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Web Site Design

Following up with the wire framing from the browser based task, I started to look at designing my website and looking at possible angles that could display my content in a unique way.

Here I was thinking of making the content accessible week by week but i wanted to keep experimenting with layout until I found something I could identify with.

I then looked back at the first lecture and I was drawn to the symbolism of semiotics and thought about how we use many symbols today to communicate.

I had a conversation with a friend about how we communicate and how even some of the symbols we use are not not necessary related to what we mean or commonly known for. So I looked into emotion symbols and found that maybe some how i could incorporate the symbols into my own website.

Emotions in virtual communication differ in a variety of ways from those in face-to-face interactions due to the characteristics of computer mediated communication (CMC). CMC may lack many of the auditory and visual cues normally associated with the emotional aspects of interactions. Research in this area has investigated how and when individuals display and interpret various emotions in virtual settings.

While text-based communication eliminates audio and visual cues, there are other methods for adding in emotion. Emoticons, or emotional icons, can be used to display various types of emotions. Similar to emotional displays in face-to-face communication, it was found that females tend to use more emoticons than their male counterparts. Beyond simply using emoticons, in virtual communication platforms, people tend to capitalize letters or words to add emphasis to speaking.

Furthermore, it has been shown that virtual communication can reduce normative social pressures . As a result of decreased social pressures, individuals may feel more comfortable disclosing either positive or negative affect, which may not be considered appropriate in normal face-to-face interactions.

I came across these symbols and notices they were considered miscellaneous, to me that meant they where open to interpretation therefor I picked out some symbols to use in conjunction with words to keep things interesting.