[3] Reflection on Allison’ Site Design and Emoji Task

[A] Platform, Design, and Literacies

Allison and I use the UBC blogs for our websites. Her front-page has her posts excerpts to scroll through; they are sorted with the most recent at the top. The visitor may read through a particular post by clicking on the post title in the front page, then return to this page by clicking on the title link “Etec540” located on the upper left side. Her website has no menus or any other navigational features (e.g., widgets) except for the search button at upper right side. Conversely, I offer a variety of navigational options for users to locate my content.

While I personally appreciate Allison’s design: the simplicity, the broad reading pane, and the conventional textual format that she presents. But, I am concerned that the lack of navigational options or user orientation may hamper her website’s usability and engagement. For instance, before discovering that the title “Etec540” can bring me back to the list of posts, I was either clicking on the back arrow at the top of the browser or accessing the particular post from the Canvas page. A second concern in terms of literacy, Allison’s plain design may negatively impact the literacy processes for the mainstream audience whom are fascinated by the wide appeal of our visual culture (Bolter, 2001). I struggle with this issue in my posts as well. This reflection brings it back to me: I need to present my work differently to the visual world and I need to involve multimodal designs more often and effective.

[B] An emoji Story

After viewing several emoji stories, I believe Allison’s story presents an exceptional phenomenon for me and perhaps for others. Allison posted an emoji story for the “The Lord of the Rings”, it was the only one I was positive that I got it right from the title and without looking into the plot, even though, she did an excellent job describing the iconic scene that follows. Other emoji stories were great; however, I could not guess most of them, perhaps, I haven’t watched/read the original productions, or maybe the variant backgrounds caused my blank responses.

I was intrigued by the fact that she was able to describe this movie in just five lines and I thought there was no need for further description. My interaction with Allison’s emoji story made me consider my hypotheses again and question: Can we interpret emoji stories if we have a strong connection with the original context? I suppose so; the popularity of the movie and its distinguishing symbolic representation made the interpretation quite easy for me and others. However, would that be the same if we only read “The Lord of the Ring” book(s)? I think it would be very challenging to guess the emoji story in such situation, because we don’t process words in the same way we process images (Kress, 2005). While reading a book, we fill the word entities with our own meanings and visuals, whereas, while watching the movie, depictions are provided and “they are always specific” (Kress, 2005, p.15). I concluded if people are engaged visually with the original production, they may be able to assemble its emoji tale easier than if they have just read it (i.e., textual form).

There are several connecting points in our execution processes and reflections; we both tried using the online emoji keyboard before reverting to the emoji keyboards on our phones; we found the former has fewer options and difficult to navigate. We also tested our stories with our 13-years daughters, I suppose partially due to their experience; emojis are a convention of the youth electronic conversations and natural language for them; they know the language better than us. Furthermore, both of us discussed that the interpretation of emojis “may become subjective” (Johnson, 2021, para.3); their meaning varies by personal experience, age, and culture. Allison draws on her learning experience in Etec542 and ponders if someone who lived someplace other than the Western culture or in a spot where popular culture/movies aren’t a part of your daily life, would it be possible to guess the emoji story? Probably it would be quite difficult, if not impossible, because different cultures conjure different images, language, references, and accordingly, different meanings and interpretations.

Overall, though my interaction with Allison’s story hasn’t changed my stance, I still don’t believe emojis on their own can tell a story and the emoji story task and our reflections validate this assumption. However, her story proves our cultural predisposition; that is essentially visual (Bolter, 2001).