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
