Wireframing

The common social media options of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter seemed typical, so instead, I opted for Gmail. I use a Gmail account for one of my personal emails and another Gmail account as a teacher, so it’s an interface I see often.

As I completed the wireframe for this assignment, I appreciated how streamlined a Gmail page is. While my image below doesn’t show it perfectly, spacing and lines and sizing from section to section on the site are well-balanced and appealing.

In promoting interactivity, it makes sense. For example, in English, we read from top left to bottom right. The logo is in the top left, followed by the compose button, which is likely of frequent use for most people using the site. New emails are at the top. Chatting, Hangouts, etc, those features Google wants to succeed with, are lower on the left, still vying for attention but not as prominent as the large, centered mail space that serves a primary purpose on the page. Short cuts and menus to access other areas of the Google Suite are in the upper right, which I find interesting because visually, the eye has to pass over several other areas of content before reaching those buttons. I use them often, usually to access the Calendar or Google Drive for either account.

Connecting this website’s interactivity to simulation, the idea of email is interesting to consider. Rather than handwriting a letter then putting it in the mailbox to be picked up by a person who then gives it to another and another and another until the letter ends up in the hands of the intended recipient, there is now an interface for typing an email on a computer that then passes that information to another interface to be read. Rather than a human to human to human interaction, technology simulates and passes the information from human through technology to human.

Giffy. Giffy, Inc., 2019, http://www.gliffy.com.