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toc =Paul McGuane= [|My Philly U. URL]

Goals For This Course
Well, I thought I was going to learn something about interactive media that somehow related to or built on Interactive Media I, which is a prerequisite for this. But learning HTML is OK and a little bit of Flash is OK.

Design Statement
Document quality is based on the usefulness of the document to the people who make up the target audience. Is it information the audience needs or wants? Include it. Is it unclear to the intended audience? Re-word it. Is it hard for the audience to find? Point to it. Always serve the needs of the target audience.

Assignment 1:

 * Website Designs I Like**

The following web sites are web sites whose design or content I really like. They are listed in no particular order.

1. http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ The focus of this web site is the idea that if we see really bad design we can perhaps avoid repeating the mistakes we see. Perhaps ironically, the design of this particular site is not, in my opinion, particularly striking. It is clear and easy to navigate, though, and the content rocks.

 2. http://www.girlswhowearglasses.com/ Free fonts, and some free clip art from a design company called dinc. This is a very bare bones, purpose-built site. I like its clean lines. It doesn’t do much, but it does what it does very well.

3. [|http://www.fedex.com] Not very exciting, but I think it’s a great portal. It’s covered with clearly identified links to the stuff I can do here, not a bunch of advertising. People who go to the FedEx/Kinko’s website know what they want to do: mail a package, track a package, or print something. Simple, direct, outstanding.

4. http://xkcd.com/456/ I guess I have thing for simplicity. This comic site displays one comic at a time, with a forward (next), back, and all-the-way-forward and all-the-way-back button. Plus, it has handy URL code copiers for embedding a link or an actual png of the comic.

5. http://www.codinghorror.com/ Very easy to read, excellent examples of bad (incompetent) and real bad (malicious) coding.

6. http://www.damninteresting.com/ Stuff that’s… well… damn interesting. The design is straight forward, and I really like the search functionality.

7. http://www.cnet.com/ Yes, an old favorite. Don’t buy technology without reviewing it and price-comparing it here first. And it’s sooo easy to do. Some of the videos are less than helpful, but that’s a minor draw back.

8. http://www.realsoftware.com/ This commercial website tells me quickly what the companies products are (their names) and what they do. An eye catching – but not distracting – graphic at the top of the page leads me to testimonials.

9. http://iconfactory.com/home These are stock icons available for download, some for a fee but many others for free. The website is well designed and easily navigated.

10. http://www.filemaker.com/ The website begins with the information I want right now: how does this application compare to the stuff I already know? 