#18171
Complexity Theory as a Way of Understanding our Role in the World-Wide Web
Complexity theory offers a way of understanding our role within the World Wide Web. Postulating a rhetorical object based on object-oriented analysis and design, we can harness a number of ideas from complexity theory to gain a new perspective on the Web. This paper reviews a number of complexity ideas that may help technical communicators grapple with the exponential growth in the volume of inter-related and interacting rhetorical objects on the Web, viewing the rhetorical situation as the result of the law of increasing returns, which has brought us through a phase transition to a new environment, with its own emergent properties, creating new roles for writers, and new work for managers.
Price, Jonathan R. Communication Circle, The (1999). Articles>Information Design>Theory>Web Design
#28932
Most IA tools and methods focus on the users and the content being developed for websites. Jorge Arango uses the ideas from anthropologist Edward Hall as a starting point to dig deep into the idea of context, its variations, and the impacts on how people interpret information.
Arango, Jorge. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Web Design>Cultural Theory
#31648
As global online access grows, Web site designers find themselves creating materials for an increasingly international audience. Cultural groups, however, can have different expectations of what constitutes acceptable Web site design. This article examines how prototype theory can serve as a methodology for analyzing Web sites designed for users from different cultures. Such analyses, in turn, can help individuals create more effective online materials for international audiences.
St. Amant, Kirk R. IEEE PCS (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Cultural Theory
#31887
"State" is a central concern of all sorts of distributed applications, but especially of Web applications, as HTTP and its derivatives are intrinsically stateless. Clear thinking about how data persists across retrievals, sessions, processes, and other boundaries can help you improve your Web applications, both present and future.
Seebach, Peter. IBM (2008). Articles>Web Design>Theory
#26729
A Summary of My Ideas about National Culture Differences
In the uiGarden forum there has been much discussion about cultural differences in the web design, especially in reference to animation and flashy elements. It looks right to offer Professor Hofstede’s ideas to readers here. These ideas were first based on a large research project into national culture differences across subsidiaries of a multinational corporation (IBM) in 64 countries.
Hofstede, Geert. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Web Design>Cultural Theory
#25613
Use of Narrative in Interactive Design
There will, and should always be, a tension between order and chaos, between standardization and creativity. So how do we invest creativity in our process? How do we reinvest ourselves into our work without starting from scratch every time?
Broden, Nancy, Marisa Gallagher and Jonathan Woytek. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Web Design>Theory
#26157
Since the world went online we see this word 'content', meaning the stuff that is published on a website or intranet. Why do we need this word? It's all to do with the dominance of technology.
McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2004). Articles>Web Design>Theory
#32285
Rethinking the Fragmentation of the Cyberpublic: From Consensus to Contestation 
Recently there has been some debate between deliberative democrats about whether the internet is leading to the fragmentation of communication into `like-minded' groups.This article is concerned with what is held in common by both sides of the debate: a public sphere model that aims for all-inclusive, consensus seeking rational deliberation that eliminates inter-group 'polarizing' politics. It argues that this understanding of deliberative democracy fails to adequately consider the asymmetries of power through which deliberation and consensus are achieved, the inter-subjective basis of meaning, the centrality of respect for difference in democracy, and the democratic role of `like-minded' deliberative groups. The deliberative public sphere must be rethought to account more fully for these four aspects. The article draws on post-Marxist discourse theory and reconceptualizes the public sphere as a space constituted through discursive contestation.Taking this radicalized norm, it considers what research is needed to understand the democratic implications of the formation of 'like-minded' groups online.
Dahlberg, Lincoln. New Media and Society (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Theory
#32899
Digital Content Developers and Cultural Memory
Digital content producers must regard preservation and archiving as an essential task.
McLeod, Michael. Content Matters (2006). Articles>Web Design>Cultural Theory>History
#32964
We can group all of the basic tenets of design into two categories: principles and elements. For this article, the principles of design are the overarching truths of the profession. They represent the basic assumptions of the world that guide the design practice, and affect the arrangement of objects within a composition.
McClurg-Genevese, Joshua David. Digital Web Magazine (2005). Articles>Web Design>Theory
