Here’s my finished website for our Interrogating the Interface assignment: https://sites.google.com/a/vt.edu/interrogatingpaper/
While I can’t say I was a huge fan of our Ignite presentations (time limits that strict make me feel like I’m trying to defuse a bomb, even if I’ve practiced plenty) I actually enjoyed this part of the assignment. Google Sites aren’t particularly attractive platforms, but all pre-built clunkiness aside I am happy with the end result. I loved being able to integrate multimedia aspects into the body of this piece — because Paper, the app I focused on, was based on creating images, it was great to be able to demonstrate not only the inner workings of the program but also showcase pieces I’d made with it myself.
I’d used Paper for almost a full year before I wrote this essay about it, and while that certainly ensured that I had plenty of first-hand experience with it, in some ways experimenting with a completely unfamiliar app would have been really neat. I already knew many of Paper’s ins and outs and had adjusted to its quirks and learning curves, and thus approached the assignment a little differently than I would have if given a new program to dissect with a strictly analytic eye. I’m curious to see how many of my classmates will continue using the app or program they reviewed after this assignment is complete — while reviewing something less-than-helpful would have made for a fun, snarky essay, I am glad I got to work with something I genuinely enjoyed already.