Date of Award

Winter 2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

Program/Concentration

Professional Writing & New Media

Committee Director

Liza Potts

Committee Member

Kathie Gossett

Committee Member

Gerry Bloustien

Abstract

Within this study, teens are asked to analyze yoga studio homepages in relation to their experiences with the practice of yoga. This dissertation research engages the teen girls as participants responsible for co-designing the learning constructs through which they make meaning out of their experiences. This research is rooted in informational design, experiential design, and design practices for a teen demographic through the artifact of yoga.

Participant observation is used to examine how eight teen girls understand yoga as a practice, internalize their experiences with yoga, and thusly communicate what they have learned about yoga and a sampling of digital texts in which yoga is represented. A heuristic evaluation of 307 yoga studio homepages is conducted to identify how information is presented in relation to the needs expressed by the teens participating in this study. The survey responses of 28 individuals describing themselves as yoga studio owners, yoga practitioners, and information designers are investigated to uncover how the se information producers perceive teens as users of yoga studio homepages, practitioners of yoga, and consumers of yoga experiences. The final chapter of this study considers how information about yoga should be designed on studio homepages to support the cognitive, developmental, and experiential needs of teen learners.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/70m8-5q54

ISBN

9781267112392

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