Category: Linking Assignment

My Task 11 and Task 11 by Garth von Buchholz

For Task 11, both Garth and I decided to do the Detain/Release simulation.

We were both able to complete the simulation without going over jail capacity or fully filling up our fear meter; however, both of my meters were less filled up by the end of the simulation compared to Garth’s.  Even though the two of us were influenced by the AI risk assessments and paid little to no attention to the defendants’ race, it is interesting to see how different our end results were for the simulation.

In order to keep track of the defendants, Garth decided to take screenshots throughout Detain/Release. This allowed him to reflect on his rulings and possibly make fairer decisions. Looking back, I believe I may have also benefited from keeping track of the defendants’ information throughout the simulation. There were times where defendants I had released would appear in the newspaper headlines because they did not show up to trial, or because they committed another crime, and I could not recall why I had released them in the first place. Did I release them because they had two or three low risk assessments? Or because I thought the crime they were being charged for was not serious enough for detainment? Did their personal statements have an effect on my ruling? A record of the defendants could have provided the answers to these questions.

Overall, Garth and I had similar experiences with the Detain/Release simulation, and I am interested to see the final results of our class!

References

Huang, D. (2023, November 19). Task 11: Detain/Release — Didy’s Webspace. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540ddhng/2023/11/19/task-11-detain-release/

von Buchholz, G. (2023, November 18). Task 11: (Option 1) Detain/Release | ConText | Garth von Buchholz. https://blogs.ubc.ca/garthvb/2023/11/18/task-11-option-1-detain-release/

My Task 10 and Task 10 by Clarisse Yeh

Clarisse and I had very different experiences with Task 10 when it came to completion time, how we analyzed User Inyerface and our feelings and thoughts towards the online game.

First, there was a big difference in how much time it took us to complete the game: around 20 minutes for Clarisse and around 4 minutes for me. I may have had an easier time with User Inyerface because of my past experiences with badly designed websites (read about my explanation of Japanese website design in my post). However, while I did have previous encounters with invasive and distracting websites, I still shared the same feelings of frustration that Clarisse felt during User Inyerface.

Our analysis of the online game also differed in that Clarisse grouped the frustrating points of User Inyerface using the dark patterns explained in the Brignull (2011) article. I instead decided to analyze the online game by first listing the distractions that caused frustration and then the UI features that caused frustration without any direct mention of dark patterns.

Finally, Clarisse mentioned the sketchiness of User Inyerface and how the design and contents–the buttons and questions–felt unsafe, giving her the impression that her laptop could be infected by a virus as a result of the webpage (Yeh, 2023). In contrast, while I did find User Inyerface to be frustrating at times, I quite enjoyed the experience, going through the game and chuckling at its absurdity and how far it tried to push the patience of the player!

References

Brignull, H. (2011, November 1). Dark Patterns: Deception vs. Honesty in UI Design. A List Apart. https://alistapart.com/article/dark-patterns-deception-vs-honesty-in-ui-design/

Huang, D. (2023, November 12). Task 10: Attention Economy — Didy’s Webspace. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540ddhng/2023/11/12/task-10-attention-economy/

Yeh, C. (2023, October 29). Task 10: Attention Economy | Clarisse’s etec 540 blog. https://blogs.ubc.ca/clarissesetec540blog/2023/10/29/task-10-attention-economy/

My Task 8 and Task 8 by Bingying (Iris) Wang

Content-wise, out of the ten pieces Iris and I curated from the Golden Record, seven of them were the same–we both chose to keep the percussion piece from Senegal, “El Cascabel” from Mexico, “Johnny B. Goode” and “Melancholy Blues” from the United States, Japan’s “Tsuru no sugomori”, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and “Flowing Streams” from China.

In terms of tools used, Iris presented her curated list through genially in the form of flags on a world map that, when hovered above, showed YouTube videos of the pieces. My Task 8 unfortunately was just a massive wall of text. Iris’ post is therefore much more user-friendly and allows the reader to make visual and audio connections to the Golden Record pieces she selected. A reader of my post would have to take the extra step of searching for the pieces if they wanted to listen to them–a time-consuming step that I should have considered!

Finally, Iris presented the parameters and criteria for her selection process in a very neat and orderly way that allows the reader to view the reasoning behind her choices right from the very start. Even without reading the entire post, the reader is able to see how Iris selected her pieces by looking at the subheadings in the post. In contrast, for my Task 8, I explained my selection process reasoning after the title of each piece individually. It is quite interesting to see how different our approaches were for this task!

After reflecting on my Task 8 and Iris’, I definitely want to streamline my posts more and make them more user-friendly and interactive, which would allow the reader to gain a clearer understanding of the content with much less hassle.

References

Huang, D. (2023, October 25). Task 8: Golden Record Curation — Didy’s Webspace. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540ddhng/2023/10/25/task-8-golden-record-curation/

NASA. (n.d.). Voyager – music on the Golden Record. NASA. https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/music/

Wang, B. (2023, October 18). Task 8: Golden record curation — Bingying (Iris) Wang-ETEC 540. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540bingyingwang/2023/10/18/task-8-golden-record-curation/

My Task 7 and Task 7 by Cody Peters

For this task, Cody and I chose very different tools to mode-bend our original “What’s in my bag?” image from Task 1. Whereas I decided to use genially to provide audio and hyperlinks in my mode-bending, Cody vocalized his task through a Spotify podcast. By giving us a sound sample of the bag itself, we can further visualize the bag itself, and the additional details provided for certain contents in the bag, as well as the manner in which Cody describes them, makes everything feel more real to the listener. In retrospect, I feel like I could have discussed and described the contents of my bag in more detail by providing more background information and reasoning as to why the items were in my bag.

Another key difference in our tasks is how accessible the content is to anyone viewing the post itself. For my Task 7, since the genially URL was inserted directly in the “Add Media” part of my post, the “mode-bending” can be seen right away when visiting my webspace; in Cody’s case, the reader has to click the link provided before they can hear the podcast–an extra, but not too troublesome, step. However, in order to access the links to the items in my bag, the reader does have to Ctrl-left click the blue icons.

Finally, I believe that creating a podcast is probably more time-consuming and needs more effort than what I did to mode-bend. It was fairly easy to use genially and only took me one day to complete this task. All I had to do was record myself reading the descriptions of the items, find web page links, and put those all together. For a podcast, the creator needs to think of a script/what they’re going to say, find or create an intro and outro, and make sure their recording equipment is good enough to ensure smooth listening. That being said, I am definitely considering making a podcast for my final project in this course!

References

Canadian Cultist. (Host). (2023, October 21). Task [7.5] What’s In My Bag? [Audio podcast episode]. In ETEC 540. Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0xz9gUcXaMOpjCzJlnMH0c?si=cqTt5FnYT1e-yGfKjS_89w

Huang, D. (2023, October 23). Task 8: Golden Record Curation — Didy’s Webspace. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540ddhng/2023/10/23/task-7-mode-bending/

Peters, C. (2023, October 20). Task [7.5] What’s In My Bag 2: the Vocalized Boogaloo | etec 540 cody peters blog. https://blogs.ubc.ca/codyp540/2023/10/20/task-7-5-whats-in-my-bag-2-the-vocalized-boogaloo/

My Task 6 and Task 6 by Richard Payne

There were a few differences but also some similarities between Richard’s Task 6 and mine in terms of content, execution, and formatting.

Whereas I chose to do my emoji story on a modern Netflix series, Richard went with a classic fable that is familiar to many. As a result, more people were probably able to identify what story Richard was describing in his task versus the TV series I described in mine. Furthermore, the plot and characters in Richard’s story seem to be easier to describe in emoji form compared to the complex setting and many characters in my emoji story. The familiarity and gentle visual imagery of Richard’s task therefore allows the reader to identify his chosen story more easily and quickly compared to when the reader tries to tackle mine.

Richard also separated the title, character/setting description, and plot in his post, making his emoji story neater and easier to follow along. He also included arrow emojis to narrate the flow of the plot, as well as commas and ellipses to signal pauses. I only used commas in my task, but could have definitely used a wider variety of punctuation marks to create more changes in mood and tension in my emoji story.

Finally, while most of our peers used colons when describing the title of their chosen works, Richard and I both used colons when it came to describing our characters’ backgrounds and the story’s general setting. This was not explicitly asked of us in the task guidelines, so it is interesting that we both made this choice when doing Task 6.

References

Huang, D. (2023, October 15). Task 6: An Emoji Story — Didy’s Webspace. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540ddhng/2023/10/15/task-6-an-emoji-story/

Payne, R. (2023, October 13). Task 6, An Emoji Story | Rich 540 Text Technologies. https://blogs.ubc.ca/540rp/2023/10/13/task-6-an-emoji-story/