Web 2.0

The term web 2.0 implies that this is a second edition of a dispersed medium, and in most respects this is true. I know that through personal experience that the web that was introduced to me in 1998 is vastly different to the web of today. Although they are at their core the same technology the new and the old hardly resemble each other any more, and in this way it is like the web has evolved into a completely new version of itself, coining the phrase web 2.0.

Kevin Kelly says that we are the web, so I suppose in this way as we evolve and change so to will the world wide web.

Now with a high degree of usage from right around the world (over 1 billion) the Internet has become on of the worlds most valuable resources. The more people that use a service the better that service ultimately becomes. There is the problem however that if everybody uses one service then it creates a monopoly, but the great thing about the net is that, no one party owns the entire thing.

Production project A

The main reason for choosing the Commonwealth Bank as an assignment piece was based solely on the accessibility of information and the ease at which a transaction could be completed. The immensity of the website was a challenge to explore and document, but due to this immensity the work ultimately benefited. The amount of content, allowed the research to take a direct path through one of the sites particular interactive transaction processes (in this case the transferring of money from one account to another). The transaction process is displayed using screenshots mashed up together in a sequence as a chronological timeline of events and interaction. This directly show’s the viewer exactly what is happening in the process rather than using iconography as in the first page, which is more of a site map which displays possible navigation outside of the content path of the transaction flow.

Colour within the Information flow was based on the colour of the Commonwealth Bank site itself. Although the site had grey within its colour spectrum a decision was made to stick to the main colour of the logo (Black, Yellow and white). Aesthetically and in functionality the site is very boring but extremely slick and streamlined, and on this basis the iconography was created. The icons used are black which is a dominant colour in the logo and would become the dominant colour within the information flow. Upon this choice of colour, a type of glass effect was applied to the iconography to enforce the professional essence of the site. The iconography was then broken up into sections of varying aesthetic quality and functionality. This was achieved using a key at the bottom of the first pages key. All the graphical elements are categorised n this way.

As the transaction process that was chosen was rather brief, the intricate site map/Information flow was created to illustrate the immensity and bombardment of options one faces when opening a site of such complexity. Even with all this information being drilled into you, the site retains its slick and clean approach to its design. On closer inspection of this site it becomes clear how much thought and effort was exerted from the people responsible for the site, and it ultimately produced a wondrous example of information flow and its uses on the web.

As for the functionality a user could not hope for more in a tool to access and directly affect their account information as they wish. So instead of only focussing attention on the bad things that the site does (not anything), what the site does well will have to be discussed. What it does right starts with what was discussed briefly before which is it’ accessibility to information and how it accomplishes this. Clean lines, clear text, high contrast and a visual hierarchy all contribute to a high standard of user interaction and the ability to access important user info. Another factor to the sites success lies within the realm of its content. The site has very brief yet informative articles, which is great when trying to skim through a bunch of information to access one little piece of info.

Carving up the world

Carving up the world

The immensity of the interne is not measureable for it lacks the principles of space, distance, and physical scarcity. Because of this it is hard to measure the web’s actual size. Take a book for example, because that book is a physical object in your hands it is easy to see how much content is left. As for the Internet however the end is only discovered when you reach it.

Typical web design conventions for real world application.

- Logo at top left
- Logo navigates home
- Horizontal nav
- Drop down menu
- Light boxed image
- Radio buttons
- Underlined blue bold links

It is not necessary to follow these conventions, but they can be useful.

Ontology: The study of what is, and dividing the world up into chunks.
Hierarchy: Ordering content into order of importance.
Predicate: e.g. the book is red. The book is the subject and red is the predicate.
Folksonomy: Tagging things on the web e.g. Human = Hair, Eyes, Mouth
Taxonomy: Clinical organisation, and organisation
Machine tags: lastfm:/ event= /613510
Name/predicate/value