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In today’s class we discussed again about audience and how our projects were lacking the specific audiences that we were trying to reach with our project. As a class we read some questions like what are the need and wants of our specific audience.  We forget sometimes that the project plan that we have is not meant for everyone in campus and we broad the likes and tastes, so at the end that project will have a regular tone and structure and as a failure many people will not be interested in the project.

Blog Post #11

               The discussion in today’s class consisted of audiences. To target a specific audience and learn about what they need, want or value. We have found out that sometimes what the audiences want is not necessarily what they need. This is why it is important to research your audience to find out their preferences. What they find attractive in your proposal and what information they find useless.

My group and I have targeted a specific audience. We have concluded the person we have created exists. Now we are trying to persuade this person into our proposal. But to have a successful approach we need to research the following: What they value, what they want and what they need. These aspects are important as they help you to be more successful with your audience’s attention. One great way to find out these facts is to use usability tests. These help you understand where your audience is getting stuck and what the audience finds as something they would like to know more about.

Blog Post #10

           In today’s class we discussed about usability testing. We watched two videos according to usability testing and ways to explain what it means. During the first video I felt lost as I did not know what the video was talking about. I grasp a few concepts by the end, how usability testing is not about visual design but the design behind that. I learned that it is a process between the audience and the businesses. The video also mentioned how it is probably something that we are doing already and it is not rocket science. In the second video the explanation is more straightforward, it demonstrates the purpose of usability testing which is to find out what your audience loves, and or struggles with during the trial of the product.

Blog Post #9

           During this past week we reviewed about the project plans. After setting up the group behavioral norms we continued with the project plans in the group. We reviewed a couple of examples in class. Although we did not get to meet for class this week, my teammates and I have been meeting up for our proposal and project plans.

One of the biggest problems people have when they work in groups is being aware that they are working in a group. Agreements are hard to come by, discussions turn aggressive, and compromises are often hard to come by. Just this past Monday me and another student were discussing what to get middle schoolers for an outreach program we are a part of. I seemed angry or upset at him, according to another student. I didn’t realize it but maybe I was, it’s a tough call though, when you think your idea makes more sense than theirs.

Just like we had a problem deciding what to get the students in that discussion, this past meeting we had a tough time debating what topic to do. Democracy failed us as two of our two topics had two votes each…so stalemate. In an attempt to get another’s opinion, after making my idea sound unlikely, our third party gave us our current project idea. Interestingly enough after that, we had a unanimous decision, choosing the new idea. Sometimes it takes that external input I guess…

Blog Post #8

             In this past week after the break we have come to talk about our last project. Since our last project involves working in a group. We have discussed in class about the distinct types of people in group projects. We talked about how there is people who depend on others to do all the work, others like to leave all the work until the end. In various groups there is different types of people, there is also people who get the job done, and other who like to be overachievers and take over all the work because they want to get most of the credit.

           We established some norms in class as to what we expect from each and every one in our group. For example in my group we talked about how we expect from every one to be on time in our meetings. This is important as nobody’s time is wasted and we all get to hear each other’s ideas on time. We also discussed to keep on task, respect each other, and encourage each other’s ideas. By establishing these behavioral norms we are all in the same page and we understand the importance of this project. We wouldn’t like to waste our time and effort on someone who is not going to willingly try their best like everyone else is doing.

Blog Post #7

         The last class before spring break we got together and talked about audiences. How to target audiences and how to “sell them a thing.” We covered how many businesses make a perspective out of their audiences to be able to sell them things. We created a person, who was going to be our target audience. This person was a millennial guy, who lived in his parent’s basement. He did not have any cable, he was only dependent on Netflix or the internet. He also was not interested in dating, and his best friends were two cats. Not only did we concluded this part we also discussed more specifically his job was YouTube, uploading videos and his income must had been from his sponsors or ads on YouTube.

           The reason for creating this person in class was for us to have an idea what kind of person he was and how we could convince this certain type of guy to buy from us. By narrowing down and creating specific types of audiences we have to think of how this audiences can be persuaded. In this case for example, we would have to come with an idea that would interest him. We would not be able to persuade him to buying anything if he is not interested nor does it benefit him in any way.

I think the midterm was a really interesting assignment. Through all of my time in school at every level I have never had to grade myself. I enjoyed it. It keeps me honest and It really opened my eyes to what I have actually accomplished this semester. And what I still have to accomplish. 

One of the main reasons I enjoyed the midterm was because it’s a reflection on what we are expected to do in the class. I love that we are expected to keep a portfolio. I think it’s an extremely effective way for us to stay organized and it’s more realistic I guess. In the professional world, there are no A’s and B’s. You’re expected to do the work. And you’re expected to be able to show what you’ve done. It’s surprising more classes don’t hold us accountable in this way. 

Blog Post #6

           During this week we read an article called “When revision is redesign: Key questions for digital scholarship,” By Susan H. Delagrange. The article was self-explanatory, the primary claim was that format matters, text to visual and visual to text affects the understanding and interest of the audience. The secondary claim of this article was that the key to innovative thinking and problem solving is maintaining ambiguity for as long as possible. She explained how designers must preserve ambiguity so as not to exclude avenues of thought or experiment that might later prove productive.

           While reading the article I found interesting when she touched the topic of ambiguity. She mentioned the following: “learners too must preserve ambiguity, as premature certainty shuts down the process of inquiry and exploration that often leads to more sophisticated, more interesting, more generative knowledge.” I found this interesting because it is true, we just don’t realize it. It’s until someone mentions it when we become aware of this.

In today’s class we were able to revise two classmate’s Midterm Learning Records. I find it very helpful for others other than me to check how I was doing in this assignment. I also could compare how different it was my work from my classmate’s, by doing this I got better ideas on how I needed to add more evidence and my classmates provided very helpful comments to improve my argument. The guideline that the teacher gave it was very specific, this was very useful for the authors to look in what part their work is boring, what others will change and add, also if they are doing well, and to point out what part others like the most in the author’s argument. For me my classmates told me to provide more evidence and to change some part because it was still unfinished.

The recurring theme in the past couple of reading assignments has been relation to intended audience. Whether the text was talking about entrepreneurs or musical improvisation, they all revolved around that central theme. It got me thinking about how most of what we do as humans is in relation to other humans. 

Our society and human civilization completely depends on audience relationship. Countries can’t form without being able to relate to neighboring countries, businesses can’t stay in business without relating to their customers. Even from a computer science point of view, audience relationships are important for us because we need jobs. If we can’t produce code that is clear to our classmates (coworkers in the future) then it’s going to be much harder to get a job coding. This also goes for pretty much any other profession. So writing needs to be the same way. Our writing needs to have a feel for who is reading it. Just like a performer can read a  crowd and know what to do next. There is an established structure to writing, but like improvisation, the best writing comes when you can form a connection to the reader.