[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 your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. Today I’m going to talk about some exciting changes to Screen Space—both the blog and podcast—along with what is coming up next.
You may be surprised to see a Screen Space podcast in your iTunes, podcatcher, feedreader, or other method of subscribing or accessing Screen Space. It has been a while, but, never fear, Screen Space has not podfaded. My focus has been elsewhere as I worked to prepare for tenure, create my tenure dossiers, and submit them. Now I can turn back to Screen Space, and I have some exciting plans for the future.
First, let’s discuss what is coming up with the podcast. My plans for this summer are an episode a week, posted Monday mornings at 12:01 am. My next episode will be the second part of my series on usability testing—Selecting Users. I will talk about determining who your users are going to be for your testing and deciding how many users to test. The rest of the series on usability testing will include:
Deciding what to test: After selecting your users, you need to figure out what to test. I will discuss how to determine your purpose, select objectives, choose the type of tasks to test, and select both tasks and performance objectives. This episode is great for planning effective testing.
Preparing for the testing: In this episode, I will cover everything from the order of your task, to finding users, to setting up the testing environment.
Conducting the test: After all this preparation, it is time to test. In this episode, I’ll cover everything you need to know to run effective usability testing.
Analyzing and reporting the data: Once the testing is done, you will have a lot of data and in this episode I’ll provide some techniques for data analysis and talk about what you can do with the data, from improving your website, blog, or other digital media to preparing reports on the data.
But, this summer will not just be about usability testing. I also have 4 exciting interviews. These interviews are with some of my academic colleagues who presented at Computers and Writing conference in 2010 on topics related to Screen Space. These interviews include:
Sarah Brown: Personal Branding and Online Identity Construction
Lars Söderlund: Gradual Growth Web Design: Guides, Regularity, and Product (or “Guns Ruin Picnics”)
Shaun Slattery: Information Management Techniques for Writers
Justin Lewis: Copyleft, Digital Pirates, and Content Creation with Remixing
I am really excited about posting these episodes. The interviews are interesting and the experts did a wonderful job of talking about their work and how you, my listeners, can apply it to your own websites, blogs, and other digital media.
Beyond these interviews and the usability testing series, I will cover many other topics this summer, including:
Selecting typefaces for your media
Considering Copyright and Copyleft 101
Designing for mobile devices and smaller screens
Applying ethos, logos, and pathos in web, blog, and digital media
Podcasting 101
Finding the right voice and personality for your media
Citing sources effectively and properly in your media
Writing engaging headlines, headings, and subheadings
Selecting the perfect color scheme for your media
As you can see (or hear rather), there is some exciting and helpful material in the works. I’m also open to your suggestions on material you would like me to cover. Please send me an email or comment on this post with suggestions.
There are also exciting changes for the blog. While I have kept up with the blog more than the podcast, it too has not been a focus while I was undergoing the tenure process. That also is about to change. Here are a few things to expect:
Tip of the Day: I will be posting a tip of the day related to users, technology, and texts, especially focusing on the design and writing in web, blog, and other digital media. These will be short posts during the workweek—Monday through Friday. I will post these each morning. Some weeks will have themes, such as choosing typefaces for your media, while other weeks will be on a variety of topics.
Typeface of the week: Each week, I will discuss a typeface. I’ll provide basic typographic information, like category and x-height, and also discuss best uses of the typeface, the personality of the typeface, and more!
New and continuing topics: I will continue to post on topics I have been posting on such as design, writing, media, and more. A few areas I will focus on include: Quick website and media critiques
Media news
Facts and information on users and web use, blogging, digital media use
Recommended resources including books, articles, podcasts, and blogs
So, make sure you have subscribed to the blog or check it out regularly.
My plans for Screen Space go beyond the blog and podcast. I also have started a Screen Space Twitter account: Screen_Space. I will be tweeting about web, blog, and digital media design, writing, and communication. So, please follow Screen Space on twitter to get the full experience.
And that wraps up my metacast on the exciting changes to Screen Space. Stay tuned to experience these exciting changes to the blog and podcast and please follow the new Twitter account. Thanks to my loyal listeners for maintaining that subscription. And welcome new listeners. You’re found Screen Space at a great time. Please join me next week for Screen Space episode 12 “Selecting Users,” my second episode in the usability testing series.
If you have questions, comments, or thoughts on what you want me to cover please send me an email at jbowie@screenspace.org or check out the Screen Space blog—www.screenspace.org. You can also follow Screen_Space on Twitter for hints, tips, advice, news, and information on designing websites, blogs, and other digital media texts. Also, check out the blog for a transcript of this podcast complete with links and resources.
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 that website that seriously needs some usability testing, but don’t change the podcast, do give me and Screen Space credit, and don’t make any money off of it.
Screen Space’s opening music today is “African Dance” by Apa Ya off of Headroom Project and the closing music is “Survival” by Beth Quist off of “Shall We Dance”. Both these selections are available from Magnatune.
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