Moderns: Qualtrics.com

Unique Experience

When repeat users visit Qualtrics, they have the opportunity to choose what kind of information they see. This allows them, to some extent, to place their own lens on the website.

However, this is quite limited and could go a little further. Because Qualtrics users have accounts, when they log in they should be able to view a personalized version of the website. Their accounts gather information on them (specifically what type of information they collect) and the website could reflect this, showing them what is most relevant first.

Lds.org does this to some extent with the users' ability to highlight and make notes on certain documents. Qualtrics should do this but I recommend a step further by displaying relevant material first.

Unimpaired Beholders

Qualtrics employees that have unique insight into the world of research have the opportunity to write blog posts that go on the website to educate researchers that visit the website. They provide a more unimpaired view than the majority of people involved in research because they see so many more applications and uses of research products.

However, it might be nice to provide an opportunity for people outside of Qualtrics to write blog posts that appear on Qualtrics' website. This may be a difficult decision, however, because if the writer is good, they could probably get much more attention and interaction by posting via other mediums (such as LinkedIn, research websites, etc.). If the writer is not good, they would be more willing to post on the Qualtrics website but in that case we don't want them. Qualtrics would need to provide some incentive for writers to post quality material. This leads to the last point...

Gamification

The trend of gamification is often blown out of proportion as it is often more important for firms to integrate it than to actually do it right. However, in the path of helping people to become master critics it can be a valuable tool. Because users already have profiles, their information and progress can be easily monitored. Qualtrics.com can include trainings for them that they earn "badges" (or points, titles, etc.) upon successfully completing. Another way for these users to earn badges is to write quality content - these can be customer reviews, helpful answers to FAQ's, insightful information on the research process. This could be a way for Qualtrics users to interact with each other and collaborate on ideas. It would be awesome if it could help Qualtrics build a stronger community and become a one-stop shop for all research concerns and questions.

Lds.net and The Moderns

Critique:
 
Because I wanted to focus on Hume with my critique of lds.net, I decided to dive in and pretend to be a user (since for him beauty is in the eye of the beholder), and see what beauty I could find in the site and its services.  I went through the site again, and explored some of their pages and articles.  They have a lot of interesting material, and I found myself reading multiple articles without intending to.  A large reason I read those articles was because they were right there on the top of the front page, with gripping titles.  I did find myself wondering which tabs to select--the ones on the top or the ones on the side, since I could tell that some of them were the same but not all.  So that was confusing and definitely not a design that I could appreciate or find value in as a user.  I also found the order of the drop down menus somewhat illogical.  I wonder if there is a way for the site creators to track which tabs are clicked on most and have those be at the top of the drop down menus. 

Action plan: 

 

Organize tabs better so as to not confuse the user, and allow for them to access the beautiful pages and services of the site. 

Moderns and lds.org

Moderns 2nd Draft

 Who are the "Moderns"

The ancient worldview was that the meaning or beauty of a thing was in the thing itself. The modern philosophers, however, abandoned this view and said that beauty or meaning was not in the thing itself, but in the eyes of the beholder.

Hume
 
Values of things should be decided by not just anybody: those unimpaired, with discernment, and with taste.

Kant
 
Non-aesthetic values should be agreed upon by everyone.  Aesthetic values should be created by those that enjoy creating them. The struggle to enjoy a work of art is what we enjoy about it.

Hume, Kant and Social Websites 
 
Hume's view of beauty might come in to play when the website is being created.  Experts including graphic designers, programmers and user experience designers should be the people that first judge how a site should be created and designed.
Kant's view of beauty would come into play more once the website has been designed.  This is when users can interact and find value and beauty in the site themselves.  Because the whole purpose of the social website was for users to use it and value it,  this is when the site achieves the most important form of beauty.  Because of this, even as the experts are designing it and trying to make it beautiful in their eyes, they should keep in mind the next step for the sites beautification: the users engaging on it.

What would these folks have to say about your Social Website? - The Moderns

There was a class of intellectuals from about 1500 -1800AD that people who like to philosophize and sound smart call “the moderns.” Which, maybe isn’t the smartest name because it was only modern to them then… But regardless of the name, they do actually have some good suggestions on our more modern world today in regards to social media and what makes a good social website.

 Check out below to find out what they have to say:

Adjusting the Blog

Hume: Value/Beauty not in thing itself, but created by beholder.

Kant: People enjoy creating values and understanding all of it.

For now, the "beholders" of our blog are just us, so I think it is important we feel comfortable using it and see value in it.  A good thing about the blog is that we all have been able to be creative and figure out our different preferred ways of expressing our ideas whether it be videos, pictures, etc.  I think the way it can be improved, or the thing that I as the beholder do not value, is how long the posts are usually.  I want to read all of the material, but I find myself just skimming it most of the time.  So I think it would be really good if we wrote 3-4 sentence summaries if our posts are long.  This would allow someone who is just scrolling through to be able to get the general idea. 

Hume, Kant, and WebPhil

To be perfectly honest, I doubt that anyone of intelligence and experience who views WebPhil in its current state would consider it to be beautiful. Our posts, while sharing a common theme, repeat many of the same ideas and thus would serve only to overwhelm and confuse visitors. WebPhil does not have Plato's organic unity. We should only publish what we want the public to see. On the Facebook page of PHIL 214, for example, I have only included the most exemplary posts on the main timeline, which is what the public will see when they visit the page. Something similar should be done for our site, or perhaps we should even create a new site which we will then strive to attract visitors to. Yes, I know that Kant said that the process of interpreting something should cause one to feel the sublime and struggle with their deeply held beliefs, but that doesn't mean we should confuse everyone who visits our site. Let's figure out how to make this site beautiful; how to make it worth looking at and admiring.