I don't generally listen to newsradio except when I want to catch up on the headlines, but my radio happened to be tuned to BBC World Service on Saturday and I'm glad that it was because I stumbled across a very interesting program. It's called "Click" and it's about global technology, social media and the internet.
The topic for this week was digital privacy and online anonymity. The host Gareth Mitchell was talking to a man called David Bond who has created a documentary about how the difficulties of remaining anonymous thanks to all of the technology that can be used to track you. He did his best to erase all traces of himself from online media such as facebook, ebay, online phonebooks and even called the airlines to get them to remove him from their flight databases. Then he asked people from the top private investigator firm Cerberus to track him down and catch him within 30 days, using only his name.
Apart from making me want to really watch the documentary, listening to the program got me thinking about privacy and anonymity which are a really big deal in the world today. David was trying for anonymity which I don't think he would be able to achieve (and from what I saw of the online trailer, he ended up getting rather paranoid), but privacy is certainly something that we put our trust in when information about us is entered into any technological device.
How many of you read the terms and conditions when signing up to a website, a service or buying a computer program? How about when you buy an airline ticket or use your credit card? I know that I used to just skim through them, but if you think about it, terms and conditions are long enough for their developers to hide anything in them. Just imagine if, after installing your latest word processing program someone turned up at your door demanding your firstborn child because you agreed to it in the T&C? Not only that, some companies will turn your information over to others for "marketing" purposes and you can't sign up to them without having that happen.
For me, the problem isn't that this is happening (because it's unavoidable) but rather my own attitude towards it. Not that I've done anything to have private investigators tracking my down, but that I'm willing to blithely give away that information to get services. I used to joke that when I signed up to Amazon they could hunt me down and force me to sell my soul, but I'm not sure if that's too far from the truth nowadays.
Video source: Erasing David trailer
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Print vs online
This being a course about issues in publication and design, it's inevitable that I'd be posting on here about the differences between online and print publishing—especially since a lot of print publications are making the move to the internet, phones and tablet devices. Sometimes people will want to read what you've written in hard-copy rather than online (or both). Because this is such a big subject, I'm not going to write an entire blog post on it- I'll just be looking at the issues of eye fatigue and partial page view.
1. Eye fatigue.
This is one of the major problems that I have when sitting at a computer for an extended period of time. If I want to read a story, article or document online that's more than a few pages long I get tired eyes and a headache. That's because when we look at a computer screen (or one on a mobile phone, iPod or other tablet type) it projects light directly into our eyes—no wonder they get tired and sore! In contrast, when you're looking at a piece of paper you only get reflected light so your eyes don't get as tired. In fact, that's why I like reading eBooks on my Kindle instead of on the computer or an iPad.
Something else to keep in mind is that a computer screen refreshes itself really quickly (just like a TV), so your eyes are constantly having to adjust. I didn't notice this until I saw some computer screens in the background of the Channel 10 news. It seems as though TV cameras pick up on this flickering, so have a look and see the next time they show a computer on TV.
So, if you're writing for print you can afford to put long blocks of text on a page (although using white space and design is essential to stop the reader from getting bored and wandering off). However if you're putting text online, make sure to break it up with pictures and white space.
(Go back to the top of the blog)
2. Partial page view
Depending on what your screen size and resolution is, you may not be able to read this sentence without scrolling down the page. This is another problem with putting things online. When you have a piece of paper you generally skim-read from the top-left to bottom right with your eyes picking up anything interesting on the way (unless you are from somewhere where reading is done from right to left). You can also see how big the page is and get an idea of how much text there is for you to look at.
Unfortunately this doesn't work when you transfer written information to an online format. A printed page will most likely have a vertical page layout whilst a computer screen has a horizontal one. This means that if you don't put the most important information at the top of your screen, readers aren't going to be able to easily find it. That's why it's a good idea to use a table of contents or menu if you're going to put a lot of text on one screen, or use internal links (like I'm doing in this post). It is of course better make lots of smaller pages and then use the menu/sitemap to link to them. Oh, and finally, don't think that reducing font sizes will help. Making your fonts smaller will make it harder for readers, and some of them will have default font settings for their web browser which will confuse your website!
(Go back to the top of the blog)
If you want to look at more problems and get tips on how to fix them, have a look at Looking Good In Print. This book will help you to make sure your readers have the best reading experience no matter which publishing format they choose.
Image source: Computer eye
Image source: Book and computer
Source: Parker, Roger C 2003, Looking Good In Print, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale Arizona
1. Eye fatigue.
This is one of the major problems that I have when sitting at a computer for an extended period of time. If I want to read a story, article or document online that's more than a few pages long I get tired eyes and a headache. That's because when we look at a computer screen (or one on a mobile phone, iPod or other tablet type) it projects light directly into our eyes—no wonder they get tired and sore! In contrast, when you're looking at a piece of paper you only get reflected light so your eyes don't get as tired. In fact, that's why I like reading eBooks on my Kindle instead of on the computer or an iPad.Something else to keep in mind is that a computer screen refreshes itself really quickly (just like a TV), so your eyes are constantly having to adjust. I didn't notice this until I saw some computer screens in the background of the Channel 10 news. It seems as though TV cameras pick up on this flickering, so have a look and see the next time they show a computer on TV.
So, if you're writing for print you can afford to put long blocks of text on a page (although using white space and design is essential to stop the reader from getting bored and wandering off). However if you're putting text online, make sure to break it up with pictures and white space.
(Go back to the top of the blog)
2. Partial page view
Depending on what your screen size and resolution is, you may not be able to read this sentence without scrolling down the page. This is another problem with putting things online. When you have a piece of paper you generally skim-read from the top-left to bottom right with your eyes picking up anything interesting on the way (unless you are from somewhere where reading is done from right to left). You can also see how big the page is and get an idea of how much text there is for you to look at.
Unfortunately this doesn't work when you transfer written information to an online format. A printed page will most likely have a vertical page layout whilst a computer screen has a horizontal one. This means that if you don't put the most important information at the top of your screen, readers aren't going to be able to easily find it. That's why it's a good idea to use a table of contents or menu if you're going to put a lot of text on one screen, or use internal links (like I'm doing in this post). It is of course better make lots of smaller pages and then use the menu/sitemap to link to them. Oh, and finally, don't think that reducing font sizes will help. Making your fonts smaller will make it harder for readers, and some of them will have default font settings for their web browser which will confuse your website!
(Go back to the top of the blog)
If you want to look at more problems and get tips on how to fix them, have a look at Looking Good In Print. This book will help you to make sure your readers have the best reading experience no matter which publishing format they choose.
Image source: Computer eye
Image source: Book and computer
Source: Parker, Roger C 2003, Looking Good In Print, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale Arizona
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)