W6 Exercise: 3 e-commerce websites

The definition of e-commerce: buying or selling products or services online.

There are three websites matching the definition:


http://www.southwest.com/

http://www.ebay.com/

heep://www.alibaba.com/

Book review (Win. 2007)

Book Title: Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge
--A View from Europe
Author: Jean-Noël Jeanneney ; translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan.
Publish Information: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Summary

The statement “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information.” is on Google’s Corporate information page. Since 1997, Google has been becoming the most powerful online search engine and currently handling 75 percent of online requests in many countries. The author, Jean-Noël Jeanneney is worried about the cultural heritage and provoked serious international debates regarding to the global digitalization in literatures, publications and other documents. If Google makes its claim true, the universal knowledge can be accessible and utilized. Otherwise, for the purpose of diverse culture development, that will probably become another kind of imbalance.

For instance, the language is based on “American” English. Or the other situation could be up to the weight if advertising on Google’s search engine. If an engine driven only by profit motive, the results of the search might be different and it is also according to the auction sold to companies. Likewise, if we apply the same system to the digitalization of books that Google is working on (Google Book Search), that will lead the public property to commercial use.

Besides, the author mentioned another concern that librarians and booksellers worry. That is they are anxious for their possible disappearance on account of the new technologies. Mr. Jeanneney pointed out that librarians and booksellers are especially qualified to provide all sorts of newly discovered connections and help to enhance the profusion of knowledge.

From his perspective, European should be prodded to develop their own search engines for preserving the cultures and face the challenge of globalization that the World Wide Web brought. At least, they should keep an eye on the market: try to avoid injustice and monopolies. In addition to the economy and culture concerns, back to the authors’ points of view, will their copyrights be protected and not affect their intents to write? As a consequence, how the giant search engine takes it into consideration plays an important role in the close future.

In the end of this book, the author concluded that Google’s prosperity is not merely related to a better digital library for the more convenient access to knowledge, but to help us to think about the imbalance in the production and dissemination of information. Furthermore, Mr. Jeanneney thinks that we should pay more attention to find out the new ways of cross-cultural influences, representations and stereotypes in the information society.

Discussion

According to the content of this book, there are two issues to be discussed more.

Different Market Concept:

At the beginning of this book, the author proposed the statement that Adam Smith, famous eighteenth century British economist and the inventor of the theory of the “invisible hand.” In accordance with Smith, as we know, he thinks the sum total of self-interested actions of individuals and businesses is destined and according to a strange and improbable alchemy, the market will spontaneously create the best of all possible worlds. However, in Europe, they hold the different point of view: the market is not above the nation and the state. Thus everyone should pay attention to the market.

In my opinion, in online industry, it is hard to regulate the development of one dominant company like Google even though we have had the Anti-Trust Act. Laws can help to protect the small companies that just enter the industry. Nevertheless, in this case I think the fundamental element is to meet the users’ needs. Google takes efforts in making impossibilities possible such as Google scholar or patent search. It is unfair to judge it because its market share is higher than Ask.com or yahoo.com.

Therefore, the best way is to keep encouraging new competitors into the market. And try to differentiate their services from others. What is more, the disadvantage of the monopoly market is the inefficiency and ignoring the bottom-up ideas. So far, Google is still on the track and working on how to reconstruct the media landscape.

Last, Google is still the private organization and profit-driven. The way they put the commercial links and advertisements still makes not neutrality for users. Thus, how to balance the information and draw the lines are very important.

2. Culture Imperialism:

This book is definitely from the view of Europe as the title shown. As the developed countries like French and German the same as the United of States, it is not hard to imagine that the powerful America search engine will cause the anxiety especially to the intellects. The more people adopt Google, the less cultural influence will exist based on the universal language “America English.” Besides, as anyone who uses Google knows, what is intrinsic to all the information it provides is hierarchy. Even if there are many pages of results, the research rarely goes beyond the first few. That is against the neutral of information. You never know what kind of database or sources are included or lacked. That could be the problem, yet that is also a problem of globalization.

As an outsider of those two areas, I can understand why the author arise the topic and how he felt about the diverse cultures. That does not mean Google or globalization is wrong. In other words, to respect and preserve different cultures is more important in the global village.

Conclusion
I recommend this book not because it mentions the pop issue “Google”, but the broader thinking in observing the commercial and cultural impulses. The book gives you the whole picture of Google and the concurrent development in another country or region. But if the author could show the constructive timeline and some numbers, the book will be understood better.

W4-Class exercise

1. Click “Project” on the right upper corner.
2. Click on “commercials”
3. No web video, so I click “interactive”
4. There are lots of texts and then I click on the left-hand down corner
5. A window popped out
6. next I click “back to project index”
7. It’s hard to find the main index. So I just click somewhere randomly.
8. Then I found on the right corner, there is a sign including information when the arrow closes to that.
9. And click “company” to find the branch locations.

I felt a little bit frustrated because it is hard to find the information I am looking for, especially in a beautiful website that I would expect it is user friendly. When I saw the web video, there was a lag problem. According to Gestalt theory, “flow” is the most important thing.

W4--Group 2 discussion

After reading the articles published in 1999, I think the most important idea was stressed on the potential of internet. Different authors all mentioned about how hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. That’s the seventh verse on the article “95 Theses: The Cluetrain Manifesto.”

Since 1996, the media landscape has changed dramatically. From mass marketing to demassification, internet brought the profound opportunities. It makes conversations more possible and takes business owners listen the consumers more because of the bottom-up function. Markets consist of human beings, not only demographic sectors. In other words, it is easy to let consumers involve in. This kind of communication model is more piercing. That is why sometimes we feel more bonded by the technologies.

As for the implications of internet or intranet, I would say the fort is “HYPERLINK.” It connects people so easy and the network seems more complete and borderless. However, it also can provide the enough space for specific groups or non-mainstreaming ideas. Just like David Weinberget said “Conversations occur only between equals.”

10 years passed, the characters of web are still influencing on life, work and studies. The revolution started and cannot be stopped. And we all engage in this.

Last, some feelings to share. When every business becomes 24/7, do we still have our own private time? What is the bottom line between real life and virtual life? To me, internet brings the illusion of hyper time. But it is a REAL illusion.

Why is IM not seamless as email?

First, I would point out the main difference is synchronous betweem IM and emails. As for the technical part, I think the eqipments that IM and emails need are the same.

Instant messages are more interactive than emails. That means both sides should get online in the same time just like telephone. It is hard for me to be on the phone and do other things at the same point. So emails would be a better choice if I don't have time or it is not a right time to chat or talk. Also emails are not so intrusive and more efficiently. Take me for example, I can check my emails in the meeting. However, not possible to keep replying over instant messange.

But with the time, IM will definitely become more common just like home phone. Both of them have unique functions that are not replaceable. So the adoption is moving to the last stage.

However, the spam emails really result in inefficiency. So far IM doesn't bother me in that way.

More websites!

This website is named “Love Apartment”.

Front Page: http://www.i-part.com.tw/index.php
Room: http://www.i-part.com.tw/room/room_picked.php?u=510748


The main purpose is like match.com or online dating website. They have many unique and featured designs regarding the same scene “apartment.” You will have the address of your apartment and also there is lobby for visitors and friends to wait or chat. In addition, your apartment can be arranged and decorated. Choose which kind of style you like in different seasons. To be sure that you will visit this website everyday, they use a little cut garden to keep you update by watering the flowers or feeding the pets. However, if you need to be away, you can tell the manager to take care of the flowers and only cost small money. That means the business model works.

They are so smart to attract young females first by designing many cute and sweet functions. Like babbie dolls, it satisfies the dreams of having their own houses and dressing themselves as princesses. Besides, you can live with your partner in that apartment. In many cases, many couples try to test the other in that virtual world and know they are Mr. Right or not.

Gucci’s official website
http://www.gucci.com/

This website is very smooth. When you use online shopping, you want to see the product image enlarge. And the bag or the wallet just comes out so graceful. It attracts me and makes me feel buying Gucci’s stuff is really prestige. They design the navigator in both sides to make users more flexible. Besides, the layers of website are very simple in the same color but visually deep. Each season they change the theme and the style to meet the taste of fashion.

But to be honest, from the perspective of consumers, I will check their website if I love that brand. So the criteria to evaluate are not really directly related to website design, especially not in online services.

W2: Exercise Two

Personal goals:
Design a website project that attract people in emotional way and make them feel free to respond and keep track the website over and over.
--Use the soft way to communicate directly with the consumers via virtual world that lacks of credibility in most cases.

Also, learn more programming languages such as CSS, HTML or embedding video. Those help establish the website more human-driven. For example, I don't want to leave the original website because I click a link that might contain some information that I might want to look at.
That is why Youtube provides the source code in the bottom of each video.

My interests are always in the field of consumer behaviors and audience analysis. That refers to the role of the project team is more like “usability lead”. According to the role description of information designer, it seems challenging but interesting.
As for other roles, I think production lead or production designer and programmer are just not for me.

W2: Exercise One

Building a concept of “we-ness” through virtual communication is a tough task. But also very interesting. No matter how people interact with people in virtual world, people still need to get in to the real world, in my observation. From match.com, you can easily find that internet is just the medium. You can reach more people not in your region or in your area. Convenience and efficiency are highly improved. On the other hand, it might result in in-effectiveness. Rich information does not represent RIGHT information.

So back to the topic, I would overlap the arrangement of people’s duties because more interactivities even conflicts can enhance the feeling of team work. Of course, the first assumption is under the same goal. I believe that everyone can agree the big impact that internet brought is connections. So taking advantage of that will be a method to develop the we-ness concept. For instance, divide the whole team into different sub-groups. Let each group come up the ideas about the work. This kind of small games and activities can help.

When I was a teaching assist for the distant learning course “media management”, students need to corporate a project and final presentation with students in different countries. They had a hard time communicating with each other. Not because of the language, but the time difference. However, IM technology and email as well kind of solve this problem. Those brought them in the same platform. I believe this experience is very unique, but necessary under the globalization.

07 W1-Define the project

According to S-M-C-R-E model, there are five fundamental elements in the communication process: sender, message, channel, receiver and effect. In Chapter 3, I also see the workflow of how to start a project from discovery, clarification to planning. In the “discovery” part, the authors emphasize on understanding the audience and industry. In other words, that is related to receivers. And in the part of planning, user testing is being used to know the feedback. That refers to effects. In my opinion, if communication cannot achieve the original goal, so-called “effect”, it is regarded as a communication failure.

In accordance with the above, establishing the project should know who they deal with and what they want to get. Take the website of DFS, a luxury retailing company for example. They sell the high-price products, but the point is their brands. So how should DFS redesign their website?
http://www.dfsgalleria.com

Firstly, I would think who their consumers are. What is their age? Which region do they live? (relative to languages) Social-economic status? What is the purpose when they surf on the internet? Shop or get information…

On page 58, Nathan Shedroff mentioned some features of online media and interactive media. The most important value is connectivity. Besides, customerization is the next stage. No more standardize mass marketing, but communicate with each individual more. The more real online media simulates the interaction, the more familiar and creditable customers are possible to use. Too many information to absorb and audiences will search for it more efficiently and effectively.

Back to DFS website, people who purchase luxuries are likely to have higher income or extra money to use. And if they choose to shop in duty free stores, it implies the discount is an incentive to them. Therefore, if DFS wants to increase the traffic browsing their websites targeting on their customers, providing coupons or giveaways will be good. If DFS wants to offer the brand-new online shopping experience, they will consider to offer the virtual tour and connect with floor maps. Just like Goto and Colter proposed in the book “Web Redesign 2.0”, determining overall goals can help clarify and make sure the right direction.