Socialest: an application of mapping in creation of a design solution for user driven websites

The Web 2.0 paradigm relies on the user to create content for websites. This creates volumes of information that is fed to other users. There is a concern that there can be a lack of credibility and relevance of information for the user. The goal for this study is to create a prototype Web 2.0 website that allows users to submit and organize information through cognitive mapping. The prototype website uses aspects of Kevin Lynch’s cognitive mapping to allow individual users to organize content as they see fit. Information graphic concepts from Edward Tufte are applied in this study to keep the design of the prototype and its information clear for the user. The results of this prototype address issues of user’s motives in submitting content and interacting with the community at large. In addition, the prototype also presents the user with an application that they might use to logically organize information. Future projections for Socialest are implementing the site, and conducting further studies of how users experience the interactive mapping.

[1]  Elaine Peterson,et al.  Beneath the Metadata: Some Philosophical Problems with Folksonomy , 2006 .

[2]  David Weinberger,et al.  Tagging and Why it Matters , 2005 .

[3]  Michele A. Willson.  Technically Together: Rethinking Community within Techno-Society , 2005 .

[4]  H. Margolis.  Visual explanations: Images and quantities, evidence and narrative , 1998 .

[5]  Marieke Guy,et al.  Folksonomies: Tidying Up Tags? , 2006, D Lib Mag..

[6]  A. Feenberg,et al.  Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice , 2004 .

[7]  Mor Naaman,et al.  HT06, tagging paper, taxonomy, Flickr, academic article, to read , 2006, HYPERTEXT '06.

[8]  A. Borgmann.  Holding On to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium , 2000 .

[9]  Edward R. Tufte,et al.  Envisioning Information , 1990 .

[10]  Sharon Poggenpohl.  Else/where: Mapping New Cartographies of Networks and Territories , 2007 .

[11]  D. Shanahan.  Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business: By Neil Postman New York: Viking, 1985, Penguin, 1986, 180 pp., $15.95 (cloth), $6.95 (paper) , 1988 .

[12]  B. Marx.  The Visual Display of Quantitative Information , 1985 .

[13]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  The invisible computer , 1998 .

[14]  Heidi E. Buchanan,et al.  Collectivism vs. Individualism in a Wiki World: Librarians Respond to Jaron Lanier's Essay “Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism” , 2007 .

[15]  Tim O'Reilly,et al.  What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software , 2007 .

[16]  S. Kierkegaard,et al.  Kierkegaard Anthology , 1947 .

[17]  K. Ann Renninger,et al.  Building Virtual Communities , 2002 .

[18]  A. Sunmade.  The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century , 2008 .

[19]  Tony Hammond,et al.  Social Bookmarking Tools (I): A General Overview , 2005, D Lib Mag..

[20]  Jessica Helfand.  Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture , 2001 .

[21]  K. autorů.  The Cluetrain Manifesto - The End of Business as Usual , 2001 .

[22]  Kevin Lynch,et al.  The Image of the City , 1960 .