Just another websites.umass.edu site
Here is my design for the Hierarchy and Alignment module.
And this was my inspiration.
So that’s it. I’m thinking I’ll make a totally new one for my actual design in the actual handbook, but I’m glad that I could get a feel for how InDesign works. Now I know how much time it will take to make a whole page design.
When I read the Bush article, “As We May Think”, I found it extremely interesting to note where the ideas for technologies today (computers, laptops, and smart phones) came from. The “Memex” being the most interesting, in my opinion. Bush had a vision of “simple, elegant information access” that mimicked the “intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain”. Bush’s vision seems outdated and antiquated now that computers are an everyday commodity for most Americans, but in the 1940s, it was revolutionary.
I’d have to say that I found the article interesting and informative. I enjoyed reading through Bush’s thought processes and responses to the new technologies of his time. He seemed to really have a passion for advancing technologies, and wanted himself and other scientists to be able to access all of the new information readily.
Bolter’s Chapter 3, “Writing as Technology” and the section on “Hypertext” seemed, to me, to be a little redundant. I felt like the information was out of date, and most of it was what most people would call “common knowledge”, especially the parts about the history of the printing press and other ancient forms of writing. Most people would assume, even if they didn’t know the exact history of the printing press, that before computers, people hand wrote books and papers, and that doing so took a considerable amount of skill and artful craft. They would also probably already know that various cultures of people have various forms and styles of writing. The most frustrating quote for me was, “Writing is a technology…It is a method for arranging verbal thoughts in a visual space. The writer always needs a surface upon which to make his or her marks and a tool with which to make them.” Uh…duh. In order to write something down, you obviously would need a writing utensil and something to write on. Maybe because I’m a part of this generation, I’m so used to “technology” that it is second nature? I’m not sure, but I remained frustrated with the whole article for the remainder of the time that I spent reading it.
I can appreciate the article for what it is, though. It’s just a history of writing as a technology, and what may be obvious and redundant to me now, may have been incredible and modern to the people of the 17th and 18th centuries. I just didn’t find it that interesting or informative.