Today, I continued wrapping up the final touches on my Remix an Interface project. Like I’ve mentioned before in other blog posts, I’ve found that the most difficult part of this project as been creating content (comments, captions, usernames, etc.). While its difficult to create a lot of original content for all 5 characters, and some of their monsters, I’ve found that one of the best things about this project as been the ability to take risks with my creativity in developing new, unexpected content.

Why I Did It

I’m hoping to have my project completely finalized within the next two class, and then begin work on my presentation.

• A major strength that my group pointed out was how I decided to put everything together in a Buzzfeed article to present the information.
• One suggestion my group had was to try and use pictures and situations that take the characters out of their expected, predictable lives, and show them doing something unexpected. My group particularly liked how I had Velma going on dates and chasing after boys in her Instagrams, and suggested I switch up some of the other characters posts to make them more surprising and unpredictable.
• One technical difficultly I am having is that my final “Sources” section of my Buzzfeed article will not seem to save or show up when I preview the article. In the “Sources” section, I am crediting where I gathered the profile pictures and full name information, where I gathered the Instagram template, and where I gathered additional background information–So, I really need to figure out how to fix this problem or determine another way I can go about including the sources in a different area of the article.
• The most important changes that I need to make are just finishing up the posts and finalizing the project. In writing and editing the remaining posts, I am really going to focus on making the characters do something that is out of their norm and unpredictable. Additionally, I want to see if I can incorporate some of the characters most used phrases in the show (like “Zoinks!,” “Scooby-Dooby-Doo!,” etc.) into the captions and comments.
• Given the amount of time we have left to work on this project, I am very confident that I will be able to finish everything on time and even have some leftover time to edit and perfect all of the posts and information.

Today, I continued work on writing and drafting my essay for the Interrogate an Interface project. Once I was able to decide how I wanted the essay to be divided up into its different sections, it was very easy begin writing. I plan to finish drafting the essay first, before I add in the screenshots of the tool.

Why I Did It

I believe writing the essay is the most difficult part of the project, because you have to make hard decisions concerning what information to include and how to organize the information. Once I get the essay completely written, it will be easier to insert screenshots into appropriate places.

Today in class, I spent time working on the the outline of my essay in addition to adding a navigation structure to my pages. I decided to break up my essay into five different pages: a landing page for the project, an Overview page, a Design & Modes of Communications page, an Affordances & Constraints page, and finally a Conclusion page. I added a linear navigation structure to the bottom of each page showing “Previous” and “Next,” and I also added linear navigation that shows all the pages on the Conclusion page. I began work on writing the essay, but I still have a lot more writing to do outside of class as well.

Why I Did It:

I wanted to make sure I had all my pages for my project in place, along with working navigation, so that organization will be easier when I start really writing and inserting information onto my site. Also, I thought the linear navigation was the best option for this project because it takes the viewer step by step (or page by page) through my project of Interrogating an Interface.

• March 4-5: Create a login, and research how the tool works and what it does (1-2 hours total work time)
• March 6: Fill in the writer/designer analysis questions (about 1 hour total work time)
• March 7-15: Spring Break
• March 16-17: Outline web essay, take appropriate screenshots to accompany essay, draft essay (work time will variety depending on writing time, est. 3-4 hours total work time)
• March 18-19: Draft slideshow and presentation (1-2 hours of total work time)

• March 20: Arrive to class with completed drafts of essay and slideshow for peer review

The first was the idea to take and incorporate screenshots of the interface throughout the essay. Having a lot of screenshots that show readers exactly what the tool looks like each step of the way was very helpful. I think it helps readers to really understand the interface and give them the feeling of walking their way through the tool each step of the way. It’s also good to see the interface broken up into different parts, which I believe might help viewers if they want to move forward to use or try the interface themselves.

Also, after a viewing a couple project examples, I know that I want to keep my information concise for my own project. One example had almost everything spread out onto different pages, which really separated the information and made it rather annoying having to navigate from page to page to read the essay. For my own project, I want to try to keep all my information on at most 3 different pages. I think it will be easier for readers to navigate the project, and it will keep the layout of the project concise by keeping similar information grouped together.