Blog Post 9: Interface and E-Lit
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 moment.
In terms of creating my own web presentation, there were a few things that stood out from this chapter that I want to keep in mind. It's important to keep the navigation elements visible, something I wish that My Body would have done a little bit better. Specifically, I got stuck on the "knees" story and I wasn't sure how to return back to the page with the other stories. So, when I design my own website I want to make sure that users will always know how to return to the home page. I also want to remember to utilize the "screen real estate" to make sure I'm not wasting any space. Some people pay for website space, so in that case it's even more important to use the entire screen. Lastly, I want to make sure my branding is prominent on the site. I want people to remember why they're viewing the site and what its importance is.
I think user experience is a great takeaway from this chapter. UX is incredibly important when it comes to creating a website or other digital platform since it draws the user in and can either encourage or discourage them to come back or not. I know that at least in my experience, when I visit a website that is difficult to navigate and is not intuitive, I rarely ever come back to it again. It's important too, as you mentioned, to have a home page that the user can always come back to that can guide them to where they want to go. Branding, visuals, and utilizing screen space as you mentioned are all key elements to creating a successful website that people will find aestheically pleasing and intuitive to use and navigate.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have been apart of many discussion on My Body, and often wish the homepage with the full body links would stay available. I see her purpose in the reader getting a little lost in the "cabinet" though too. But maybe a way back just in case you feel stuck, as you did. Love Depression Quest's use of loops and choices you can't make to emphasize that sometimes these aren't decisions one is able to make.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate that you highlighted the importance of user experience from Chapter 10, and as Alex explained in his comment response, a website that is difficult to navigate or explore its various functions is one that I would not visit again. User experience relates to the ways that there are websites that create the ability to be functionable by any user. My Body was a good example of this and how you noticed that the website could have been more accessible to view navigational elements, which is a great thing to keep in mind for our website designing project.
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