Canadian Shakespeare

After clicking through the link on the HIST 4170 blog, I had no idea what to expect with Canadian relationships to Shakespeare. In fact, I didn’t know we had any before exploring this site. After looking around for a little while and reading some of the various links, I was quite impressed with what has been done. What I was really interested in was the app that was created for a study guide of Romeo and Juliet. I am really hoping that this blossoms into more study guides, as in high school I would have loved something as comprehensive as the screenshots on iTunes make it look. If I was studying Shakespeare, it would be well worth the $5 to have it broken down into the various segments, characters, plot, etc. I am not studying it right now, though, so I did not purchase the app.

 

Instead, I went back to the website with a renewed interest in what they are doing. If they can come up with something that awesome, they probably have an awesome site too, right? In my opinion, the site could be much more interactive. It is VERY text/link based, but they could easily make it much more user friendly and even visually attractive. In fact, I often found myself skimming over text just because it was tiny, which is an easy fix in web design. I realize that it is a scholarly site intended for education purposes, but with students in mind, I think it would go much further if it was more interactive with bigger text and…really just more similar to the app. It could be broken down further than it is, with the side bar leading to an overview of the subject (for example the Online Anthology) rather than the whole thing right there in an overwhelming fashion.

In addition, their multimedia link was severely disappointing. When I saw it I right away clicked on it, kind of expecting cool graphics and video links, but instead was met with tiny font leading the way forth to image galleries that led to a very text based link site. So much could be done to make it more visually pleasing, even to incorporate blog-type photo templates to create some visual interest, and make it easier to find various works or galleries.

However, the subject of the site is really great. It is amazing to have such a compilation of Canadian adaptations of various Shakespeare works ready to go with a click of a mouse. The disclaimer that these works are available for study purposes but not reproduction for actual productions was good, but if they can’t find the copyright holders I doubt someone interested would be able to either, so maybe further effort in that regard would be beneficial for those looking to produce one of the adaptations.

Overall, the content of the site is a wonderful addition to education within the Canadian Shakespeare realm, but I think the web design could use some updating.

The Orlando project

I entered into the Orlando project site not knowing entirely what it would be about. After surfing around for a little while I started to comprehend the vastness of what was created, and was increasingly intrigued by the site’s collection. I particularly enjoyed the sidebars along the right hand side of the screen, which had excerpts of various people reviewing the collection, or what has been happening on a day by day basis.

One of the sidebar praises was on the collection of Jane Austen, and as this seemed like a great place to start, I clicked through to the link to see how the database worked. It connected me to the Cambridge collection and I was allowed to see the “main” page summarizing various information of Jane Austen, including key dates associated with her. I could see the top tabs that would lead to further information on her but was asked for my subscription account information and so was not able to go further.

In any case, this would be a valuable addition to research opportunities and I look forward to learning more about it.