510: Digital Humanities

  The last chapters on project design and web presentation focus on picking the right tools and strategies for building digital humanities (DH) projects. In Chapter 11, one of the main ideas is to choose website tools that match your project’s purpose. For example, if your site focuses on videos, you need a tool that supports multimedia. If it’s an art-focused site, a design-oriented platform works better, while a sales-focused site should be simple for easy navigation. For web curation projects, keeping a clear structure is key. Using academic terms (like “Japanese culture”) makes it easier for people to find your content, as it’s connected to organized topics. Chapter 12 highlights the importance of using content responsibly. Copyright rules are essential in web design—using others’ content requires permission, especially for profit. While “fair use” might apply if you give credit, it’s best to use your own or licensed content to avoid legal problems. This is common for YouTubers...

  In chapter 11, an important aspect I picked out was picking the right website tool for what you are trying to display. If you are creating a website that is based around video and has many examples of video, then you ought to understand the basics of how to highlight that with your website designer. The chapter talk s about how all website tools are not the same. Some have better applications for certain scenarios. If you are creating a website that is all about art and design, then you must pick a website designer that priorities your art. However, if you are trying to make a website that is trying to sell products, its especially important you do not make it too complicated. Another important aspect that was crucial also in our curation projects was the LoD . You want to ensure you are using subjects that can be searched through academic-approved definitions. While slan g is cool, you want people to be able to find the information you are trying to display in the sea of...

Alex Forbes ENGL 510 Melinda White November 10th, 2024 These final chapters about project design and web presentation build on everything else that we have learned so far this semester because they emphasize the importance of design and appearance in order to produce a successful and effective project. One aspect that Drucker highlights in Chapter 11 is the importance of critical thinking. She emphasizes that critical thinking is essential when presenting digital projects. Drucker stresses that Digital Humanities is much more than simply using digital tools, it is also about coming up with new and creative ways to use those tools to shape the humanities. While Drucker provides many examples of different types of website platforms, she leaves it up to the reader to decide which is best for their content, “The question is whether you want to build functionality into a customized platform, whether you can use a generic one, or whether you can modify an existing tool,” (Drucker 195). Somet...

Throughout our class we have learned what all the backbones to making a DH project were. Data mining and text analysis are crucial parts to gathering and uploading data, but the design and presentation of the website is just as important. Depending on what type of website you plan to make will determine what format you use to make it. Different website presentation styles include collections and repository, exhibit, and publications. There is also the difference between static and dynamic presentations. Static being mostly the use of links and HTML framework whereas dynamic websites are like repositories and information will be called from them. Publishing a website is one of the final steps when it comes to creating your own website. The main components are a URL and domain name which would be known as the web address. All the actual content will be under the server but the browser is what people see when they search for your website. When uploading the project it is important to cons...

 Digital humanities can take on many forms for web presentation: collections, exhibits, and/or publications. Depending on the content, a certain presentation must be used as means to better access the content and create a more seamless experience for users. The textbook mentions a few web builder platforms, such as WordPress, Omeka, and Drupal. They recommend to "always follow the tutorial", "see what degree of customization is possible", and to look into the information regarding how the site will need to be updated, how you will interact with site users, and how security will be implemented (198). These are relevant tips for our MEdiation project, especially when keeping in mind we may want to keep this site active after the end of the class.  Chapter 12 also provides helpful insight for starting a project. It mentions to be aware of your "intellectual goals" and define early on in your project your intentions and materials necessary. Furthermore, it als...

 In chapter 11, we see relation to our final projects within these pages. As we focus on the "presentation-focused" aspect of Digital Humanities, it's important to understand what exactly the presentation formats are. To start, its important to reflect on what you want your website to portray that will serve for its overall design, which in relation to our recent classes- is deciding what platform to help build our website, and brainstorming what we want to be our focuses in our MEdiation project.  Its important to judge the difference between a good and bad platform; such as what was being done in class on Tuesday. And on Thursday, to dicuss what makes a website good, and what makes a website bad. According to the textbook, its important to keep in mind these formats, "Description, Activity, Specifications, Popular Applications, and Implementation." That of which has defintions and collections to each category when starting out a website. These standard categor...

 First off, I think it is important to say that I am absolutely blown away by both My Body , and Depression Quest. I don't think I have every interacted with websites quite like this.  Depression Quest is an interactive narrative-driven game that explores the experience of living with depression. The way the game uses its interface—both visual and interactive elements—directly contributes to its thematic focus on mental illness, especially how depression can shape one's perception of the world and decisions.  "My Body: A Wunderkammer" by Stephanie Strickland is an interactive e-literature piece that explores themes of the body, identity, and the interconnectedness of physical and digital experiences. The interface of the work plays a key role in conveying its themes, using the digital space to create an immersive, fragmented experience that reflects the disintegration and reassembly of the body and self. Both of these interfaces are pretty minimalist and extremely i...

     The hypertexts “My Body, a Wunderkammer” by Shelley Jackson and “Depression Quest” by Zoe Quinn fit into the genre of electronic literature as defined by N. Katherine Hayles since both are “digital born” works created for interactive, computer-based reading experiences. These projects use digital interfaces to navigate readers through narratives and immerse them in stories based on choice and user exploration, which are core aspects of digital interactivity that make electronic literature different than traditional print media.      “My Body, a Wunderkammer” uses a touch-based, illustrative interface that enables users to navigate body parts as distinct sections. The user can explore freely with each body part acting as a portal into a different narrative fragment. This design embodies principles from Chapter 10 on effective visual layout and activity-oriented components, which guide users through clear interactive elements that are similar to an exhib...

    Both My Body and Depression Quest  offer digital narratives in the form of interactive storytelling. One concept I took away from chapter ten of the reading was user experience. Basically, user experience evaluates how easy the interface accomplishes its goals. I belive the goal of both of these hypertexts was to tell the author's personal story, and especially I think the goal of Depression Quest  was to give users an insight into the life of someone with mental illness, which is oftentimes misunderstood. There were chapters of sorts throughout each story, and I would equate the experience to a "choose your own adventure" book. You can move through each "chapter" at your own pace, and decide when you want to engage with each part. I think I definitely prefer the interface of Depression Quest  more, as it was easier to navigate and I really liked the home-base style repetitive messaging, that reminded the reader what the circumstances were at the given momen...

Interface is the vehicle that structures how readers and users will   interact with content. The way a set of digital information is structured is what makes up the interface. It was interesting reading about the most used interfaces in modern day, like the GUI and TUI. GUI for computers uses icons to represent the work they do. For example, the “trash” icon gives the allusion of “throwing away” a file when really, they are just pressing a “binary code” (173).   The TUI or “Tactile User Interface” is used on iPhone with the use of “touch and swipe functionality” (173). I never thought about the way our computers and phones are designed in the context of usability and interface. Furthermore, Interface has two distinguished groups in the design community: User interface (UI) and User experience (UX). User interface thinks about the design, whereas user experience thinks about the usability. Electronic literature makes use of the interface to drive the narrative. The way ...

  An interface is a means of interaction between two entities, whether that be human to computer or computer to computer. For human to computer interactions, it can be presented as graphs, buttons, etc. Both of the hypertexts, My Body, a Wunderkammer by Shelley Jackson and Depression Quest by Zoe Quinn, are examples of the new “genre”, electronic literature. This is because they have an interface that allows for interaction between the human and the computer to fully consume the literature being presented. Throughout each piece of electronic literature, there are multiple hyperlinks that the reader can click on to gain more details and information regarding the text. Each hypertext includes a pretty low-tech user interface that elicits an effective and efficient user experience. Through using these hyperlinks, the creators/authors are able to expand upon different parts of literature, such as character development or setting, which includes information that might not have been av...