Preface
This is probably one of the hardest assignments that I have ever
had to do. One; I was sick from the very beginning of it and
two; I was fighting
myself in wanting or needing to tell the story that did finally come
out. (I have to say that I have been a formidable opponent to my
own creative process, but my creative need is by far stronger
than my logical
side. Just writing that sentence has given me goose-bumps and tears
in my eyes because prior to the fire, I would never have let my creative
side win this battle.)
Purpose
Originally, this essay started out to be very academic and cold.
Dwelling strictly on Maslow’s Pyramid, I kept anything personal out of the
essay. But, I didn’t have an opening page for a long time which actually
hindering my progress with completing the project. Then, as I usually do
when I have writer’s block, I sat at the computer one night and just
let my heart tell the story that my mind wouldn’t let me tell. I
wrote the paragraph about my mother introducing the whole ‘hierarchy
of needs’ to me which sparked a transition from an academic essay
to one more personal and introspective.
I was concerned and nervous that revealing so much about my self
might put people off. But, after the first walk through, Shannon
and Julie
gave me such positive feed-back regarding the very personal events
on my opening
page. Encouraged, I went back to the computer and essentially rewrote
my whole essay in one day so I could include personal snippets
on each page.
As for a true purpose; I would have to say that it is very personal
to me. If what I have written is helpful or interesting to anyone
else that
is a great bonus. Writing this essay has given me the visual, tangible
feeling as our second anniversary (May 2) to our fire draws closer,
that we can officially put some closure to this event.
design decisions: what were they and why you made them
Whenever I talk to people about what my kids and I have been through,
I seem to convey our story in a calmness that is in direct contrast
to the sheer drama of that night. (There is so much more to tell that just
didn’t
seem appropriate to this essay). Maybe in a way, the calmness of the subtext
is supporting this tone and the inescapable sparseness that we lived with
for several months after the fire.
In designing this essay, I knew that I wanted the words to be
the most dominant feature of the site. I wanted the reader to
have
to read through
to find the next link. I didn’t want any fancy graphics, wild splash
pages, or navigational sidebars; no drop-down menus, no pictures, nothing
that would detract from the story or the information. I didn’t even
want the links or exits (escape) to be obvious. Even my breadcrumbs are
deliberately simple and small to reduce their level of importance on the
page.
At first I struggled with making a banner, wanting something
simple here as well. Giving up, I focused my attention on getting
the
text online.
I am glad that I my efforts were thwarted by my inexperience
with Photoshop. The banner I have now is so much better than
the one
I had originally
planned to create.
I debated for a long time over whether I would include any
external links. I finally did add three. (One link is my attempt
to convey
to the readers
that although this essay covers some serious topics, I have
been able to maintain a sense of humor in dealing with our
trauma).
I am sure
that my
subconscious instinct was to keep the reader embedded in the
story without giving them a door to the ‘outside’. Again, this picks up on
the unavoidable stages that we have gone through in rebuilding our lives.
I only decided to allow the two outside links after I had
rewritten the whole essay to include the personal paragraphs.
Shortly after
I finished that rewrite, I realized that we have something
on every page;
that we
are ready to move on to the next level of Maslow’s
pyramid. With our basic needs met we can once again integrate
ourselves into our community
in a more effectual way. So, if we are ready to extend ourselves
into our community, then maybe I could extend outside links
to the readers too.
text/writing/composition decisions: what did you find different about
writing a hypertext as opposed to a traditional text? what did you find pretty
much the same?
As I stated above, I had some personal battles to overcome.
I won’t
go into all of that again. Instead, I will focus on the technical parts
of the writing. I don’t like composing on Dreamweaver (or maybe it’s
the Mac) so I do all of my work on my PC at home then transfer the text
to the site. Breaking the pages up seemed to fall pretty naturally between
the nine needs, the opening page, and the two additional pages of information.
I didn’t really dwell on the web site pages as I wrote except for
a few obvious words that would become links; those I highlighted for reference
later. I followed Price’s advice to relax about the length of a page.
He said that he would prefer that a good story not be broken up by having
to click to another page just to keep the text on a non-scrolling screen
size.
After the pages were up on the web and the obvious links
were created, I saw that I was stranding my readers.
I went back
through each
page and either created links through existing text
or I added or changed
text to
support new links. I tried to follow Price’s advice to keep links
at the ends of sentences, paragraphs, or pages. But, because this site
relies solely on embedded links, this advice became impossible to follow.
(I did manage a few). Positive feedback prompted me to also cross-link
the site to my home page(s) and created two new pages for my kids. The
consensus seemed to be calling for a personal connection with me and my
kids. In my mind, I don’t see the cross-links as being external because
the essay is closely dependent on these links. It reminds me of Scrabble;
when you make an existing word a new word by the placement of your play
both words constitute one turn.
The final count for links: internal = 62; external
= 2; pop-ups = 2. The final count for pages (including
my personal
home
pages that
are
cross-linked)
= 18.
how we should read your essay
how else we might read your essay
I don’t know. I don’t really have any preconceived ideas of
how this site should be viewed. It is somewhat autobiographical, offering
the reader a sliver of who I am.
difficulties in writing and design - and how you addressed them.
The one part of this project that absolutely drove me nuts was the
mapping at the beginning. I just couldn’t map something that was continually
changing. I finally scribbled something on paper and basically threw it
at you (Dr. Morgan) because I just wanted to be able to check it off of
my ‘to-do’ list so I could move on. Now I have a beautifully
detailed map!
Another curious observation about this project
was how weird it felt to create pages that
weren’t all linked to each other. This took some
faith that in the end it would all work, and it did.
Conclusion
This has been a very good project for me
academically, creatively and personally.
Academically, I
learned as I did my research.
Creatively, I was pushed
outside of my comfort zone. Personally,
I am excited about the discoveries
I made through
writing this
essay.
Reference Materials
http://web.utk.edu/~gwynne/maslow.HTM
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslow/html
http://www.itstime.com/print/jun97/p.htm
Copyright© 2004
Tammi Hartung
last modified: April 2004 | contact
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