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last.updated 9.18.05

Understanding the Web and Reading Interfaces

Purpose

As computer users and digital writers there are many aspects of the technology that we take for granted. For example, the infrastructure of the World Wide Web remains transparent to most, unless there is a problem that brings it to our attention. The same can often be said of most software interfaces. These software interfaces allow users to navigate these complex technologies without having to know precise computer languages. For most users the interface is a mediator between the user and the programming language that "speaks" with the computer–and thus runs the program.

These interfaces are texts designed by software programmers (working for software corporations). Thus the "authors" of these interfaces make rhetorical choices. We will develop and discuss strategies for reading these texts.

Before Class

• Read Selfe & Selfe's "The Politics of the Interface" [College Composition and Communication 45.4]
• Read R. Williams's Chapter 1 (What is the World Wide Web?) and Chapter 2 (How to Search the Internet), pp. 15-44

Discussion

Williams and Tollett

• What questions do you have about Williams and Tollett's description of the WWW?

Selfe and Selfe

As a class we will discuss the following questions:

• What is Selfe and Selfe's argument? How do they support this argument?
• This article was written over a decade ago. In what ways do you see their arguments being valid or invalid now?
• Samantha Blackmon (2003) argues, "Let me make it plain here that this representation of the raceless majority is not tied to an actual declaration of whiteness but rather to the face that in the absence of a specific race, white is considered the 'default'" (pp. 93-94). What evidence of various audience defaults do we see in our current writing technologies?
• These interface readings are quite ideological, what other ways might we read an interface? In other words, how else might we think about the interface designers' assumptions about their users?

As groups of four (working with those at your table), develop a list of heuristics for reading an interface. Remember that a heuristic is a prompt (sometimes a question) for interrogating a text or situation with the intention of creating knowledge.

Submit your list to the designated discussion list in Blackboard. We will discuss these as a class.