It's important to know your audience and who you might be talking to while writing a blog. All bloggers must know what they are talking about. This goes to their credibility. To introduce yourself to people reading your blog, it is good to have a detailed about me page. This about me page is like a snapshot. It lets the people reading the blog know who you are and why your blogging to begin with.
Next, bloggers should provide a type of mission statement. A sentence or two describing what this blog is about. This description let's potential readers know what the blog is going to be about, before even reading a single post.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
The saga of Spruz.com continues
Oh spruz.com how you infuriate me. Why is it, that something goes wrong right before an assignment is due. For example, a student computer crashes in the middle of working on a 10 page research paper, not having access to online journals or not having access to spruz 48 hours before your final project is due. For the heck of it and because I was so desperate because I saved no work I did on spruz. I signed up for a $5 plan and voila spruz.com started to work. I don't see spruz.com becoming a successful site anytime soon, with all these problems they've been having. Soon enough this project will be over and will never have to interact with spruz.com ever again. Now I promise I'm done ranting. Goodbye.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Looking at sites I frequent for Web design
Sites I visit:
Vans.com http://www.vans.com/
Has a
lot going on, very busy. May not need all that information. Provides a lot of
interaction for potential visitors. Good color scheme of red, black and white.
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/
Amanzon.com
is pretty user friendly, very bright and easy to navigate. I like their color
scheme of orange and blue. These colors are contrasting colors and work nicely
against the black font titles and white background.
Todayshow.com http://www.today.com/
Todayshow.com provides viewers with plenty of information.
If you can’t watch on a tv. Today has all their segments online available to
watch or in case you missed something or would like to re-watch something like
a recipe. Having a website can be better because you can print information out.
IMDB.com http://www.imdb.com/
Has just
the right amount of tabs, not to busy. Has multiple functions. Imdb provides
updated top news, TV news , movie news, and celebrity news.
3 Tips From the Wikitravel Manual of style
The Manual of Style is a set of guidelines that provide continuity on Wikitravel.
Tip 1. Choose the correct template for writing on Wikitravel. I am talking about a small city of Old Orchard Beach, Maine. So I chose a small city article template. Even though Old Orchard Beach is relatively small, OOB still offers a lot to do.
Tip 2. External Links are links that are outisd Wikitravel and can be very helpful for anyone viewing a particular page. Use bare minimum links
links such as the city of commerce, a hotel, restaurant or park are all considered primary sources.
Tip 3. Another tip that I beieve can be helpful is Don't tout – describe, don't push. I think I have trouble with providing information in a way that's descriptive and not advertising.
Tip 1. Choose the correct template for writing on Wikitravel. I am talking about a small city of Old Orchard Beach, Maine. So I chose a small city article template. Even though Old Orchard Beach is relatively small, OOB still offers a lot to do.
Tip 2. External Links are links that are outisd Wikitravel and can be very helpful for anyone viewing a particular page. Use bare minimum links
links such as the city of commerce, a hotel, restaurant or park are all considered primary sources.
Tip 3. Another tip that I beieve can be helpful is Don't tout – describe, don't push. I think I have trouble with providing information in a way that's descriptive and not advertising.
Wikitravel Writing
I'm starting to really get into writing on Wikitravel. I never realised how much I knew about Old Orchard Beach. After I started writing all my subheadings under Wikitravel, I realised how much has changed since I've been going 15 years ago. I have a better undersdtand of the type of writing Wikitavel is looking for. There is so much to do in OOB. I have so many categories like Sleep, Get In, Get Around, Eat, See and where to Shop. I remember when I first started going, you had to ask the locals where to go. This is essentialy the purpose of Wikitravel. The author is giving the potential traveler insider information on the best places to visist.
What good is a social networking site if you can't get on it?
I'm sure I'm not the only one in my class asking why we can't get on spruz.com. It's infuriating when you have a task to complete and you can't even get on the site to do it. If I were spruz.com, I would seriously rethink the site and it's functionality. I wouldn't say I know everything there is to blogging, but I know when a site is user friendly and not. To me, spruz.com goes beyond user friendly, they are a pain in the ass.
After this mini episode with spruz.com, I don't expect to get any members to join our stop animal cruelty page. It's hard to take the project seriously or spruz.com seriously if the entire class can't even get on the site.
After this mini episode with spruz.com, I don't expect to get any members to join our stop animal cruelty page. It's hard to take the project seriously or spruz.com seriously if the entire class can't even get on the site.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Matunuck Surf Shop Web Redesign
The Matunuck Surf Shop desperately needed change. After reading the Basic Design Principles for non-designers, I understood how certain changes can make all the difference.
For instance, alignment can make a huge difference. Having the right alignment can make a site more functional and easier to navigate. So our group left aligned everything and once the alignment of the site was finished, your eye naturally sees organization which was clearly lacking in the original site.
Contrast is a very important concept of basic design principles. The way our group used contrast was with color. We used blue and orange as the background theme for the new site. These two colors work very well together because they are contrasting colors. Contrasting colors like green and red, purple and yellow and blue and orange really pop when used together.
The same goes for proximity,on the original site information was never linked together, it was all over the web page. Our group organized everything together on a contact page. Having information in close proximity together just makes sense. Proximity can help create a brand and an identity.
Another concept of design principles is repetition. Repetition means that you use the same elements over again. On each page of the new site left alignment is carried over. Just like the orange and blue theme that we chose for the Matunuck Surf Shop.
For instance, alignment can make a huge difference. Having the right alignment can make a site more functional and easier to navigate. So our group left aligned everything and once the alignment of the site was finished, your eye naturally sees organization which was clearly lacking in the original site.
Contrast is a very important concept of basic design principles. The way our group used contrast was with color. We used blue and orange as the background theme for the new site. These two colors work very well together because they are contrasting colors. Contrasting colors like green and red, purple and yellow and blue and orange really pop when used together.
The same goes for proximity,on the original site information was never linked together, it was all over the web page. Our group organized everything together on a contact page. Having information in close proximity together just makes sense. Proximity can help create a brand and an identity.
Another concept of design principles is repetition. Repetition means that you use the same elements over again. On each page of the new site left alignment is carried over. Just like the orange and blue theme that we chose for the Matunuck Surf Shop.
Blogging Professional
Maybe I over exaggerated. I am not a blogging professional, but I'm getting there. I am more comfortable and familiar with the writing online process. I am a bit delinquent in my writing and the blogging five times for each project. In that respect, I have no rhythm or schedule that I follow. In a perfect world I would be blogging periodically during each project, but I didn't or haven't.
Even though this is a 200 level class, this course is tough work. I underestimated the amount of time I would have to put into this class and the writing that corresponded with each project.
During this last project a social media project, I will stay on top of my writing and remember to blog five times about the progress my group and I have made. So far, I have posted twice. Took me long enough, but better late than never.
Even though this is a 200 level class, this course is tough work. I underestimated the amount of time I would have to put into this class and the writing that corresponded with each project.
During this last project a social media project, I will stay on top of my writing and remember to blog five times about the progress my group and I have made. So far, I have posted twice. Took me long enough, but better late than never.
Working with Spruz.com on Animal Cruelty
I cannot say it enough, I do not like spruz.com. The site is way to slow and I know it was explained to me that because it's a free site means more users which means the site slows down. I get it.
The site is also a little difficult to navigate and can be confusing with members and the log in process. Our group came across an issue today with the way spruz is set up. Our group needed a songs tab and we couldn't add songs because we would have had to pay for the upgrade. so we adapted and used YouTube videos that played music. However, it's things like this that deter me from every using the site outside of class for a future social media project.
The site is also a little difficult to navigate and can be confusing with members and the log in process. Our group came across an issue today with the way spruz is set up. Our group needed a songs tab and we couldn't add songs because we would have had to pay for the upgrade. so we adapted and used YouTube videos that played music. However, it's things like this that deter me from every using the site outside of class for a future social media project.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Animal Cruelty my Social Networking Cause
Our last writing in an electronic environment project is social networking. The purpose of this project is to become active on social media sites about a cause that we're passionate about. My group members and I chose Animal cruelty as a platform to voice our opinions and outrage(or disgust rather). Ideally this site would inform people, if they don't know already about the horrible mistreatment of animals, and how laws against animal cruelty are not what they should be.
Through this project, we as a group must come together with one voice and speak out against animal cruelty.
Let the project begin.
Through this project, we as a group must come together with one voice and speak out against animal cruelty.
Let the project begin.
Website Redesign
I was so surprised by the amount of websites that are horribly designed. Whether it's aesthetics or actual content websites need a lot of work. As a group, we all have a basic understanding that simple is key. The Matunuck Surf Shop had no cohesion to it, color choice made no sense and some pages had dead links.
Our group made more simplistic design choices without compromising the feel of the surf shop. We're going for this orange and blue contrasting color feel. These contrasting colors work well together and instill a calm feeling when browsing the new site.
Our group made more simplistic design choices without compromising the feel of the surf shop. We're going for this orange and blue contrasting color feel. These contrasting colors work well together and instill a calm feeling when browsing the new site.
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