Different file types and usability checklists....

26/10/07 - 1/11/07
This weeks lecture was based on different file types, including image / audio files. But I couldn't remember a lot of them after the lecture, which given my record of remembering things, isn't entirely surprising so I looked them up on google and came across the link below:
http://www.udel.edu/interlit/chapter12.html
It has a few definitions and information on different file types including gif, jpeg, WAV etc so it was helpful.

The tutorial actually wasn't related to the lecture this week. We had to look at the university's website in groups and refer to a usability checklist to evaluate how usable the website is and then also reflect upon how useful the usability checklist was. In my opinion the website itself was more useful than the checklist which was created in 1998, was slightly dated and was too long. We managed to get through one and a half pages of ticking boxes before I felt a little bit of me die inside! (It had nothing to do with the hangover I had from the halloween party the night before, honest!). But just to help me understand a bit more to the point of the checklist, I looked it up online and found this link which defined what a usability checklist usually includes, defining what a website should/shouldn't include.
http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol7/design_no4.htm

I think I benefitted from the lecture more than the tutorial this week, but that was simply because I knew less about different file types than I thought. I didn't really know what all the different file types were for so it helped my understanding of how files are stored a lot. The tutorial was still benefitial, but the ticking boxes for nearly an hour wasn't exactly the highlight of my week. But I did learn the benefits / flaws of usability checklists, which will probably help me later on when I'm likely to have to make something along similar lines.