I have noticed from looking at a lot of the various websites that many of they assume you have a lot of knowledge that you may not have. The ones that don't assume this knowledge tend to be aimed at children. It would be good to find a happy medium between the two, without talking down to the user.
I have also found that many of the websites are not developed with the ease of use and navigation in mind, more to keep costs down, I would like to ensure that my website is as easy as possible to use, leaving the user with as little problems as possible navigating their way around and gathering the information they need. Making it easy to use will also encourage people to use it more, and to have a working community I will need a decent amount of people on there to make it work.
I would also like to find a way of getting the user to be able to record their voice, or video and upload this to the website, but I am unsure I have the technical knowledge for this. Although this is definitely something to look into, although if I did this I would have to ensure that there was some sort of moderator to check the content, as I would not want to be inadvertently providing porn to people!
I think the next step is to continue gathering the information as I still have some interviews to do (having a few hold-ups with that currently, should be sorted by next week) and getting information up onto the website for people to eventually start testing it for me.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Dyslexic Community Forums
www.beingdyslexic.co.uk
This forum community is literaly just a forum, but it offers a wide range of discussion topics. The topics range from general chat to more specific areas like what products are known of to help people with dyslexia. The forums also have access to Dyslexia professionals. I like the wide range of topics, it gives most people access to the information they are looking for. The only downside I can see to this is the representation of the information, as it is just text it can become tedious and uninviting, although this is a very difficult thing to get around with forums.
www.voy.com
This forum is aimed at parents and teachers of the dyslexic child. I found that this forum style appears disjointed and unorganised. This makes it difficult for a dyslexic to understand where to get the information from the site, it is important to remember that this site it aimed at parents and teachers, although, it is also important to remember that dyslexia runs in families, so therefore it is highly probable that many parents may also have dyslexia.
www.interdys.org
When I first got to this site I found it very inviting, unfortunately when I looked the forum was down for maintenance. It does infact provide a lot of support materials like books and newsletters, so I hope to review the forum at a later date, seeing as the website appears easy to navigate I hope the forum will be similar to this.
This forum community is literaly just a forum, but it offers a wide range of discussion topics. The topics range from general chat to more specific areas like what products are known of to help people with dyslexia. The forums also have access to Dyslexia professionals. I like the wide range of topics, it gives most people access to the information they are looking for. The only downside I can see to this is the representation of the information, as it is just text it can become tedious and uninviting, although this is a very difficult thing to get around with forums.
www.voy.com
This forum is aimed at parents and teachers of the dyslexic child. I found that this forum style appears disjointed and unorganised. This makes it difficult for a dyslexic to understand where to get the information from the site, it is important to remember that this site it aimed at parents and teachers, although, it is also important to remember that dyslexia runs in families, so therefore it is highly probable that many parents may also have dyslexia.
www.interdys.org
When I first got to this site I found it very inviting, unfortunately when I looked the forum was down for maintenance. It does infact provide a lot of support materials like books and newsletters, so I hope to review the forum at a later date, seeing as the website appears easy to navigate I hope the forum will be similar to this.
Monday, 2 February 2009
Joomla 1.5
Joomla 1.5 template
This is a more recent template that I have found which may also fit in with my ideas for the website.
This is a more recent template that I have found which may also fit in with my ideas for the website.
Joomla Templates
I have had a look through templates to use and I think this one would be a nice one:
Joomla Templates
I think the orange is bright and welcoming, and no more aimed at females or males as blue and pink is. I also don't want it to look corporate.
Joomla Templates
I think the orange is bright and welcoming, and no more aimed at females or males as blue and pink is. I also don't want it to look corporate.
Other Dyslexic Orientated Websites
www.xtraordinarypeople.com
This is a website that orientates around how dyslexics can achieve high standards. Focusing on what famous people are dyslexic and what they have achieved.
From the website:
"Xtraordinary People is a charitable initiative supported by leading dyslexia charities and famous dyslexics alike. 'Changing the face of dyslexia' means highlighting dyslexic children's talents and strengths, campaigning for teachers to be trained to recognise and support dyslexic children's abilities and difficulties."
I found that it offered a different "dyslexic friendly" website done with the same template. This offers a choice of text size, but for some strange reason puts a white background with black text, which is known to be problematic for many dyslexics. It offers news and success stories, but does not have a community or story share ability. I find that just having famous people makes it feel a bit unreachable, this is why I want to have a community within my website.
www.ukdyslexialive.co.uk
This is a website that provides links to products that provide support to dyslexics. It also provides information to support parents that think their child may have dyslexia.
Although this website provides a nice amount of information and products it is fairly text heavy. It is unclear who this website is aimed at with the more childish pictures but the information seems more aimed at parents and adults.
www.dyslexiacentre.co.uk
This website is from the BDC - Bristol Dyslexia Centre. It offers information about dyslexia in an informal and colloquial way interspersed with pictures which is very user friendly.
This website is where I got my idea for my website name:
"In fact the right hemisphere of the dyslexic brain may be bigger than the ordinary brain. (See Fig.2)" Which I think is a nice thought being dyslexic myself!
This website provides a short, simple test to indicate whether or not you may need to have a test or investigation. The test varies with age range which makes it more applicable to each person. There are also very clear instuctions, which always helps.
There is a comments section, but nowhere to add your own comments so these must be added by the website administrator.
I like the overall feel of this website, it seems well put together and offers a good amount of information without overloading the reader. There are seperate sections that are aimed more at parents and teachers that are more text heavy showing that each section relates to it's target audience.
Another useful website to keep in mind:
www.hobo-web.co.uk
This website provides a checklist for web developers to ensure that they do not create problems for dyslexic users.
This is a website that orientates around how dyslexics can achieve high standards. Focusing on what famous people are dyslexic and what they have achieved.
From the website:
"Xtraordinary People is a charitable initiative supported by leading dyslexia charities and famous dyslexics alike. 'Changing the face of dyslexia' means highlighting dyslexic children's talents and strengths, campaigning for teachers to be trained to recognise and support dyslexic children's abilities and difficulties."
I found that it offered a different "dyslexic friendly" website done with the same template. This offers a choice of text size, but for some strange reason puts a white background with black text, which is known to be problematic for many dyslexics. It offers news and success stories, but does not have a community or story share ability. I find that just having famous people makes it feel a bit unreachable, this is why I want to have a community within my website.
www.ukdyslexialive.co.uk
This is a website that provides links to products that provide support to dyslexics. It also provides information to support parents that think their child may have dyslexia.
Although this website provides a nice amount of information and products it is fairly text heavy. It is unclear who this website is aimed at with the more childish pictures but the information seems more aimed at parents and adults.
www.dyslexiacentre.co.uk
This website is from the BDC - Bristol Dyslexia Centre. It offers information about dyslexia in an informal and colloquial way interspersed with pictures which is very user friendly.
This website is where I got my idea for my website name:
"In fact the right hemisphere of the dyslexic brain may be bigger than the ordinary brain. (See Fig.2)" Which I think is a nice thought being dyslexic myself!
This website provides a short, simple test to indicate whether or not you may need to have a test or investigation. The test varies with age range which makes it more applicable to each person. There are also very clear instuctions, which always helps.
There is a comments section, but nowhere to add your own comments so these must be added by the website administrator.
I like the overall feel of this website, it seems well put together and offers a good amount of information without overloading the reader. There are seperate sections that are aimed more at parents and teachers that are more text heavy showing that each section relates to it's target audience.
Another useful website to keep in mind:
www.hobo-web.co.uk
This website provides a checklist for web developers to ensure that they do not create problems for dyslexic users.
I now have a domain!!! YAY!
My new domain is going to be:
www.biggerbrain.co.uk
I have learned that dyslexics may have bigger brains than non dyslexics! Something nice and cheerfull sounded better than areyoudyslexic.com or something like that.
So keep an eye out and see whats going to be up!
www.biggerbrain.co.uk
I have learned that dyslexics may have bigger brains than non dyslexics! Something nice and cheerfull sounded better than areyoudyslexic.com or something like that.
So keep an eye out and see whats going to be up!
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Interview questions
I've made my first draft set of questions for the interview. One set is aimed at people who have dyslexia and the other at parents of children with dyslexia.
Questions – Set A (people with dyslexia)
When did you first think you might be dyslexic?
Who first noticed the signs of dyslexia?
When were you diagnosed?
Were you diagnosed with anything else relating to dyslexia?
What were your main difficulties and have they improved?
What help did you receive and who did you receive this from?
Do you think you could have been helped more?
Did anyone treat you any differently once they knew? If so, how?
Do you think you have much knowledge of dyslexia?
Questions – Set B (parents of children with dyslexia)
When did you first think your child had dyslexia?
What made you think they might have dyslexia?
When was your child diagnosed?
What process did you go through to achieve a diagnosis for your child?
What help did your child receive?
What additional help do you think would have been useful?
What knowledge did you have of dyslexia to begin with?
How have you found this knowledge has developed?
I have a good amount of people with dyslexia to question, but only two parents to quetion, so will have to have an ask around for other parents!
I still need to draft up some consent forms and some general information forms.
Questions – Set A (people with dyslexia)
When did you first think you might be dyslexic?
Who first noticed the signs of dyslexia?
When were you diagnosed?
Were you diagnosed with anything else relating to dyslexia?
What were your main difficulties and have they improved?
What help did you receive and who did you receive this from?
Do you think you could have been helped more?
Did anyone treat you any differently once they knew? If so, how?
Do you think you have much knowledge of dyslexia?
Questions – Set B (parents of children with dyslexia)
When did you first think your child had dyslexia?
What made you think they might have dyslexia?
When was your child diagnosed?
What process did you go through to achieve a diagnosis for your child?
What help did your child receive?
What additional help do you think would have been useful?
What knowledge did you have of dyslexia to begin with?
How have you found this knowledge has developed?
I have a good amount of people with dyslexia to question, but only two parents to quetion, so will have to have an ask around for other parents!
I still need to draft up some consent forms and some general information forms.
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