Hello, everyone!
Wow, I can't believe today's the day! At long last, it's time for me to present my final(ish) capstone project for my Media Publishing class! Sound the trumpets, and click here to view it in all its glory! So to address the elephant in the room, my initial plan to recreate the voter registration form in Microsoft Powerpoint/Google Slides simply didn't pan out the way I'd hoped, despite various attempts to find the proper configurations. To quote the great Hell's Kitchen overlord, Chef Gordon Ramsay: "Great concept, terrible execution." Thus I was left with little choice but to try to perfect my original Google Sheets prototype, heeding as much of my professor and peers' feedback as I could. And as I suspected, I couldn't find the time to create that state-specific voter info pamphlet, so I scrapped it entirely and focused upon making my voter registration form as great as possible. Some key modifications I made from the prototype include:
A couple things that I was unable to accomplish, but would like to figure out if this form were to be released for widespread use involve:
Thanks for sticking by me all this time! I'm incredibly proud of what I've produced this semester and I've taken great value from the experience overall - hopefully y'all share similar sentiments. That's about all I have for you, and I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™!
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Hello, everyone! Well, here we are, a mere week away from me submitting my final capstone project (before revisions). What an exciting, but also somewhat terrifying, prospect! On Monday I had an individual conference with my Media Publishing professor, so now I'm tasked with providing another update for y'all. This shouldn't take too long, but here we go: So as far as the voter registration form is concerned, it looks like I'll be sticking with my initial idea of providing a slide presentation ... well, sort of. You see, my professor and I agreed that Google Sheets wasn't the optimal platform for creating a fillable, physical/online hybrid document. So instead, I'll be using Microsoft Powerpoint (or Google Slides) to recreate my color and black & white forms, incorporating my professor and peers' suggestions. There's a little-known feature that allows me to adjust the slide size, so I'll certainly make good use of it to create my horizontally oriented, copy paper-sized forms. With the voter information pamphlet, I'll have to play it by ear. I've already decided to scale it back and only cover Avon's town hall candidates - and honestly this makes more sense anyway if I'm operating off of the November 5, 2019 municipal election timeline - but even then I may not have enough time to create a high-quality product. One appealing alternative would be to simply apply a hyperlink to each state star (although for now, I'd really only bother doing that with Connecticut's) that would allow registered voters to access official, unbiased voter information. My initial intent behind the pamphlet was to increase accessibility for those using physical materials, but considering my project's hybrid nature, perhaps it'd be redundant for me to create "original content" containing information that's readily available already. I must admit that I'd be somewhat disappointed to have to take this route, as I'd feel that my project's scope was dispropportionately smaller than the time period I was allotted to work on it, but it's a sacrifice that I'm willing to make if it'll benefit me and my project as a whole. That's about all I have for you today! Look out for my final capstone project on November 22, and until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™! Hello, everyone! Yes, it's been some time since I last posted, but I have another quick exercise to undertake regarding my capstone project! This time around, I'll be conducting an audit (no, not the financial kind, don't worry!) in relation to its accessibility, using Eyman et al.'s "Best Practices for Creating Accessible Digital Texts" as my primary guide. Ok, here goes nothing: As a creator:
As an editor:
That's about all I have for you today! Hopefully I've made this auditing process, ahem, accessible for y'all! Look out for my project trailer on Facebook and Twitter tomorrow at 10 AM (Election Day, baby!), and until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™! Hello, everyone! I know that we've sorta established this pattern of reading analyses on Mondays and project updates on Fridays; but today I'll be deviating from this exact formula by combining the two into one, using everything I've learned about design thus far to analyze that of several different states' U.S. voter registration forms! I already highlighted a bunch of forms' design elements extensively throughout my genre analysis, so I'll reexamine those forms - alongside a few new ones - with the goal of creating some more general rulesets based around design and content. So without further ado, let's examine Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, and Michigan's respective forms again, alongside those used in Texas, New York, Virginia, and Wisconsin: So, some consistent design elements include:
And contentwise, these forms commonly contain:
Hopefully this exercise proves insightful for us all as I create my project. And speaking of which, look out for my project prototype this Friday! That's about all I have for you today, and until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™! Hello, everyone! I'm excited to provide another capstone project update for y'all today! This one shouldn't be too long, but I have some important things to share: First, I've been working on the documentation sheet for my U.S. voter registration form, which -as I mentioned in my tool demo - is designed around the American flag! It took a ton of time and effort - much more than you might think, in fact - to design and arrange everything properly, but here's my prototype (I would've provided a JPEG had the stars remained visible during the conversion). Note that I've labeled the stars alphabetically by state abbreviation and that I'll label the stripes later. It's a real beauty, isn't it? Anyway, I've also compiled photos for my state-specific candidate info sheet! In my infinite wisdom, I didn't consider that 2019 is an off-year for state and federal congressional races; therefore I'll focus upon U.S. presidential and municipal candidates exclusively. I'll include only the major presidential contenders - seriously, I'm not gonna bother with that entire Democratic field - and my hometown (Avon, CT)'s town council candidates - because my goodness, it'd take so much work to cover everyone on pages 5 and 6 of this list! Here's my photo collection. For my last matter of business, let's discuss how well I'm adhering to my initial project timeline! Admittedly I've deviated a bit from my original plan, but truthfully the sequence in which I complete Steps 1-3 doesn't really matter as long as I satisfy them all by October 25. So here's what I still have to do leading up to that "Project prototype" deadline:
I hope that y'all are encouraged by this status update; I know that my hype for this project is absolutely THROUGH. THE. ROOF. That's about all I have for you today, and until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™!
Hello, everyone! Today I'll be providing another capstone project update! I've recorded a Kaltura screencast, where I showcase some tricks that I'll use to create one facet of my project. I opted to not record audio for this - I'm very self-conscious about hearing my voice recorded - so allow me to give some quick context behind what you're about to watch:
So as you know, I'm trying to create a more accessible and visually stimulating U.S. voter registration form that maintains the professionalism of a government-issued document and can be completed by any citizen regardless of state residence. In my project pitch, I mentioned that I'd compile U.S.-themed graphical elements for said form, and what's more American than our flag, right? However, my imagination's been running wild - as it tends to do because I pride myself upon my creativity - so I thought to myself, hey, instead of just plopping an American flag or two somewhere on the form, why not go the extra mile and build my entire form - specifically its documentation section - around it? Think about it - each of the fifty stars represents a state that each prospective voter can select to receive their appropriate state-specific candidate info pamphlet, and then the stripes can serve as the rows within which to document personal info! Also, Google Sheets and other data collection platforms aren't as well-known for their visual presentation capabilities, so this'll be a fun twist on their typical usage. Really, it's the best of both worlds as far as intrigue and viability are concerned! In the screencast embedded below, I demonstrate how to create the red-and-white stripes (i.e. add a fill color and merge cells), insert and arrange the stars, and insert text boxes into said stars (I'll label each one alphabetically with a state abbreviation). As a sidenote, I've also devised a compromise for the complicated issue of creating accessibility for non-English speakers. Although one of my peers noted astutely that online translators can be unreliable for long-range text, I feel that individual words and phrases shouldn't pose as great of an issue. Therefore, I'll create my instruction section and state-specific candidate info pamphlet in English only, but label each row of my documentation section in English, Spanish, and French (e.g. "Name/nombre/nom"). Anyway, check out my tool demo: That's about all I have for you today! Comment below whether you think I'm a creative genius and there's some method to my madness, or if you believe I've simply lost my marbles! Until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™! Hello, everyone! After sketching out my capstone project concept earlier this week, it's time for me to spruce things up a bit with my project pitch! Here goes nothing: So national voter turnout rates are criminally low given the importance of exercising our voting right and myriad of opportunities for us to do so. College students (e.g. I and several of you reading this) constitute the largest voting demographic, yet turn out at the lowest rates come Election Day! Contrary to popular belief, this doesn't indicate apathy on our part - in fact, we're some of the most passionate advocates of civic engagement - but rather exhaustion surrounding the involvement process, in which I believe the faulty structure of our current voter registration forms plays a key role. Therefore, I've decided that I want to create the optimal voter registration form for all U.S. citizens of legal age (18 or older), correcting some major flaws I found upon analyzing a small sample of state forms and thus making the forms more accessible to interested parties. For instance:
But wait, how'll I execute all this? Well...
Now, you're probably thinking, Mike, this sounds like so much work! How'll you pace yourself through all this? Fair question, which I'll answer to the best of my ability. Given the extent of my schedule - which is incredibly packed and has a considerable number of moving parts - I don't feel so comfortable committing to particular dates at the moment, but I can try to estimate the weeks during which I'd like to accomplish certain tasks. Here's a tentative timeline for the completion of my capstone project: Week ending on October 5: Complete Step 1 Week ending on October 12: Complete Step 2 Week ending on October 26: Complete Step 3 (just in time for my "Project prototype" deadline on October 25) Week ending on November 2: Complete Step 4 Week ending on November 9: Complete Step 5 (and create a promotional social media post on Facebook and Twitter for my "Project trailer," which is due on November 8) November 22: Complete Steps 6 and 7 In conclusion, I'd like to address my project's potential impact. As one of my peers and even my professor suggested, I could certainly present this to state government officials with a letter outlining my intentions. I'm incredibly fortunate to have extensive writing experience across a wide array of genres - including that of the formal letter - and my affiliation with UConnPIRG should facilitate my connections to local legislators. Even if my project proves more inconsequential than I'd like, I'm still excited to undertake this initiative for an issue that's been one of my greatest passions for about half of my existence thus far! That's about all I have for you today, and until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™! Hello, everyone! My recent tool review really got me brainstorming about the possible forms that my capstone project could take, and now I'm ready to expand upon these a bit further! As I've mentioned a few times already, my ultimate goal is to create the optimal voter registration form for use by any American of legal age (i.e. 18 or older). National voter turnout rates are criminally low - particularly from the youngest demographic, which has the most potential to advance society - and I believe that the faulty structure of our voter registration forms plays a critical role in this disturbing trend. Allow me to restate the major qualms I had upon analyzing a small sample of said forms a couple weeks ago: I know that these are formal government documents, but they still look so dry and boring! We need much more than the occasional hint of multichromatic and multimodal stimulation in order to entice people to complete these forms. So then how'll I address these issues, exactly? Well...
Now, what form (no pun intended) might my capstone project ultimately take? Let's propose some ideas:
I'll conclude by saying that y'all should celebrate National Voter Registration Day on September 24 by spreading awareness about civic engagement and registering yourselves to vote if you haven't already (seriously, it's so important!)! If you're a UConn student like yours truly, you can visit UConnPIRG's voter registration tables on Fairfield Way from 11 am-5 pm on September 24 and 25, as well as attend UConnPIRG and USG's HuskyEngage Summit on September 28 (more info here). That's about all I have for you today, and until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™! Hello, everyone! I'll keep this post on the shorter end, especially following the extensive genre analysis I just finalized at the beginning of the week. Today I'll closely examine a "tool" (i.e. a platform) that I'm strongly considering for the creation of my capstone project, followed by some quick breakdowns of my alternatives. So as y'all hopefully remember, my goal is to create an optimized voter registration form for use by any American. This would mainly involve me creating a doc on my computer, so I don't feel much of a need to use anything sophisticated like Photoshop or any video-editing programs. Rather, I'll stick with what I know best and elevate my usage of a more accessible platform. My primary choice of platform for the creation of my capstone project is Google Docs (pictured below): So as you can see, the interface provides several different formatting options, yet remains quite simple and straightforward. As someone who lacks great experience in the design aspects of media creation - despite my best efforts to mix things up for the sake of this blog - this is a major positive. I also like that it's online; thus as opposed to me having to switch between windows constantly, I can just create new tabs and copy whatever images and other elements I desire straight into my doc. But perhaps the most appealing feature: autosaving. Boy, will it be nice to not have to waste time saving my work every few minutes in fear that my computer will suddenly shut down and rob me of my progress! I can also jump into my analysis of the form's different components - or even start brainstorming - without skipping a beat! My only significant concern is that the platform is so dependent upon me maintaining a steady Wi-Fi connection, and UConn's Wi-Fi isn't the greatest, to put it kindly. And for the sake of embedding my project within a blog post, it might be easier for me to just work within, say, Microsoft Word from the beginning and not have to worry about any drastic formatting changes when I download my Google Doc as a Word Doc. Speaking of which, allow me to briefly ponder some other options at my disposal: Microsoft Word: As I implied above, Word would be my main alternative. Although I have my minor quibbles with it, it's still a reputable platform that offers up some unique advantages over Google Docs. Google Slides (pictured below): Another avenue I've been considering is creating the voter registration form within a Doc processor as outlined, but then using a slide presentation program to exhibit said form and describe each of its elements more in-depth (i.e. devoting a slide to each one). This is quite appealing from an organizational perspective, and I can also create a more dynamic project by incorporating slide animations/transitions and several more visual (and perhaps even audio) elements! Instead of merely offering some drab, long-winded analysis of my project, I can simply provide bullet points and then write up slightly more-detailed descriptions within each slide's "speaker notes" section! My major qualm here is that I wouldn't be able to create my form within Google Slides, which would force me to take low-quality screenshots from my phone (unless, of course, I'm able to capture a print screen somehow). Microsoft Powerpoint: Like Google Slides, but without the burden of needing a Wi-Fi connection or the convenience of autosaving. That's about all I have for you today, and until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™! Hello again! Well, I've been teasing y'all for about a week now, so I'd say it's about time that I finally deliver upon my promises! Today I'll be providing an in-depth analysis of U.S. voter registration forms, taking examples from different states and compiling my observations. But before I get into the fun part, I should probably provide you with some basic, yet obligatory explanations... So, the name of my genre pretty much tells you everything you need to know. "U.S. voter registration forms" - they're forms that you use to register to vote, meant for any U.S. citizen who'll be of legal age (18) by the next electoral cycle. But I'm not just talking about presidential elections, or even congressional races for that matter! Technically speaking, every year is an election year, whether you consider the federal, statewide, or municipal level. Yet despite the importance of obligating our civic duty and the wealth of opportunities for us to do so, we're seeing criminally low voter turnout rates - particularly among young people, i.e. the people who're best equipped to effect positive change! Of course, voter registration forms are produced by each state's government. You can typically find them at a DMV facility, your local town registrar, or even some schools. And in the digital age, there are plenty of online and mobile avenues for voter registration, too (I may speak more to these not today, but sometime soon). For the purposes of this analysis, I'm sticking with the tried and true document, of which I've found several variations. Speaking of which... My first example for this analysis actually comes from my genre announcement last week. Given that it's my home state, I figured that Connecticut would be a logical starting point. For those of you who didn't catch my original post upon its publication, allow me to reinsert the official form and my thoughts on it:
So, this document's pretty straightforward, right? In a concise, yet explicit manner, it gives you all the info you need to fill out the form properly. Each section is signified in ALL CAPS for easy access, with its main points arranged in bulleted or numbered lists and any especially pertinent details either underlined or emboldened. And the best part is that these instructions only take up about half the page, while the other half is devoted to individual documentation of each prospective voter. If I had to critique anything about the form, I'd say that it's quite achromatic, feels a bit cramped (particularly in the documentation section), and lacks variation in communication medium (i.e. the document's contents are predominantly text-based). Surely this is a solid stepping stone, but I need a bit more in order for my analysis to feel substantial. As important as it is for every state to have its voting registration practices inspected and improved upon, such a feat simply isn't tenable for an individual undertaking. So then where do I go from here? Well, I'll consider arguably the most urgent cases - populous swing states! Think about it - given the magnitude of their influence in our elections, it's imperative that as many of their citizens as possible can and want to make their voices heard! Let's begin with the most populous of these states: good ol' Florida sunshine!
In this one, you see much of the info in paragraph form. I mean, yuck! However, at least each section has a bolded title, and the notes for discouraged actions have titles that are written in ALL RED CAPS (now, that's a safety warning if I've ever seen one!). Scrolling down to the documentation section, I'd say this one is much-improved from that of my home state. A gray box to signify the beginning of a new section, a link to complete the form online (way to get with the times!), and much more space to write within each box, oo la la! And even a new feature: a separate page full of destinations to which state residents can mail their forms! All in all, this one ain't too shabby. But let's see if the Penn is mightier than the shore:
Now, this one's definitely unique. Right off the bat, I see that it's four pages long, and I think, this is way too much, nobody would want to fill this out. But upon further inspection, perhaps that's a harsh way to look at it. First off, the Pennsylvania form lists its voting info in columns, with bolded titles and a mix of short paragraphs and bullet points. I won't lie, it looks pretty slick! Also, this is the first form I've perused that explicitly addresses non-English speakers, providing an avenue for obtaining a form written in Spanish! As does Florida, Pennsylvania provides a separate page listing addresses to which state residents can send their forms. And then its documentation section is so spaced out, it takes up over a page! In contrast to the other forms I've examined, Pennsylvania's devotes an entire row to each category before moving on to the next. It's nice that this one doesn't feel too cramped, and I'm sure it makes citizens feel that the voter registration process isn't too overwhelming. Other unconventional, yet much-appreciated elements include a mapping tool for the rural residents and homeless and a detachable envelope for sending the completed form to the appropriate County Voter Registration Office! I'll shut up about this one now, but man, am I intrigued by it! Ohio, you're up next:
I find this one a bit underwhelming, especially after all the gushing I just did over Pennsylvania's form. For starters, much of the info in the first page's bolded sections is written in long-standing paragraphs, which I'm sure will immediately turn off a ton of people. Then, the documentation section harkens back to that of Connecticut's form; it gets the job done, but it just feels a bit cramped on half a page. But the thing that baffles me most is that there's even more pertinent info on a separate page after the documentation section, with section titles in BOLD AND ALL CAPS! I mean, why not just place it with the other info and keep the layout consistent? After all, both sections end with the same warning that "WHOEVER COMMITS ELECTION FALSIFICATION IS GUILTY OF A FELONY OF THE FIFTH DEGREE," so clearly they relate to each other anyway. Then you could devote an entire page to documentation. Overall, Ohio's form is serviceable, but many of its design choices just confound me! On to North Carolina:
On the top right you can see a barcode, which definitely makes this form feel more official (or reminds me of grabbing my receipt as I depart from Price Chopper carrying bagfuls of groceries, but I guess either sentiment is apt). I appreciate that North Carolina puts its documentation section (i.e. the meat of the form) front and center, devoting a whole page to it and saving any additional info for the end. It even denotes required fields in red (finally, another form with some color variation!). The info page contains boxes with bold headers in differentiating gray slits and details in bulleted lists or short paragraphs, with certain words and phrases italicized or underlined. In general, North Carolina's form delivers arguably the best combination of conciseness and organization thus far. Ok, one more, and then I'll call it a day:
So, the first thing I notice about Michigan's form is that the headers of the info boxes are written in bold, all lowercase letters. I'm not sure whether to consider this new-age or outright informal for a government-issued document, but hey, at least it sets this one apart! I actually don't have much else to say here, except that I appreciate the entire page devoted to documentation, and that it contains a couple more graphics beyond the obligatory state seal (the clocks really drive home the urgency of completing the form immediately!).
I know that I've been rambling for quite a while, but this exercise has been rather eye-opening for me. It's a fascinating case study into how the competing elements of these different state forms - which, remember, are designed to fulfill the same purpose - may affect one's ability and willingness to partake in democracy. My final thoughts:
Anyway, thanks for indulging me in this long-winded exercise! Feel free to comment below with any of your observations, and perhaps I'll consider them as well in the development of my capstone project! That's about all I have for you today, and until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™! |
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