The accesibility of the department of finance website

“The term digital divide refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology and those with very limited or no access at all. It includes the imbalances in physical access to technology as well as the imbalances in resources and skills needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen”.

The department of finance website is virtually impossible to navigate without the use of a mouse. Whilst it is well layed out the navigation is heavily reliant on the use of the mouse and it seems to me, as someone trying to navigate using keys to be impossible.

There is no function for the visually impaired which would make navigation and reading possible. This is astounding when one considers the importance of this particular department and the current interest which is being taken in it by the public.

Unfortunetly I could not test it for any colour defects.

For more information on einclusion please see the following links.

http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?ObjectId=2537&Function=DETAILBROWSE&ObjectType=ART

http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/disabled-users-access-internet.shtml

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/ict_riga_2006/index_en.htm

A critical review of Manchester Uniteds website

Please click the link below to view Manchester Uniteds website.

Glory Glory!!!!!

http://www.manutd.com/

To review the website I will be using the four prescribed principles of  design:

Proximity, alignment, repitition and contrast.

ContrastElements that aren’t the same should be very different so they stand out, making them “slightly different” confuses the user into seeing a relation that doesn’t exist. Strong contrast between page elements allows the user’s eye to flow from one to another down the page instead of creating a sea of similarity that’s boring and not communicative.

RepetitionRepeat styles down the page for a cohesive feel — if you style related elements the same way in one area, continue that trend for other areas for consistency.

AlignmentEverything on the page needs to be visually connected to something else, nothing should be out of place or distinct from all other design elements.

ProximityProximity creates related meaning: elements that are related should be grouped together, whereas separate design elements should have enough space in between to communicate they are different.

When one first arrives at the site in question there is an access gate ( a click to continue window) it is here that we first get used to the colours that will provide repition and contrast through out the body of the site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The allignment can be found both on  the horizontal and vertical lines trough out the website. The main navigational tools are all alligned to the left, with a media viewer on the right which plays highlights of events involving the club.

The main colours used in the site are black, white and red ( the club colours). The club sponsor (AIG) is highly visible, emblazoned on a replica jersey on the banner of the site. All this has the single purpose of reinforcing brand recognition.

Pictures are found on both the vertical and horizontal lines, next to the particular details that they are representing. Some of the pictures change and accordingly the text is highlighted to correspond with this change.

 The site is makes good use of contrast with the colour scheme and of course the use of a yellow highlighter on the left navigational tool aids a user when moving through the site.

In conclusion I would recommend that the website is a well panned and executed design and a good example of the four principles if design in action.For more on the principle’s please check out the following:

http://carsonified.com/blog/features/design/how-crap-is-your-site-design/

http://units.english.uiuc.edu/ppw/prosem/2003/carp/index.html

http://www.presentationzen.com/chapter6_spread.pdf

Kevin Kelly

 

 

Kevin Kelly (born 1952) is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Catolog. He has also been a writer, photographer, conservationist,  and student of Asian and digital culture.

“As crackpot as it sounds, in the distant future nearly everything we make will (at least for a short while) be given away free–refrigerators, skis, laser projectors, clothes, you name it. This will only make sense when these items are pumped full of chips and network nodes, and thus capable of delivering network value” states kelly.

Click below to watch Kevin Kelly talkabout what the future holds for technology and the internet.

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/kevin_kelly_on_how_technology_evolves.html”>

 http://www.kk.org/

First impressions are the Mr. Kelly has seen the matrix trilogy once too often. And thats a fair impression. However, it turns out that many of the ideas used by the series are in fact inspired by the writings of Kevin Kelly.

He believes that techno organ intergration is far from the far fetched idea that it sounds. To be honest i’m not sure I fully understand or like the future which Mr. Kelly foresees.

Douglas Engelbert:January 30, 1925 (1925-01-30) (age 84)

Engelbart’s most famous invention is the computer mouse developed in the 1960s, but not used commercially until the 1980s. Like Vannevar Bush and J.C.R. Licklider, Engelbart wanted to use technology to augment human intellect. He saw technology, especially computers, as the answers to the problem of dealing with the ever more complex modern world and has dedicated his life to the pursuit of developing technology to augment human intellect.In 1962, he wrote his seminal work, Augmenting Human Intellect: A  ConceptualFramework .http://identifier=AD0289565oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&

In 1963, Engelbart set up his own research lab. He called it the Augmentation Research Center. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s his mlab developed an elaborate hypermedia—groupware system called NLS (oNLine System). NLS facilitated the creation of digital libraries and storage and retrieval of electronic documents using hypertext.

http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/engelbart.html

www.dougengelbart.org

NAMA

Nama, a confusing, terrifying and provacative idea. Nobody seems to be able to safisfactorily explain the concept. Does that indicate a lack of understanding on their part. To worsen the situation, every body is fighting their own corner – the developers, the banks, the goverment and of course the opposition. All afraid of losing, losing position, capital and of course popular opinion.The air is tense with politics. Nama will not put real, hard cash into th economy, it may however aid “clean” up the balance sheets of the banks and financial institutions. Perhaps this will help recover the reputation of ireland in the international arena. The real question is if nationalisation is a viable alternative and we must ask ourselves if we want to turn the current directors and ceo’s in to civil servants?