Good Design for Screen Genre

Document Design is a "physical appearance of a document" in which both text and image work together. (Reep D, 2006).

Why do we need a good design for screen document?
A good design for screen genre will keep readers' focus on the screen and  guiding them to understand the entire screen documents.

(Few critiques on my past IPD group assignment)

Balance is important to keep readers eyes focus on the screen. Good balance of screen should have a Page Balance in which all relevant slides should have the same weight in terms of wordings or graphic. Below showing Slide 12 and Slide 13; in which we notice the imbalance weight (slide 12 lesser words while slide 13 lengthy words)

Besides, Consistency is as well important. Noticed in Slide 4 and 5 below; both were not consistent whereby slide 5 contains no title to actually guide readers to where were they now while reading on the screen.

Graphic Aids helps providing a quick or immediate interpretation to the readers (Schriver,1997). For instance, Slide 10 and 11 below;

Larkin & Simons 1987, "Pictures can actually tells ten thousands words". Hence, instead of writing the description on Slide 11, Slide 10 can be verbally explained . Yet, readers immediate interpretation might drive misunderstand of the process. Therefore, thorough verbal explanation via diagram will enable readers to follow.

Lastly, as noticed, most of the slides' critique is word base. This could turn readers off the screen. Kress &Leeuwen 1998, graphic is indeed important to create salience to attract reader's attention.


Referencing;

Reep D, 2006, "Technical writting: Document Design", Pearson Ed. 6, New York pp 133-172

Schriver K, 1997, "Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for readers", Wiley Computer Pub, New York, Chp 6, pp361-441

Larkin JH & Simons HA, 1987, "Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words", Cognitive Science Vol.11, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA, pp65-99

Kress G & Van Leeuwen T, 1998, "Front Pages: The critical Analysis of Newspaper Layout", Blackwell, Oxford, pp 186-219

New Forms of Media Publishing

As mentioned earlier in my post, micro-blogging has spread to the entire world without age limits (from youngster to elderly). The usage of  print media such as newspaper has fallen (Naughten J,2006). Electronic media such as Twitter has become increasingly used by people worldwide especially blogosphere.

Even Technorati uses twitter.

Twitters are used for several pruposes;

• Promoting blogs
• Business and Marketing
• Political update

Recently in Malaysia, competition between both the opposition and the ruling party is getting more intense. Blogs are important to them to voice out their opinion that newspaper would not have. These blogs usually link to both facebook and twitter as their intention is to have more readers and follower. (e.g. Lim Kit Siang, Anwar Ibrahim blogs).

However, Twitter does not attract youngster and teenagers. Research shows although there were many teenagers who sign up for twitter account, only 8% of the teenagers used Twitter (Beesley S, 2010) while Facebook still the common social network (Seth, 2009). Apparently, Facebook have more function than Twitter does such as Photos Sharing, Games, Horoscope, Message and Friends Update rather than just short messages in Twitter.

Besides, teenagers claim that if there were to tweet using their mobile, they would rather just send an "SMS" to their peers due to credit constraint (TheMalaysiaInsider, 2010). They also claim that profile were not viewed by many people as most of their friends do not tweet and that they only received uninteresting tweet when they followed on certain tweets (Seth, 2009).

Referencing;

Naughton J, 2006, "Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem", University of Oxford, Creative Commons License.
<http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>

 Technorati, 2009," Day 5: Twitter, Global Impact and the Future of Blogging _SOTB2009", technorati.com viewed 18th April 2010
<http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/>

Beesley S, 2010, "Teens don't take to Twitter", personalmoneystore.com viewed 19th April 2010
<http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2010/02/03/teens-twitter-study/>

Seth, 2009, "Why Teens Don't Tweets", sethsimonds.com viewed 19th April 2010
<http://sethsimonds.com/why-teens-dont-tweet/>

TheMalaysiaInsider, 2010, "Teenager: We don't buy newspapers, do steal music and hate Twitter", themalaysianinsider.com viewed 19th April 2010
<http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/business/32277-teenager-we-dont-buy-newspapers-do-steal-music-and-hate-twitter>

Lim Kit Siang blog
<http://blog.limkitsiang.com/>

Anwar Ibrahim blog
<http://anwaribrahimblog.com/>

Blogging Communities & Methods to build Blogging Communities & Structure of Blogging Community

Blogging Community is where a group of blogger shares their interest, or of what they know beside adding in their comments and tagging to other followers (Nikki S). A blogging community is essential to keep your blog active in reader's attention.

Readers are important, without readers there will be no community. Ways to create a blogging community.

1. Blog must be attractive. Title to capture reader's attention and content to keep them continues reading.
2. Read other blogger blog (Nikki S) to search for the same interest sharing community. 
3. Use Link (Rowse D,2008) if you are adopting other blogger idea or writing about them which indirectly creates a good neighborhood around the blogosphere universe ( Brogan C, 2008) while keeping track of the their activities and make relevant comments on their blog  (Reed M, 2010). 
4. List your blog in directories (Brogan C, 2008) which helps to increase the number of readership

One also needs to know which types of blogging communities' best suite.

Topic Centric Community, well-known communities circulate around blogger today whereby blogger are connected through certain topic via links and relationship (Koterwas T, 2007). This group of blogger form by their interest shared and does not have a central location for if any one of the community falls would not affect the others (White N). For instance Baking Mum, blog on baking and cooking. At the right side of her blog stated her blogging pals (whom writes on the same topic) linking to them. This group of community often interacts via back-channel (e.g. MSN, Facebook etc)

Besides, 2 others form of community are;

• Single Blog Community - A single blog with many writters (e.g. Wordpress)

• Boundaries Community - Collection of blogs hosted on a single site (e.g. Edublogs)  

Referencing;

Nikki S, "How to Build a Blogging Community", eHow.com viewed 15th April 2010
<http://www.ehow.com/how_2152382_build-blogging-community.html>

Rowse D, 2008, " How to Build Community on Your Blog", Problogger.net viewed 15th April 2010
<http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/04/26/how-to-build-community-on-your-blog/>

Brogan C, 2002, "25 Ways to build Your Community", chrisbrogan.com viewed 15th April 2010
<http://www.chrisbrogan.com/25-ways-to-build-your-community/>

Reed M, 2010, "Give Yourself the Best Chance of Community Building Success", communityspark.com viewed 15th April 2010
<http://www.communityspark.com/give-yourself-the-best-chance-of-community-building-success/>

Koterwas T, 2007, "Blogs and Community - Part 1- 5", wdil.org viewed 17th April 2010
<http://www.wdil.org/resources/blogs-and-community-parts-1-5>

White N, 2006, "Blogs and Community - Launching a New Paradigm for Online Community?", The Knowledge Tree- Going Comunal Ed. 11th, Autralia Flexible Learning Framework.
<http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/The%20Knowledge%20Tree%20Ed%2011.pdf>

Baking Mum
<http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/>

Classification of Blogs & Opinion about the most appropriate Classification Approach

Today, blogging is becoming more important, more than 100 millions of blogs circulates around the world with different classifications (Gunelius S). The style, format and sometimes the name of the blog itself could actually show us which category it belong to. Lim Kit Siang blog is widely known as Political Blog by Malaysian and yes it is.

An interviewed with Margaret Simon claims that there are 10 types of blog exist today such as Pamphleteering, Advocacy, Popular Mechanics, Exhibition, Diary, Advertisement, News, Digest and more blog. (ABC media report 2008)


However, these blogs are hard to be recognized by the readers if not confusing. When she explained those blog function, apparently, we actually knows these blog regardless the unique name she'd given


For example (adopted from wordpress.com & slideshare.net)

• Diary Blog is Personal Blog whereby it held open topics such as family, music, health, etc which express personal feeling.

• Exhibition Blog viewed as Sketchlog (artist portfolio), Vlog (video posting) and Moblog (mobile device) whereby it maintained by the artists, craftsman or technician who sketches, design or videotaping their own works exploring to the media.

 

• Advertising Blog or better known as Small Online Business Blog where blogger published the new fashion (e.g. Korean fashion), cookies, skin care products etc for selling purposes.

• Popular Mechanics Blog as Power Blog or Specialize Blog which give specific information (e.g. Cooking recipes, how to decorate your home etc)

Nevertheless, today many blogs has the combination of styles which make those blog hard to be identified. For instance, Google Blog encompasses video, pictures, education, technology and more. 
 
 Referencing;

Gunelius S, "What is a Blog", weblogs.about.com, viewed April 12,2010 
<http://weblogs.about.com/od/startingablog/p/WhatIsABlog.htm>

Lim Kit Siang's blog,viewed April 10,2010
<http://blog.limkitsiang.com/>

ABC Media Report, "A Taxonomy of Blogs: featuring Margaret Simons", Sept 25, 2008, viewed April 12, 2010
<http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript>

Types of Blogs, wordpress.com, viewed April 12, 2010
<http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/>

Runkowitz K, "Blogging as Pedagogic Practice across the Cocuriculum", slideshare.net, viewed April 11, 2010
<http://www.slideshare.net/ronko4/blogging-as-pedagogic-practice-across-the-curriculum-presentation>

Official Google Blog, viewed April 13,2010
<http://googleblog.blogspot.com/>

Blogs as Current Phenomenon & Benefits to the Community

"Blog" is an internet diary written based on self-expression, opinion, and experiences for others to read (Cambridge dictionary online). However, today the word "blog" is no longer a stranger to most of the internet user. The size of the blogosphere is growing ubiquitously every year. The number of blogs created increases daily approximately of 175 000 per day (Technorati).

 There are seemingly different trend in blogging across the nationwide. Last year, MSN survey concluded that Asian were typically blogging based on self-expression and social connection while the European were keen on businesses and technological blogging (Twingly Blog)

 In Malaysia, personal blog still dominant the blogosphere (Blogging Asia 2006). However, prior to the 2008 election, political blogging has becoming increasingly popular (TheStar 2008). It gives the voters in-depth discussion and information on whom shall the voters vote for. Dr. Abu Hassan Abdullah said that 70% of the end election results were influenced directly from the blogging information.

 Along with the vast popularity, Korean came with “power blogger” which focuses on the specific field such as cooking, technology etc. (Shure CL, 2009). It teaches the follower steps in cooking for example or detailing about the newest technology in the market.

 Meanwhile, China has emerged into enormous micro-blogging (Pike J, 2010 ), Twitter where short messages can be posted via cell phones or web spontaneously. Apparently today, blogger tend to emerging themselves into Twitter as it able to connect to readers worldwide.


Referencing;

McLean J, "Technorati: State of the Blogosphere 2009", Oct 19, 2009 <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction/>


Twingly Blog, "Twingly: Eupore and Blogosphere category", March, 2009 <http://blog.twingly.com/category/blogosphere/>


Research on Malaysia Blogger, "Blogging Asia: A Window Live Report", November 30, 2006 <http://blogger-research.blogspot.com/2006/11/blogging-asia-windows-live-report.html>

TheStar, "Blogging in Malaysia ranks among highest in the world", April 3, 2008
<http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/3/nation/20827588&sec=nation>


Pike J, "Chinese are Tweeting their dissent", suite101.com, Jun 13, 2010
<http://internet.suite101.com/article.cfm/blogging_in_asia> 

Shure CL, "Korea's Blogging Culture and Power Blogger", The Korean Foundation, 2009
<;http://www.koreana.or.kr/months/news_view.asp?b_idx=540&lang=en&page_type=list>

Purpose

This blog aims to have a better understand of the issues of publication and design in  today's global era. It targeted to all COMM1043 members, lecturer and those who are interested in publication and design especially to those who intent or have had set up an internet businesses.