The Art of Terrell Shaw

Personas – Young Voters

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Who is your audience? (e.g. age, gender, location, what portion of the greater population do they make up?)

Audience: Young Voters (Ages 18-25)

Population Percentage: 24% of US voters

What unites your constituency? (e.g. employment, race, religion etc.)

This constituency is united by age, culture, and belonging to similar social groups and interests.

What issues motivate your audience? (e.g. social issues, foreign policy issues etc.)

The greater percentage of young voters are motivated by social and socio-economic issues. Many young voters consider issues that affect their lifestyles or the lifestyles of their families directly.

What issues does your audience face in terms of voter turnout? (e.g. time constraints, voter intimidation, photo IDs etc.)

Many young voters face obstacles in voter turnout such as: Photo ID requirements, loss of voter registration card or not knowing where to vote, and time/location restraints.

Three things I learned from the TED blog post on Voting in the US:

1) Digital voting systems run risk of attack by hackers, especially DDoS attacks.

2) Election journalism, corrupt as it may be, can be reformed if approached systematically.

3) Probably the largest risk in web based voting is not a technical limitation or risk – it is insider abuse of the system for corrupt purposes.

3 THINGS I’VE LEARNED ABOUT FLOATS + COLUMNS

1. The “background-repeat” attribute can be given static values (%, px, etc.) when assigning how the background repeats in the assigned element.
2. Floats are based on the same concepts of ragging elements to the left or right of a page that is used in print design.
3. Floats are still not fully supported by all modern browsers – there are a few known bugs such as the ‘double margin bug’.

What are the top three common uses for the site you’re creating?
Communication between users, sharing of events and images, and coordination of events and/or whackings.

How often do they use the site? Daily? Multiple times a day? Only when they are in need of something? Who uses this site? Are there multiple types of users? What are they (active or passive participants? authors? commenters?) For each type of user determine:
How do they use the site? Are they posting content? Commenting? Using it as a research tool? Entertainment?

Bosses – Authors mainly – Administration of site communications, events, etc. Bosses have the most power in the real world so they will be at the highest level of users in the web environment. These are daily users as the site runs their operations.

Underbosses and Caporegime – Authors and commentors – These users administer the Soldiers and Associates, they are the next level of power underneath the Bosses. These users especially will rely on posting, file storage and sharing, as they run the individual side businesses that the Boss’ ultimately profit from. They are daily users – the site is a large part of their operations.

Soldiers and Associates – Authors and commentors – These users mainly read and comment on information on the site. They rely on receiving communications and messages, and relaying to higher family members. Associates and Soldiers are NOT made men (a part of the blood family) and have the least level of administration on the site. Usage depends on how heavily the member works with the Mafia – this can range from daily to only when in need of something.

There are no passive users – the site is restricted to Mafia family members and associates only.

Does the site provide a specific call to action? (i.e. email someone, call someone, repost something etc.)
The side calls two specific calls to action: reply (through a number of communication methods) and post/share. This can include any number of information, such as map location, documents, images and text. Replies are the main method of cross communication between users.

How is the call to action communicated? (i.e. symbols, words etc.)
The action will be communicated through symbols and typographical rollovers. This is the easiest method to communicate a function to users quickly and easily.

How does the user know that the call to action is clickable?
Typographical links will feature colored rollovers that draw user attention to the action and click-ability of the action. Icon based actions will use a similar method, being sure to emphasize the clickability of the action.

Nike Better World

The Nike Better World site is a sub-site of Nike’s US corporate site. The site’s navigation reflects Nike’s Better World campaign – containing links to relevant products that are produced as a result of Nike’s Better World initiatives. Navigation is fixed to the top of the page so that it is easily accessible no matter where a user is on a page. Content is both static and dynamic; the user interacts with the page to reveal information using rollovers and buttons that reveal more content on the page. The site does not use any method of page to page navigation – each new page contains no links or breadcrumbs to the last. Videos and media however are displayed in an overlay interface over the current page.

The pacing of the site is almost leisurely; the page itself uses very little color or texture, but the use of shadows and colorful content encourage the user to scroll further down the page.

Shaun Inman

Shauninman.com is a portfolio website for designer Shaun Inman. The site uses an unusual navigational scheme that reflects the designer’s style and industry – pixelated icons that are grouped together in a cloud-like way. Hovering over one causes it to bounce towards the pointer and the others to go grey.  Clicking a link launches an external site that Shaun himself has worked on or developed. The site has very little hierarchy – therefore it isn’t necessary to use page tracking as most of the links are external.

Moving through the pages is a matter of the browsers built in back button. The site is fast paced – users are meant to find what they need fast and launch from there. The large, playful icons and colors attract user attention and a sense of gratification when clicked.