" Radio interview with Jakob Nielson"
An interview with Jakob Nielson I found in IT conversation network is about some questions and tips on web designing. Through this interview session, Larry Magid (the broadcaster) brings out lots of questions on how to design a useable website. Jakob Nielsen also shared his knowledge on this topic and use examples to let the audience know more about it.
First, according to Kress and van Leeuwen (1998), we learnt the elements of designing a layout are the signifying systems which are the information value, salience and framing. In the interview, Jakob Nielsen said that some bad design websites for example the small font size, it is not useable for old people. Furthermore, the complicated structure, bad search engines and lots of not related junk videos or flash animation. It makes the audience find very difficult to use the website.
Websites are also considered as multimodality. When we write, our message is expressed not only linguistically, but also through a visual arrangement of marks on a page (Kress, G & Leeuwen, TV 1998). Design something needs creativity, but some websites may look beautiful, but the audience can’t do anything-not user friendly.
Jakob Nielsen said that Google and Yahoo are good designed websites because of the simple interfaces, with less text and images. Actually, this is not simple. Getting rid of junk needs lots of creativity, the designer has to consider what information to put in and what not to. In addition, a picture worth a thousand words (Schriver, KA). According to Jakob Nielsen, a website designer has to use appropriate images that related to the topic of the website. If not, it is just a piece of junk.
In the interview, Larry questioned that some people actually go to the website just to scan through the text and do not care about the audios or videos given. Are they really useable or necessary? Jakob Nielsen answered that although text is easy to read, we can just pick a few lines which we want to know about. But, with audio and video, it can be more persuasive. For example, movie trailers. If there is just a person talking about good points of the movie, we can’t feel it without audio and visual elements. Therefore, ‘each medium has the own benefits’ (Nielsen, J 2005).
Through this interview, we can know that the materials in the website must be appropriate. The title or introduction must be in-depth and informative. Hypertexts are useable to everybody and also state clearly what will it be when the audiences click.
Reference list:
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Bell, A & Garrett, P (eds) 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford, chapter 7, pp. 186-219.
Larry’s World 2005, IT Conversations: A Network Conversation Channel, radio interview, <http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail670.html>.
Nielsen, J 2005, ‘Each medium has the own benefits’, thesis, <http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail670.html>.
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Whiley Computer Pub., New York. Chapter 6.
First, according to Kress and van Leeuwen (1998), we learnt the elements of designing a layout are the signifying systems which are the information value, salience and framing. In the interview, Jakob Nielsen said that some bad design websites for example the small font size, it is not useable for old people. Furthermore, the complicated structure, bad search engines and lots of not related junk videos or flash animation. It makes the audience find very difficult to use the website.
Websites are also considered as multimodality. When we write, our message is expressed not only linguistically, but also through a visual arrangement of marks on a page (Kress, G & Leeuwen, TV 1998). Design something needs creativity, but some websites may look beautiful, but the audience can’t do anything-not user friendly.
Jakob Nielsen said that Google and Yahoo are good designed websites because of the simple interfaces, with less text and images. Actually, this is not simple. Getting rid of junk needs lots of creativity, the designer has to consider what information to put in and what not to. In addition, a picture worth a thousand words (Schriver, KA). According to Jakob Nielsen, a website designer has to use appropriate images that related to the topic of the website. If not, it is just a piece of junk.
In the interview, Larry questioned that some people actually go to the website just to scan through the text and do not care about the audios or videos given. Are they really useable or necessary? Jakob Nielsen answered that although text is easy to read, we can just pick a few lines which we want to know about. But, with audio and video, it can be more persuasive. For example, movie trailers. If there is just a person talking about good points of the movie, we can’t feel it without audio and visual elements. Therefore, ‘each medium has the own benefits’ (Nielsen, J 2005).
Through this interview, we can know that the materials in the website must be appropriate. The title or introduction must be in-depth and informative. Hypertexts are useable to everybody and also state clearly what will it be when the audiences click.
Reference list:
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Bell, A & Garrett, P (eds) 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford, chapter 7, pp. 186-219.
Larry’s World 2005, IT Conversations: A Network Conversation Channel, radio interview, <http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail670.html>.
Nielsen, J 2005, ‘Each medium has the own benefits’, thesis, <http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail670.html>.
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Whiley Computer Pub., New York. Chapter 6.
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