Week 10, Deadline 2: Classmate Response

Many of my classmates were able to find supporting web presences and some were able to find various types of presences ranging from blogs to government websites to organizational websites. Some topics likely garnered more negative POVs than some, and Jenna was unsurprisingly unable to find any opposing points of view to pedestrian safety, rather just unawareness and Lakynn also didn't have a hard opposition to mental health awareness.

Meghan

Suzanne Gordon

Meghan found some pretty good information on the Veteran's Healthcare Administration's website that outlined a lot of the positives and other additional information. She mentions that the volume of information could pose a problem and I can agree with this. Approaching a topic you're unfamiliar with and being overloaded with information could be damaging to someone's view because they could give up just from being overwhelmed. She was also able to find non-government supporters, such as author Suzanne Gordon. Some of the issues she's run across include the amount of outdated information out there versus the amount of current information out there and I feel this could be a problem with many topics but especially something government-related like hers. Many of her resources could fall into multiple rhetorical appeals. She's also found some blogs to help support her message as well as some non-profit organizations. Several of the opinions could be logical and fact-based, using logic and reason to make the persuasive appeal (logos), while pathos uses the emotional appeal to persuade anyone that's been close to a Veteran and witnessed their healthcare struggles first hand. Finally, some of these sources use ethos to make persuasive appeals based on credibility such as from the Veteran's Health Care Administration website or from a published author, Suzanne Gordon. I could see this topic having a lot of potentially opposing views as many political topics seem to have. 

Jenna

destinationlancasterca.org

Jenna's research mostly turned up positive and supportive POVs, because it's not common to find someone that is against pedestrian safety - just unawareness of the topic. She was able to find some University web presences to support her message which is basically perfect since her topic is not only on pedestrian safety but pedestrian safety at WVU. She was also able to find some government based web presences - adding ethos and credibility to the resources. Pedestrian safety is a logical subject and bound to be surrounded by logos rhetorical appeals. In addition to finding web presences that shared her POV, she found some that shared the aesthetic she wanted to use. I like that she was able to incorporate news articles that can add to the credibility of her message as well as the emotional appeal because of the very real information presented and possibly the emotional outcome of the unsafe pedestrian environments. The main takeaway I've gathered from Jenna's research is that more information does not always equal the best. 

Vincent

self.com

Vincent was able to find what seems like an abundance of both supportive and opposing POVs. I can see this as being another topic that could have a lot of arguments about its usefulness, legitimacy, etc. It seems that one of the most common presence he was able to find were web pages attempting to sell a product to consumers. He noticed the common theme of a common color scheme. Most of the opposing POVs were scientific and fact-based web presences which is to be expected with his topic. I don't know that there would be much logos in this topic although if presented well it's possible. I really admire that even though Vincent found a website that did not agree with his POV, he wanted to emulate some of the features. The main takeaway from Vincent's research is that he wants to take the middle road, which I also want to do with my presence. There are good and back, positive and negatives to most topics and POVs and I feel it adds credibility to the presenter. 

Lakynn

comhs.org

I absolutely love Lakynn's topic. I nearly chose this topic for my own but I covered it in a previous English course and found it difficult to find the information I wanted to convey because it was a little more focused on one or two mental health disorders. I'm unsure if it was intentional or a coincidence, but Lakynn's overall blog matches many color schemes for mental health awareness campaigns. Similarly to Jenna's research, there are not many people that oppose Lakynn's topic. In my experience, most of the opinions that "disagree" are usually people or organizations that do not feel mental health can affect someone significantly or that it's truly a disorder or disabling to some people. She was able to find many social media accounts supporting her POV, and this can be a great thing since more and more people are using social media as an outlet to discuss and advocate for their causes, such as she points out that celebrities frequently use social media for this purpose. I noticed some of the other web presences she found included personal blogs with stories of their experiences and I find this can be very persuasive with the emotional appeal of pathos. 

From my classmate's research, I've learned a lot about frequent color schemes associated with certain topics and I'm on the fence if I would want to conform in my DCP to the frequent color schemes I've found across some web presences related to my topic. I've been reminded that this could be seen as a museum-curated piece and should flow as such. My classmates have evolved their thinking about how they want their DCP to look and I still feel like I'm struggling with the overall flow and movement of mine and how I want to structure it. Many of the elements they've mentioned including has provided me inspiration that I hope to learn from and create something that works for my topic and DCP. 

Week 10, Deadline 1

After some tricky research, I came across several web presences related to my topic. I wanted to find some blog examples for this assignment because a majority of the information written is scientific articles and websites. It was difficult to get started finding the blogs but once I did, some of them linked to each other and I was on the trip down the rabbit hole. Aside from a few personal blogs, I mostly found scientific articles or articles written from organizations, veterinary clinics, animal shelters, etc. that have written it to appeal to people in layman's terms. 

Web Presences I Found

avma.org

I searched many personal blogs as well as organizational web presences such as the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) and of the presences I was able to find, most of the negative or disagreeing ones were personal blogs. They had some valid points but they were misleading in some ways. Most of the positive or agreeing presences I found were from organizations that were trying to educate. 

At 24 Paws of Love, the author wrote and discussed that she had her dog spayed after having her first litter of puppies and at the age of 5-years old. She talks about she felt like she took something away from her because she was "born to be a mother". This adds an emotional connection to the dog's uterus and implies that the animal is aware they can no longer give birth.

Hey... It's Jet Here made a post about pyometra and essentially what it is and that it occurs in a variety of animal species - basically anything with a uterus. These bloggers had the first-hand experience with a pet with pyometra and had the help of another blogger in saving that dog's life and posted a link to that blog post as a link in this article. 

Trupanion.com

Some other examples include organizational postings. Trupanion, a pet insurance company, has a blog and has posted about the importance of spay and neuter programs. They discuss the animal welfare system, "For example, housed in an animal shelter, animal rescue organization, or animal clinic, these programs provide a low-cost or subsidized spay/neuter procedures for dogs and cats." and discuss the shelter network.

1-800-PetMeds, an online pharmacy for animals, talk about the reasons people are reluctant to spay and neuter their animal such as the animals get overweight and lazy and changes their personalities. This article discusses how these are not the typical outcomes of spaying and neutering. 

Web Presences I Admire

I found a few web presences that I admire and would like to emulate I have chosen based on their design, information, point of view, and readability of information. 

• Feline Fix by Five
• Pets in Stitches
• Spay Today Healthy Pet Center

felinefixbyfive.org

Feline Fix by Five is a website advocating the age to alter cats be 5 months or younger instead of the usual 6 months, to reduce mammary cancer, unwanted litters, and the number of kittens in shelters. I admire the design of this web presence, the creator has used SquareSpace, which is a platform I had not considered. It has a lot of information to explore that is organized and well-put-together. 

Pets in Stitches is a clinic that has a blog and discusses the benefits of spaying and neutering among many other pet-related topics. This web presence has a very nice design, created by CreativeFuse great readability, and navigation. The color palette is simple and aesthetically pleasing. 

Spay Today Healthy Pet Center is a clinic with a blog, web presence created and designed by 3 Lions Web+Design. I like this company's web presence because it's interactive, the links are eye-catching because of their movement when hovered over.

Take-Aways

After browsing many web presences ranging from personal blogs to scholarly articles in the veterinary community, I've come away with some ideas about what I need to include in my DCP and the appeals I need to make to persuade my audience. Some of the pages I came across neither agreed nor disagreed and were more the middle of the road. Some of the take-aways from this research include:

freepik.com

• Many of the pages that are in disagreement with my call-to-action are from personal experience rather than scientific or medical knowledge.
• The pages in disagreement with my call-to-action use emotional appeals to persuade the audience.
• Many of the scientific articles list all of the possibilities and approach the matter in a very logical way and rely on the credibility of the source to be the main persuasive factor. 
• Many of these presences use simple color palette designs. 
• I feel more motivated because there are some non-organizational pages supporting the same point of view.
• I enjoyed a narrative about someone's pet experiencing pyometra so I feel as though my audience will also be moved by and interested in reading about my experience
• I want to use both the disadvantages and advantages when persuading my audience because there are always benefits as well as risks to any surgical procedure on a pet. 

Week 9, Deadline 2: DCP Platform Response

Observe

It's no secret by now that a majority of our class was leaning toward Wix as the platform of choice. It seems that this is not out of the ordinary since many of the examples provided by Dr. Gouge also chose Wix for their platform of choice (of the six examples - 1 Weebly, 4 Wix, and 1 Adobe Spark). This shows me it has the versatility and seems to reaffirm my observation that it is easy to use especially for beginners.  Meghan shared my opinion about Wix having many templates (which is great for beginners) and being easy to use. Parker discussed his wife's website on Wix gave me inspiration, (but more on that later) and he discussed the lack of customization on Blogger and the overall difficulty which I didn't even touch on, so I'm glad I'm not the only person that was less than impressed with Blogger. I was intrigued by Jenna's experience with Wordpress and wanted to learn more and possibly experience a popular platform, but of course, I was less than thrilled about their web hosting pricing - $$$.


Brainstorm

I'm more than likely going to stick with Wix, for the many reasons I've already stated, but mostly because it has a lot of customization options and templates and it's easy to use which is great for a beginner like me. I'd like to edit and make another draft of my narrative, possibly have that story play out as the beginning or main page of my web presence, and below after scrolling down, have links to other pages on my site with various information such as one about shelters, one about cancer, etc. I'd like to keep the colors pretty plain, maybe some pastels with a couple of bold colors, very professional looking. I want my audience to see this as an informative web presence with credibility and feel persuaded to at least consider why it's important to spay and neuter.


Inspiration

https://www.oliviahs.com

https://www.vifa.dk

https://www.involvio.com 

I was very inspired by Parker's wife's website and some similar formats on other websites I've run across. Some other websites I've run across are Vifa, lintense, and involvio. I really loved the color template on Vifa, except for the green. I felt like the green was out of place, but the black, white, and mustard color really looked nice with the alternating alignment, and the constant scroll to each section, this was a very sleek and polished looking website. On lintense, I was honestly really in love with the color scheme - it's no surprise by now that purple is my favorite color. If you move your mouse over the little screenshots between the bold purple gradient and the bottom the page they will move back and forth as your cursor moves and I found that to be a very unique touch. My favorite part about lintense and Oliviah's was the tile links - I also found this stile on involvio's website. lintense has the template options in tiles examples with links at the bottom of the page, Oliviah's has social media posts in tiles and some of the shopping options in tiles and links. Involvio and lintense have the gradient effect from the top to the bottom of a gradient to a bold color such as green or purple into a white, kind of like it's there to catch your attention and then it moves into a professional, clean, basic white website.

Week 9, Deadline 1: Playing with DCP Platforms

• Topic: Spay and Neuter & Why it Can Save Your Pet's Life
• Point of View: We need to spay and neuter our pets at a young age to prevent uterine infections and several forms of cancer in both the female and male animals. Spaying and neutering also helps to reduce unwanted litters which add to the overwhelming homeless and shelter pet population.
• Call to Action: Spay and neuter. Reach out to local veterinary clinics, humane societies, animal shelters, and rescue organizations to ask about low-cost spay and neuter clinics or vouchers and grant programs to help pay for the surgery if you're unable to afford it. 

Platforms

I looked into the suggested platforms, with the exception of Blogger since we're already using that and I'm familiar with it. I also took to google to search for free website creation sites and came across an article about the Top 10 Free Website Builders and found that Wix, Weebly, and Wordpress were in this top ten.  This article has a star rating (1-5 stars) and has some previews of the website and editing while it discusses the features, but one thing I noticed is that they all seem to be VERY similar - some are nearly identical in the outcome of the website. I looked for some other suggestions and came across yet another article, this one was 21 Best Free Website Builders: We Expose their Strengths and Weaknesses. From this article, I found Site123, which seemed easy to use as well. Of all the platforms I looked at, there were things I did and did not like. 

All of the platforms I looked into:

• Weebly
• Wix
• Wordpress
• Adobe Spark
• Site123
• Strikingly

Weebly

Weebly was the first platform I opened and looked at, I made an account and tried out the editing software. Having zero previous experience with any software for webpages or blogs before this class, I wasn't sure what to expect. This software seemed difficult for a novice user. All of the necessary tools were available but it was very much a platform that required a lot of work from the user to make it look polished. With enough time I'm sure I would have no problem creating my DCP on this platform and making it look polished. However, I wanted to see what other platforms had to offer, especially since Weebly made the #1 slot on one of the articles I listed above, I was curious to see what other platforms had to offer. 

Wix

I was a little more impressed with Wix once I signed up and went to edit a page. The first thing I noticed about Wix is the number of templates available, especially free templates. After looking at Weebly, it seemed as though Weebly was lacking in templates. Wix also has features that remind me of Prezi and Piktochart - such as they offer images, graphics, backgrounds built into their software to use for your projects. 

Wordpress

I was not impressed with Wordpress. I cannot speak to the editing, design, and creation aspects of this platform because I did not create an account. I have heard of Wordpress in the past and I feel that I have used it in high school. There was not a free option that I could find from their website, instead, there were a lot of confusing pricing options for a novice. I also did not understand why I needed to pay for a host to use Wordpress. There was just a lot of information that did not make a lot of sense to me and did not seem user-friendly for a first-timer.

Adobe Spark

I came across Adobe Spark by viewing one of the examples of DCP projects from other classes. I did not notice it was a different platform at first because the template and overall function from a viewer's perspective were similar to many templates and layouts I had come across on other platforms. I used to be an avid user of Adobe Photoshop so I thought I'd give this a try. I signed up and I was a little underwhelmed. There are several templates and a filter option to filter what kind of templates someone is looking for, but once you choose a template, there is not a tutorial or get started pop-up, nor is there pre-programmed images, graphics, and content that I could readily find, and therefore was not the most user-friendly platform in my opinion. 

Site 123

I came across Site123 via one of the above-referenced articles regarding website builders. By the time I came across this platform, I was quickly running out of time this evening to write my blog post (I worked all day, so it's late). One of the things I noticed immediately was a tutorial popping up as I clicked on different features to show me around on how to change my background (fitted with pre-programmed background images and content), and a chatbox for more help in building my web page. This platform reminded me of Weebly but in a more user-friendly, novice way. It seems like you're able to build a beautiful page, easily, but it is not labor-intensive to figure out the software. 

Strikingly

Strikingly is the last platform I looked at, but with a time limit. I also found this platform from one of the above-referenced articles and I was drawn in because it was listed as "Free One-Page Layouts" and I wasn't sure if I was going to need more than one page to create my DCP but would like to see what is out there if I only needed one page. I was not able to explore much of this platform and still have time to write my blog post, but this platform already seemed easy to use to me. I like that this offers templates, but I also really like that it also has a chat help box - plus the Strikingly personnel are called "Happiness Officers". 

So...Which One?

Of the platforms I looked at, my favorite is Wix. I was able to understand the editing and design functions of this software the most because it reminded me of Piktochart(which took some getting used to, but now I feel like a pro). I like the feel of this software because it seems to have a lot of pre-programmed content for users to implement into their webpages and it is more of a click-and-select what to edit set-up versus clicking on backgrounds, then on the font, etc. I also liked Site123 from what I was able to explore. 

Week 8, Deadline 2: Top Ten Design Principles

Of all the design principles we have covered thus far in the semester, the top ten that I chose are: 

1. Hierarchy
2. Highlighting
3. Readability
4. Consistency
5. Color
6. Alignment
7. Chunking
8. Storytelling
9. Picture Superiority Effect
10. Recognition Over Recall

I chose many of these because I feel that a polished design can be the main persuasive factor that gives credibility and if the design is not polished, the reader may lose attention fast. 

1. Hierarchy

Hierarchy is structuring items in order of importance with the most important information at the top or beginning and in descending order. I chose this principle because when presenting information or trying to catch a reader’s attention, the most important information should lead as a hook.

A good example comes from Jenna, she puts the most important information at the top and the words we should be reading first are in the largest font.
A bad example is shown in which the words we are supposed to read first are the smallest and can be confusing to the audience.

2. Highlighting

Highlighting is a technique used to bring more attention to certain words, graphics, sentences, pictures, etc. This is very important because it can show emphasis on certain words in a phrase, it can mark the beginning of a paragraph, and it can show hyperlinks that a reader may not know are there without it being separated by highlighting it.

A good example is by Jenna, she uses effective highlighting to provide emphasis on specific words and phrases and to separate different paragraphs. 

A bad example is shown where everything is high lighted in several colors. This makes it hard for the reader to know what is actually important and actually needs emphasis. 

3. Readability

Readability is the extent to which something can be understood, such as using vocabulary appropriate for the audience or terminology relevant to a specific field of work (i.e. medical terminology in the medical field, legal terms in a lawyer’s office). I chose this for my list because for example in my DCP, I have a lot of medical, specifically veterinary terms, that I use and they need to be explained in terms that anyone can understand – making my content readable and therefore easily understood. 

4. Consistency

Consistency is keeping different parts of a design similar. I chose this for my top ten because consistency across a web page, for example, can also add to credibility. Inconsistent design loses credibility and can send the wrong message about your cause. 

A good example is Laykynn's color palette. She uses a consistent palette across her blog of white, black, and greens.
A bad example is shown with inconsistency in font and color. 



5. Color

Using Color in design is meant to attract attention, make the design more aesthetically pleasing, and can be used to emphasize. I chose this for my top ten because I often do, and like when people use color to emphasize specific words in word documents. Having a complimentary, analogous, or another type of color scheme can make the whole web page or blog look more professional and easier to look at. 

A good example is from Vincent's blog, his color palette blends with his background image. This use of analogous colors is aesthetically pleasing.
A bad example is shown with very mismatched color combinations that are difficult to read. 



6. Alignment

Alignment is the placement of objects where the edges line up in rows or columns or in the center. I chose this for one of my top ten principles because having graphics aligned properly gives credibility to the writer and is more aesthetically and professionally pleasing. 

A good example comes from Parker's blog, the images align up and are roughly the same size, this makes for not only consistency but because they're aligned makes it aesthetically pleasing and seem organized.
A bad example is shown with the words not aligned with any rhyme or reason and makes it seem less polished.

7. Chunking

Chunking is the practice of putting similar pieces of information into individual units. In a design sense, this is useful and important when organizing aspects of a DCP. For example, I would put all of the information about shelters and adoption together, all of the information about cancers together, etc. 

8. Storytelling

Storytelling is the use of fundamental storytelling elements (setting, characters, plot, invisibility, mood, and movement) to effectively create an experience between audience and author to tell a story. This is important because all of our DCPs require some storytelling to persuade the viewer. 

9. Picture Superiority Effect

Picture Superiority Effect is the principle that pictures are more easily remembered than words are. This is important because if you want your reader to remember what you’re discussing or trying to persuade, using a picture to help the narrative can have a longer-lasting impression on the viewer. The audience may not remember every detail of something said, but they will likely remember an impactful picture and remember key points when thinking about this impactful picture. 

10. Recognition Over Recall

Recognition Over Recall is the ability to recall something from experience is easier than recalling something from just memory. This is helpful in some DCPs where the information in interactive – the audience will be more likely to remember this experience instead of just reading about the content because they interacted and experienced it in some capacity. In my experience, I studied all of my vet tech skills before getting out in the real world in a clinic and tried so hard to remember all of the information, but once I was in a clinic and could experience these skills, they were much easier to remember. 

Digital Poster

How did you design the poster to persuade your specific audience?

-I designed the poster with a compelling centerpiece image that is intriguing because it's made up of words that draws my audience out of curiosity about which words this image contains and sleek designs. The unique graphics and consistent color scheme is appealing to look at and looks polished, giving me credibility by using a well-designed poster.

How did you try to emphasize the core action for your audience and persuade/ motivate them to take that action (visit your web presence)?

-I tried to emphasize my core action with my main text at the bottom that directs to my (fake) URL. It calls to action for the increase of longevity and health of the audience's pets. The audience is hooked by the small snippets of facts and information centered around the word cloud and is therefore encouraged to learn more about how they can keep their pets happy and live longer - every pet owner's dream. 

How did you try to establish and follow a "hierarchy of information" when adding text to your poster?

- I have tried to establish and follow a hierarchy of fo information in two ways. In my snippets of information on flags around my word cloud, I've included the most important and compelling facts at the top in a bigger font and emphasized information by underlining and bolding text. In the call to action, the font is bigger than the snippets, and the URL is the biggest font on the page, and likely the first font the audience will notice. 

What appeals have you tried to use in your poster? 

- I have tried to implement all three appeals in my poster. I've used quantitative information such as statistics and numbers to use the logical appeal. I've appealed emotionally to the audience by discussing shelter animals - not many people can resist a sad Sarah McLachlan SPCA commercial. For the ethical appeal, I've mentioned unwanted litters. Preventing unwanted litters through spaying and neutering reduces the overpopulation of homeless pets, and is the responsible thing to do.

What design principles have you tried to follow effectively to support the above? Write a sentence for each that explains how you tried to apply a minimum of five design principles. In each sentence, make sure you bold the name of the design principle and make it a unique color that stands out so that I can easily scan and identify which and how many you choose to address.

-The design principles I've tried to follow effectively are: Aesthetic-Usability Effect, Cognitive Dissonance, Color, Consistency, Figure-Ground Relationship, Hierarchy, Highlighting, Legibility, Picture-Superiority Effect, Readability.

I've tried to implement the Aesthetic-Usability Effect by keeping my poster simple. The audience viewing my poster may assume through this design principle that my website/web presence is easy to navigate and use because my poster is designed simply. For Cognitive Dissonance, I've created this in my poster by calling the audience to visit my URL if they want to learn how to increase their pet's longevity and health. The viewer will feel cognitive dissonance about not seeking out this information and not doing everything they can to keep their pet healthy. I've used Color, Consistency, Highlighting, Legibility, Hierarchy, and Readability throughout my poster in a few ways, by keeping the color consistent and with complementary colors, it increases the legibility as well as using easy to read fonts. The words I've used are simple to increase readability and make it easier for the audience to understand across many educational backgrounds. By highlighting specific words through underlining, bolding, or increasing the font it brings more attention to specific points and can help emphasize the hierarchy of specific information which shows what is more important. I've used the Figure-Ground Relationship and Picture-Superiority Effect simultaneously with the same image. My word cloud uses Figure-Ground Relationship due to the multiple images contained within it, it catches the attention of the viewer, and by being interested and looking at this image and investigating the words contained in the word cloud, Picture-Superiority Effect is implemented because if the audience does not remember anything else on the poster, they will remember this graphic and remember it contained words such as spay and neuter, etc.