Friday 14th October

We have looked at a variety of different forms of new media this week. I particularly enjoyed playing with EyeToy which I had not seen before. It is probably the most 'interactive' experience I have had, actually seeing yourself as the character playing the game. Really strange. We also looked at some websites, evaluating them according to Jakob Nielson's 10 heuristics of usability. Today we applied these issues of usability to CD-Rom titles. Although I do not agree entirely with Nielson's opinions on website design, usability is definitely a fundamental element of good design. I have also realised that it is possible to design experimental navigation that is still very much usable.


I also spent today testing the Colin and Cumberland Welsh learning website for the BBC. I had a lot of fun playing the games on the site, and was pleased that I learnt a lot of basic Welsh vocabulary in the process. The main areas of criticism I had were issues of usability. I was frustrated that once I had clicked 'play' I could not go back to read the instructions, instead I had to use 4 mouse clicks to get back to find out what I was suppossed to do. Overall I enjoyed the site though, particularly the cartoon aesthetic and the humorous elements.