“The lack of conventions and the opportunity to imagine formats with very different affordances than print
Burdick et al. “One: From Humanities to Digital Humanities,” in Digital_Humanities (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012), 10.
have not only brought about recognition of the socio-cultural construction and cognitive implications of standard print formats, but have also highlighted the role of design in communication. Modeling knowledge in digital environments requires the perspectives of humanists, designers, and technologists.”
The author noted that while traditional formats of materials have a consistent structure shaped by a long history of evolution, newly developing digital media still lack a shared understanding of how information should be organized and presented. On one hand, that lack of consensus might seem like a flaw. However, on the other hand, it offers an exciting opportunity because we have the freedom to experiment and revolutionize the way we deliver information.
This passage really grabbed my attention because my generation has experienced the shift from traditional books and textbooks to electronic versions of almost everything—course websites, e-books, online videos, and software designed for learning. It made me think about how important it is to communicate effectively through a user-friendly design. For example, when some tools are overly complicated, students might need extra tutorials or help just to use them, which can widen the educational gap if such resources are not equally accessible to everyone. When digital platforms are designed to be intuitive and provide clear instructions, they can be even more powerful than traditional media, since people don’t need to get a physical copy of something to start exploring new ideas.
As a computer science major who frequently works on software engineering and data analysis, I really value the perspectives of humanists and designers. Human-computer interaction is an important component of computer science. Beyond just learning the tools and codes to build a website, I have spent a lot of time in class studying user stories and other design principles in order to make the final product appealing. Similarly, in data analysis, it is not just the mathematical equations that matter. If we want people to easily understand the results, we need to think carefully about how we present the data. As we saw in the first survey in class, decisions about which types of charts, plots, or tables to use, and the choices of legends, colors, and other visual features, can vary significantly depending on the nature of the data and the story we want to tell.
In this term, I am eager to learn more about text analysis, data analysis, and website design. These skills will benefit me when I work on future projects, such as building websites, building software, and analyzing large datasets.
