We had a busy morning of discussion, followed by an active afternoon of content development for the site. After our regular morning project status meeting, we focused on the Semantic Web - reflecting on the work of the AHRC-funded 'Semantic Web Thinktank'.
We were then joined (on conference call) by the editor of the 24 Hour Museum - Jon Pratty - who took us through a 'masterclass' in how we should think about writing for the Web. 'Machines read Web text too', Jon reminded us, and 'writing for the Web means writing all aspects of the page, not just the main text'. Jon showed some powerful examples of what can be achieved (and what can go wrong!) when museums don't think hard enough about how their online text might be discovered and recontextualised (or decontextualised) online. Much for the group to ponder for its afternoon of writing.
Just as useful was, after lunch, Giasemi's guide to usability and evaluation. Inspired, amongst others, by the work of Jakob Nielsen, some important usability principles were highlighted:
- have a clear and consistent system image
- make things visible
- give the user control
- provide feedback
- keep things simple
Best quote of the session, on seeing a particular overly 'designed' and heavily aesthetic site: 'This might be art, but it's not good Web navigation'
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The slides of the usability-evaluation session are now on Blackboard, along with a sample sheet for reporting usability problems. Note it's not the same ppt file that was there earlier in the week.
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