Windows and Mirrors chapter 1-3

I've read countless books in my 25 years of living and I've never paid any attention to the style of type. While reading chapters 1-3 the point was brought up that readers get lost in the pages, I don't look at the word per-say I look through them. This is true I just read and look right through the style of type it is written in. We learn about Transparency, text rain windows and mirrors.

Structuralist is discussed in these chapters and we learn that they believe the soul purpose for the computer is to give information. For them the computer is nothing more then an artificial brain and the glitz and glam isn't needed. They want you to get the information you need and go. Its much different for designers. Designers believe that the interface should be a window and many digital artist insist that the interface can also be a mirror. 

Transparency: as used in science, engineering, business, the humanities and in a social context more generally, implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed. For example, a cashier making change at a point of sale by segregating a customer's large bills, counting up from the sale amount, and placing the change on the counter in such a way as to invite the customer to verify the amount of change demonstrates transparency.

Transparency is making the user unaware. Designers make textual and visual information available through their interfaces but they want the medium used to disappear. They feel the medium should be recognized and the user should in a sense get lost in the information. "The ideal interface is a transparent window into a world of data. " good web design is both transparent and reflective, it reflects  the users needs and wants in all their complexity." (windows and mirrors pg74)

Text rain which is "a text that its views users help to create, a text that they write in the process of reading" is very interesting. Its a digital installation that interacts with viewers. It engages and excites us. Just watching a video clip of people interacting with this installation was fun for me. It's like magic.

So for me experience is everything. Each and every time I turn on my computer I expect to be taken someplace else, a virtual world. I want to be in this digital world enjoying every surf I take on the waves of the internet. I can find myself on my laptop for hours without even noticing the time fly by. This is the experience I love about stepping into/through my computer. Chapter 1-3 for me describes the evolution of web design and the on going battle to make everything more transparent.