Water Life - Report Example

Running Head: Water Life of the project and what is it communicating: The project is a documentary on Water life and is a co-production of the National Film Board of Canada and Primitive Entertainment. It is a multi media based project that communicates the epic story of the Great Lakes following the water cascade of northern Lake along the Atlantic Ocean. The Great Lakes provides the Earth with 20% of its surface fresh water and the third largest industrial economy to it. But off lately, the Great Lakes have been contaminated. They have been a victim of toxin, sewage, invasive species, water and other toxic materials. Water life is about bringing life to these realities of the lakes. It depicts some of the most fascinating characters ever. They met various personalities from various places throughout the course of their research for the documentary and came up with this fascinating multimedia based site. The documentary shows its viewers the fascinating Great Lakes as it comes across to the seagulls, to the fish or to water molecules. It has shown a host of other amazing perspectives. It has been filmed during a period of one year, using state of art cameras and techniques. The project presents an epic view of the surrounding eco-system. It is a rare sight for most people living within the vicinity who make the majority of the population living there. The documentary moves from the fountains of Chicago to the clouds on the journey. It was made by one of the most innovative and renowned documentary film makers of all times, Kevin McMahon. Expression of the project as a multi-media project: The project has been expressed as a multi-media project. It is supported by intense animation, video, audio recordings sounds, flash imaging and a moving canvas. The website opens with a flash graph and a soft music playing in the background. The user on the other end is prompted to enter the site and explore the project further. This is the initial immediate view of the project when it is loading. Figure 1 It’s very clean and mesmerizing. This is followed by the homepage which as mentioned before, prompts the user to enter. This is shown in the figure below. Figure 2 There are no global navigations on the top, left and right side of the page. The page is clean and revolves as prompted by the user. There is global navigation on the bottom of the page. It is shown in the figure below. There are five options in the menu bar on the bottom left and five options on the bottom right. They are pertaining to Water life home, Resources/Community Action, About the Film, Directors Statement and News Screenings. On the bottom right, there is sharing of the page on various sites. Figure 3 On moving the cursor to the left side of the page after entering the site, the user is shown a huge flash menu carrying the list of things he can walk around and listen to on the site. As shown in the figure below, against “Water is” there is a list of items that has cropped up. Meanwhile, the pictures in the middle float around to give an engaging feel to the user. Figure 4 The same can be done using the bars on the bottom of the page just above the global navigation. When the cursor goes on these bars as shown in the figure, the user is presented with various options to choose from. As soon as he clicks, he is prompted to his choice of navigation and the audio recording begins playing. On the bottom right of this bar, sound and screen adjustment options are also given. Figure 5 For instance if the user clicks on Fishing, the following page is shown. A recording explaining the concept plays in the background and so does a small clipping of a woman running to get water. The text is shown in the immediate center. An external link is also provided to the user for any further reference. On the bottom right of the text, a “next” option is available if the user wants to move on to the next part and so is an “x” icon on the top left if the user wishes to close it. A “Hide Text” option is shown on the bottom right if the user wishes to only listen to the audio recording. Figure 6 Clutter: There is no clutter on the website. The webpage is not overloaded with external links, internal links and hyper links. The user has complete liberty and a clean stake ride throughout the side. Structure: The structure of the website is not at all extensively divided and categorized. Each webpage has global navigation on the bottom. Once the user has entered the website all he has to do is click around and find out information relevant to him or hear it directly. No Extensively long pages: The pages are not at all lengthy which are difficult to comprehend at a go. The presence of statistics, images, audio and video links make the web pages rich with information. Layout: The layout of the page is very engaging. There is a lot of user interactivity and encourages the user to explore around even further. The site uses some metaphors. Icons are used to depict some features like volume adjustment, screen adjustment and arrows to show movement. Interaction related issues: Visual constraints due to Text size: Against a black backdrop, small text size is used. This puts the eye under immense stress and exertion. (Martens, 2006) The text used should have been a little bolder or bigger to make the site visually feasible even for those who are long sighted. Absence of a Search box: There is no available search box on the website. This means that to explore a desired area for information, the user has to check through every option available to him. The text size is small and the wordy web pages make it even more difficult for users to navigate through the website. This makes the site inconvenient for elderly people. Usability experience design: The website emphasizes on usability experience design majorly and partially on information design. The experience is very engaging and interactive. Everything in the project moves with the cursor. There are moving images, moving text, moving fonts, videos, music, audio commentary and clippings in the back ground. The user is asked to do everything as he pleases. Each page he visits is his choice and how he intends to do it is also his. As mentioned before, if he wants to listen to only audio, he can hide text. If he wants to listen and read as well, he can click on show text and go with the feel. The site is very user friendly. For instance all external links are colored yellow to give the user a clear message of their intended user. The user is aware of the result following every click which makes the site an enriching experience for him. There is a lot of white spacing on each page. This gives the site a simplistic appeal and makes it easier for people with visual impairments to browse through. The use of multimedia does not hinder the accessibility of the webpage on different web browsers. It is universally accessible. The number of external links has been cut down. This makes the content comprehendible at a go while a separate reference page for any further references has been provided. The color scheme of the site is black and blue. This makes the visual appeal standardized and easily relatable. Different people may have prejudices for particular colors. By restricting the standard layout to only color, they have made the website universally acceptable. The site is easily accessible on other portable devices such as mobile, iphone, and Ipad. Evaluation: Usability engineering will be the prime model on the basis of which the site’ evaluation process will take place. This method assesses design on the basis of user experience. ISO metrics have established the following usability criteria on the basis of which we will evaluate our design. (Colette Nicolle) Effectiveness measures Efficiency measures Satisfaction measures Various usability measures will be considered for each of the aforementioned paradigms. (Dix, 1994) Effectiveness: Percentage of goals achieved is checked in this. In this project, the number of steps the user has to take to obtain the desired information is very little. Efficiency: Efficiency is another paradigm on which we the design is evaluated. The average time taken for the page to load is 30 seconds and barely 10-15 seconds within pages. The site is just as friendly for an expert user as it is for a layman. It takes a little longer than normal for the user to learn his way through the design because of the intense use of multimedia. Satisfaction measures: There are various satisfaction measures on which the project has been evaluated. Learnability of the site is good. By barely moving the cursor, the user gets an idea of its intended purpose. References: Colette Nicolle, J. A. Inclusive design guidelines for HCI. Dix, A. (1994). Human Computer Interaction. Addison Wesley. Hong, C. K. (n.d.). Discussion on User Interaction Issues . Retrieved May 7, 2010, from Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/7701592/Discussion-on-User-Interaction-Issues-in-Wikipedia Stephanidis, C. (2001). User Interfaces for All. Read More