 
Comment: This Courseroom forum allows us to not only come into contact with new materials, but also to direct our readings to very specific, personalized introspection, based on our individual professional needs. I have decided to utilize this opportunity to more closely tie our readings to my career pathway. Chapter 1, "Why Design Matters," points out the essential — critical, even — need for planning each step of the design process. Design Wise by Alison Head brings up many issues that are still of great concern for any person seriously desiring to present a service or product online ... but if carefully studied, every one of these issues goes back to the category of Human-Computer Interaction (or Interface; HCI). More than the printed word or the in-person delivery of information, the online environment demands that the DESIGN is critical to successful delivery. As with the construction of anything, the success will be closely tied to the efficiency of the planning stages. The Mandel textbook has not yet arrived. However, I have done much study into the work and theories of Jakob Nielson. His web site, Usable Information Technology, is at: http://www.useit.com/. Throughout my studies, I have utilized the invaluable information that Nielson so effictively, gladly, and freely gives! The site currently links to an article from USA Today, "A simple vision of the Web." In here, we find some very current comments by Nielson that augment what we are studying. Nielson has said, concerning his newest book, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity, that he sees [the book] as a necessary tool for making 'the world safe for humans again.' His assessment is that we need to "'reassert the way we deal with technology and with the Internet. Make it more human-based. Make it easier for people to live in this new world.'" (Zuckerman, 2000). Furthermore, this article clearly outlines that this means analyzing CURRENT needs, as well as the needs of the close, and not-so-close future. The analysis procedures are tantamount in the eventual success of the web site. When asked if there will come a time when there will be a high degree of Web usability for the average person, Nielson's reply should provide a bit of reassurance for those of us (myself included) who are VERY concerned over design and ... bandwidth issues, for instance. His reply was: "The download problem, which is really the big issue today, I think will go away in about 10 years (or less). This doesn't mean the usability problem goes away. It's probably more difficult to do good multimedia, which is the future, than it is to do good text." (Zuckerman, 2000). This, I believe, is our challenge — as learners in this class, and as the early runners in the design of effective environments, online. We must analyze our procedures that work for TODAY, and attempt to project what these techniques will mean, over the coming years. We can only do this, as Head points out, in the evaluation of HCI and building more effective user-responsive systems. (Head, 1999, p. 10). ANALYSIS AS THE CRUCIAL STEP — Every step of the design process must ultimately reflect back to the initial analysis process. All design, development, implementation, and evaluation will be molded by the information successfully gleaned in the analysis procedures. The initial skill needed by the designer is NOT, for instance, a technical or academic skill, as much as it is a "people" skill that demands that the designer communicate on a deep level in order to help the resource experts (SMEs) define the project goals. As with many areas of technical writing, for instance, this ability to help and clarify the communications process is one very important beginning step in translating subject matter known to just a few ... into a structure that is usable by many. One of the best examples I can think of is the average "user's manual." The successful manual (and we all are familiar with the 100s that are NOT successful!) is, in itself, a miniature "instructional design" model — whereupon persons with limited knowledge of a given base of information draw upon the expertise of someone who is an expert. The successful project lies in the realm of the writer/designer/architect, who manages to gain a more personal look into deep knowledge or expertise, and develops a frame that is useful to learners. CHANGE BASED ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES — Interesting approaches are being developed by corporations, which expand across the board from "corporate-think" to the educational arena. Information technology (IT) has been transfigured in just the space of a decade into a workgroup- and personal computing-centered function, with a focus on adding value in "real time." (Moore, 1999). Because of the availability of the Internet and its research capabilities, we must begin to analyze a model that perhaps will never again be locked into "the same instruction each and every time" description. It is our challenge to seek the possibilities of re-constructing certain areas of content to meet the needs for analysis and evaluation — and the flexibility for "upgrading" when the possibilities present themselves. It is important for me to see that "corporate," as well as education, desires to take advantage of the strengths of new media, all the while leaving standard design possibilities open for future expansion of the learning environment. It might even be said that corporate is the leader in this arena, rather than academics. It IS this constant analysis phase that will under-gird the successful web presence, both for today and for the future. Further research into this academics/corporate-business-economy BLEND revealed one academic institution that recognized the challenge. Noting that the change to Web-based delivery has been constant for quite some time, worldwide, David Marshall and Stephen Hurley of the University of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom, reported in their paper, "Delivering Hypertext-based Courseware on the World-Wide-Web," that: "The use of computers to provide an integrated environment for teaching aInterestingly, this new dimension included one of their initial, primary goals — to provide courseware that could be used to sustain a variety of courses, including undergraduate degree programs in computer science, physics, all branches of engineering, mathematics and electronics, as well as training courses run by computer service departments. The challenge of designing the learning materials for such a diverse group was to make the materials accessible to all classes of users, and yet maintain a high degree of "specialism." The authors translated this to mean extremely pertinent and individualized training materials. My reaction to this was that the success of this program involved MUCH in the way of early planning and analysis ... and a deep knowledge of the fact that DESIGN MATTERS. ____________ REFERENCES Head, Alison J. (1999). Design Wise. Chapter 1: Why Design Matters. CyberAge Books: Medford, NJ. Pp. 10. Marshall, David, and Hurley, Stephen. (1999). Delivering Hypertext-based Courseware on the World-Wide-Web. Abstract and paper. Accessed: Jan. 1999. [Online]. Available: http://medoc.springer.de:8000/jucs_2_12/delivering_hypertext_based_courseware/html/paper.html. Note: web site is no longer live, Apr. 2000. Moore, Geoffrey A. (1999). Lessons from IT: patient-centered, provider-focused systems. Hewlett Packard Web Journal: HP in Healthcare. [Online, original location]. No longer available at: http://www.hp.com/mpg/moore3.html [http://www.hp.com/mpg/news/]. Web search Apr. 2000. Archives available: http://search.hp.com/query.html?col=hpcom&origin=&qp=&qt=Moore+ %22patient-centered%22&qs=&qc=&ws=0&qm=0&st= 1&lk=1&rf=2&oq=&rq=0&nh=25 Zuckerman, M.J. (2000). A simple vision of the Web: In quest for creativity, sites shouldn't forget their users. USA Today: Tech Report. Issue: 02/21/00. Web search: April 2000. [Online]. Available: http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cth350.htm.
WebSpinner@refuge-earth.org ( that's me — Leanne! )
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