1. Message Design and Content Creation 9 January 2007 Kathy E. Gill

2. Agenda Introductions Syllabus, assignment review WWW History/Culture Teams Team exercise UWICK

3. Introductions Pair up  “Interview” each other Something you’re interested in learning this quarter A skill/area you have that you’re willing to try as a “stretch” to help your team this quarter A skill/area you have that you feel is a strength (less of a stretch)  Introduce the other person

4. Syllabus review (1/2) Proposed schedule  Workshops - ? Assignments  Individual and Team Work  Readings Blogs Discussion Leaders

5. Syllabus review (2/2) Submittal procedure Anonymous e-mail Structured feedback (online surveys)

6. Thinking about this course … Please complete the following sentence: “In my opinion, message design means …” You have one minute to “think and write” Share in groups of 2-3 Share with large group

7. Course Introduction (1/2) Message design is the art of creating verbal and visual messages  Both the words and how the words are presented and perceived (connotation) affect the message  See The Elements of Text and Message Design and Their Impact on Message Legibility: A Literature ReviewThe Elements of Text and Message Design and Their Impact on Message Legibility: A Literature Review

8. Course Introduction (2/2) Premises:  Our medium is “digital”  Content creation rests on sound design  Sound design rests on planning and articulated assumptions

9. Design The use of higher thought and systematic process to achieve objectives Seeks a balance between science and art, clarity and expression, truth and beauty, aesthetics and function, emotion and rationality …

10. Quote: designer A designer is a visually literate person, just as an editor is expected by training and inclination to be versed in language and literature, but to call the former an artist by occupation is as absurd as to refer to the latter as a poet. Douglas Martin, Book Design, quoted in Designing Visual Interfaces (8)

11. WWW history and culture (1/2) Hypertext Platform, software independent Increasingly “social” (web 2.0)  Watch YouTube clips

12. WWW history and culture (2/2) Standards  How relate to diffusion?

13. Quote: culture “Anyone who slaps a ‘This page is best viewed with browser X’ label on a web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network.” Tim Berners-Lee in Technology Review, July 1996

14. Digital Storytelling History of the Tube Map USA Today Mars Landing Journey To Paris

15. Implications for design No control!  Browser  Platform  Output device Cross-functional teams

16. Team-building Definition Characteristics Skills Resources

17. Definition A group of people working together to achieve a common purpose that cannot be achieved as effectively by individuals working alone

18. Characteristics (1/3) How does a “group” become a “team”? IOW, what are the characteristics of an effective team?  Small groups : characterize an ideal team member

19. Characteristics (2/3) Focus on developing and accomplishing common goals and purposes Expect and exact participation of all: consciously inclusive Focus on impact of behavior rather than intent Allow and expect members to discuss differences that impede full participation

20. Characteristics (3/3) Do not shoot messengers Establish agreed-upon boundaries Recognize that conflict which has been suppressed, concealed, or avoided is likely to be destructive

21. Team Building Skills Personal team player style:  Collaborator, Communicator, Contributor, Challenger Assessment tool: http://www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/manage/team.html http://www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/manage/team.html See also http://www.mgmt.utoronto.ca/~baum/mgt2005/valuable.html http://www.mgmt.utoronto.ca/~baum/mgt2005/valuable.html

22. Resources Seven keys to building great workteams, http://www.teambuildinginc.com/article_7keys_zoglio.htm http://www.teambuildinginc.com/article_7keys_zoglio.htm Planning a project, http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art8.html http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art8.html Groups that work, http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art0.html http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art0.html Teams as Networks:Using Network Analysis forTeam Development, http://www.humax.net/teams.html http://www.humax.net/teams.html

23. Next Week: Digital Design Team  Members  Roles UWICK Why Project Management?