Secondary Encoding

Primary encoding can be defined as the “astylistic” presentation of information via a medium of communication such as speech, text, and hand gestures. Secondary encoding is defined as a presentation style that applies to or accompanies primary encoding and provides additional information. Put in another way, primary encoding can be the "what" is said and secondary encoding can be "how" it is said.

Primary encoding is presented at face value and secondary encoding complements it with additional meaning. For example, you say the words, "I am very interested in this job" (primary) during an interview but you appear tired and uninterested (secondary) in what the interviewer is saying. From your body language, the interviewer will think you are not interested. The words you say may not be as important as how you say them.

Watch the following videos on the importance of body language and non-verbal communication, which contains secondary encoded information.

This ADE will provide you with an overview of a few secondary encodings and what happens when a person cannot detect it. It will focus on the use of colour, tone, and culture.

Colour

Website and application developers often use colours to enhance the appearance of their product and to add emphasis to certain text (such as using red text to indicate danger). However, someone with colour blindness may not be able to detect the colours, and will not know that the text is important. The following activity will illustrate this.

What to do:

  1. Open a new web browswer window and go to this colour filter website. Enter the URL: http://homepage.usask.ca/~lit822/Colour1.html.

  2. Pick the fourth color filter: "grayscale/achromatopsia (quick check for all forms of colorblindness)".
    1. Can you determine which words are red? If so, what are they?

  3. On the right hand side, there is a box that contains various filter options. Under "Color Blindness", choose the "Tritan" filter.
    1. Which words are written in red?

  4. Under "Color Blindness", choose the "Protan" filter.
    1. Which words are written in blue?
    2. Check your answer by choosing the "Normal" filter (under "Color Blindness"). Was your list of blue words correct? If your list was incorrect, what do you think is the cause of the error?
    3. As a developer, how would you prevent the problems that you experienced in this activity from occurring?

Tone

The way we speak can convey information about ourselves, beyond the spoken words The tone of voice we use with the words convey the the meaning we intended as well as our emotions. Without the tone, as is often the case with text, it can be difficult to determine the meaning. The first and second activities will illustrate this.

Tone is sometimes also used to alert a user of an event. This is called an earcon. However, the user may not be able to detect it due to a hearing disability. The earcon may use a tone that is outside the range of hearing. The third activity will illustrate this.

What to do:

  1. Go to the Lack of Tone website and complete the activity.
    1. How many of the emotions/meanings did you get correct?
    2. What techniques do you use to indicate your emotions/meanings when you are chatting with friends online?
    3. How do you express the following?
      • Anger
      • Sarcasm
      • Excitement
      • Happy
      • Pity
      • Boredom
    4. Do your friends express it the same way as you? If not, how does it differ?
    5. What are some problems with using emoticons and acronyms?

What to hand in:

In addition to the questions asked throughout this activity, submit the following questions.

  1. What did you learn from this ADE?
  2. What will you do differently now that you have learned it?
  3. Should secondary encoding be used on Web content? If so, how should it be used? If not, why not?
  4. Besides those presented in this ADE, what are some other solutions that can help resolve the problems with secondary encoding?
  5. Feedback
    1. What were your expectations of this ADE?
    2. Did this ADE meet your expectations? Provide a rating between 1 and 7, where 1 means not at all, 4 means somewhat, and 7 means absolutely. Please explain your choice.
    3. Did you feel that the video(s) for this ADE was appropriate? Why or why not? Provide a rating between 1 and 7, where 1 means not at all, 4 means somewhat, and 7 means absolutely. Please explain your choice.
    4. Do you have any suggestions for other possible videos?
    5. Did you feel that the questions above got you to think about the real and serious issues regarding this ADE? Provide a rating between 1 and 7, where 1 means not at all, 4 means somewhat, and 7 means absolutely. Please explain your choice.
    6. If you have any suggestions on how to improve this ADE, please include it here.

Additional Information and Tools:

  1. The following website provides some guidelines regarding how to choose the appropriate colours.
  2. Vischeck has an online tool to check images for the 3 main conditions.
  3. Visolve is an assistive technology that converts the colours on the screen into ones the viewer can see.
  4. This online tool can be used to ensure your webpage is colour friendly. Try it on the following URL: http://home.wanadoo.nl/paulschils/05.03.html
  5. Wikipedia provides a good summarization of emoticons, where they came from, and what they mean.
  6. This website suggests ways to convey emotions and tones.
  7. This website describes the use of abbreviations and tags.