Artistic Entrepreneurship

some interesting reading. maybe there's hope for the right brainers yet.

http://www.artsentrepreneurship.com/
a class in N.C. about making money with arts.


From Ny Times article:
Transforming Art Into a More Lucrative Career Choice
Alex Quesada for The New York Times
Some artists have begun to figure out ways to make money and make art — aiming to end the notion that “starving” and “artist” are necessarily linked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/business/smallbusiness/27shift.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1

This article explores the topics of A whole New Mind and how they're really being put into practice.

Site Review - http://www.freedictionary.org

Eric Marshall
Site Review


http://www.freedictionary.org/On Information Design

* Who are the users?
Users are English speakers needing to look up a word. Could be any age or any level of English speaker.

* Information chunk (gestalt principle, amount information)
Information is kept to a minimum. Very sparse like google.

* Relevance (graphics, content, reading level, text)
Although the site is very simple the Google Ads are a little distracting.

* Labeling (visual with text)
Simple to use. "search" is only real label.

* Consistency (visual, text)
Definitions are formatted consistently.

* Detail (too much on one page or one screen)
Because it displays the results of several dictionaries there can be several screens of info. It's all text, so scrolls pretty easily though.


On Interactivity

* Orientation (Can you find the path, and know your way around?)
interaction is kept to a minimum. Search for word, or follow links of synonyms within definitions.

* Navigation (Branching)
The site is essentially flat. There is only one level within each definition.

* Functionality (Does it work?)
Yes, simple and easy to use.

* Information access (Multiple entry and exit? Logical path?)
again, limited choices make it easy to use.


On Screen Design
# Attractive (first impression)
Not really attractive. Only one bar of gold color at the top on home page. There are blue subheads on definition pages. I find the blue of the Google Ads links overpowers the understated search results.

# Resolution
n/a

# Color
Maybe overly simple.

# Lay out
one column. Easy to navigate and use.

# Readability
Very readable.

Eluminate

Last night we had class via Eluminate. Professor Foreman joined us from Taiwan. I've done class via Eluminate a number of times and it's always worked fine for me. I find it hard to sit at the computer and pay attention at times. In class the visual clues and interaction between people is important and I miss that. This was the first time I'd watched so many presentations through Eluminate and presented myself. I think it worked pretty well. One disconcerting thing is the lack of feedback. If you're totally bombing, or making people laugh in real life you'll get some feedback. On Eluminate you've got to plunge forward and hope you're making sense. Overall I was impressed with the ability of the class to make use of the different video and audio delivery methods, it was a useful experiment.