Better late than never....Flash!

Even as someone who's almost totally computer illiterate, I can see all kinds of benefits to Flash journalism. When we learned about the process of creating Flash in class, it became very obvious that these methods of portraying information are the most effective in terms of interaction, which is a major bonus. Flash allows the reader to pick and choose what information they want, what they want expanded on, and what they'd rather not bother with reading. This sort of flexibility is the focus of 21st century journalism. When readers are pressed for time, they want the option of only reading the parts of the story that interest them most, and being able to roll over areas of interest for more information or click on certain places to view relevant links is ideal. Although it's tricky to create (at least for a beginner like me!) I can definitely see the benefits of Flash journalism

Design

As someone who is not exactly what one would call "technically inclined," I have never tried to create a website. Reading these hints were really helpful to me, since I've never really thought about even basic design elements. I really liked how the authors of the design book made everything so user-simple and avoided confusing terminology: nothing hard to understand about contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. I thought the focus on alignment was especially helpful, since I probably would have done exactly the wrong thing and centered the whole website if I hadn't read these chapters. Looking at the before/after examples really helped show how much better simple left alignments look. The authors also explained this is an easy way to convey information more simply, which is very important. Other important tips I gained were to avoid using borders around text, something else I would have been tempted to do, and how to manipulate the HTML page to change the spacing between "break" and "paragraph." I won't lie, it terrifies me a little to try to change the coding, but I'll be brave and give it a try. Finally, as I was having a little trouble understanding the concept of how to use repetition without being boring, I really liked the rooftop example. The same elements and colors were used, but in ways that adapted to the needs of every page. Clever!