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New ideas come from the knowledge of old
ones. The designer's job is to know their
field and that knowledge comes from a vigilant
eye on the community, industry, and their
surroundings. It is this knowledge that
is the key to the breadth and quality of successful design.
Virtual Community
SUMMARY. The power and validity of the concept of "virtual community" has been one of debate
since its inception. Since I began designing for the web, I have been intrigued by the way people
interact via the internet. Initially, I researched what a virtual community was along with where
and how they existed. From there I looked at the possibility and validity of a crossover from a
real-life community to a virtual one. I took a real-life community and interviewed its members as
to what elements of their environment they viewed as critical and important to its existence. I
used that information to create an online community that incorporated these elements visually and
virtually. Study of how the interaction maintained and changed once the community was taken to a
virtual level was recorded over the next year.
Usability
SUMMARY. An effective web site is a communicative web site. The definition and concept of usability
and usability testing has been a thriving method since web design began. I was interested in finding
out what methods the average user and small company could use to ensure that their own sites were
user friendly. Research and a resulting short questionnaire were the results of my look at usability
testing on the web. The key factors to examine in determining the usability of a site are ideally
revealed to the small company in question through the use of the resulting questionnaire.
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