For this peer review, I got the chance to look at Alyssa’s blog (http://alyssawuwrites.com/), so thank you Alyssa for letting me do this.
First impression of the site for me is that it is very clear. The soft off white colour background with rounded edges of the chosen font types make the blog overall feel very friendly and easy to follow through. I love that you have a quick, one sentence description of who you are. This helps me get who you are trying to be or talk about in this blog.
I like how the posts are organized based on the recent dates, so that it was really easy for me to look through the blogs one by one. To make it more accessible, it would have been nice to have filter function on the homepage, where I can classified it based on categories if I want to. I was a little confused when it comes to the navigation bar, between “Art” and “Writing” since they both contain the same blogs as the ones under “PUB101” tab. So, I would suggest to to put those two tabs as child menu under “PUB101” menu. In addition, I think that all the blogs on the homepage are the same as the ones under the “PUB101” tab. I made me quite confused on why, so maybe get rid of the “PUB101” tab!
This is very nitpicking but I found the titles quite distracting with the dates. As I go back in time, the way the dates were labeled are different than the current ones. So, maybe you could change that to make it clear. Plus, maybe you don’t need the dates since the posts themselves show when you posted on the blog already.
Interestingly, you also have the accessibility button where users can customize the site. I like the feature, but I do not like the chosen icon at all. I think it is communicating the wrong information to the user. By first glance, it makes me think there is something wrong with me because the icon reflects a person on a wheelchair. Secondly, the site has nothing to do with whether I am using a wheelchair or not. So, change the icon up so it can be translated to better fit with the feature.
Based on my browsing, her blog is her “digital garden” of her weekly experience as a student and a writer. I found it very interesting since I am also a student. To see we are both struggling in someways with school get me interested with the content she is posting on the blog. From her recent process post on November 15th, she said she is struggling with analytics on her site. I agree, it is very hard to do, especially if you decide to go on the route of lifestyle and entertainment. I am speaking from my own experience with YouTube haha. I saw that she posted some of her drawings skills, so maybe bringing those up to the front pages instead of just put on posts may let the audience get the know faster than right now. Another implement that she could do is having more visuals. Right now, the blog seems to be text-heavy and it is very hard to attract users when all they see is a block of them. So play around with that!
Thank you Alyssa again for letting me read through and peer review your blog. Hopefully my comments are helpful!
