The Chronicles of an (Almost) Unfixable Website

It seems like this project was assigned with this song in mind.

Gives You Hell - The All-American Rejects
I don’t even know where to begin. This website and I have had a very lengthy battle.

Since Professor Bump very highly recommended Dreamweaver or iWeb, I, having read the instructions multiple times, opted for the option which was most possible for me. Skaggs very graciously got me a copy of the program on my computer and gave me a quick tutorial. Too bad Dreamweaver required way more than a quick tutorial. Reading tutorial upon tutorial on the internet and watching video upon video, we (Mary and I) got very frustrated after all we could do was change the color of the site background. So we visited Professor Bump, and I didn’t understand much besides that Dreamweaver is very complicated. That’s probably my fault with all of my computer illiteracy.

Lesson number 1: Computer programs don’t really come with instructions.

And then the knight in shining armor came through.  Dana, of course, figured out a much less complicated way to make the website by using Microsoft Publisher. She was the first one done, and she did it without any specific directions that explained how to use Publisher. Dana showed us how to use it in just a few minutes (that’s all that we needed). And so, we gradually figured out how to maneuver through and use Publisher. All was fine and dandy and the website was turned in.

Lesson number two: Looks are deceiving

A few weeks into break I get an email saying that my portfolio doesn’t work. Just mine. It made no sense because one page of it did work, and all the other people who had used Publisher’s worked. But not mine. No idea why. So, juggling a full time job, seeing friends who I see once every 3 months, the holidays, and spending lots of family time with an uncle who sadly passed away over the break, I spent a little time everyday trying to fix the darn website. I tried everything that I knew how to do: de-linked, re-linked, googled for answers, made a new portfolio, and had a lovely email chain going with Bump. Nothing worked.

There were no instructions out there. There was nothing to read, nothing to follow. Yes, many times we choose to not read instructions and directions because they are at times long and excessive. Sometimes they are so dumbed down and painstakingly specific that it takes ages to get to the issue which you were concerned with. At that point, you could have figured it out by yourself much quicker. Other times, there’s the opposite problem, where there are gaps in the instructions which leave out crucial information that a beginner would need to know, or the language used is too jargon-like to make enough sense.

Lesson number 3: Innovation is key

There were no instructions that told me, if all else fails, linking images would be the way to make the website finally work…on January 8th!?!

With that in mind, it is true that I wanted answers and quick fixes. I know there can’t be instructions to every little thing. Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual, right? Today’s generation is in the age of technology, speed, skill – and knowledge. We need to be able to know how to do things quickly; we need to be able
to solve a problem with our own critical thinking skills. We’ve been brought up with the mentality that we are the generation of change: the world is filled with a myriad of problems that rest on our shoulder to be fixed in innovative ways. Thus, I think it is in the nature of our generation to skip over the instructions and try to think for ourselves. How else are those skills going to be built? And with efficiency in mind, what is the point in wasting time with instructions that aren’t going to help much anyways? It’s all about that Discovery learning.







Don't get me wrong: instructions are great. It's nice have that comfort of knowing exactly what to do and how to do it. Though it's a only a comfort when the instructions are clear and relevant. I think it's way too dramatic to say as a generation, the rule is, "Instructions must die" (Krug 2006, P46). It's only the instructions that don't make sense which should die.

My apologies if this is whiny. This project succeeded in giving me hell.