, at our new Center on Communication Leadership and at the Annenberg School itself.
I think I am going to make this online promise to myself and blast it outward to the world, as only a blog and the Internet can do. After this class and my 6 week summer session ends, I AM GOING TO TAKE SOME QUALITY TIME FOR MYSELF AND RECHARGE MY BATTERIES. Perhaps I’ll take a short trip somewhere and get away… or maybe…just maybe… I’ll do nothing at all. Imagine that, just laying around the house and enjoying the feeling of having no deadlines to meet and no place to be. I wonder if I could actually do that?! I’m not sure but I am always up for a challenge, and perhaps this is my most important challenge yet.
Having been guilty of putting in at least 12-14 hours a day for the last few weeks, that is some advice I am ready and willing to adopt. Hansson said no one can be creative working 14 hours a day. He thinks the goal should really be to get in 5 solid hours of work a day and then to enjoy yourself and have a life. In his experience, he believes a person can get so much more done in a focused 5 hour day than a in a lengthy 14 hour day. The software developer he was advising confessed to having a hard time with focus and being guilty of becoming distracted and surfing the Internet.
While I myself do not suffer from “Internet-surfingitis,” I will admit to suffering from burnout and not feeling the same motivation that I know I should feel. Perhaps there is a difference between “being creative” and simply working to complete tasks, because I know I work very hard to get as much done in every day as I possibly can. I have no choice. I have deadlines that have to be met. However, I often leave work exhausted and wake up the next day feeling even more tired than when I went to bed.
It does not take a genius to realize this cannot be a good situation. However, I persist because despite my exhaustion, I love my job. I love the people I work with and this situation I currently find myself in is one that we hope to have resolved within the next few months. Yes, a faint light shines at the end of the tunnel!
And even though I do admit to working too many hours on occasion or even working non-conventional hours, I don’t think it is all bad. I work the way I do in normal times (right now is not a normal time) because I have a passion for my job and take pride in doing the best job I possibly can. If I work non-conventional hours, it is because I have chosen to do so, not because someone is making me do it. Even now, no one is making me put in the extra hours. It’s just that when you care about what you do, you want to do it well.
However, the words spoken by David Hansson, have given me something to seriously think about. It was not so long ago that I couldn’t wait to get in to work every day -- eagerly awaiting the new challenges that were sure to arise. I want to feel that way again and I know it is possible. If I weren’t on overload at the moment, I would be feeling that way right now. There are so many exciting things happening in my job, at our new Center on Communication Leadership and at the Annenberg School itself.
I think I am going to make this online promise to myself and blast it outward to the world, as only a blog and the Internet can do. After this class and my 6 week summer session ends, I AM GOING TO TAKE SOME QUALITY TIME FOR MYSELF AND RECHARGE MY BATTERIES. Perhaps I’ll take a short trip somewhere and get away… or maybe…just maybe… I’ll do nothing at all. Imagine that, just laying around the house and enjoying the feeling of having no deadlines to meet and no place to be. I wonder if I could actually do that?! I’m not sure but I am always up for a challenge, and perhaps this is my most important challenge yet.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Cell Phone Obsession
One of the things I enjoy most about this class is the interesting guest speakers who visit us each week. Last week’s guest Charlie Nooney from MobiTV was great. In addition to giving us good solid information about current mobile technology, he also hinted at where he thinks things might go and why – and I have to say the future looks very exciting to me.
Like most people, I am addicted to my cell phone. I use it both for business and pleasure. I can “almost” not remember a time when we weren’t using them everywhere – which is funny since I am definitely of an age where I should remember a world without them. But that really speaks to just how central cell phones have become to our lives. Charlie kept referring to them as the “most personal targeted device” we own. When he said it, it really struck a chord with me. I had never thought of the phone in quite that way, but as soon as he said it, I realized he was absolutely right. I invest so much more of myself into my cell phone than I do any other gadget I own, including my computer. It goes with me everywhere and keeps me “plugged into” the various parts of my life. Heaven forbid I ever forget it or fail to charge the battery…especially during the week…and especially living here in L.A. Drive time in Los Angeles without a cell phone is sheer torture. It’s where I do all my catching up with friends and family. And, it’s also the place I conduct all of my personal business. Not surprisingly, I’m much too busy at work to do anything other than, well, work.
I’m also guilty of obsess over ring tones, call back tones, cell phone cases, cell phone colors, etc. These are really rather meaningless pastimes, but the customization aspect of these features does allow you to personalize a phone in a way you don’t with your computer. More confirmation of Charlie’s point. The phone is an incredibly personal device.
There are two ways to look at our current cell phone obsession. Some folks would argue that this is exactly the problem with cell phones – they don’t allow you to enjoy any “down” time. We are constantly trying to maximize every second of every day. And I have to be the first to admit, I am guilty. On the other hand, I think the cell phone also allows me a great deal of freedom. When I do need to be away from the office, I can take off, secure in the knowledge that if I do need to be reached or respond to an email, my wonderful cell phone gives me that capability.
I have so much more to say about this, but I’ve been swamped this week maximizing every second of every day for the last couple of weeks (score one for the cell phone haters) and knowing I have an early day in the morning, I think I will sign off for now and come back to this topic again later.
Like most people, I am addicted to my cell phone. I use it both for business and pleasure. I can “almost” not remember a time when we weren’t using them everywhere – which is funny since I am definitely of an age where I should remember a world without them. But that really speaks to just how central cell phones have become to our lives. Charlie kept referring to them as the “most personal targeted device” we own. When he said it, it really struck a chord with me. I had never thought of the phone in quite that way, but as soon as he said it, I realized he was absolutely right. I invest so much more of myself into my cell phone than I do any other gadget I own, including my computer. It goes with me everywhere and keeps me “plugged into” the various parts of my life. Heaven forbid I ever forget it or fail to charge the battery…especially during the week…and especially living here in L.A. Drive time in Los Angeles without a cell phone is sheer torture. It’s where I do all my catching up with friends and family. And, it’s also the place I conduct all of my personal business. Not surprisingly, I’m much too busy at work to do anything other than, well, work.
I’m also guilty of obsess over ring tones, call back tones, cell phone cases, cell phone colors, etc. These are really rather meaningless pastimes, but the customization aspect of these features does allow you to personalize a phone in a way you don’t with your computer. More confirmation of Charlie’s point. The phone is an incredibly personal device.
There are two ways to look at our current cell phone obsession. Some folks would argue that this is exactly the problem with cell phones – they don’t allow you to enjoy any “down” time. We are constantly trying to maximize every second of every day. And I have to be the first to admit, I am guilty. On the other hand, I think the cell phone also allows me a great deal of freedom. When I do need to be away from the office, I can take off, secure in the knowledge that if I do need to be reached or respond to an email, my wonderful cell phone gives me that capability.
I have so much more to say about this, but I’ve been swamped this week maximizing every second of every day for the last couple of weeks (score one for the cell phone haters) and knowing I have an early day in the morning, I think I will sign off for now and come back to this topic again later.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Usability on the Campaign Trail
After reading “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug and “Prioritizing Web Usability” by Jakob Neilsen, I became inspired. I thought it might be fun to do a little user testing of my own on this year’s campaign trail. Since usability is concerned with how easy, effective and efficient a user’s interaction is with a particular website, I thought I’d see which candidate (in my view) had the most user-friendly website. In creating a usability test for this exercise, I tried to think about what tasks most voters in America might be interested in doing while visiting the websites. Here are the 3 tasks I finally decided to try on each site:
1) Find out the latest news on campaign’s progress
2) Find out how to join or contribute to the campaign
3) Find out the candidates policy on the economy
Then I scored each site (5 points possible) on the following:
1) Overall design
2) Content
3) Structure
4) Navigation
Here are my results:
John McCain
http://www.johnmccain.com
User is greeted by an opening screen asking for your email address, but the site does provide a click thru to the main homepage if you do not choose to share your email info. The main homepage is nicely laid out, with a good text/background contrast making the site easy to read. Page is divided into clear sections and joining the campaign and donating are both clearly indicated on the top right. There is a news box on the main page with links to John McCain’s most recent statements as well as links to press releases, news and speeches. His position on the economy was easily found on a dropdown menu at the top of the main page which allowed a voter to click through and read his stance on various tax and economic issues. Overall a nice site with all information easy to find at a glance. Overall score – 24/25
Barack Obama
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
Like McCain’s site, you are met with an opening screen asking you to join the movement and provide your email address. A “skip signup” button is provided to click on through. Once inside, Obama’s homepage evokes heavenly blues and whites with touches of red on key buttons such as “donate now” or “apply now.” The color scheme is really quite nice. The main page contains several boxes although they are not clearly labeled. It is necessary to scroll down to find the news and events boxes which I didn’t like. It was easy to find his position on the economy thanks to a drop down menu labeled “Issues.” I expected to find Obama’s site the best of the three and in looking for information quickly; his site did not live up to my expectations. It took me longer to find what I was looking for on this site. Another annoyance was the back button was disabled forcing me to close the window rather than to click back out. Overall score - 22/25
Hillary Clinton
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/
Surprise, surprise! Another annoying opening screen asking for me to give out my email address. However once inside at the main homepage, the structure and layout of the site is nice and straightforward. The main page is divided into clear definable sections making information easy to locate. Buttons to join and contribute are easy to see and clearly clickable. Like Obama she also had “Issues” as part of a drop down menu located across the top of the page. The labels on the drop down menu should be more succinct like Obama’s who only lists one word (i.e., economy, war, etc) – which I think is better. News was also found on the main page and did not require any scrolling. Overall score - 23/25
Despite the fact that I am a Democrat, I honestly (and surprisingly) liked John McCain’s site the best. Obama’s was more pleasing to look at than Hillary’s but Hillary’s site had a more straightforward and clearly defined layout making information quicker to access. Hillary only gained a point over Obama due to his site's disabling of my back button, otherwise it would have been a tie. Isn’t it odd that the findings in this usability test have an uncanny resemblance to the current state of affairs on the campaign trail?
1) Find out the latest news on campaign’s progress
2) Find out how to join or contribute to the campaign
3) Find out the candidates policy on the economy
Then I scored each site (5 points possible) on the following:
1) Overall design
2) Content
3) Structure
4) Navigation
Here are my results:
John McCain
http://www.johnmccain.com
User is greeted by an opening screen asking for your email address, but the site does provide a click thru to the main homepage if you do not choose to share your email info. The main homepage is nicely laid out, with a good text/background contrast making the site easy to read. Page is divided into clear sections and joining the campaign and donating are both clearly indicated on the top right. There is a news box on the main page with links to John McCain’s most recent statements as well as links to press releases, news and speeches. His position on the economy was easily found on a dropdown menu at the top of the main page which allowed a voter to click through and read his stance on various tax and economic issues. Overall a nice site with all information easy to find at a glance. Overall score – 24/25
Barack Obama
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
Like McCain’s site, you are met with an opening screen asking you to join the movement and provide your email address. A “skip signup” button is provided to click on through. Once inside, Obama’s homepage evokes heavenly blues and whites with touches of red on key buttons such as “donate now” or “apply now.” The color scheme is really quite nice. The main page contains several boxes although they are not clearly labeled. It is necessary to scroll down to find the news and events boxes which I didn’t like. It was easy to find his position on the economy thanks to a drop down menu labeled “Issues.” I expected to find Obama’s site the best of the three and in looking for information quickly; his site did not live up to my expectations. It took me longer to find what I was looking for on this site. Another annoyance was the back button was disabled forcing me to close the window rather than to click back out. Overall score - 22/25
Hillary Clinton
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/
Surprise, surprise! Another annoying opening screen asking for me to give out my email address. However once inside at the main homepage, the structure and layout of the site is nice and straightforward. The main page is divided into clear definable sections making information easy to locate. Buttons to join and contribute are easy to see and clearly clickable. Like Obama she also had “Issues” as part of a drop down menu located across the top of the page. The labels on the drop down menu should be more succinct like Obama’s who only lists one word (i.e., economy, war, etc) – which I think is better. News was also found on the main page and did not require any scrolling. Overall score - 23/25
Despite the fact that I am a Democrat, I honestly (and surprisingly) liked John McCain’s site the best. Obama’s was more pleasing to look at than Hillary’s but Hillary’s site had a more straightforward and clearly defined layout making information quicker to access. Hillary only gained a point over Obama due to his site's disabling of my back button, otherwise it would have been a tie. Isn’t it odd that the findings in this usability test have an uncanny resemblance to the current state of affairs on the campaign trail?
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