Assignment One Annotated Bibliography
Name: Celyren Phipps, s3787492
I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services
Blog reflections:
Annotated Bibliography
Selected Text One – Affordances (534 Words)
Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things , Basic Book, New York (Sections: Preface vii-xv; Chapter one pp 1-13; Chapter 4 (constraints) pp 81-87; (computers) pp 177-186).
These experts from Donald A Norman’s book, identify that there are unified physiological principles and rules of design that an architect should follow to make everything understandable and easily used. The psychology of material, natural design principles, the psychology of causality and visual relationship between action and function, are all terms Norman defines, explains and theorises in relation to how they can be applied to good design. Moreover, another key concept unpacked in the text is an affordance. Norman demonstrates how material affordances can provide clues for operating things, this could include the actual or perceived properties of the affordance. It’s acknowledged that, a designer or user may be constrained by an affordance, the text starts by identifying the kinds of constraints you might encounter and ways to consider remodelling a design to avert these constraints. United with an affordances, Norman explains the equal importance of mappings. To map between operations is to create visual distinctions that will make the operation clear. He ends the first passage by calling on architects to take advantage of things people are expected to know, designing the object by linking two possible sets of operations and then, asking the user to assume how they might function together.
The sections rationalise simple ideas, ones that you probably already identify with and illuminate how they operate in a design landscape. Norman’s central argument appears to be that well-designed objects are easy to use. He supports his argument with familiar design examples such as the telephone, diagrams of mappings, visual clues that we have seen before but perhaps not recognised and altered images of good design into poor design to re-affirm the concepts being explored. The research is underscored by Norman’s own observations and collaborations with different networks of people, places and objects. At times his terms can be opaque and complex because, in essence, they are conceptual ideas. Readers may need to revisit the text frequently to master the onomastics. This book is authored to reflect the basics of good design however, due to its age, doesn’t suggest anything about new media design, instead the reader needs to develop their own connections between the book’s theory and current design models.
This text is a strong resource to consider using in response to how the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in a network. Less relevant for publishing, very applicable to authoring and distributing. All design concepts mentioned could be applied in some capacity to how we author our content, the way we treat the flow of information and design of our pages. Furthermore, the actual design of Instagram itself constantly engages with design psychology to ensure the user has a harmonious experience and continues to use the given technology. As Instagram’s functionality continues to evolve, the application may need to be re-learnt, impacting the way we distribute on the interface. Good design makes content shareable; this is why the text could be used in response to how things are distributed and move within the Instagram ecosystem.
Selected Text Two – Networks (490 Words)
Niederer, S 2018, Networked images: visual methodologies for the digital age. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam. (read pp.1-20)
It is proposed within this text that an online image becomes ‘networked’ when users like, share, comment or tag them, and also when platforms and search engines format, filter, feed and recommend them to others. The author outlines the ways in which each platform and search engine handle the content and argues that through close analysis, we can identify a pattern in platform-specific technicities and platform specific visual languages, referred to in the text as visual vernaculars. Furthermore, the reading delves into a deep analysis of why images shouldn’t be studied separately from their associated network. Niederer goes on to explain that an image cannot if analysed if it is stripped from its context, he uses the example of a research project conducted in connection with how different platforms handle the topic of climate change. The studies found evidence that the most popular images from each platform did use different vernaculars. Finally, the author details how hyper-linked media platforms such as Wikipedia were the catalyst for interconnections across the network and for the emergence of user generated content.
The text makes a valid argument in identifying why a user or brand would want to become attuned to platform specific approached when sharing content and information across different mediums. Additionally, the idea that we need to study how an image circulates, is engaged with, appropriated and adapted over time is a great framework to support Niederer’s original argument- that we should study images and their networks concurrently. The research example given appears to only consider the actual visual appeal of an image rather than the metrics and algorithm that might have hoisted these images to the top of a search engine. Furthermore, it’s fair to call into question whether visualisation can really be used as a research tool for analysing platform specific vernaculars, due to how quickly new media is evolving and the celebrity culture which has the ability to boost popularity without the need for image appeal.
Niederer’s thesis provides relevant information and supporting evidence that might help answer the question asked by the course prompt. Instagram plays host to a collection of images and so, the text does help us to identify how each image works in relation to one another and how you can enhance an image’s appeal and boost its distribution reach. The text highlights that content can be published or created and enriched with new opportunities for navigation and interaction as a platform’s affordances change. This idea does two things, it acknowledges Instagram is constantly evolving and that our authoring and publishing are influenced by these changes. Because Instagram so heavily depends on visual content and user generated content, this text is a great tool for explaining why images need their carriers (Instagram) to exist and why a carrier’s user might interact with certain images above others.
Selected Text Three- Social Media (485 Words)
Chun, W.H.K 2016, Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media, MIT Press, Massachusetts, United States (Sections: ‘Introduction: Habitual New Media, or Updating to Remain (Close to) the Same’, pp. 1-20.)
This is a fragment of a much longer document, which offers the theory that New Media updates are cultivated from a combination of two factors: habits and crisis. From the offset the author explains their argument is referring to new media in its current strength rather than in anticipation of its future movements. Chun identifies that every time we begin to understand something is has already disappeared and changed. He argues new media is new to the extent it is updated and things that are no longer updated are no longer used. The study of how habits influence updates are set out in detail throughout this chapter. The main ideas raise are that habits are the catalyst for change, a habit is a form of dependency and habits are provoked by environmental cues. Another argument made is that new media calls into question the separation between public and private sectors. Through exploring this idea, the text concludes new media blurs the distinctions between public and private because it is part of the post-industrial and neo-liberal economy.
It is freely announced within the writing that this text doesn’t spend much energy analysing anticipated user habits or technology growth for the future but instead, focuses on establishing how past repetitions make up our current network maps. This enhances the text’s strong hypothesis that new media only remains new up until the point it’s updated and works within the realm of what is already known. This means the theorist can generalise the information and apply it to future fields of analysis. Most of the given information appears to be filled with philosophical climax rather than evidence based in fact. There are numinous bold arguments made which are not supported by conclusive data, such as the claim “Even if a product does what it promises, it disappoints.” Therefore, the lack of data could result in their proposal being weak and apocryphal.
Undoubtedly, the author stimulates readers to think differently about the way they approach the course prompt. Since the question asks how affordances impact our content distribution, to a degree, habits are an important behaviour to unpack. Habits are established practices that might be subverted, manipulated or governed by Instagram’s evolving affordances. The content itself is written with an easy to understand yet, formal language making it an accessible and understandable resource for students. Despite its lax arguments, the idea’s developed throughout, could be a good impetus for expanding on the course prompt, by way of exploring habit as ideology in action and where and how this might occur on Instagram. The notion that neo-liberalism has blurred the boundaries between public and private sectors, is also a relevant rational when examining how content is distributed on Instagram, who authors it and who receives it.