K State (Sam)
KU blog (Patrick)
All-Knighters (UNLV) (Charlotte - Anne)
Team Voltron (# 1) - (Marybeth)
Team 2 (Kim)
Team 3 (Marjorie)
Team Awesome (#4) - (Darcy)
Monday, July 2, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Media Visualization
With this image to (sort of) guide you, I present visualized news.
My idea is designed for the user whose knowledge of a given piece of news is little to nothing.
During a discussion, one of my group members noted that she has to be the one to whom her friends go to get current events. She fills them in from beginning to end. Journalists and other news junkies alike have no problem keeping up with developing stories, and they're often able to jump right in and find out without too much of a hassle what has led the story to its current state. We should solve that.
A single story can be broken down into multiple (interesting!) facets. When compiled, those facets hopefully bring together the entire story, and, with this feature, may even be greater than the sum of the parts since the connectivity is already represented.
The picture shows a quasi-random story's development. The two circles on the very left represent the first stories. Notice that one circle is bigger; in regards to the whole, the bigger a story's circle, the more important it is. These two circles then lead to a third circle, which also has other stories leading to and from it. As more and more facets of a story show up, their interconnectedness is displayed.
When hovering over a story, a snippet revealing the synopsis appears. Perhaps there could even be a one-word summary that is grayed-out over each circle, providing an even quicker run-down of news. People then have the option of going back to read* the beginning, middle and end of the whole shebang.
I believe that the stories are already stored in some database, so either using embedded code or applying tags to stories would stitch them together. It will get complex, especially when bias comes in. But this is what we are for, yes?
*Reading is only the example given in this context. A big reason why papers are failing is because of the medium itself. Many people still read the news, but many more prefer it in different forms. Having this concept applied cross-modally would enable those who want video to have videos that still present the (same) story, just in a preferred format. Why not mix them, too?
My idea is designed for the user whose knowledge of a given piece of news is little to nothing.
During a discussion, one of my group members noted that she has to be the one to whom her friends go to get current events. She fills them in from beginning to end. Journalists and other news junkies alike have no problem keeping up with developing stories, and they're often able to jump right in and find out without too much of a hassle what has led the story to its current state. We should solve that.
A single story can be broken down into multiple (interesting!) facets. When compiled, those facets hopefully bring together the entire story, and, with this feature, may even be greater than the sum of the parts since the connectivity is already represented.
The picture shows a quasi-random story's development. The two circles on the very left represent the first stories. Notice that one circle is bigger; in regards to the whole, the bigger a story's circle, the more important it is. These two circles then lead to a third circle, which also has other stories leading to and from it. As more and more facets of a story show up, their interconnectedness is displayed.
When hovering over a story, a snippet revealing the synopsis appears. Perhaps there could even be a one-word summary that is grayed-out over each circle, providing an even quicker run-down of news. People then have the option of going back to read* the beginning, middle and end of the whole shebang.
I believe that the stories are already stored in some database, so either using embedded code or applying tags to stories would stitch them together. It will get complex, especially when bias comes in. But this is what we are for, yes?
*Reading is only the example given in this context. A big reason why papers are failing is because of the medium itself. Many people still read the news, but many more prefer it in different forms. Having this concept applied cross-modally would enable those who want video to have videos that still present the (same) story, just in a preferred format. Why not mix them, too?
more on "Media Visualization"
Visually “mapping” news stories
As a user bounces through the day’s news, it would be aggregated by variables such as news type, date of submission, etc, and these would be sorted (but collected together) into media types: video, text, sounds/podcasts, mashups. These would then be visually linked together similarly to 6pli and Visual Thesaurus. But the layout needs to be smoother and cleaner and softer. Perhaps Google could provide the data for the actual links while the site does the visual representation of the media’s separation on the ‘net.
Basic visualization (starting with the big story of the day)
* Big story in the center, or have its enclosure be bigger, or both.
* Items closest to big story are first media directly related to the story (according to description above)
* Next layer of items is less related news
* Etc.
Advanced visualization: What got the story here?
* There would be an option to turn on “history mode”, which would allow the user to see the story’s development across a pedigree timeline.
* It would appear to the left and be grayed-out, since we want it to be noticeable and where we normally perceive time to be going)
* It’s a pedigree not only because of multiple pieces of news causing a story, but also because multiple pieces of media can tell that part of the timeline
* Interesting to see what happens when there is speculation.
Different items are news to different people, so let them choose what media sources and forms are included. This means there could/should be a device for updating SL news, Facebook news, MySpace. This is for the Online News Association, right?
Let there be keyboard shortcuts.
As a user bounces through the day’s news, it would be aggregated by variables such as news type, date of submission, etc, and these would be sorted (but collected together) into media types: video, text, sounds/podcasts, mashups. These would then be visually linked together similarly to 6pli and Visual Thesaurus. But the layout needs to be smoother and cleaner and softer. Perhaps Google could provide the data for the actual links while the site does the visual representation of the media’s separation on the ‘net.
Basic visualization (starting with the big story of the day)
* Big story in the center, or have its enclosure be bigger, or both.
* Items closest to big story are first media directly related to the story (according to description above)
* Next layer of items is less related news
* Etc.
Advanced visualization: What got the story here?
* There would be an option to turn on “history mode”, which would allow the user to see the story’s development across a pedigree timeline.
* It would appear to the left and be grayed-out, since we want it to be noticeable and where we normally perceive time to be going)
* It’s a pedigree not only because of multiple pieces of news causing a story, but also because multiple pieces of media can tell that part of the timeline
* Interesting to see what happens when there is speculation.
Different items are news to different people, so let them choose what media sources and forms are included. This means there could/should be a device for updating SL news, Facebook news, MySpace. This is for the Online News Association, right?
Let there be keyboard shortcuts.
Portable Video News
A televisionlike news broadcast would be available online. Clips from newscasts would be available through links on the site. Each user would get links to local, national, and international headlines. In addition, users would be able to customize news viewing with Pandora and Amazon like features, featuring news clips which may appeal to the viewer. These clips could be watched, then opened up to user comments and video and picture uploads. Also, related clips could be used as links in order to link various related stories together. The aim of a site like this would be to make the convenience of morning news more personal and more portable. Users could view the site from trains or subways while commuting on phones of PDAs. Also, using the youtube mentality, users would be encourages to upload more videos, allowing for more user-created news content.
Virtual Newspaper
When I get up in the morning I have a list of maybe 20 different websites I visit to read up on news and other things before I start my day. I check the same 20 websites maybes 3 or 4 times a day either to get an update or if I’m just really bored at work. Browsing to 20 different websites multiple times per day does get taxing however. There are a couple of solutions out there that would improve my browsing experience. Through the use of RSS feeds, which most content providers use now, it would be possible for me to add all 20 websites to a single program or website, like Google Reader or Feedreader, and centralize all of the news on these separate websites.
I've tried this solution however and for some reason I tend to like browsing to each individual website rather than going to Google Reader and updating myself that way. For me, the biggest downside to using RSS feeds at the moment is the lack of content they provide. On Google Reader I can check the top stores from websites like digg.com and Gizmodo but instead of a partial text summary complete with pictures and other media, like I would get at the actual website, the information that gets sent to me via RSS is incredibly stripped down and bland. With my product I want to change the experience RSS feeds provide.
I'm a big fan of pages like Netvibes and Pageflakes. Essentially these websites want to provide a similar experience to the one I'm interested in, except instead of focusing on raw news and informations both websites instead rely on a "widget" type interface to provide local weather, sports scores, and some very paired down RSS news. Users can also add their own content or suggest content for the website to add, such as a favorite local newspaper, but when it comes to reading real news on these websites the experience is lackluster and boring. "News" on these websites simply consists of one line of text, normally a headline or deckhead, per story which will link the user to the actual full text report on the host website. However, these headlines are almost always cut off by the graphics on these websites or by other feeds and widgets, not to mention there are no visuals or other content to make the story more appealing and eyecatching.
My solution to this problem is to drop the widgets and instead focus on using content rich RSS feeds that would provide more than a partial headline to the user. Possibly reflecting the format of a newspaper's front page my product would serve up only RSS feeds, which the user can select, modify, and add to their heart's content, which would include a partial text summary of the article in question, pictures that accompany the story, and any video or other media associated with the piece. Having these extra bits on information included with some text of the article's text not only garners more interest for the user but it also provides a visually rich news experience from multiple sources in a centralized location, something which is lacking currently on the internet.
Other features I would like to add, to help customize the user experience even more, include adding a StumbleUpon-like list of categories which the user can check off to receive only content that they'd be interested in. For instance, if you want to grab an RSS feed from the New York Times there are 20+ options to choose from, from the front page news to the books section to the classified ads. Let's say our user is interested in world news and gardening. If they select the right options instead of receiving other NYT stories from the science section, arts and entertainment, and local news they would only receive stories that had to do with gardening and world news.
Another similar feature I'd like to implement would let content providers serve up their most popular daily content to the user. On websites such as digg, where users vote to keep a story popular or bury them, one can filter out the junk from the important information, in most cases, by seeing how many people have dugg a particular story. Many of the most important items of the day, such as news over the White House and the War in Iraq, receive a large amount of attention on such websites and using their ranking systems can only help provide the most relevant news to the user.
Down the line there are other features I feel would be important to such a project, but at the moment I envision a website that provides relevant and interesting news via RSS feeds to a user and enhances the stories through the addition of more textual content and other media that accompanies the story. Multiple items would still be served up for a single RSS feed but they would only include the stories the user wanted to read, not a list of junk articles one might have no interest in reading. The hope for the website is to interest occasional news consumers and news junkies alike by giving them a content rich and focused news report containing headlines, text, images, and other items for the most important and relevant stories of the day.
[MOCK UP IMAGES GOES HERE]
I've tried this solution however and for some reason I tend to like browsing to each individual website rather than going to Google Reader and updating myself that way. For me, the biggest downside to using RSS feeds at the moment is the lack of content they provide. On Google Reader I can check the top stores from websites like digg.com and Gizmodo but instead of a partial text summary complete with pictures and other media, like I would get at the actual website, the information that gets sent to me via RSS is incredibly stripped down and bland. With my product I want to change the experience RSS feeds provide.
I'm a big fan of pages like Netvibes and Pageflakes. Essentially these websites want to provide a similar experience to the one I'm interested in, except instead of focusing on raw news and informations both websites instead rely on a "widget" type interface to provide local weather, sports scores, and some very paired down RSS news. Users can also add their own content or suggest content for the website to add, such as a favorite local newspaper, but when it comes to reading real news on these websites the experience is lackluster and boring. "News" on these websites simply consists of one line of text, normally a headline or deckhead, per story which will link the user to the actual full text report on the host website. However, these headlines are almost always cut off by the graphics on these websites or by other feeds and widgets, not to mention there are no visuals or other content to make the story more appealing and eyecatching.
My solution to this problem is to drop the widgets and instead focus on using content rich RSS feeds that would provide more than a partial headline to the user. Possibly reflecting the format of a newspaper's front page my product would serve up only RSS feeds, which the user can select, modify, and add to their heart's content, which would include a partial text summary of the article in question, pictures that accompany the story, and any video or other media associated with the piece. Having these extra bits on information included with some text of the article's text not only garners more interest for the user but it also provides a visually rich news experience from multiple sources in a centralized location, something which is lacking currently on the internet.
Other features I would like to add, to help customize the user experience even more, include adding a StumbleUpon-like list of categories which the user can check off to receive only content that they'd be interested in. For instance, if you want to grab an RSS feed from the New York Times there are 20+ options to choose from, from the front page news to the books section to the classified ads. Let's say our user is interested in world news and gardening. If they select the right options instead of receiving other NYT stories from the science section, arts and entertainment, and local news they would only receive stories that had to do with gardening and world news.
Another similar feature I'd like to implement would let content providers serve up their most popular daily content to the user. On websites such as digg, where users vote to keep a story popular or bury them, one can filter out the junk from the important information, in most cases, by seeing how many people have dugg a particular story. Many of the most important items of the day, such as news over the White House and the War in Iraq, receive a large amount of attention on such websites and using their ranking systems can only help provide the most relevant news to the user.
Down the line there are other features I feel would be important to such a project, but at the moment I envision a website that provides relevant and interesting news via RSS feeds to a user and enhances the stories through the addition of more textual content and other media that accompanies the story. Multiple items would still be served up for a single RSS feed but they would only include the stories the user wanted to read, not a list of junk articles one might have no interest in reading. The hope for the website is to interest occasional news consumers and news junkies alike by giving them a content rich and focused news report containing headlines, text, images, and other items for the most important and relevant stories of the day.
[MOCK UP IMAGES GOES HERE]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)