For a first time blogger, creating a visually appealing blog can be a daunting task. Catching the audience’s attention is essential to communicate the purpose of the blog, and without an appealing blog all effort can be wasted. As with all written communication, researching the topic and reviewing similar works help to get an idea of where to begin. I had the opportunity to view and evaluate three of my classmate’s blogs and in the following pages I will focus on the components and elements that are necessary to create an appealing blog and use those criteria to critique my classmate’s blogs.
There are four main components that need to be addressed when creating a blog, they are: purpose, audience, content, and design. Some blogs are created to inform buyers about products for sale while others are simply an online journal written to entertain followers of things happening in one’s life, but every blog has a purpose. Starting a blog with a clear purpose in mind gives the blogger a sense of what she wants to accomplish with the blog and helps her identify who her target audience is.
One goal of the blogger is to create a page that is visited by certain people, the target audience. Identifying the target audience allows the blogger to write content that is relatable or interesting to the audience which helps the blogger accomplish their intended purpose. A blog that is directed at gun owners would not benefit from content about the best way to get clear skin and vice versa.
Now that the purpose is established, the audience has been identified and the direction of the content is clear, designing the page is the next step. Always keep the audience in mind, what would look good from their standpoint and how would the layout best suit their needs. Some design elements that should be addressed are: structure, balance, color, small details, clarity & emphasis, remarkability, and functionality (Martin, 2008).
Structure refers to the layout of the blog page and how it is organized. Having a layout that has distinctly separate areas and is easy to navigate for the first time user is paramount for a blog to be successful. Balance is achieved when there is equal weight distributed around the page so that the eye is not continually drawn to one section over another. As Michael Martin (2008) puts it “The weight of a specific element is affected by its size, but also by its color, its position, and even with the detail within in” (¶9).
Choosing a color scheme can be difficult for some but a good standard is to choose a few colors that complement each other and stay within those color families throughout the page. Be careful not to use too many bold colors as it makes the page look haphazard and amateurish. Small details show the level of effort one puts into their blog and helps create the overall effect (Martin, 2008). Visuals added to enhance the text, type and color of text, and using the same size and type of font throughout the page are examples of small details.
Clarity and emphasis allow the audience to distinguish different areas, highlight important topics with bold headers, and give breaks in text with the use of white space. Remarkability refers to creating a blog that is unique and stands out above other blogs. That doesn’t mean going overboard with graphics or bold colors, it means creating a page that sticks in an audiences mind and makes them want to return to the blog. Last, but certainly not least is functionality. Creating a page that is functional and easy for the customer to interact with may be one of the most important elements for bloggers trying to sell something.
Now that I have explained the components and elements required to develop and design a visually appealing blog, I will use those criteria to critique the following student’s blogs: Robert Brown, Caron Carus, and Katherine Esparza.
Robert Brown (Robert’s Page, 2011) did a decent job with his page. He played it a little safe with the title, layout and color choice so the remarkability factor isn’t there, but his use of visuals that enhance the text make up for where he is lacking. His choice of colors clash slightly and he would benefit by making the post background color lighter so that the text stands out more. Most of the fonts are different in every post which makes the page stand out for the wrong reasons. If Robert invested a little more time researching the blogger website and fine tuning the design aspects of his page, his page could easily go from average to noteworthy.
Caron Carus’ (Who Knew?, 2011) choice of font in her header really stands out and makes an excellent attention grabbing opening to her page. Her color choices are simple but not boring and she has added lots of small details with her personal pictures and links to sites she likes; this also adds to the functionality of the page. She gives an enormous amount of examples for the audience to see her writing style which is good given the purpose is to show her mastery of communication studies. The structure of the page is simple and easy to navigate, but the weight is very uneven. It would be nice to see the space on the outsides of the page to be even, it is favoring the left side now, and to see some gadgets that are in the footer higher up on the page.
Katherine Esparza’s (Katherine, 2011) blog lacks in remarkability
After learning about key design elements and reviewing my classmate’s blogs, I will first make sure that my own blog stands up to the criteria I mentioned in my critiques. Having a blog that is appealing at first glance means creating one that has a pleasant layout, is evenly balanced, highlights different sections, and is easy to navigate. Fine tuning the small details will help make my blog more functional for the audience and bring up the remarkability factor.
References
Brown, R. (2011). Robert’s Blog. Retrieved March 30, 2011 from:
Carus, C. (2011). Who Knew? Retrieved March 30, 2011 from:
Esparza, K. (2011). Katherine. Retrieved March 30, 2011 from:
Martin, M. (2008, June 26). 7 Elements to Make Your Blog Look Great. Retrieved April 2, 2011 from: http://www.problogdesign.com/design/7-elements-to-make-your-blog-look-great/#comments
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