Category: Peer Reviews

PEER REVIEW THREE: reviewing marketability. featuring: all travelled by claire.

For the third peer review activity, I got the opportunity to browse and look at Claire’s website: All Travelled By Claire

At first glance, the home page is well-organized and aesthetic to look at. The picture featured on the homepage immediately caught my attention because it is from Greece. From a fellow traveller’s perspective, I was immediately interested. 

The title and home screen of Claire’s website clearly state the website is for travel photography and travel resources. From a SEO standpoint, I think it is good marketing as it highlights keywords for the search engine to curate and find (Hollingsworth, 2021). The page captivates audiences who love to travel. 

I really like the home page; it is very clean and organized. The simplicity and natural colours add calmness to the webpages setting. 

Before I began interacting with Claire’s webpage, I thought about my own digital relationship with travel. I thought about the different photos I would take compared to those of others. Therefore, I was interested in seeing what Claire decided to take photos of and decided to upload (“Digital Breadcrumbs: The data trail we leave behind us”, 2023). 

When I clicked on the travel photo option button, it took me to a page labelled “an interactive photo diary”. The page featured two pictures of a similar beautiful sunset overlooking the water. From the photos, I could see the captivated beauty. Overall, I really enjoyed the colour scheme from the sunset. Based on the photos, I assumed the location of travel was possibly Greece, or somewhere warm. 

Although the photos were beautiful, I was missing some information. Unfortunately, there was no story or information regarding the photo’s location and or meaning. I loved the idea of the photo diary, but it seems like photos are missing as there are only two pictures available to see. I think there is a lot of potential for this page despite the missing information.  

Next, I explored the about page. When I went to the about page on the webpage, I found a lot more information. 

I really appreciated the about page as it outlined some information on Claire. I was able to understand Claire’s vision for the website. From my perspective, the website was focused on Claire’s passion for travelling and was intended to be demonstrated through the cultivation of travel photos and fun tips (Basu, 2020). I felt that the about page provided a lot of personality into who Claire is. 

A big thing I would personally focus on is adding some public content that includes travel tips and photos with information. 

Overall, I really liked the intended look of the website. I think the intentions of the audience are clear and precise. The website includes good key search words and is headed in the right direction. I think the website has good potential. 

Thank you for sharing Claire! 🙂

References

Basu, T. (2020, September 3). Digital Gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Digital Breadcrumbs: The data trail we leave behind us. (2016, May 23). Pod Academy. Retrieved November 19, 2022, from http://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/ 

Hollingsworth, S. (2021, August 6). 15 reasons why your business absolutely needs seo. Search Engine Journal. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close 

PEER REVIEW TWO: DESIGN. FEATURING BRENDAN MCKAY.

For the second peer review activity, I got the chance to browse and analyze Brendan’s website:  Brendan McKay

From the start, Brendan’s website indicates that it is a design and fashion blog. The site title reads Moda Design and Fashion Blog. 

To be honest, I had never heard of the word moda before. So, before I continued looking over Brendan’s website, I did a quick google. From searching the word moda, I learned that it refers to trending fashion and style. I think utilizing the word Moda, whether intentionally or not, indicates a degree of digital literacy as it demonstrates a knowledge of fashion and design (Caulfield, 2016).  

When I was browsing Brendan’s website, I was thinking about Gertz’s (2015) article discussing visual/UI design and UX design. Thus, considering how the website looks and how the website works. I enjoyed contrasting the two areas and getting to concentrate on each different aspect of Brendan’s design choices. 

I first decided to focus on looking at the visual/UI design aspect of the website. As Gertz (2015) indicated, visual/UI design focuses on looking at typography, colour, form, illustration, and details. 

At first glance, the opening page is simple, bold, and elegant. It is precise and sets the stage for what the website is discussing. The images and the typography selected showed a high level of sophistication indicating the level of high fashion and design being analyzed. I thought they paired nicely together. As I was scrolling down, the second webpage, was consistent with the level of class with the black-and-white imaging and the white typography. 

Throughout scrolling down the website, the website design is collectively congruent all the way through. The colour scheme of black and white keeps the writing clean and clear to read. The added addition of colour on the model’s clothing and in the images attached add a layer of depth to the webpage that grabs your eyes. I think the design is simple, yet effective.

After exploring the website for the visual/UI design, I went back and looked at the UX design of the website. As indicated by Gertz (2015), UX design focuses on how the website works, referring to the layout, interaction, research, and testing. 

The layout of the website looks clean and organized. It shows that there are tabs along the right side of the website indicating different categories. Unfortunately, when I went to select the different tabs, nothing was happening. I found they were there more for looks rather than for practicality. I believe once they are active for sorting, the organization aspect of the website will be effective and easy to interact with. 

I was missing the about page and some public content on the webpage. I found it left the webpage a bit unclear. I think an addition of an about page and some content would enhance the website. As Caulfield (2016) indicated, knowing information about the webpage designer can elevate digital literacy. Therefore, it can indicate a level of understanding of what the website is. 

I enjoyed analyzing and browsing Brendan’s website. I loved how the opening screen page is organized with a bold title and coloured images of models on either side. I think the visual/UI design is strong. I would suggest focusing on the UX design process. 

Overall, I like Brendan’s website design! I think it has a lot of potentials. I am looking forward to learning more about the fashion and design world. 

Thank you for sharing Brendan! 🙂

References

Caulfield, M. (2016, December 19). Yes, Digital Literacy. but which one? Hapgood. https://hapgood.us/2016/12/19/yes-digital-literacy-but-which-one/ 

Gertz, T. (2015, July 10). How to survive the Digital apocalypse. Louder Than Ten. https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines 

 

Peer Review One: Developing an Online Self. Featuring a year of mess.

For the first peer review activity, I got the chance to browse and analyze Mika’s website: Year of Mess

At first glance, I feel like I got an honest read of Mika. The front page provides a young photo (which I perceive to be a young Mika) of a child looking content with food all over the place. The tagline underneath states, “when did messy stop being okay?”. The sidebar mentions the inspiration of the webpage with a photo of Mika underneath. 

The front page is organized and clean. The title at the top is short and sweet with a simple tagline. The organization of the page is intuitive and simple. It demonstrates presentability and perfectionism with the contrast of messiness in the cute photo. I love the balance!

The front page presents a quick overview. I loved the short paragraph on the sidebar. As a fellow Shonda Rhimes fan, I appreciated the mention! 

The first page I looked at was the about page. The about page was great! I loved the naming/branding of it being “It’s *About* to get messy”. I appreciated the accessibility of having a voice-over of the paragraphs. The voice-over provided so much personality! I thought I got to know Mika’s humour and personality just from listening to the sarcasm in her voice and relatable narrative. I enjoyed Mika’s candidness about therapy and their journey with being a perfectionist. I thought the dialogue was humous and real. I felt like I wanted to know more about Mika in general and hear more about the experience.  

I wonder if the dialogue was indented or sectioned separately, would it read differently? I felt when I read it over the first time, I did not get the same effect as when I heard Mika’s voiceover. Meaning, I read it differently in my head than how it was read aloud. I found Mika’s voiceover provided more of an in-depth introduction to her online version as it showcased her sarcastic self. 

Since I was able to read and listen to the about page first, I feel like I was able to get a good sense of Mika’s intentions with the website. 

As I was reading the process posts, Mika’s intentions for the colour scheme, theme, and font selection became apparent. Although Mika states she stumbled upon the fonts by mistake on google fonts, I think the font is consistent with her style and overall aesthetics. I think it looks great!

I appreciated reading about the inspiration for the website, it showcased Mika’s journey. I also loved reading about Mika’s thought process regarding the decision-making of building and designing the website.

I appreciate the openness and honesty of Mika when discussing her audience. I think she touches on important aspects of the “why” in creating a website. With her reasoning and exploration, I can see the connection to Watters’s perspective of providing students with a platform and an outlet to document their journey.

For navigational purposes of Mika’s website, I was a bit lost on some of the postings and tab bars. For example, the about page is connected to the navigational bar of about, public content, and Mess under the lesson category.  I loved the about page, I just felt like it got lost as it was linked to everything.

I think the overall branding and site objective are well demonstrated throughout the webpage. Mika’s narrative is relatable and likeable throughout. I feel that Mika’s personality shines through! It showcases her warmth and sarcastic humour in her online self. 

I enjoyed looking at Mika’s website. I am truly excited to read more about her “mess” and see what is written in the lessons and practices! I wish there was more to read 🙂

Thanks for sharing Mika!