Abstract
Web sites are rapidly becoming the preferred media choice for information search, company presentation, shopping, entertainment, education, and social contacts. And along with the various forms of communication that the Web offers the aesthetic aspects have begun to play an increasingly important role. However, studies in the design and the relevance of focusing on the aesthetic aspects in planning and using Web sites have only to a smaller degree been subject of theoretical reflection. For example, Miller (2000), Thorlacius (2001, 2002, 2005), Engholm (2002, 2003), and Beaird (2007) have been contributing to set a beginning agenda that address the aesthetic aspects. On the other hand, there is a considerable amount of literature addressing the theoretical and methodological aspects focusing on the technical and functional aspects. In this context it is the aim of this article to introduce a model for analysis of visual communication on websites.
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Notes
- 1.
In this illustration I have combined the communication factors and the language functions, although it is not a direct copy of the model as it is presented in Jakobson’s article “Linguistics and Poetics” from 1960, where Jakobson kept the factors and the language functions in separate illustrations.
- 2.
For a more thorough insight into the model and the theoretical reflections behind the interpretation of Roman Jakobson’s model, see my Ph.D. dissertation: Model til analyse af lexi-visual, æstetisk kommunikation - med et særligt henblik på websites. (A model for the analysis of lexi-visual, aesthetic communication – focusing on Web sites). Part I and II, Roskilde University 2001. This text is unfortunately not translated into English.
- 3.
In terms of discussing genre and style in web design, I am indebted to the design researcher Ida Engholm and her Ph.D. dissertation from 2003. Her dissertation WWW’s designhistorie - website udviklingen i et genre- og stilteoretisk perspektiv (WWW’s design history – the development of websites in a genre- and style theoretical perspective) [my translation] is unfortunately not translated into English. Moreover, David Siegel’s Creating Killer Web Sites (1996), and Curt Cloninger’s Fresh Styles for Web Designers (2002) are inspirational reading in regard to style and genre in web design.
- 4.
It is important to notice that the term interaction in this context refers to the physical interaction between the user and the machine and not to mental or interpersonal interaction, such as the addressee’s personal construction of meaning when exposed to the media product.
- 5.
Jens F. Jensen’s model is based on Jan L. Bordewijk and Ben van Kaam’s matrix of the four communication patterns: allocution, conversation, consultation, and registration (Bordewijk & Kaam, 1986, p. 19). However, Jensen has updated the model by incorporating the interactivity aspect, which makes the model particularly suited to the analysis of visual communication on websites.
- 6.
Jakobson borrowed the term phatic function from Malinowski who established the term phatic communion in connection with his ethnographic fieldwork among some Melanesian tribes. Here he demonstrated that use of language in its most primitive form can be regarded as acts rather than a sharing of thoughts (Malinowski, 1969, pp. 312–315).
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Thorlacius, L. (2009). Visual Communication in Web Design – Analyzing Visual Communication in Web Design. In: Hunsinger, J., Klastrup, L., Allen, M. (eds) International Handbook of Internet Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9789-8_28
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