Reception: new medium, new readers

1
Reception new medium, new readers

• session 7 (08/10/03)

2
todays plan

• Placing today in the big schema (from authorial
  intention to text to readers to context )
• How do our readers read us?
• Lecture Intro medium specific reading habits
  (Nielsen, EyeTrack study)
• Kagepause
• Lecture reading in general cognitive point of
  view (Bennett Royle)

3
Social sphere conventions, community, canon,
fashion...
Readers personality and emotions
Access to textrepertoire, model reader, gaps,
etc.
Reading situationwhere, when, how...
medium
Readerssocial status identity, power...
The Reader, by Fragonard, 1770-72
4
Usability Reception
?
interaction
cognition
Can we read? How?
Do we understand? How?
5
Jakob Nielsen
People dont read online, they scan

• Highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as
  one form of highlighting typeface variations and
  color are others)
• meaningful sub-headings (not "clever" ones)
• bulleted lists
• one idea per paragraph (users will skip over any
  additional ideas if they are not caught by the
  first few words in the paragraph)
• the inverted pyramid style, starting with the
  conclusion.
• half the word count (or less) than conventional
  writing

6
Writing exercise by Steve Krug I
From Dont Make Me Think, p.47
7
Writing exercise by Steve Krug II
From Dont Make Me Think, p.48
8
Writing exercise by Steve Krug III
From Dont Make Me Think, p.48
9
Eyetracking Project I

• Context news
• Eyes go to text
• Banners do catch attention
• Online news readers read shallow but wide

http//www.poynterextra.org/et/i.htm
10
Eyetracking Project II
Putting the study to good use

• Improve headlines and briefs
• Edit online photos and graphics (resolution
  problems)
• Understand your online reader (situation)
• Improve banner advertisements (show logo all the
  time, no animation)
• Deliver two versions high-tech bare bones

11
GIVE US A BREAK!!!
12
reception focus
Reception theory emphasizes the reader's
consumption of the literary text over and above
the question of the sum total of rhetorical
devices which contribute to its structure as a
piece of literature.
literary beginnings
13
reception development
sides

• Historical (Canon, interpretive communities,
  particular histories of response, histories of
  reading, cultural context...)
• Philosophical (Theory of literary communication,
  interpretation, hermeneutics, aesthetic effect,
  phenomenology, blanks, implied reader,
  pragmatics...)
• Sociological (Media Studies)

14
questions about reading

• Is the reading already in the text?
• Reading is not straightforward i.e. Irony
• How can we tell if a reading is valid?
• Iser text given shape in the act of reading
• Themes identity themes, community, power
  relations, race, gender

Bennett Royle Readers and Reading
15
The Act of Reading
Literary repertoire the familiar territory
within the text (p. 69), that is, the references
to earlier works, social and historical norms,
etc. that the reader needs to actualize in order
to have full understanding of the text. Filling
in the gaps (leerstellen) what happens when a
reader starts from what the text says and figures
out what it doesnt say. The reader readjusts her
expectations all throughout the reading.
By Wolfgang Iser, The John Hopkins University
Press, Baltimore, 1980
16
- What is the necessary repertoire here?
17
The Two Towers 10-minute summary
HELM'S DEEP ROHIRRIM GUARD Sire, there are some
really femmy people at the gate. They have bows.
ARAGORN Those are Elves. Let them in. ROHIRRIM
GUARD Oh! Elves! Wow, I didn't expect that.
PEOPLE WHO READ THE BOOK Neither did I...
GIMLI Arr! I'm funny because I'm short.
LEGOLAS I'm funny because I make fun of how
short you are! HENNETH ANNUN FARAMIR So, who
are you, exactly? FRODO I'm Frodo. This is Sam.
FARAMIR Your...image consultant? SAM His
gardener. FARAMIR Ohh, like in a 'Lady
Chatterley's Lover' kind of way? SAM Exactly.
FRODO Righ-What??
Gaps?
By Molly Winter, http//home.earthlink.net/ladyir
ony/10minTTT.html
18
The Role of the Reader
Model reader a textually established set of
felicity conditions to be met in order to have a
macrospeech act (such as a text) fully
actualized. (p. 11). Authors make sure that
their texts are communicative by using the codes
that they think their possible readers share.
By Umberto Eco, Indiana University Press,
Bloomington, 1984
19
Personae exercise by Christina Wodtke I

• -Personae are archetypal users that exist mainly
  to be design targets (p. 164)
• -To create personae, start with user research
  (focus groups and interviews consumer
  information on product usage data about age,
  social patterns, etc.)
• You can create a basic persona the site will
  cater to, plus secondary ones that can also find
  it useful. It will help you prioritize.
• Personas can be used in scenarios or imaginary
  missions

From Information Architecture, chap. 7
20
Personae exercise by Christina Wodtke II
From Information Architecture, chap. 7
21
Personae exercise by Christina Wodtke III
From Information Architecture, chap. 7
22
digital text reception

• Repertoire-Gaps

-Usability-Onscreen habits

• Model reader-Personas