Interactivity in web design

http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw99/papers/rahardja/paper.html

My article comes to you from Agus Rahardja of the Centre for Computer Studies in Singapore. He examines a few travel sites and discusses the intentions of including interactivity on a website, as well as some tips for accomplishing this interactivity. This article is related to the central notion of internet communication because it defines the goals of a new website, which inherently has no active or intentional user to begin with. The author provides a diagram that shows the flow of information priority as it is related to the website's stakeholders. The stakeholder is important to the overall flow of the website because they decide what is a good choice for the website's development. Although it is obviously not clear at first what the users will require or want from the site, there always has to be some kind of starting point for web developers to work from.

When it comes to measuring the interactivity of a website, there is not a standard or official unit. You have to think practically in order to understand the usefulness and value of a website's interactive features. Rahardja shows some examples, as well as giving some ground rules to work from, on the importance of interactive and visually appealing elements on a website. The most important part to consider is how the user will interact with the site. Before determining what kind of interactivity you want on a site, you have to decide what the user's main goal will be there. Use this to determine the workflow for the user: number of clicks, size and number of the buttons, etc. If a sites' interactive elements are somewhat directly related to accomplishing these goals, then it is probably a good form of interactivity. However, there are times when some interference may be preferable. For instance, on a site directed at younger audiences, you may choose to include some small flash game that lets users accomplish a goal. These should usually only be a type of skin to make the functional aspects more appealing. It is hard to measure a site's interactivity or usefulness quantitatively, but a good understanding of the function of the website, elements of design, and creative value will allow you to analyze a website from the ground up and decide its level of interactivity.

Network Laws

      Out of the three laws discussed, I think I agree most with Reed's Law. His law states that the value or usefulness of a network tends to expand exponentially with each addition of a user. This law makes the most sense with today's main communication methods. Much of the interpersonal communication in today's world occurs through group messaging and sub-sections of larger public networks. Because so many connections rely on common interest, geographic, and professional groupings, these mini-networks are probably the most important element of modern communication. These public groups rely on their members to invite new parties, who can then make all the connections available within the single group. Since most people online are members of more than one of these organizations, they always have a chance to bring new users in, connect with the other new members of their group, and potentially find other organizations to be involved with. It follows that these types of connections are always being made, and there is no shortage of new users for any given group on the internet. As one sub-network grows, millions of others are growing along with it, every day. As such, the overall network is continually expanding at an exponential rate, given the vast amount of members and groups that are themselves always expanding.
        Five years from now, I think the way we get our information will remain to some degree unchanged for our generation. The expanding social network environment will undoubtedly continue growing and diversifying, but the changes made, as they have in the last ten years, will be minor in comparison to the initial change that social networks brought on. The differences between new social networks as they gained popularity (twitter, snapchat, instagram) always seemed to be some kind of gimmick or new "selling point." People are generally not interested with the same social network after a few years of use; it gets old. So developers will always be looking for a new format to create a new social network.
         However, I do think the baby boomer generation will  continue to adapt more than they already have to social media. Of course, a lot of younger people might not like that their parents are using Facebook or Twitter. This does not necessarily mean that they will give up on it entirely, but I do think it's likely to see a higher and higher ratio of older generations on these sites in the next few years.