Thursday, January 29, 2009

Assignment 1

For Monday (Feb. 2) I want you to find an example of a good and a bad blog. When I say "good" and "bad" I am talking about design as opposed to content. Please give a link to each in your comment and a few sentences explaining what makes each site good or bad.

14 comments:

  1. A bad website I found is http://www.lingscars.com/. It is a bad example because things are constantly flashing and the reader cannot keep his or her eyes focused on a spot long enough to tell what the website is truly about. Main headings are crossed out and fonts that look like a kindergartner's handwriting are written above it. A good website is gap.com. I really like this website and it has always been easily accessible to me. There are main headings as to which gender and age one is shopping for, as well as clear links to availability and price.

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  2. so I was just checking out some blogs on blogspot actually and I came across a couple of note. the first (http://hermandadcristodelamisericordia.blogspot.com/) had a color scheme that switched halfway through the page and was hard to read. The colors in the top half made the text hard to read and it took a while to get to the bottom of the screen. I didn't find the layout favorable. The second one (http://oneloosenut.blogspot.com/) I did like. The layout was different but it worked with the images he had on it. The text is easy to read and the photography is excellent. The gadgets on the side are fun to look at as well.

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  3. An example of a bad blog is http://jspanda.blogspot.com/. There was too much information and color for me to even tell what the point of the blog was. Also, the blog seemed cluttered and the background made somethings hard to see.
    An example of a good blog is http://texasswimming.blogspot.com/. Their blog is clearly designed, and clearly states what the blog is about. There are not many distractions on this blog that take away from the point of the posts.

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  4. The blog that had a good design to it that I found was http://www.blogdesignblog.com/blog-design/how-to-blog-design-style-guide/. This actually a blog describing how to make a good looking blog. The sites color choices all work well together. The navigation is simple and elegant. A example of a poorly designed website would be http://www.brillpublications.com/. This is a publications website that uses Flash for every single bit of it. This is such a annoyance to anyone because one the load times can be long if you are on a slow connection. Also requires the user to have upgraded Flash. Plus the navigation of the site is just no fun to use or understand. To get to the top floor, they could not just load it up plain and simple. No they have to be cute and show that they can use Flash and actually make you ride of the elevator.

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  5. http://pinkisthenewblog.com/home/

    This is an example of a bad blog because the color template is too bright. There is too much pink in this blog. Also, in the middle of the page, there is a long paragraph written. It makes it very hard to read, even though it was put in another color. This blog would be much better if it was organized better.

    http://the-bad-blog.blogspot.com/

    I think this is a good blog because it's not hard to read and the color scheme is good. Especially since this blogger writes a lot, it's not hard to read because of his choice of background and text. I also think this is a good blog because it has pictures and videos as well as text to convey the author's thoughts and ideas.

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  6. An example of a bad design is http://yvettesbridalformal.com/. The website has words all over the page, in all different colors, and you aren't able to navigate around the page. After every phrase on the page, there are multiple exclamation marks. The background has many different colors and is distracting from the information. An example of a good design is http://superfluousbanter.org/. The blog is very well organized and easy to navigate. The colors are simple but still get your attention. There is not alot of clutter on the page either.

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  7. An example of a blog with a bad design is http://blog.totalblogdirectory.com/. There are a few reasons for why this is a poorly designed blog. The site doesn't allow you to search a specific topic, except by scrolling down the entire page with the list of categories. The site is also very plain and boring. Sometimes being plain is fine, but the site has a grey background with black and blue text. It doesn't offer much, and doesn't seem to be that easily to navigate. An example of a blog with a good design is http://www.sbnation.com/. I felt that this blog was designed well because it offered blogs many different sports. At the top there is a link bar with multiple sports, and when you scroll over a sport it lists all the teams of that specific sport. It makes it easy to find blogs of the sports and teams you like. Even though the page scrolls down a long way, it shows you a few featured blogs, with a brief description, and popular blogs of the many different sports, and states what team the blog is talking about, right next to the title. It seems like information would be easy to find on this page, and it also allows you to search specific topics.

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  8. This first blog I came across is an example of a good one:
    http://wakeupamerica.squarespace.com/
    It is not the most exciting but it is simple and organized with headings and easy to read print. The links on the page are also very clear and self-explanatory. The worst blog I could find was: http://www.5safepoints.com/
    This blog was so cluttered and had no sense of layout or direction. It contained poor graphics and there was something that dragged down through like twenty pages.

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  9. An example of a good blog was at:
    http://www.malaysia-students.com/

    This was a good example because this blog was educational bloggin site. This blog was well structured and the color schemes were not contradicting. Also, the blogs were well written.

    An example of a bad blog was:
    http://www.videosoniclab.com/

    This blog was very unorganized. The color schemes were not good and the layout of the website was not appealing. Also, the the fonts and colors used for the title, links, and background were all contradicting. There was no sign of uniformity throughout the website.

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  10. An example of a bad blog I found is: http://huntsvillealabamaduilawslawyer.blogspot.com/

    This is definitely a bad example because most of the page is written in a light orange text which is extremely difficult, if possible to read. Another problem is that the only things you can read on the blog is just the same phrase said over and over again. Also, the color scheme is rather dull and faded blue an light orange definitely do not mesh well together.

    An example of a good blog I found is:http://aplnet.blogspot.com/

    This blog has a nice, suttle background; yet, it stills draws your attention. The text on the page is easy to rea and there are headings on each of the sections. Although this blog has a bit of content, it is organized quite well which allows the viewer to remain focused and not get to overwhelmed.

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  11. Alrighty. So, I looked up two blogs each on the same topic: the incredibly awesome CW TV show, Supernatural. The first blog I found http://thesupernaturalexperience.blogspot.com/ was pretty lame. The color scheme was a boring black background with red text on top. Although the page was easy to read, it was just boring to look at. Red and black being the only two colors used, there was a complete lack of pictures as well. Also, the links, which were few and far in between, were not very pronounced and therefore more difficult to find. All in all, poor job. The second blog was http://supernaturaltv.wordpress.com/ and this one was so much better. There was a plethora of eye-catching images from the show and promotional photo shoots. The color scheme was also characterized by a black backdrop, but the font was a mixture of white and orange and the font size was varied, making the page more interesting to look at. Finally, the multiple links on the blog were very easy to recognize and well organized within the articles. This blog is by all means well organized and prepared.

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  12. An example of a poorly designed blog is http://bestestblogofalltime.blogspot.com/ because if you click on one of the stories on the left it opens up into a very cluttered page and it is hard to determine the purpose or intent of the blog itself. A good example of a blog is http://avalonstar.com/blog/ because it looks sleek and nice. It has a toolbar so that you can pick which topic within the blog you want to view. Also, each title for each post stands out, so you know where one post ends and a new one starts.

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  13. http://blog.guykawasaki.com/
    This blog got both good and bad factors.
    First, it's got simple and clean font size and styles so it won't get the readers dizzy. However, the way he listed stuffs on his blog is just waaaaaay too long. It's good that anyone who wants to go through his past blog can find it by using 'ctrl+F', but it makes the blog look unorganized. Especially, the photos are just line up straight down and make it hard to continue reading. It would be better if he creates a horizontal menu bar at the top of the page.

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  14. A good blog is http://chicago.theoffside.com/. It includes pictures, movies, and links to further explain the points being made. It is very eye-appealing and well-organized, making for easy navigation.
    At http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2009/02/16/roberts-resistance-stimulus-bill-irresponsible-stephanopoulos-pushes-ba, however, there's ads interrupting the text and just too much going on in general. The reader's eyes should be drawn to the blog entry, not flashy advertisements and sidebars full of links.

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