Submission

The final one page summary is now complete and the project ready for submission. This isn't the end though. I plan to add to and upgrade this site frequently using more innovative concepts and experimentations in online textual content and design. It's been a most rewarding process!

Home Page: http://www.falconastrology.com/syn.html

One Page Summary:

Cyber Media Project: Synchronicity: Meaningful Coincidence or Chance?

Form:This project is an educational website consisting of 1 introductory page, 1 animation page, 4 sub-topic pages, a printable version in .pdf, a ‘references only’ page in html, a glossary of terms in .pdf , a site map in HTML, 30 pages of in-text definitions, images and sounds in HTML, and 150+ external links. The site also includes a discussion forum with 5 separate discussion boards.

Content: The content is a combination of story, information, entertainment, infotainment, and educational material. It offers introductory concepts, tools, links, and further study, guiding the viewer with current information and a broad spectrum of insights by many authors. The extensive references, links, contacts, and ‘about the author’ allow viewers to assess the content for merit from both the position of ‘storytelling’ and ‘peer reviewed academics’. Modeled after G21, the content includes hyper-text non-sequential writing, visual and audio story telling, flash animation, academic references and interactivity in the form of links, ‘start’ and ‘stop’ buttons, ‘continue to next article’ links and further readings on and off site. Images and sounds have been included to explore new textuality and will continue to be added as the site developed further.

Audience: The target audience includes students, both formal and informal, whose discipline explores the concept of synchronicity. This includes psychology students, particularly those studying Jungian Analytical Psychology, as well as viewers interested in or researching mythology, folklore, astrology, parapsychology, tarot, Psi, philosophy and sociology, and theoretical quantum physics and its relationship to myth, dreams, shamanism, divination and non-corporeal experiences of consciousness, consensuses and non-consensuses reality. The use of Meta-Tags in the of the HTML allows search engines that use this function to rank the site effectively. The inclusion of a site-map also supports SEO (search engine optimization) and helps insure the audience can find the pages. Already on google.com, typing in the key works ‘synchronicity + meaningful coincidence’ brings up the site in the first 6 pages out of 57,500!

Design

Visual – The style and layout are similar to my original site to provide continuity. Viewers coming from my main page will know they are still in my domain. With hints from G21 and from articles and lectures in this unit, I have included more images, animation, audio and hypertext links to facilitate a non-linear display of information and a more holistic online experience.

Sound – I have included an audio component primarily in the flash animation and several of the hypertext links. As I develop the site further, I will incorporate my own voice in the story of Eris, the Uninvited Guest and add audio to more of the hypertext links. I have experimented with this in the ‘As Above, So Below’ page by recording the occult maxim to play when the page opens.

Navigation – The navigation of the site is extensive and user directed. All links are clearly marked with consistent and traditional color changes for visited and non-visited links. Pages are titled for easy identification and a site-map is included if anyone ‘gets lost’. Interactivity consists mainly of hypertext links, playback control of the animation and a viewer discussion forum.

Functionality – The site is easy to update with site-wide link changes now that the structures are in place. The site supports IE 5, 6 & 7 on Windows XP SP2, Firefox 5.0, Mozella-all versions (Windows and Mac), Netscape 7.2 (Windows and Mac), Opera 8 (Windows and Mac) at all screen resolutions from 800 x 600 to 1600 x 1200. It functions for 98% of web users (from browser stats http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp ) Downloads in the form of printable versions of the ‘text only’, glossary of terms and references are included.

Solutions to Playback

Playback Solved!

I've implemented a solution to the playback issues in the flash animation.
Instead of buttons which use javascript and are read differently in different browsers, I've opted for simple 'stop/back/replay' symbols in the form of arrows which have html hypertext links--no javascript.

These arrows support viewer controlled interactions and are visible without scrolling in all resolutions 800x600 upward, functioning as intended in all browsers.

I like the ancient stone-etched quality of the design. It suits the motif of the fairy tale well.

With my .pdf files updated I now have only to finalize the draft of the one-page-summary. I will post links to all aspects of my assignment here in the next few days.

Again, this cybermedia project has been an educational and rewarding process from the standpoint of theoretical concepts, design and storytelling. Also, it's been quite fun!

Final De-bugging

Completed Tasks from Last Week:

• solve screen resolution issues in all main pages
• write draft of one page summary

To do:

• solve new issue with play back control of animation
• expand glossary of terms--re-save to .pdf and upload
• revise glossary in print version--re-save and upload
• finalize draft of one-page-summary

Playback again!

New issues with the playback control for the animation appear in Internet Explorer. This browser is not reading the 'play' button and refreshing the page as intended. It is reading 'Play' the same as the other buttons and jumping back to the main page. From there, the animation can be re-started but in Firefox the 'play' button refreshes the page as desired. I will google this problem and see if I can find a workaround for IE before the assignment is due.

Glossary of Terms:

When I had a friend proof read the content, they listed several words they did not recognise but couldn't find in the glossary of terms: Numinous, Parapraxis and Chairos. I have added these words to the glossary and created hypertext pages for them. They are now clickable and in the 'print only' version as well.

Plans for the future:

For me this site is a work in progress. I will continue developing it over time. I plan to add more pages, exploring further the ideas touched on in the initial articles. I also want to offer more animations and stories that exemplify synchronicities of all kinds. Particularly, I want to incorporate more of the concepts of 'new textuality' and a non-linear approach to the site. Experimentation in this direction is next! It has been a most rewarding process so far!

De-Bugging

Here is my current 'completed' and 'to-do' list.

Completed from Last Week's Tasks

• Initialize 'Site Wide Search' Link
• Final Proof of content
• Add Audio Plug-ins to some pages ('Matter' & 'Scarabaeid')
• Check on all browsers and screen resolutions (esp. Mac!)
• Check all links
• Solve playback control issues on Flash animation
  

To do

• Debug for resolution 800 x 600
  
• Write one page summary

Feedback

I received some excellent feedback from several viewers this week, including my colleague Melissa.

Forum: LPW503 - Discussion Group

Date: Tue Oct 31 2006 13:39

Author: HUGHES, MELISSA SELINA

Two main issues consistent with Melissa's observations were the overlap problem with low resolution (800 x 600) of the global navigation links and the lack of playback control on the flash animation. I have solved the playback dilemma by moving the .swf flash to its own page with a 'start animation' button on the main page and a 'stop' and 'return home' button on the animation page. Now the main page can be refreshed (returned to) without the animation starting up again, and again!

This choice was made after extensive research of options re playback control:

Animated content can greatly enhance the experience provided by multimedia content. However, media content that changes unexpectedly - by scrolling, flickering or flashing, or otherwise moving around, can also cause some people significant access problems. The solution is not to stop providing animated content, but to allow as far as possible options for users to control animations, and at a minimum be able to slow down, freeze or turn them off. http://www.skillsforaccess.org.uk/howto.php?id=112

The overlap problem at the resolution of 800 x 600 is proving more difficult to solve. At first I thought, who uses such a low res anyway? I 'googled' for an answer and found that plenty of people do!

The most popular screen resolutions on the web in the world are:

1.	1024 x 768	56.15%
2.	1280 x 1024	15.79%
3.	800 x 600	12.04%
4.	1280 x 800	4.09%
5.	1152 x 864	3.90%

http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox43-screen-resolutions.html



To the left is a screen shot of the page viewed on a friend's PC at 800 x 600.

The title bars overlaps into the search function and the global links disappear behind the main content. Compare this screen shot to the one below.



Following is a screen shot from my computer using my preferred resolution of 1154 x 864 (curiously the least popular res world-wide).


Here there is no problem with overlap but to make the page consistent and functional for all viewers, I'm going to have to shorten the global links. I'll eliminate the 'quantum theory' links altogether, drop one link per heading and use a smaller font. (80%)

I'll post a screenshot of the results when complete.

Finally, here is the screen shot of the page at the low resolution of 800 x 600.


I have eliminated some of the global links to avoid overlapping and taken out the 'quantum' links altogether.

Now there is no problem with the global link 'research' overlapping into the 'search' box or the drop down links disappearing behind the content page. Now to fix the other 4 pages!

And then on to the summary.