Computers and Composition Online: Interface
Computers and Composition Online is an online peer reviewed scholarly journal that has served the computers and writing community for nearly a decade. In an effort to contribute to the journal’s future success and sustainability, I have taken on the responsibility of updating the journal’s interface, both in terms of its visual design and its underlying code. I am coding the new inteface in accordance with the World Wide Web Consortium’s HTML 4.01 strict and CSS 2.1 specifications, which will make the journal more sustainable, adaptable, and accessible as web browsers continue to evolve long into the future. Additionally, from a design point of view, I believe the updated interface, while not a complete departure from the current design, will provide a more functional and inviting overall experience for its viewers.
Computers and Composition Online: Archival Work
Part of my role as the design editor for Computers and Composition Online is to ensure that it’s archive of scholarship continues to function in the context of modern web browser technologies. For example, the screenshot to the left represents a web text created by Ellen Cushman in 2004. Originally, that piece was created with proprietary software, and, as a consequence, it could only be viewed properly with the browser plugin affiliated with that software. While the piece functioned very well in most browsers when it was published in 2004, in late 2009 we noticed that it had ceased to function in modern browsers because the software no longer existed and the browser plugin, while still available, was no longer widely in use. Working in coordination with the editor of the journal, Kris Blair, and the author of the piece, Ellen Cushman, I restored the piece, replicating the original design as closely as possible, using basic, non-proprietary HTML code to ensure that it renders properly now and well into the future in all browsers.
Computers and Composition Online: Author Collaboration
In addition to the archival work I describe above, as design editor I also had the opportunity to help authors seeking publication in the journal present their scholarship in ways appropriate for an online journal. For example, the screenshot at the left depicts a piece written by Dirk Remley that was published in Computers and Composition Online in the spring of 2010. When Remley originally submitted his piece, however, it consisted of an essay written in Microsoft Word and a short video created by some of his students, which was the central focus of the essay. In other words, he did not yet have an interface suitable for presenting his work in an online environment. Because the scholarship was relevant, insightful, and compelling, both the section editor and the editor-in-chief wanted to publish the piece in some form. As such, working in coordination with Remley, I designed a web interface that facilitated the presentation of his textual scholarship and his student-created video in a way that allowed them to function together symbiotically, each component adding value to the other. I am happy to say that this process of collaboration ultimately resulted in his piece being selected for publication in the spring 2010 issue.
