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Scan ability, demonstrating our evolutionary efficiency.

What is scanning?

Scanning is used to view documents by the majority of web users. Web users do not read documents in entirety. The eye scans the document looking for important information quickly. Techniques used to take advantage of this include;

• Lists – This is a list.
• Bold text – Darker text that stands out.
• Hyperlinks – Links to other pages, content, media, or interactivity

Headings – Large font, bold

Subheadings – Same as heading but slightly smaller.

We always scanned.

Evolutionary development led to the process of scanning. Scanning is an efficient way for us to process information quickly. The English language, using roman based characters can show us an example of this process.

We don’t read words as individual letters. Instead we scan the word quickly and associate it with a retained word. Usually, all that is required to read a paragraph is that the first and last letter in each word be correct.

Ardncciog to rhecasreh at Cgaridmde Usrievtiny, it dneso’t metatr in waht oerdr the lrteets in a wrod are, the olny inpoertmt tnhig is taht the fsirt and lsat lteetr be at the rghit pcale. The rset can be a ttaol mses and you can sltil raed it wthiutt a pbolrem. Tihs is bscueae the hmaun mnid deos not raed eervy lteetr by iltesf, but the wrod as a wohle.

Any experienced native English reader should be able to make sense of the paragraph.

Reading jumbled words, more detail.

Web eye-tracking studies.

Jakob Nielson is a guru in the science of User Interface. His group has done numerous studies on how users scan the web with their eye. A dominant scanning technique was found throughout the study.

The F-shaped pattern. Shown below is a picture of the heat register of a human eye scanning a webpage.

This is important to understand, as content placement, can decide how effective it is.

F-shaped pattern, more detail.

Impact and Challenges.

As a potential web content writer, I have many things working against me. The user may not give me;

• Time – Very short chance to catch their eye.
• Dedication – No commitment. Can leave my article at any time.
• Patience – Efficiency is important. Long pieces will not be read in entirety.
• Full attention to my text – The web user expects savvy media rich content, not just plain text.

It is important not to over-use scan ability techniques. Doing so, will cause frustration for the user. Understanding the way we view web pages can lead to great new media content.

Article Notes

The Cambridge University logo is copyright and property of Cambridge University. The Nielson Norman Group logo is copyright and property of The Nielson Norman Group.

Responsible technology?

The netbook forever changes the evolution of the personal computer.

Coming from a background in computer technology, I have been privileged to see the evolution of the pc back from the early Intel 8088 days. Throughout that evolution, two things have always stayed constant; More, and Faster. Our need for data storage and our need for processing horsepower have always been the focus for new computer models. With the success of modern day netbooks, I can honestly say that this is the first time that bigger and faster is not a necessity.

Why buy a SUV in an economy age?

The computer industry is starting to look like the car industry of the 70’s and 80’s. Large inefficient models of American gas guzzling glory were starting to be replaced with more efficient, compact models coming from import manufacturers. Once a vehicle was able to travel highway speeds, what did it matter if it had 400HP compared to an 80HP import, they both did the same job. The oil crisis of the 70’s lead to a different way of thinking about consumption, do more with less.

The netbook.

Enter the netbook. In an era of 4 GHz, multi core processors, and the ability to address up to 128 GB of memory, you’d think the laptop manufacturers would be upping the ante as well. Sales are showing that people are forgoing horsepower, for low power consumption, and portability. Energy needs are becoming important, as large cities are often prone to brownouts, especially in summer months. Our need for energy efficiency is becoming a forefront in our purchasing motives. Netbooks processors generally run under 15W TDP, compared to full-size notebooks at 30W TDP, and desktops at 45W TDP and up.

Let’s look at the basics.

What was the laptop meant to do? Be portable. I’m one of those people that rarely took my notebook anywhere due to weight, and size. Who wants to lug around a 6lb brick all day? So what was the point of buying a laptop over a full size desktop? I could sit at the coffee table and use it, take it to the bedroom; it was just a little more comfortable than sitting at my desk for hours. Netbooks all weigh less than 3.5 lbs and this allows them to be highly portable. Their low energy consumption gives them another advantage. Smaller power bricks, and less plugging in means they run longer on battery charge, ever more enhancing their portability.

1 GHz – The magic number?

The 1 GHz breakthrough in computer technology was a perfect point for most people. 90% of tasks done on a computer are completely satisfied by this speed. The equivalent to the modern highway speed limit. Surfing the net, writing email, IM, and research are all dealt with fairly quickly at that speed.

Curbing my appetite.

I am writing this entire article on my Gateway LT3100 netbook, see review here. This netbook has become my main computer. At 1.2 GHz, with an AMD 64bit processor, I don’t have many requirements that exceed that power. This little beast even runs Photoshop admirably, and its HD* 1366×768 display is a pleasure to look at. This machine has another advantage; the cost. Even with custom upgrades this machine cost me $500 CAD all-in. That includes a memory upgrade, a faster and bigger hard drive, and taxes.

Where are we headed?

In order for my computing power needs to change, an infrastructure change has to happen. The bandwidth coming into my home is limited, and thus, my processing requirements are low. That will change in the future, but for now my netbook is serving me just fine.

Article Notes

*It’s important to note, however, that I don’t require HD video processing, Netbooks still lack in this department, but even that is changing. Broadcom has released HD technology in a Mini PCI-E card to allow netbooks to run HD video with minimal processor load. See review here.

Adding to my new tool set.

Ever have a picture that you really liked of yourself, only to find it ruined by background hijinks, or bad memories of an ex? With a little bit of Photoshop know-how, you can solve this problem. Today I’m going to discuss the polygon lasso tool.

Photoshop’s toolset is a large reason for its success and adoption in the design industry. Most home users can crop a photo, and resize an image, but what most people don’t know is you can cut out people or objects, and use them in other projects, or remove them all together. The polygon lasso tool is a point to point tool that traces an object based on your clicks. It allows you to follow the edge of an object and precisely click its surrounding edges.

The tool isn’t perfect, and it is based on your perception of the edge. The tool operates on a point to point basis, and links those points with a straight line. In order to manage curves, the user must click many straight line points around the curve to give the perception of rounding.

This tool works surprisingly well, and you can use other features like edge feather, a technique to blend the edge you are cutting to fix pixel to pixel transition, to enhance it’s success. This is important if you have a person on a black background to cut out, and then having to paste them on a white background. This will add transparency to the edge so the person or object doesn’t have a dark edge on that new white background.

Overall I find the polygon lasso tool to be one of the most useful tools available to designers, and I can see it being appreciated for the home user as well. Use it to make creative invitations, or add interesting backgrounds to your images. If anything it will allow me to see myself in Mexico this winter, even though I won’t get to physically go there.

Modifying the blueprints.

Over the course of the New Media program at BCIT I expected that I would undergo a lot of change. Change in perspective, in thinking, and in ability, will make me more suited for a career in New Media. However, I feel there is one aspect in myself that I believe will stay with me throughout the program and for the duration of my life, and that is the most effective manor in which I recall information.

I’ve always thought of myself to be a hands-on person, without really understanding why. It wasn’t until I was having problems with an advertising assignment for my color and theory class that I fully understood where my long-term memory recall ability lied.

As part of my term project for color theory, I have been asked to market to children directly. This is something that I haven’t had much success with in the past and in personal life. I find communicating with children to be much harder than communicating with adults. There often seems to be a lack of reason, logic, and sophistication in their discourse that makes them frustrating to deal with. This couldn’t be farther from the truth as I was to discover, and in fact it was my discourse that was limiting my success.

I was researching effective advertising methods for directing at children and was bombarded with the ethical issues of marketing to children, most of which I agree with. I asked for help from my professor to point me in a direction outside the ethical sphere and to some raw techniques and effective process. Rather than send me to techniques and methods, she pointed me to a set of lectures about the education of children.

One lecture stood out amongst the rest and that was given by a man named Ken Robinson. Ken’s lecture titled “Do schools kill creativity?” really opened my eyes to my failure to think outside of a cognitive view of education and delivery. In the lecture he gives the example of a young girl. She was thought to have learning disabilities. The girl and her mother, meet with a councilor to discuss the problem. The usual questions were asked but the doctor noticed the girl fidgeting a lot. He asked to leave and speak with the mother in private. As he left he turned on the radio and closed the door. He asked the mother to watch through the window. The young girl was dancing in the room, and he turned to the mother and said, “Your child doesn’t have a learning disability, she’s a dancer.” She was enrolled in dance school and became one of the most successful stage choreographers in history.

Other than purely ingraining me with a notion to “think outside the box”, and a value for all different types of ability, it allowed me to understand the way in which I learn, and to my surprise have learned my whole life. In terms of my long term memory, I am an experience learner. In experience learning, at least what I define as experience learning, I have come to the conclusion that it isn’t the material, or the method of delivery. It is the intricate way in which they meld together to create a situation, a sort of ambience amongst all my senses. This is probably why I have always taken the hands-on approach in my work and done poorly with theory. Problem solving is much easier for me when my situational awareness is high.

This is exemplified by my ability, or lack there of, to recall memories of my childhood. I remember studying as a child and not being able to grasp math concepts on my own. My father had finally had enough, and as such sat with me every night forcing math problems on me. It’s important to note that he didn’t help me; he just reviewed my work and was less than pleased most of the time. I’m positive that the biological process of fear and my need to impress my father were the catalysts that allowed me to progress a grade ahead in math in a matter of 3 months. By itself, this doesn’t seem relevant and you may be asking, “What does this have to do with experience learning?” What is interesting is that this is one of the few vivid memories of my childhood that I have recalled, possibly because fear of failure is such a normal feeling throughout life.

My recall of information is much better in a situation that provokes my senses to a common ground with when they were retained. Even today I recall memories more vividly, when I am in a situation that reminds me of them. Not really a feeling of déjà vu, but more of a feeling of familiarity in all my senses combining to create a related moment co-ordinating to that particular memory.

Scientifically, I haven’t had time to fully research this subject, and will continue to do so as I’m not certain if this is biologically wired in all of humanity, or just more apparent in certain individuals. But it has reminded me of all the different approaches we can use to reach people, and how relevant this program is, even on a purely evolutionary level.

I’m not sure if this personal or human discovery was my professor’s intent by directing me to those lectures, but it certainly made me recognize the new directions I can take with my term project. This program continues to surprise me.

The fear and frustration subside.

A career change isn’t something new for me. For my entire working life I had changed careers every 3 years. But somehow this change wasn’t exactly standard. I had decided to return to a previous industry.

My initial work experience came from the computer industry. Working part-time at a computer store while attending high school and working part-time for the local school district with their computer and network upgrade implementation. From there my career always had a scope, and it involved technology. After a short stint at university as a lost arts student, I shortly found work for an internet start-up company. Riding the rails of success upward, I quickly became an integral designer in the company. That’s when things changed.

The dot-com bubble was bursting, and layoffs were becoming the norm. I knew my time was coming but, what would I do after? The time came quickly and I was soon found to be un-employed. Looking for work, for someone with no formal training, was uneventful. That’s when I decided to take on a short term solution and work in retail.

My retail stint was short, and it wasn’t long before one of my contacts had secured employment with a new emerging company. Although internet was the medium for the business, the business was software, and that software played poker. I was recommended and hired to develop websites for online poker companies. Our company had ownership of a software and server structure which we re-branded for customers who wanted “their share of the rake”. I was shortly moved to software UI design. Again, “our” business model was failing, and I saw the inevitable coming. I was laid off again.

I decided to travel back to my roots in Northern BC, and secured employment in the local sawmill. The wage was the strong motivating factor, as life in the city had definitely racked up my not-so serviceable debt. I worked in sawmills thereafter for the next 3 years, securing employment in the lower mainland at a mill in New Westminster. Then came a plant closure and I found myself out of work yet again. Luckily I had a card up my sleeve this time, as during any temporary layoffs which preceded the closure I had been learning the construction trade while working with a friend.

I worked in construction for the next 3 years, always thinking I was working toward something, not fully utilizing my creativity, but embracing the big picture. The reality was that I was never going to be where I wanted to be at least at the age I wanted to be there. I was approaching 30 and I needed to be more in control of my career, and utilizing my mind to its ability.

So why go back?

I wrestled with this question for almost a year. The industry that had failed me before was now to become my savior? I had to deeply assess my faults, my natural aptitude, my skills, and my maturity. After some deep reflection, I came to the conclusion that this was the right choice and I had to return. So now I’m in school, my tool pouch replaced with a back pack, and a work ethic that won’t let me fail.

I will post more on my journey through the New Media Program at BCIT.