Week 4: Audacity & Podcast

Like many of the other devices/projects we have conducted so far in class, I have never worked with any type of sound or video recording before and I thought our week long discussion and class activities were extremely beneficial in learning about the new software. I thought that going into our podcast assignments would be a breeze, but as I worked more and analyzed research of what it takes to do a proper podcast recording project, I was amazed to learn how much actually goes into each detailed piece of the sound recording. As defined in my portfolio, podcast is actually described as "a type of digital media recording device consisting of an episodic series of files (either audio or video) to and downloaded through web syndication".  Audacity is free software, developed by a group of volunteers and is easy to use, and multilingual audio editor and recorder that applies to Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. Thefollowing is a list that audacity can do:
1) Record live audio

2) Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs

3) Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files

4) Cut, cops, splice or mix sounds together

5) Change the speed or pitch of a recording


Audacity can redord live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize recordings from cassette tapes, records or minidiscs.  With some sound card it can also capture other streaming audio. You can record up to 16 channels at once, dub over trackes recreating multi-track recordings, and level sound quality levels before, during or after live audio.  Programs like audacity are also called open source software because their source code is available for anyone to study or use. There are thousands of other free and open source programs, including the firefox web browser, the OpenOffice.org office suite and entire Linux-based operating systems like Ubuntu.  As far as our Podcasts are going in class, I feel like learning the audacity function online was a great tool in order for us to get better educated on the subjects of audio and other details regarding our podcasts assignment. The videos below demonstrate a few tutorials for learning the different functions of audacity and podasts. Hope this helps:

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hrBbczS9I0

http://webdesign.about.com/od/podcasts/a/aa013006.htm

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

 

Week 3: Basic Layout and Design Principles

This week in Comm. 350, we discussed the basics of the C.R.A.P. principles in order to make our personal website much more eye popping and easier to read for the viewer/audience.  In our personal websites I believe I need some help on each of these elements in order to make my website "flow" better and easy for the viewer to follow.  The basics of the C.R.A.P. principles include the following:

1)      Contrast—the basics behind this principle is to avoid elements on this page that are too similar.  Elements such as (type, color, size, shape, and space) are all too similar, then it would be a good idea to vary them a bit.  You don’t want the reader to think everything on your website is identical, so varying things such as content, heading, body, and comments would make it easier for your viewer to follow.  This doesn’t mean you have to make everything completely different from one another, but having some variation can often make your design and content flow much better.

2)      Repetition—You want to repeat your visual elements of the design throughout the piece.  By repeating color, shape, texture, sizes and other elements throughout different parts of the page will help organize and strengthen the unity and quality.  Examples include: having the same size of text regarding quotes, block quotes, background color, etc. Will strengthen your piece much more.

3)      Alignment—Nothing should be placed on your page arbitrarily.  Each element of design should have some sort of connection visually with the other elements on the page.  For example, making things centered, lined up straight, aligned left or right, and making things not left out of place will make it visually easy for the reader to view.  Titles, italics, and bolded text on your page should all make sense to the reader.  Making the alignment straight regarding your text is key in having the reader interested in your page.

4)      Proximity—Similar items relating to one another should be grouped together.  When several items are too close to each other it makes it very difficult for the reader to follow.  Having each unit a bit separated from other pieces of text helps organize information and reduces clutter.  You don’t need to fill up 100% of the white space, but you do need to make sure you have filled up enough to not leave significant gaps.  Organization of your pictures and text are key in making the page easy to read and visitors to follow.

None of these principles stand alone and in order to make your website successful and gather an informative audience, you need to make sure you master each of the elements successfully.  Before you submit your website you need to make sure each of the C.R.A.P. principles on your different pages of you website are clearly identified and each principle is accounted for.  Keeping your reader interested in what you have to offer is the ultimate goal in making your website.  If you need help fixing each of the main 4 principles of web designs you can refer to the different PowerPoint examples and resources listed below:

Sources:

 http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/desktop_publishing/list3.cfm
 http://www.imaginationalley.com/layout.html
http://www.slideshare.net/lorielue/10-design-layout-principles-guaranteed-to-improve
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/design-better-with-crap.html

Week 2: Photoshop

In Comm. 350 this week we learned how to use the basic applications of Photoshop and Dreamweaver to get our websites officially started.  We basically learned the various methods of what all you are capable to do in Photoshop more than just cropping and rotating pictures.  The applications we learned using Photoshop were how to design structured layers, add/designing photos, editing, and ability to move around words and photos quick and easy.  Photoshop is an excellent tool to copy pictures from either you phone, camera, or online and design them onto an actual page with the option to have a legitimate background.

Having it be my first time using Photoshop, and not very familiar with the software, I thought it was extremely useful to watch a couple of videos which took me step by step through the process.  Professor Lind taught us the ability to also use the application Dreamweaver as a tool to combine with Photoshop to create an HTML link and upload them to the websites we are currently in the process of designing. Although Photoshop isn't the easiest software in the world to learn, it's nice to understand at least the basics at what it has to offer before getting started.  Below, I have inserted a couple of tutorials just to get you started:  Good Luck.






























http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd08sR7KuXw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN_1LVG8Csw

Blog--Week 1

Part 1:

Hello, my name is Andrew Lundberg and I am a senior here at Western Washington University and plan on graduating in Spring 2012.  I work at Costco in Burlington and have been there for close to 5 years.  One class I am currently enrolled is this quarter is Emerging Communication Technologies with instructor Jason Lind.  The particular assignment in which this blog is aimed towards a list of rules one must follow when designing a website.  I look forward to working with new software devices in this class as well as become more computer literate by the time graduation comes around as I head into the work world.

Part II:

The following is a list of the top 10 rules of website design:

1. Keep Website Simplified--Fancy doesn't always mean perfect.  By keeping your website sustainable, yet having enough information to back up ideas and thoughts, the readers can become much more aware of what the website is containing.
2. Skip Movement--Constantly updating and fixing your website can often cause the viewer to get lost and confused when browsing.  Flashy words or pictures can also cause the viewer to get distracted with what they're looking at.
3. Avoid the Use of Caps--Using capital letters throughout your website can not only be distracting for the viewer but can also cause confusion when reader a specific article or caption.  Keep a constant rate of proper caps throughout your website.
4. Don't Make Users Think--Your website should be extremely self-explanatory and very easy to read.  You want the users to easily navigate their way through your website without any confusions or problems.  Keep the visual explanations to a minimal when giving a captain to a picture otherwise you will bore your viewer.
5. Strive for Feature Exposure--Keep your website user friendly as your main objective is to keep the viewer wanting to read more and explore your site.  Try not to over expose your features as well as maintain a constant and sufficient amount of pictures, videos, text, etc.  Allow the viewer to see clearly what functions are available as well as easy to access.
6. Don't be Afraid of White Space--Most people think that you need to fill up ALL the white space on your website.  However, this is not completely true.  Try to reduce the cognitive load for the viewers but maintain enough accurate information to keep the viewer interested.  The more complex the site, the harder it is for the reader to view.
7. Test Your Website--Before you publish anything, make sure you have everything you want to say completely accurate.  The last thing you want is to publish something wide open for the world to see so make sure you view everything to make sure your website is up and running successfully.
8. Appeal to Multiple Browsers--Make other web-pages available for the viewer to access in order to gain credibility as well as allowing the viewer to gain further knowledge on the given subject.  This also allows the all kinds of viewers to access your information with other browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, etc.
9. Consider Legal Issues--Make sure you keep yourself 100% safe when making your website by protecting yourself from plagiarism and other forms of illegal downloads.  Include relevant up-to-date policies, copyrights, and other secure tools to back up your information and to avoid and legal disclaimers.  
10. Consistency is Key--One major thing viewers look for when viewing websites is consistency.  You want to make sure your viewers don't feel like they are viewing something completely opposite to the topic of your website each time they open up a tab or new page.  Maintaining consistency throughout your website makes it really easy to navigate and will attract more people to want to keep exploring. 

 Bibliography:

http://deliawilsondesign.com/blog/2011/02/my-top-ten-web-design-rules/

http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/31/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/

http://www.roi.com.au/web-design/top-10-rules-of-best-practice-website-design/#.TwZD5kdvARw