UX: Designing for Education

Hi Joao--thanks for your flexibility! I would like the assignment wherever it makes the most sense--could we have that due mid-week and then have week 4 posts due by Saturday?

Since I'm new to the concepts of UX I'm not sure how to tease out the differences between the writers' views of this field (or fields) of design. Baskinger's from "Industrial Design to User Experience" was helpful, though, in illuminating some of my confusion about what UX is. I now understand from this article, along with "UX Designed" that the field is not easy to define and that what it is and is not is contested even among those in the know.
The gestalt articles were really interesting--I like how it makes logical laws out of intuitive, artistic judgement. It seems that even knowing these principles, one still needs that artistic eye to apply them, though.
Through both gestalt and UX we have a theme of wholeness.

I found this subject really interesting, because It shows how the "obvious" things that we perceive in web design, are harder to recognize after being conscious about them.
I've heard about Gestalt, but never read about it too much, so this assignment was a lot of fun!
I choose the "Law of similarity" and I see it on my own website http://www.eugeniaortiz.com.ar/ (I know it's not an educational site)
* Law of similarity: Objects that are similar, with components or attributes are more likely to be organized together.

Without reading any specific content, I can perceive that the posts (full content + images) are grouped on the left side vertically and the "info" of the website or the author are grouped on the right side, also vertically.
Posts have similar attributes: title, text, image, info(date + category).
The "right side" has not similar attributes (beyond fonts), but the "left side" already shows me that there are two big "pieces" on the website, even if the "right side" has different elements on it.
Does this make any sense?
Cheers!

Euge, your post does make sense and I agree that you are working Gestalt similarity. I was interested that even though I only read English (and a smidgen of French) and your blog is bilingual, the openness of the design and the regularity of the use images and text in the posts makes it inviting just the sameof , even to a "unilingual" reader. This is a case of how design can produce an emotional experience in a user, right? The liberal white space and the graphic unity makes me as a reader feel welcome, like there is room for me and I can find my way in the site.