About the project
This Ph.D. project examines websites as digitally mediated and multimodal expressions in terms of communication design through textual analysis. I develop a communication design perspective as an analytical lens through which we may see websites as mediational sites. The thesis is currently being evaluated.
Objectives
This project aims to:
- provide a better understanding of dynamic features in websites as part of communication design. It aims at including interaction design into the ways in which we may conceive of websites as communicative expressions.
- to critically examine and analyse expressive web interfaces and to relate these to commercial mediations in the culture industries
- to find ways of analysing texts which integrate key properties from aesthetics, interaction and graphic design.
Theory and methods
Textual analysis of selected web sites and related interfaces is the primary research mode. This draws on an extended notion of text, that is multimodal texts comprised of combinations of video, animation, written text, image etc. The thesis will incorporate numerous screenshots and their annotation as part of the analysis.The project is also informed by practice-based research via the collaborative design of the BallectroWeb.
Partners
This project is part of the interdiciplinary humanistic project Aesthetics at Work Members of this project are Arne Melberg (project leader), Arnfinn Bø-Rygg, Ina Blom, Liv Hausken, Marius Wulfsberg, Mia Göran,Tellef Kvifte
Funding and timeframe
Funded by: The Research Council of Norway
Timefame: 2003-2007
Outcomes
An article based doctoral thesis is being developed. The thesis consists of four research publications and a meta-reflection on the findings in these publications.
The publications in the thesis
Skjulstad Synne. 2004. 'Flashback - Tracing Developments from Electronic Paper to Dynamic Environments in the Software Flash'. Future Ground- Design research conference, Melbourne, Australia 17-21.nov. 2004.
Skjulstad, Synne, Morrison Andrew. 2005. 'Movement in the Interface?' Computers & Composition. pp 413-433.
Skjulstad, Synne. 2007, (In press). 'What are these? Designers' Websites as Communication Design'. I Morrison, Andrew (Ed.). Inside Multimodal Composition. Hampton Press: Kresskill.
Skjusltad, Synne. 2007 (In press). 'Motion Graphics and Communication Design on the Web'. Journal of Media Practice.
Other publications
Skjulstad, Synne. 2006. 'Clashing Constructs in web design'. I Melberg, Arne (Red.). Aesthetics at Work. Unipub: Oslo. pp 81-103.
In a new anthology Synne Skjulstad looks at clashing conceptions of the Web and how a communication design perspective can transverse such positions. She suggests that we look at websites as a matter of communication design - where form, function and aesthetics are blended in rich web expressions. Her chapter is one of seven contributions in the anthology Aestehtics at Work (Unipub 2007), that looks at art and aesthetics in contemporary culture.
The anthology presents the results of a multi-disiplinary research project at the University of Oslo investigating aesthetication.