It is important to consider what features of web 2.0 we can include in the Canvas website. It is then important to consider which will work and be effective on the site.
The point of Web 2.0 is its interactivity. It is a good idea for the Canvas website to be interactive as it gives users a reason to return to the site. Easy options for this would be the ability to include comment pages and potentially blogs.
Comment pages could easily be added to the events pages, which would give users the ability to announce their plans regarding events. If this occurred it would generate regular site traffic as users checked to see who was planning to go to which events.
Reviews could also be a helpful tool. By allowing users to comment on our review pages, they could provide counter reviews, or potentially reviews of their own. This makes the pages much more reliable as they would begin to feature more than one opinion. Again, this would lead to a greater trust from users and increased site traffic.
A blog page may be a good incorporation as well, either an individual's writing or as a group. I think it would give the site a unified voice that users could come to identify with and hopefully trust. This can become a good forum for distributing links and discussing all areas of the site. Again, all of this leads to greater interest for users and increased traffic.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Competitor Analysis
Mainstream Media
The Daily Express
The Daily Express makes use of the Internet as an effective forum for delivering its content in numerous ways.
I think the easiest way of analysing the papers website, is to directly discuss what I do and do not like about it.
Likes:
The home page has a simple, yet very aesthetically pleasing, flash animation that cycles through the main headlines of News, Sport, and Features. It's smooth and gives the viewer a simple, yet comprehensive overview of the site.
The site features an RSS feed link which would enable users easy access to the newest headlines and again, is an effective tool. By making their news headlines as easy to access as possible, the Daily Express hopes to keep their regular viewers through ease of use more than anything else. Again though, in the online realm where it has become so easy to clutter and over complicate web content, this is a very effective method for keeping subscription rates.
The site features immediate, up-to-date news feeds, meaning that as soon as a story breaks the viewer is given instant access to that story. This is typical of all news sites, however it cannot be classified as a 'dislike', because it does feature it and not having it would be truly sub-standard.
The site is divided into key-sections, each with its own relevant sub-sections, which enables easy navigation.
Users can post comments against stories and in various forums. Again, this is a feature of almost all news-sites, but cannot truly be discarded as a dis-like, because it is an important aspect of the site.
Dislikes:
As stated by Martin Belam in his analysis of the Express site, the blogging content does seem somewhat forced. Reading the content, it strikes me that the authors are writing more because they have to than an actual desire is compelling them to.
Additionally, though I realise in order to generate enough revenue to enable a free online form it is necessary, the adverts present on the site are rather irritating in terms of both size and placement. This can easily put users off using the site.
Furthermore, subscription to blogs does seem to give the user subscription to ALL blogs. This is quite an annoying feature, especially if the user is only interested in one topic.
Student Sites
For my analysis of a student magazine/newspaper online presence, I chose to look at the Cork Institute of Technology Student Union's site. There is no particular reason for this choice, it just happened to be the first online magazine site that I came across having conducted a search on Google.
To analyse the site, I will use the same system as before, 'Likes & Dislikes', though for variety I will start with 'Dislikes'.
Dislikes:
First impression? I don't like the site. This is probably due to a personal bias. I favour images quite heavily in my work and take great pride in taking my own photographs, editing, and presenting them myself. As a result, these are the first elements of a site that I notice. In the case of the CITSU site, the images are terrible. They are pixelated beyond belief. Even the small images that would not take up much space if presented in full quality are heavily compressed and pixelated. The first impression is an important one, and gives a lasting impression of a site. In this case, it's a bad one.
The site features a calendar. The calendar, when a date is selected, will display all union events for that particular day. When I first saw this, I thought it an effective and well presented feature of the site. However, when I looked through various dates, almost every single one had 'There are no events on this day'. Meaning? Pointless.
The site is divided into several sections, however each section often has little to no content, instead linking the user to several sub-sections within the section. In my opinion it would be more user-friendly if the sections at least had a slightly larger welcome/introduction to the section.
There is no section on news stories through which viewers can post comments. This is a common feature of almost all websites, especially news and magazine sites, yet CITSU does not feature it.
Finally, a small point perhaps, but the navigation bar across the top of the page features an 'underling' bar that highlights which button the cursor is hanging over. This underlining bar doesn't just 'appear' when a button is crossed with the cursor, it travels across the nav-bar from its previous position. However, the previous position is almost always the default position of 'Contact Us'. Perhaps I just have a child's mind, but I spent the majority of my time on the site playing with the bar. It's AI movement reminded me of 'Pong'!
Likes:
The site seems fairly well-presented. The nav-bars across the top and down the left side of the page are easy to navigate and provide simple access throughout the site.
The content of the site is well written. It is easy to understand and its form is light and pleasing.
A viewer poll has been well integrated into the site, and analysis can be easily obtained.
The site features relevant links and again, these are easily accessible and straight-forward.
Overall, The Daily Express site has some room for improvement, yet seems to be on the whole a well represented forum.
The CITSU site on the other-hand has a lot of room for improvement. My apologies for such a blunt sentiment go out to Vicky O'Sullivan (General Manager of the CIT Student's Union).
The Daily Express
The Daily Express makes use of the Internet as an effective forum for delivering its content in numerous ways.
I think the easiest way of analysing the papers website, is to directly discuss what I do and do not like about it.
Likes:
The home page has a simple, yet very aesthetically pleasing, flash animation that cycles through the main headlines of News, Sport, and Features. It's smooth and gives the viewer a simple, yet comprehensive overview of the site.
The site features an RSS feed link which would enable users easy access to the newest headlines and again, is an effective tool. By making their news headlines as easy to access as possible, the Daily Express hopes to keep their regular viewers through ease of use more than anything else. Again though, in the online realm where it has become so easy to clutter and over complicate web content, this is a very effective method for keeping subscription rates.
The site features immediate, up-to-date news feeds, meaning that as soon as a story breaks the viewer is given instant access to that story. This is typical of all news sites, however it cannot be classified as a 'dislike', because it does feature it and not having it would be truly sub-standard.
The site is divided into key-sections, each with its own relevant sub-sections, which enables easy navigation.
Users can post comments against stories and in various forums. Again, this is a feature of almost all news-sites, but cannot truly be discarded as a dis-like, because it is an important aspect of the site.
Dislikes:
As stated by Martin Belam in his analysis of the Express site, the blogging content does seem somewhat forced. Reading the content, it strikes me that the authors are writing more because they have to than an actual desire is compelling them to.
Additionally, though I realise in order to generate enough revenue to enable a free online form it is necessary, the adverts present on the site are rather irritating in terms of both size and placement. This can easily put users off using the site.
Furthermore, subscription to blogs does seem to give the user subscription to ALL blogs. This is quite an annoying feature, especially if the user is only interested in one topic.
Student Sites
For my analysis of a student magazine/newspaper online presence, I chose to look at the Cork Institute of Technology Student Union's site. There is no particular reason for this choice, it just happened to be the first online magazine site that I came across having conducted a search on Google.
To analyse the site, I will use the same system as before, 'Likes & Dislikes', though for variety I will start with 'Dislikes'.
Dislikes:
First impression? I don't like the site. This is probably due to a personal bias. I favour images quite heavily in my work and take great pride in taking my own photographs, editing, and presenting them myself. As a result, these are the first elements of a site that I notice. In the case of the CITSU site, the images are terrible. They are pixelated beyond belief. Even the small images that would not take up much space if presented in full quality are heavily compressed and pixelated. The first impression is an important one, and gives a lasting impression of a site. In this case, it's a bad one.
The site features a calendar. The calendar, when a date is selected, will display all union events for that particular day. When I first saw this, I thought it an effective and well presented feature of the site. However, when I looked through various dates, almost every single one had 'There are no events on this day'. Meaning? Pointless.
The site is divided into several sections, however each section often has little to no content, instead linking the user to several sub-sections within the section. In my opinion it would be more user-friendly if the sections at least had a slightly larger welcome/introduction to the section.
There is no section on news stories through which viewers can post comments. This is a common feature of almost all websites, especially news and magazine sites, yet CITSU does not feature it.
Finally, a small point perhaps, but the navigation bar across the top of the page features an 'underling' bar that highlights which button the cursor is hanging over. This underlining bar doesn't just 'appear' when a button is crossed with the cursor, it travels across the nav-bar from its previous position. However, the previous position is almost always the default position of 'Contact Us'. Perhaps I just have a child's mind, but I spent the majority of my time on the site playing with the bar. It's AI movement reminded me of 'Pong'!
Likes:
The site seems fairly well-presented. The nav-bars across the top and down the left side of the page are easy to navigate and provide simple access throughout the site.
The content of the site is well written. It is easy to understand and its form is light and pleasing.
A viewer poll has been well integrated into the site, and analysis can be easily obtained.
The site features relevant links and again, these are easily accessible and straight-forward.
Overall, The Daily Express site has some room for improvement, yet seems to be on the whole a well represented forum.
The CITSU site on the other-hand has a lot of room for improvement. My apologies for such a blunt sentiment go out to Vicky O'Sullivan (General Manager of the CIT Student's Union).
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Website Design I Like
Personally, I like the website design for 'Don't Stay In'. In terms of layout, it has a rough version of the standard left-hand inverted 'L', with links to different sections of the site across the top. However, the left-hand side is taken up with a live chat box, making the site more interactive and socially stimulating.
The moving screen graphics the sit features are limited to adverts, though are graphically appropriate and almost add to the site.
In terms of accessibility, the site is well set up. Users can browse through various sections, limiting themselves to clubs or geographical regions, as well as easily browsing through their contacts. The site itself if free and easy to join, relying on income from advertisers and donations from users, though users are not obligated to donate and are un-pressured.
In terms of separating itself from the mainstream, the site has an interesting user feature, where if you leave the cursor over a users name, a box flashes up displaying their photograph and stats. Again, this builds to the sites social networking and is an effective tool. Additionally, it provides the site with something that most others do not have.
Overall, I think that some elements could be improved (for example, the homepage scans down a long way as it tries to incorporate many features), but the site itself is impressive.
The moving screen graphics the sit features are limited to adverts, though are graphically appropriate and almost add to the site.
In terms of accessibility, the site is well set up. Users can browse through various sections, limiting themselves to clubs or geographical regions, as well as easily browsing through their contacts. The site itself if free and easy to join, relying on income from advertisers and donations from users, though users are not obligated to donate and are un-pressured.
In terms of separating itself from the mainstream, the site has an interesting user feature, where if you leave the cursor over a users name, a box flashes up displaying their photograph and stats. Again, this builds to the sites social networking and is an effective tool. Additionally, it provides the site with something that most others do not have.
Overall, I think that some elements could be improved (for example, the homepage scans down a long way as it tries to incorporate many features), but the site itself is impressive.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Nora Paul's 'New News' retrospective
Nora Paul's piece is an interesting review of what was expected of online news production, and what has actually been delivered.
For the most part, I follow what she says, and agree with the analysis. However, I also agree with one of her commentors, that she overlooks solely online based publications. These publications are more geared towards exploring the online forum, and tend to take advantage of the online potential. The reason for this is obvious, in that they cannot fall back on a corresponding print publication, and so have to use the online forum to the best potential in order to succeed. This is especially important as online news publications face the challenge of raising money to sustain the publication.
Money becomes an important issue for online publications. The challenge faced by the online publishers is to make the publication good enough to either make people accept a small fee to view the content, or attract advertisers.
However, following the point regarding Nora Paul's lack of solely online based publications analysis, I feel it is poor to make some of the wide generalisations that she does. She says that online news publications 'haven't done this', or 'haven't done that', yet some have, and the web is so large that I think it is impossible to make any generalisations. Finding the publications that have lived up to the potential is the real challenge.
Overall, I agree with Nora Paul. Online publications currently are not living up to their potential. However, I think this may change as print circulation figures are continuing to drop and the online news forum becomes more important. Furthermore, though online publications aren't achieving what was suggested, it has to be considered that what was suggested as online publications' potential was inaccurate.
The best example of this is the suggestion that online publications can have so much more content that would otherwise be edited out. In reality, people don't always want this content, or to read through the now increased size of the article. The point of online news isn't necessarily the unlimited 'newshole', but may in fact be ease of retrieval and its immediacy. Again, this doesn't mean that online publications haven't lived up to potential, but that what was considered the potential was not necessarily what was best for it.
Additionally, it comes back to money, and until online becomes a more dominant media form and is financed as well as it could be, it will never achieve its potential.
For the most part, I follow what she says, and agree with the analysis. However, I also agree with one of her commentors, that she overlooks solely online based publications. These publications are more geared towards exploring the online forum, and tend to take advantage of the online potential. The reason for this is obvious, in that they cannot fall back on a corresponding print publication, and so have to use the online forum to the best potential in order to succeed. This is especially important as online news publications face the challenge of raising money to sustain the publication.
Money becomes an important issue for online publications. The challenge faced by the online publishers is to make the publication good enough to either make people accept a small fee to view the content, or attract advertisers.
However, following the point regarding Nora Paul's lack of solely online based publications analysis, I feel it is poor to make some of the wide generalisations that she does. She says that online news publications 'haven't done this', or 'haven't done that', yet some have, and the web is so large that I think it is impossible to make any generalisations. Finding the publications that have lived up to the potential is the real challenge.
Overall, I agree with Nora Paul. Online publications currently are not living up to their potential. However, I think this may change as print circulation figures are continuing to drop and the online news forum becomes more important. Furthermore, though online publications aren't achieving what was suggested, it has to be considered that what was suggested as online publications' potential was inaccurate.
The best example of this is the suggestion that online publications can have so much more content that would otherwise be edited out. In reality, people don't always want this content, or to read through the now increased size of the article. The point of online news isn't necessarily the unlimited 'newshole', but may in fact be ease of retrieval and its immediacy. Again, this doesn't mean that online publications haven't lived up to potential, but that what was considered the potential was not necessarily what was best for it.
Additionally, it comes back to money, and until online becomes a more dominant media form and is financed as well as it could be, it will never achieve its potential.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Online Features
When print media sources try to access the potential of the online forum, they often tend to do a straightforward 're-print'. The material they use is the same, it's just online. This is usually the case with TV News channels when displaying stories on their corresponding website. This is also usually the case with print publications, especially magazines and newspapers.
An example of this is Wired's online article 'An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance. Then The Truth Came Out.'
The article was published in the magazine as well as online, and in terms of written content, they're identical.
However, Wired have attempted to take advantage of the online domain by adding extra content that would otherwise take up too much space in the magazine. Specifically, they've added an IM conversation between the piece's subjects. This is very long, and would otherwise consume several pages in the magazine. It's not an essential piece of content, but online it can be shown and rounds off the piece slightly.
Additionally, Wired have incorporated some links to give the piece more life and make it more full and complete.
Without having seen the magazine version, the online re-print works. It doesn't come across as a re-print or cluttered. It works independently and as a separate entity, not reliant on the magazine format.
An example of this is Wired's online article 'An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance. Then The Truth Came Out.'
The article was published in the magazine as well as online, and in terms of written content, they're identical.
However, Wired have attempted to take advantage of the online domain by adding extra content that would otherwise take up too much space in the magazine. Specifically, they've added an IM conversation between the piece's subjects. This is very long, and would otherwise consume several pages in the magazine. It's not an essential piece of content, but online it can be shown and rounds off the piece slightly.
Additionally, Wired have incorporated some links to give the piece more life and make it more full and complete.
Without having seen the magazine version, the online re-print works. It doesn't come across as a re-print or cluttered. It works independently and as a separate entity, not reliant on the magazine format.
Friday, March 30, 2007
The Power of Bloggers
It's hard to see just how strong blogging can be. There's a vast blogging community. It's infiltrated the mainstream media. But what is its actual power?
A good case study to look at is that of Trent Lott, the US Senator, brought down by blogging.
Trent Lott, at the 100th birthday of Senator Strom Thurmonds, made a racist comment, and although there was a great deal of mainstream media coverage it blew over within 48 hours.
However, a number of bloggers condemned the remarks made and stuck with it. One blogger, Josh Marshall, even found an interview Lott had given to Southern Partisan, a magazine widely accused of having racist views.
Eventually, and as a direct result of the bloggers, the mainstream media picked the story up again, and it led to Senator Lott's resignation.
Behold, the power of blogging.
A good case study to look at is that of Trent Lott, the US Senator, brought down by blogging.
Trent Lott, at the 100th birthday of Senator Strom Thurmonds, made a racist comment, and although there was a great deal of mainstream media coverage it blew over within 48 hours.
However, a number of bloggers condemned the remarks made and stuck with it. One blogger, Josh Marshall, even found an interview Lott had given to Southern Partisan, a magazine widely accused of having racist views.
Eventually, and as a direct result of the bloggers, the mainstream media picked the story up again, and it led to Senator Lott's resignation.
Behold, the power of blogging.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Work Blogs
I looked through the list of work related blogs compiled by James Richards and was surprised by the sheer number of call centre blogs. I can attribute two plausible reasons for this.
1) Call centre's attract certain types of people and these people like to blog
2) Call centre workers are stressed and need to vent more than other industry workers
Whatever the cause, I read 'My Worst Call of the Day' and found it hilarious. I think the main reason for this is that the author writes very well. His style is fresh, has a good flow/rhythm, and is well presented.
I think the second reason that his blog is so interesting to read is that everyone has spoken with call centre workers at some point, and it's interesting to see the other side of it.
The third, and possibly most important reason if looked at from a long-term position, is that he doesn't just limit himself to 'the worst call of the day'. He keeps the topics new and interesting by introducing different themes, such as 'What I wanted to say', 'Elderly Stories', and 'What I've said, but shouldn't have'. By varying the topics, the blog stays fresh and interesting.
I really like this blog, my only disappointment with it being that it appears the author has stopped posting. His last post was dated 10/25/2005.
1) Call centre's attract certain types of people and these people like to blog
2) Call centre workers are stressed and need to vent more than other industry workers
Whatever the cause, I read 'My Worst Call of the Day' and found it hilarious. I think the main reason for this is that the author writes very well. His style is fresh, has a good flow/rhythm, and is well presented.
I think the second reason that his blog is so interesting to read is that everyone has spoken with call centre workers at some point, and it's interesting to see the other side of it.
The third, and possibly most important reason if looked at from a long-term position, is that he doesn't just limit himself to 'the worst call of the day'. He keeps the topics new and interesting by introducing different themes, such as 'What I wanted to say', 'Elderly Stories', and 'What I've said, but shouldn't have'. By varying the topics, the blog stays fresh and interesting.
I really like this blog, my only disappointment with it being that it appears the author has stopped posting. His last post was dated 10/25/2005.
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