Screen Space: A blog and podcast about users, texts, and technology

[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space, your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 22 of Screen Space ldquo;The Rhetorical Situation Part 2mdash;Purpose and Context.rdquo; In this episode, I review rhetorical situation, which I introduced in episode 21. I cover the remaining two key parts of the rhetorical situation, purpose, and context, to help you design and develop stronger websites, blogs, and other digital media, purpose, and context. I wrap this series up next episode with an example of an actual rhetorical situation.

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I am a Senior Usability Research Analyst for The Home Depot, which means I conduct usability research on The Home Depot website. nbsp;I also research and teach in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design.

First, let me welcome some of my newest audience members. Welcome to my new listeners from India, Vietnam, and France. Welcome and design well!

Review of the Rhetorical Situation

Audience, purpose, and context are three key considerations in rhetoric, technical communication, and really any sort of communications. These three concepts are the rhetorical situation. Thoroughly considering and writing or designing for these three areas will make your text or media stronger, more effective, and clearer. I discuss the rhetorical situation and the first area, audience, in more detail in episode 21. Letrsquo;s now explore purpose and context.

Purpose

When you consider purpose there are two different purposes to consider your purpose and the purpose of your audience. Letrsquo;s examine your purpose first. Why are you creating this text or media? In short, what is your purpose? What goals, results, ends, aims, means, or objectives are you trying to meet? Your purpose could include:

To persuade

To entertain

To inform

To educate

To get the audience to feel a certain emotion: such as awe, shock, happiness, fear, pity, and compassion.

To get the audience to act: You may want to get the audience to vote for your candidate, to donate money to your cause, to buy your book, or do something else.

To change your audiencersquo;s opinion

To advise or recommend

To share

To seduce

To help

To communicate

Many of these may overlap. You may also find that your purpose includes several of these. You could be trying to persuade someone to change their mind and then act.nbsp; You may be sharing your photos for otherrsquo;s entertainment. Here are some example purposes:

Example 1: For the photography blog I used as an example in the Usability and Usability Testing 101 series the purpose I multiple:

To get the audience to buy photographs

To share photographs for entertainment

To inform through photography tips

Example 2: For this this podcast, my purpose is also multiple:

To inform and educate my listeners on ways to create usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design

To persuade my listeners to follow my suggestions, advice, and tips

To get my listeners to actmdash;that is create usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design

To advise my listeners on usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design practices

The other purpose category is the purpose of your audience. This is touched on in Screen Space 21: The Rhetorical Situation Part 1mdash;Audience. What is the purpose of your audience? To help determined purpose consider these questions:

Why do they come to your site, blog, or digital media? What are their reasons?

What are their goals or objectives when they come to your site?

How does your site benefit your users?

What task or tasks are they coming to your site to complete?

Why do they choose your site, blog, or digital media?

You will likely determ...

[show notes]

Welcome to Screen Space, your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. In this episode Irsquo;ll talk about what is up with Screen Space.

I am providing only brief show notes here. I cover three things:

Update on my career

My plans for Screen Space

My recent publications

Updates on My Career

I recently took a position at a Senior Analyst of Usability Research at The Home Depot. I do usability research on their website and digital content, and I love it.

My Plans for Screen Space

Every other Monday (12:01 am) Irsquo;ll post a Screen Space Podcast

The off Mondays (wit out podcasts) Irsquo;ll post a typeface of the week blog entry

Wednesdays and Fridays Irsquo;ll post tips of the day

Once a week Irsquo;ll post at least one other blog entry

My recent publications

ldquo;Rhetorical Roots and Media Future: How Podcasting Fits into the Computers and Writing Classroomrdquo; in Kairos 16.2 http://www.technorhetoric.net/16.2/topoi/bowie/index.html

ldquo;Podcasting in a Writing Class? Considering the Possibilitiesrdquo; in Kairos 16.2 http://www.technorhetoric.net/16.2/praxis/bowie/index.html

ldquo;Sound Usability: Usability heuristics and guidelines for user-centered podcastsrdquo; present Feb 24, 2012 at Symposium on Usability, Information Design, and Information Interaction to Communicate Complex Information. Checkout my slides and handout.

Forthcoming: ldquo;Casting the Contest and Rebellion: Podcasting as Contested Writingrdquo; in Contest(ed) Writing: Reconceptualizing Literacy Competitions. Mary R. Lamb, ed. Cambridge Scholars: Newcastle upon Tyne, 2012.

If you have anything you would like me to cover in the podcast, let me know and Irsquo;ll consider it for after I have finished the Audience, Purpose, and Context series!

If you have questions, comments, or thoughts on what you want me to cover please send me an email at [email protected] or check out the Screen Space blogmdash;www.screenspace.org. You can also follow Screen_Space on Twitter for hints, tips, advice, news, and information onnbsp; designing websites, blogs, and other digital media texts. Also, check out the blog for a transcript of this podcast complete with links and resources. If you enjoyed this podcast, please put a review up on iTunes or tell your readers and listeners via your blog, podcast, Tweet, or the social media of your choice.

Have fun and design well!

Screen Space is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. So, feel to send a copy to your favorite members of your audience, but donrsquo;t change the podcast, do give me and Screen Space credit, and donrsquo;t make any money off of it.

Screen Spacersquo;s opening music today is ldquo;African Dancerdquo; by Apa Ya off of Headroom Project and the closing music is ldquo;Survivalrdquo; by Beth Quist off of ldquo;Shall We Dancerdquo;. Both these selections are available from Magnatune.

[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space, your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 21 of Screen Space ldquo;The Rhetorical Situation Part 1mdash;Audience.rdquo; In this episode, I discuss the rhetorical situation in general and then focus on audience and how to analyze your audience. In the next episode, ldquo;Rhetorical Situation Part 2mdash;Purpose and Context,rdquo; I cover the last two areas of the rhetorical situation. Finally in the third and fourth parts of this series I provide a full example of an analysis of the rhetorical situation.

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I conduct research and have taught in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design. Previously I mentioned being an assistant professor at GSU. However, this is no longer the case and I am currently looking for a job in usability, user-centered design, and/or social media. Stay tuned and Irsquo;ll provide details at the end of this podcast.

Before I get to talking about the rhetorical situation and audience, Irsquo;d like to welcome some of my newest audience members. Welcome to my new listeners from Hayneville, Alabama; Mansfield, Massachusetts; and Boise Idaho. Thanks for listening! Now, letrsquo;s get to the topic.

The Rhetorical Situation: Audience, Purpose, and Context

Audience, purpose, and context are three key considerations in rhetoric, technical communication, and really any sort of communications. Whenever I taught a writing class, I spent a lot of time focusing on these concepts and they were key considerations in my grading. Did the student consider their audience? The context? The purpose? If they did consider these three parts of the rhetorical situation, then they likely have at least a decent paper, website, blog, or whatever the medium.

In some ways audience, purpose, and context are a lot like the 6 Ws of journalism: who, what, when, where, how, and why. Except these are not Ws we are trying to answer explicitly in our writing to tell the news or story, these are Ws we consider in our writing and attempt to answer implicitly not explicitly. In journalism we try to explain who the news happened to, what happened, where it happened, when it happened, how it happened, and why it happened.

In other forms of writing and communication we want to think about this question in regard to not telling a story but making our point understandable. So the ldquo;whordquo; becomes the audiencemdash;who are we writing to? The context involves many Ws: what, when, where, and how. What is the userrsquo;s context? When will they use it? Where will they use it? How will they use it? This leaves us with purpose and why. Why will they use it? Why do they need it? Why do we want them to think, feel, or do whatever it is we are trying to get them to think, feel, or do?

Audience, purpose, and context do go beyond the 6 Ws, so letrsquo;s explore each in more detail starting with audience here, and purpose and context in the next episode.

Audience

Audience is the most important of these three parts of the rhetorical situation. If you do not fully consider and write or design for the audience, it doesnrsquo;t matter your purpose or context. You were unsuccessful. If they canrsquo;t read it, donrsquo;t get it, or donrsquo;t care, your purpose has not been met, and context does not matter. Irsquo;ve talked about audience before, because it is such an important concept. For instance, in Screen Space 12: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 2mdash;Selecting Users I talked a lot about figuring out who your users aremdash;or your audiencemdash;for usability testing. You may want to go back and listen for more information. I also promised to do a future episode on persona developing, and you can still look forward to this and it will help you take this episode and episode 12 further.

Please note: ...

[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space, your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 20 of Screen Space ldquo;Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 6mdash;Analyzing and Utilizing the Results.rdquo; In this episode, I discuss what to do with the findings we gathered during the usability testing in episode 5. I will talk about collating the data, analyzing the findings, and utilizing the findings. While I love all parts of usability testing, I find these last steps, analyzing the data and utilizing the data, to be the most exciting. I love figuring out what the data tells me about the design and coming up with ways to solve the usability problems and redesign a stronger, more usable site or product.

If you have not listened to the previous parts of this series, you may want to go back and listen. I suggest starting with Screen Space 10 on User-Centered Design and then working your way through the series. In the first part of the series, Screen Space 11: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101, I discuss usability, provide a definition of usability testing, and outline the steps to conduct a usability test. In Part 2 (episode 12), you can find information on selecting your users for usability testing. In Part 3 episode 17 , I discuss the steps to setting objectives and selecting tasks to test. In Part 4 episode 18, I provide information on getting ready to do the testing. In Screen Space 19: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 5mdash; Conducting the Testing, I covered what to do before, during, and after the usability testing.

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I conduct research and have taught in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design. Previously I mentioned being an assistant professor at GSU. However, this is no longer the case and I am currently looking for a job in usability, user-centered design, and/or social media. Stay tuned and Irsquo;ll provide details at the end of this podcast.

A warm greeting to my new listeners from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Rabat, Morocco; and Utrecht, Netherlands. My apologies for probably mispronouncing your city names. I love having you here!

I also want to thanks my many listeners in Wisconsin who stopped by this past month. Your listens and blog visits moved Wisconsin up to second place based on traffic for the last four weeks. Keep coming back and you may catch New York, which ranks second for the past year. Georgia, my home sweet home, ranks first, both for the past month and past year. Thanks to all of you for visiting. Come on back, ya hear?

In this episode, I present the sixth step in usability testing: analyzing the data and utilizing the data. This includes collating the data, analyzing the findings, and utilizing the findings. I will use the same example I used in episodes 11, 12, 17, 18, 19mdash;testing a photography blog. Wersquo;ll imagine we have a photography blog with a decent sized audience. We want to get more users and see how useable the blog is for the current users.nbsp; By this point in the series we have figured out which user profiles we will test (part 2), we have designed the testing (part 3), we have prepared for testing (part 4), and we conducted our testing (part 5).

So, on that note, letrsquo;s begin discussing analyzing and utilizing the results from usability testing.

Collate the Data into Findings

First, we will want to collate the data into findings. In usability testing we often have two types of data: qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative data is not numerical data. It is data that is not quantified, is left up to interpretive techniques, and is subjective. In usability testing this will be the data from observations, user statements during and after testing (like those obtained from think-aloud protocol), user expressions, the interview answers, and some of the survey answ...

[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space, your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 19 of Screen Space ldquo;Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 5mdash;Conducting the Testing.rdquo; In this episode, I discuss the fourth step of usability testingmdash;what to do before, during, and after the testing. There will be one more part to this series, where I will discuss analyzing and utilizing the results from the testing.

If you have not listened to the previous parts of this series, you may want to go back and listen. In the first part, Screen Space 11: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101, I discuss usability, provide a definition of usability testing, and outline the steps to conduct a usability test. In Part 2, Screen Space 12: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 2mdash;Selecting Users, you can find information on selecting your users for usability testing. In Part 3, Screen Space 17: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 3mdash;Deciding what to Test, I discuss the steps to setting objectives and selecting tasks to test. In Part 4, Screen Space 18: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 4mdash;Preparing the Testing, I provide information on getting ready to do the testing. You may also find Screen Space 10 on User-Centered Design helpful.

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I conduct research and have taught in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design. Previously I mentioned being an assistant professor at GSU. However, this is no longer the case and I am currently looking for a job in usability, user-centered design, and/or social media. Stay tuned and Irsquo;ll provide details at the end of this podcast.

Welcome, welcome, welcome my new listeners from Germany, India, and Australia.nbsp; Thanks for listening and design well!

In this episode, I present the fourth step in usability testing: conducting the testing. This includes what to do before, during, and after the testing. I will use the same example I used in episodes 11, 12, 17, and 18mdash;testing a photography blog. Wersquo;ll imagine we have a photography blog with a decent sized audience. We want to get more users and see how useable the blog is for the current users.nbsp; By this point in the series we have figures out which user profiles we will test (part 2), we have designed the testing (part 3), and we have prepared for testing (part 4). So, letrsquo;s figure out how to conduct usability testing. There are three steps.

Before the Testing

It is test day and the environment is setup and we are ready to test. In walks our first participant. nbsp;Our first step is to greet and brief them.

Step 1: Greet #38; Brief participant

Read/say welcome:nbsp; In part 4, we wrote our welcome and intro to the testing.nbsp; Here is where we read it. Remember it is important to treat each user the same, as to not impact the testing, so try to make the welcome as consistent as possible.

Emphasize that you are not testing them: While we call this usability testing, this is not a test of our users. This is not something they can pass or fail. This is a test of our site, and a test our site can pass or fail. Our participants, however, will often think this is a test of them and will often try to ldquo;passrdquo; the test. This will change the test results we have, as regular users do not try to ldquo;passrdquo; tests when using websites or other media. So, you need to emphasize that this is not a test of the participants, but of the product and that they should act as natural as possible. You can tell them that this is a test of the site and they are helping you determine how usable it is. I like to also emphasize that what I learn from watching them use the site will help me make the site more usable in the future.

Explain think-aloud protocol (if you are using it): Think-aloud protocol is a fan...

[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space, your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 18 of Screen Space ldquo;Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 4mdash;Preparing the Testing.rdquo; In this episode, I discuss the third step of usability testingmdash;preparing the testing. There will be two more parts to this series, where I will discuss conducting the testing and then analyzing and utilizing the results from the testing.

If you have not listened to the previous parts of this series, you may want to go back and listen. In the first part, Screen Space 11: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101, I discuss usability, provide a definition of usability testing, and outline the steps to conduct a usability test. In Part 2, Screen Space 12: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 2mdash;Selecting Users, you can find information on selecting your users for usability testing. In Part 3, Screen Space 17: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 3mdash;Deciding what to Test, I discuss the steps to setting objectives and selecting tasks to test. You may also find Screen Space 10 on User-Centered Design helpful.

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I conduct research and have taught in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design. Previously I mentioned being an assistant professor at GSU. However, this is no longer the case and I am currently looking for a job in usability, user-centered design, and/or social media. Stay tuned and Irsquo;ll provide details at the end of this podcast.

A warm welcome this week to my new listeners from Liverpool, London, and Manchester in the UK.nbsp; Welcome to Screen Space and design well! Another warm welcome to my loyal listeners. Welcome to another episodes and thanks for listening!

In this episode, I will present the next step in usability testing: preparing for the testing. This includes choosing the order of tasks, creating written test materials, recruiting participants, defining team membersrsquo; roles, creating a written test plan, practicing the testing, and preparing the test environment. I will use the same example I used in episodes 11, 12, and 17mdash;testing a photography blog. Wersquo;ll imagine we have a photography blog with a decent sized audience. We want to get more users and see how useable the blog is for your current users.

Without further ado, letrsquo;s discuss step three.

In the third step we prepare for the testing by choosing task order, creating written test materials, recruiting participants, defining team membersrsquo; roles, creating a written test plan, practicing the testing, and preparing the test environment.

Step 1: Choose order of tasks

First, choose the order of tasks. You can start easy, go sequential, or be random. I suggest starting with an easy task to warm your users up and give the testing a positive light. If users start with a hard task they could become frustrated and this may impact the rest of the testing. If your tasks follow a particular sequence, it makes sense to go in the sequence. If you have no other determination, you could randomly select the tasks. In fact, if you randomly select the tasks order for each usability test you run, this will had some rigor to your results as task order will not be impacting results.

In episode 17 (part 3), we came up with five tasks. Letrsquo;s start easy, but also work with the bit of sequence we have between the task where we ask them to find a photo they may like to buy and purchasing this photo. Here is my recommended task order:

Task 1: Find a particular photo

Task 2: Find a photography tip

Task 3: Find a photo they like

Task 4: Purchase and download that photo

Task 5: Subscribing to the blog

We start with two easy tasks, go to the two sequential tasks, and end with a task that may be harder. I also separated the two tasks w...

[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space, your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 17 of Screen Space ldquo;Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 3mdash;Deciding what to Test.rdquo; In this episode, I discuss the second major step of usability testingmdash;deciding what to test. I will talk about the processes of selecting purpose, objectives, type of test, and tasks. There will be three more parts to this series, where I will discuss preparing for testing, conducting the testing, and analyzing #38; utilizing the results.

If you have not listened to the previous parts of this series, you may want to go back and listen. In the first part, Screen Space 11: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101, I discuss usability, provide a definition of usability testing, and outline the steps to conducting usability test. In Part 2, Screen Space 12: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 2mdash;Selecting Users, you can find information on selecting your users for usability testing. You may also find Screen Space 10 on User-Centered Design helpful.

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I am Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I conduct research and have taught in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design. Previously I mentioned being an assistant professor at GSU. However, this is no longer the case and I am currently looking for a job in usability, user-centered design, and/or social media. Stay tuned and Irsquo;ll provide details at the end of this podcast.

A quick welcome to my new listeners from Rock Island, Illinois; Sunnyvale, California; and Middletown, New Jersey.nbsp; Enjoy, design well, and let me know if you have any questions or topic requests. Irsquo;d love to hear from you!

In this episode, I will cover how to decide what to test including choosing an overall purpose, determining objectives, deciding the type of test, selecting tasks, and choosing performance objectives. I will use the same example I used in episodes 11 and 12mdash;testing a photography blog. Wersquo;ll imagine we have a photography blog with a decent sized audience. We want to get more users and see how useable the blog is for the current users.nbsp; In 12, I presented two user profiles for this blog. The first is ldquo;fansrdquo;mdash;middle aged, middle class users who come to the blog to look at photos, get tips on taking better photos with their digital point-and-shoot cameras, and possibly buy or download some of the photos. The second profile is ldquo;photographersrdquo;mdash;a slightly younger group of users with more tech savvy and photography experience who are amateur photographers themselves. They come to the site to see what other photographers are doing, to build the photography community and support your work, and to get and share more advanced photography tips. Letrsquo;s select the first profile, fans, to test.

So, letrsquo;s get started with Part 3mdash;Deciding what to Test.

Choosing an overall purpose

This may be the easiest step in deciding what to test. Think about the overall purpose of the usability testing you want to conduct. Why are you doing the testing? This can be very general or quite focusedmdash;it depends on your purpose. It could be as broad as ldquo;find out how usable our new website isrdquo; or as narrow as ldquo;determine if users find the information they need on the help pagerdquo;. For our photography blog, letrsquo;s go general with ldquo;determine the usability of our blog for our users.rdquo;

Determining objectives

Next, we need to determine the objectives of the testing or determine what exactly we are testing for. Our general and vague purpose is not a good objective. So, we need to break this purpose into a few specific objectives. These objectives will likely be questions. They could be objectives like:

Does our search engine provide usable results in ...

[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 16 of Screen Space, ldquo;An Interview with Shaun Slattery on lsquo;Information Management Techniques for Writers.rsquo;rdquo;

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I teach and conduct research in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design. First a welcome to my new listeners from Casablanca, Morocco; Santiago, Chile; and Mumbai, India. And welcome to my new US listeners from Brunswick, GA; New York, New York; and Holland, Michigan. Thanks for stopping by and design well!

In this episode, we hear from Shaun Slattery on ldquo;Information Management Techniques for Writers.rdquo; Letrsquo;s dive in and Irsquo;ll provide some exciting news about Shaun after the interview.

Transcript/Summary of the Interview

Overview of this presentation:

He felt flooded with information and was struggling o keep track of it all and get back to what he needs. So, he became interested in how people managed information to do work latermdash;writing, web design, and other types of knowledge work. A few different types of people are talking about this:

Business people: Information management, Personal information managed

Academic disciplines like Information Science from library science, areas interested in accessing and ordering information.

So, to help him with his information glut problems, he turned to these literatures to find suggestions of best practices.

What information would he give us?

Start getting clever about naming files. Be reflective. This is important especially when writing collaboratively. Think about names to find the information better.

Start looking into it as a practice. Look online. Two great resources:

43 Folders: Focused on creatively and getting manage done and out of the way to get back to work.

Cringe bust your to-list: Tackle cringe-worthy projects that you want to avoid. Spend a few minutes at a time to chip away at it.

Life hack: tips and tricks to manage lives and projects

His three tips for us:

Be thoughtful and reflective about naming stuff and putting things places.

Look at other peoplersquo;s practices: See if decisions were smart or bad. Being tuned in can help you make good decisions that may impact yourself and others. Coordinate with others you are working with.

People pay a lot of attention to where things are. Be aware of spatial preferences and consistently apply them. Be aware of what is typical and most normal to put it in the right places for your users.

Resources:

Getting Things Done book: Good for productively.

Life Hack and 43 Folders: Good web resource for this kind of practice. Blogs with neat posting regularly.

Beyond this: be aware of own practices and othersrsquo; practices. Can find lots of clever practices online in places like Flickr.

And that concludes that interesting interview with Shaun. Thanks Shaun, for this great information. As I said before the interview, Shaun has some exciting news to share with us, but I do not yet have it. I will update this when I do.

A note on the transcript: the transcript for this podcast is limited as I do not have time right now to transcribe the interview. If any of you want to, I welcome your help. I did provide a brief summary of the interview for my audience that has difficulty with sound.

That wraps up episode 16: An Interview with Shaun Slattery on ldquo;Information Management Techniques for Writers.rdquo; Join us next week for the continuation of the Usability Testing 101 series.

If you have questions, comments, or thoughts on what you want me to cover please send me an email at [email protected] or check out the Screen Space blogmdash;www.screenspace.org. You can also follow @Screen_Space on Twitter for hints, tips, advice, news, and ...

[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 15 of Screen Space, ldquo;An interview with Justin Lewis on lsquo;Copyleft, Digital Pirates, and Content Creation with Remixing.rsquo;rdquo;

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I teach and conduct research in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design. Before we move into the interview, welcome to my new listeners from Oldenburg, Germany; Pelotas, Brazil; and Manila, Philippines. Enjoy, design well, and let me know if there is anything you would like me to cover.

In this episode, we hear from Justin Lewis on ldquo;Copyleft, Digital Pirates, and Content Creation with Remixing.rdquo; Justin is at Syracuse University working on his Ph.D. in the Composition and Cultural Rhetoric program.

Now, letrsquo;s hear what Justin has to say about Copyleft, Digital Pirates, and Content Creation with Remixing.

Transcript/Summary of the interview

First Justin explains copyleft: any content creator can say their media can be appropriated in any way beyond their control (they can set what ways it can be appropriated). Allows the artist control over the content they are creating.

In his presentation he looked at how the peer-to-peer conversation has occurred over the past ten years, looking at the legal domain and rhetoric and composition. nbsp;He is also looking at individualsrsquo; reasons for pirating: anticorporatism, some genuine copyleftists and want to spread information, and those who are unhappy with current content media distribution systems. He also is looking at how private private spaces are community-based. Finally he explores what the motivations for the work aremdash;he thinks it is social capital. He also looks at the technological discourse.

Takeaways for us:

Individuals who create now are bricolagers, assemblers, often appropriating things when creating new content. Remix is an example. If you want you work to get out then consider allowing your work to be taken up and reappropriate your work. May enhance your ethos and allow you to gain exposure.

He suggests we attach Creative Commons licensing badges to your blog or other media. There is also a video plug-in that allow people to cut and post remixes onto your own blog. Also be connected to social networks. Post your cotenant in places where people can pick it up, such as pirate communities or places they can download it for free.

Three tips for us:

Make sure you have clearance to use what you are using

Visit the Creative Commons website to see what level of attribution you would be interested in giving your content.

Practice the remix to generate even more originality and creativity. Play and remix.

Resources:

Archive.org: Run by Creative Commons and EFF. Huge collection of artifacts that are copylefted, creative commons attribution, or that are no longer under copyright. May find good media to use in own work.

Play around on networks that you may not be familiar with or may be outside of conform zone and check out the conversations [Those pirating sites]

And that concludes the interesting interview with Justin. Thanks Justin, for sharing this with us. If you would like to contact Justin, feel free to email him at [email protected] or check out his Twitter at @justalewis. Irsquo;ll provide those as links in the transcript.

A note on the transcript: the transcript for this podcast is limited as I do not have time right now to transcribe the interview. If any of you want to, I welcome your help. I did provide a brief summary of the interview for my audience that has difficulty with sound.

That wraps up episode 15: ldquo;An interview with Justin Lewis on ldquo;Copyleft, Digital Pirates, and Content Creation with Remixing.rdquo; Join me next week for the last of the four Computers and Writing inte...

[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 14 of Screen Space, ldquo;An interview with Sarah Brown on lsquo;Personal Branding and Online Identity Construction.rsquo;rdquo;

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I teach and conduct research in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design. Before we dive in to the interview, welcome to my new listeners from Manchester, UK; Vasteras, Sweden; and Bangor, Maine in the USA. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come on back.

In this episode, we hear from Sarah Brown on ldquo;Personal Branding and Online Identity Construction.rdquo; This interview occurred at Computers and Writing 2010. Sarah has accomplished much since this interview. She graduated from the MA program at DePaul and is currently the Technology Administrator for DePaulrsquo;s College of Education. Next year shersquo;ll also be teaching first-year writing at DePaul.nbsp; Congratulations, Sarah.

Please note: the transcript for this podcast is limited as I do not have time right now to transcribe the interview. If any of you want to, I welcome your help. I did provide a brief summary of the interview for my audience that has difficulty with sound.

Now, letrsquo;s hear what Sarah has to say about Personal Branding and Online Identity Construction.

Transcript/Summary of the interview

Sarah noticed that students were having issues switching between porfessi0onal and social identities online, especially with email, even after covering how to write professional emails in class.

First used leet speak to demonstrate how language can be used to create identity. Next, she had them analyze their personal identity on Facebook or the social networking platform they use. She finished by having them create a professional profile and identity on Linkedin, a professional networking space.

Her advice for the everyday web blog, and digital media designer:

Choose three terms that represent nbsp;who you want to be in that scenario (professionally, socially, whatever). From those three terms choose three images and build off of that. Make sure everything connects back to those three images or terms. Helps focus and direct your identity. These can then be applied to your e-folio or other such things, where you need a clear identity. The terms and images can help you even select typefaces and colors for your designs.

The three resources she suggests:

Creative Commons for images and media

Lifehacker for cool tips and ideas

Google ldquo;design principlesrdquo; or ldquo;design ideasrdquo; for a range from good, bad, and ugly

She suggests too that you Google yourself to see what is out there.

Conclusion

And that concludes that helpful interview with Sarah. Thanks Sarah, for such a great interview. If you would like to contact Sarah, feel free to email her at [email protected] or check out the Center for Educational Technology blog, where you can find out more about what shersquo;s up to. Irsquo;ll provide those as links in the transcript.

That wraps up episode 14: ldquo;An interview Sarah Brown on lsquo;Personal Branding and Online Identity Construction.rsquo;rdquo; Join me next week for the third of the Computers and Writing interviews. Justin Lewis will talk about ldquo;Copyleft, Digital Pirates, and Content Creation with Remixing.rdquo; Ahoy mateymdash;it will be fascinating! Then, in two weeks, we have the last of the Computers and Writing interviews. I will interview Shaun Slattery on ldquo;Information Management Techniques for Writers.rdquo;

If you have questions, comments, or thoughts on what you want me to cover please send me an email at [email protected] or check out the Screen Space blogmdash;www.screenspace.org. You can also follow @Screen_Space on Twitter for hints, tips, advice, news, and in...