The Rise of Internet Media

Clean Dictionary

I thought I’d start our class tumblr off with a project that my partner Charles and I just launched in beta today: cleandictionary.com

Clean Dictionary was already well on its way to completion by last Tuesday’s class, but some of the ideas we discussed helped influence and sharpen the product both before and after the lecture. “Search and social” was particularly crucial. After leaving class, I immediately called Charles and told him why we must include Facebook and Twitter sharing options on each entry. We had debated this beforehand, but after class I was certain it was necessary.

The effect’s subtle—only apparent on hover—but it adds the social element to our website. We discussed in class how many use the web for content curation nowadays rather than content creation, and that made me realize how people want to share cool stuff and be known as the person who found it. People obviously can’t create new dictionary entries in Clean Dictionary, but if they find an obscure word, they can easily take “responsibility” for finding it through the share buttons and teach their friends something new.

From the start, we adopted a Google-like design and functional sensibility. We recognized that everyday users don’t peruse online dictionaries for their “fun” word-of-the-day gimmicks or really need intensive etymology information. They want the definition, maybe the part of speech, and they need it fast. However, there is also deeper functionality if you want it: Clean Dictionary shows closely spelled words and links to related words within entries, accomplishing all without page reloads. This makes it simple for those interested in learning more about language and words to do so. There’s also a word list so you can easily collect words you like for later.

Besides simplicity, we practiced the idea of knowing and designing towards an appropriate audience. Charles researched and found that most users of online dictionaries are high school to college-aged females, a demographic that really likes design, or at least prettiness. Most dictionaries are cluttered and ugly. I therefore created a minimalist, classy look that’s based on high fashion websites yet isn’t too girly. The index design’s also influenced by Google Search, focused on its main function (finding a word) from the onset without other distractions.

All in all, it was really cool to work on Clean Dictionary after class because I was able to include many concepts into my actual product. If anyone has any feedback or problems with the site, please let me know!

—Cheryl