Information/Instructional Design: Definition

Information design is the practice of translating unorganised or unstructured data into valuable, meaningful and structured information. Information designers must consider the selection, structuring and presentation of the data, in relation to the specific target audience at which the information is aimed, to ensure the information can be used efficiently and effectively. Information designers draw on a variety of applied interdisciplinary skills including typography, graphic design, writing and editing, linguistics and computing, combining these skills with and understanding of human factors and psychology, in order to convey information in a manner which is appropriate and attractive to the intended audience. In more modern times, information designers are usually required to adapt the information for display in several different outputs, using different technologies and media to address multiple audiences.

Instructional design is the systematic development of instructional strategies and tools to facilitate learning, using knowledge of how people learn and understanding the needs of the learners to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the instruction. The process for developing instructional design usually involves analysing the needs and objectives of the learner, and then designing and developing an instructional delivery system to meet those needs and objectives, often using technology and interactive multimedia as tools to enhance instruction. After implementing an instructional strategy, evaluating the outcomes is an important tool for gauging the effectiveness of the solution. Instructional design is traditionally entrenched in cognitive and behavioural psychology, as understanding the most appropriate and effective methodology for delivering instruction results in effective, efficient and appealing instructions, which are all signs of good instructional design.

Interactive Design: Examples

Below are some of the best, most advanced and thoroughly interactive websites:

http://www.2advanced.com/ – A visually astounding interactive website, which creates a rich media landscape through a combination of graphics, interactive tools and sound. Developed by progressive design studio 2Advanced Studios, this website is one of the best examples of interactive website design.

http://www.creaktif.com/ – A creative, thorough interactive web site design developed in Flash by Creaktif, a French design studio boasting a broad spectrum of design skills. This website was truly developed beyond the simple tools of interaction, such as arrows.

http://www.themixhead.com/ - An altogether strange website, with a very interesting approach to interactivity. Content on the site is not that easily manageable, however the way the website displays itself and adapts to what the user is doing is quite well done.

http://www.agencynet.com/ - A unique interactive website for portraying the digital marketing agency and interactive design studio Agency Net, where the basis for the website is a top view of a digital version of the company office. Mousing over each room will lead you to a different facet of the business.

http://ff0000.com/ - A homepage for the Red Interactive Agency with one of the most unusual and unique ways of navigating around the screen. The only problem is the lack of a link between the material and navigation.

http://www.homeostatic.net/checkpoint.html - The interactive aspects of this site are fantastic, however the content and point of the site are poorly communicated.

http://theovenreinvented.com/ - A fantastic example of an interactive website being utilised to actively display the qualities and functionalities of a product (to ultimately sell the product), in this case the Turbo Chef.

Interactive Design: Definition

Interactive Design defines the structure and behaviour of a product or system in response to a user. Good interactive design should either facilitate or instigate interactions with human users and should communicate the functionality and interactivity of the system. Although it is widely regarded as the optimisation of product/artefact/system behaviour in response to a user’s interaction, ideally interaction design should go beyond this, to a level where it becomes pleasurable to interact with and enriches the user’s life. Interaction Design usually centres around, but is not limited to, technological systems, such software, electronic devices and mobile devices. When designing an interactive artefact, it is imperative that the focus be on the user needs, goals and experiences. By researching and understanding what the user needs and wants out of the artefact, the design should then be developed to fulfil and exceed these qualities. Reducing system complexity, effectively communicating functionality and increasing efficiency (without sacrificing usefulness), leads to systems which minimise user frustration and increase user productivity and satisfaction.

Web 2.0: Examples

Below are some of the most prominent examples of Web 2.0:

Del.icio.us – An online bookmarking tool, which works similar to the favourites tab in an internet browser, but allows you to access your bookmarked sites from any computer that is connected to the web. It also allows you to tag your bookmarks and works as a tag based search engine to find pages bookmarked under the same (or similar) tag by other users.

Technorati - A collaborative search site for blogs, which utilises the Web 2.0 principles of collaborative tagging linking and social categorisation to filter blogs.

Digg – A collaborative popularity site for technology news, which displays the most popular articles on the home page. Registered users can view articles and decide whether the “digg” (like) an article or not. They can also submit articles, allowing others to “digg” it.

Flickr – A collaborative photo sharing site, which can be used for personal online storage and sharing with specific users, or for public photo sharing. Photos can also be tagged and many users creating RSS feeds to their photos.

YouTube – A video sharing site, where users can upload videos, view other videos, post comments and even create their own user channel, which can be subscribed to through an RSS feed.

Wikipedia – An online encyclopaedia where the users create the content themselves and then collaboratively edit it in order to create a large collaborative knowledge database.

Facebook – A social networking site which allows registered users to create a personal page, where the user adds and maintains the content of the page. It also allows the user to add friends, receive updates on their friends, upload photos and videos, comment, tag items, update your status and create/join groups.

Web 2.0: Definition

The term ‘Web 2.0’ first became popular after O’Reilly Media’s Web 2.0 conference in 2004, where it was used to describe the concept of utilising the ‘web as a platform’. Although the term suggests a new version or technical upgrade to the World Wide Web, most of the technological components that form the basis of Web 2.0 have existed since the inception of the web, retroactively labeled Web 1.0. The term Web 2.0 is used to describe a shift in how developers and end-users utilize the web. During the Web 1.0 phase, web content was developed by a small number of writers and designed to be static sources of information, where a large number of users would simply view/read web content. In recent times, after the inception of the Web 2.0 era, the number of writers developing web content has increased dramatically, as new web architecture encourages users contribute to website content and exercise control of that web content (ironically, this is closer to Tim Berner-Lee’s original concept of the web as a democratic, personal, do-it-yourself medium of communication). This proliferation of interconnectivity and interactivity of web content is essentially the foundation of Web 2.0 and has lead to the development and evolution of web-based social networks and communities, hosted services and applications.

By combining and editing definitions from the O’Reilly Radar website, I have attempted to develop a single sentence to define Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is an internet application/website that harnesses network effects to promote greater usage, whose value and appeal intrinsically grows as a result of the use and contributions of its users. O’Reilly has also referred to Web 2.0 as a business revolution in the computer industry, although I believe this to be an inaccurate statement. Web 2.0 is a consumer revolution that businesses can take advantage of. Consumers now expect to participate and interact online through commenting, uploading and contribution of web content.