The last tool I want to write about is the one I’ve got to know the best over the last couple of weeks – Blogger. You may have noticed the slow but steady transformation of the design of my blog. As I mentioned in my learning goals, I wanted to learn to create a dynamic and beautiful resource. So I’ve used this opportunity to explore the possibilities blogs hold.
While content, of course, is crucial, I think that the design of a website is just as important. To create a truly successful information resource you need to create something that both suits your purpose and is something that people will want to use.
Blogger is easy to use to set-up a simple blog and add content to it. It’s when you want to imbue it with personality that things become that little bit more complicated. There have been times when I’ve wanted to pull me hair out.
I became so frustrated at the start that I even tried my hand at WordPress. WordPress is very popular and very powerful. But I couldn’t do what I wanted to do without creating a domain and paying for a host and, I’m not ready for that. So I switched back to Blogger and instead of becoming frustrated I went looking for help – mainly my old friend Mr.Youtube.
I eventually got to the point where I realized I was going to have to get my hands dirty and play with some HTML. I got a lot of the HTML codes I used simply by Googling what I wanted to achieve. Every time I changed or added anything to my template I was scared everything would come crumbling down. But I managed to get through it without any catastrophic damage. Although all of my hyperlinks are grey - this was not intentional and it makes them difficult to see.
Blogger makes editing HTML easy. The CSS has quite a user-friendly interface and in the posts themselves it's very easy to switch back and forth between the HTML and Compose view. For a beginner, when HTML is still intimidating, switching between the two views is helpful to avoid inconsistencies and mistakes.
The three basic design elements I focused on were layout and colour, imagery and consistency.
Blogger makes editing HTML easy. The CSS has quite a user-friendly interface and in the posts themselves it's very easy to switch back and forth between the HTML and Compose view. For a beginner, when HTML is still intimidating, switching between the two views is helpful to avoid inconsistencies and mistakes.
The three basic design elements I focused on were layout and colour, imagery and consistency.
Layout and Colour
One of the first article’s I read when I was thinking about the design of my blog was “White space in Web design” by Gisele Muller. I already knew that I wanted my design to be simple and involve a lot of white space. What I hadn’t thought about is that one of the most used websites in the world, is one of the websites that best uses white space – Google. I think this shows that sometimes for a reader, less is more. What Google does really well though is it makes the most out of the other elements as it often changes and presents unique fonts or animations. So I edited the HTML code in my CSS to allow me a wider selection of font styles and colours.
One of the first article’s I read when I was thinking about the design of my blog was “White space in Web design” by Gisele Muller. I already knew that I wanted my design to be simple and involve a lot of white space. What I hadn’t thought about is that one of the most used websites in the world, is one of the websites that best uses white space – Google. I think this shows that sometimes for a reader, less is more. What Google does really well though is it makes the most out of the other elements as it often changes and presents unique fonts or animations. So I edited the HTML code in my CSS to allow me a wider selection of font styles and colours.
Imagery
Imagery was my next step. Imagery can be a hassle when you are trying to stay on the right side of copyright laws but when you have so much white space you want the space you are using to shine. So, unless otherwise stated, the images used on my site have been taken from Unsplash. Unsplash advertises that “All photos published on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero.” You do, however, have the chance to donate a couple of dollars to the photographers – to buy them a cup of coffee to say thanks!
Imagery on Blogger is exceptionally easy to use. It’s as easy to insert into a post as copy paste. It’s as simple to caption as clicking ‘caption’. And once you’ve got a rough idea of how to sort through HTML code it’s a synch to edit the height and width of the image in your post.
Consistency
The last thing that I focused on was consistency. As we’ve heard over the past couple of lectures consistency in the presentation and structure of documents is crucial. This blog is consistent as a blog. It features elements that are commonly associated with blogs – the content is regularly updated, the home page features a list of posts appearing in reverse-chronological order, there is the ability for readers' to comment, and it has covered a variety of topics. It’s not trying to be a fully functioning static website.
It’s also consistent within itself. I adjusted the HTML code in the template to only show a summary of each blog in the main window. This makes it feel like the blogs are consistent in length even though they aren’t. Similarly, I read a tutorial on how to adjust the date on each post. Each post reads either Saturday or Monday. I think this is important in information delivery because your audience will always know when they can expect your next post.
These are just a couple of things I’ve thought about while using blogger. I wanted to interact with it and mold it to suit my purpose. I feel like I’ve achieved this and look forward to what else the tool has to hold!
Imagery was my next step. Imagery can be a hassle when you are trying to stay on the right side of copyright laws but when you have so much white space you want the space you are using to shine. So, unless otherwise stated, the images used on my site have been taken from Unsplash. Unsplash advertises that “All photos published on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero.” You do, however, have the chance to donate a couple of dollars to the photographers – to buy them a cup of coffee to say thanks!
Imagery on Blogger is exceptionally easy to use. It’s as easy to insert into a post as copy paste. It’s as simple to caption as clicking ‘caption’. And once you’ve got a rough idea of how to sort through HTML code it’s a synch to edit the height and width of the image in your post.
Consistency
The last thing that I focused on was consistency. As we’ve heard over the past couple of lectures consistency in the presentation and structure of documents is crucial. This blog is consistent as a blog. It features elements that are commonly associated with blogs – the content is regularly updated, the home page features a list of posts appearing in reverse-chronological order, there is the ability for readers' to comment, and it has covered a variety of topics. It’s not trying to be a fully functioning static website.
It’s also consistent within itself. I adjusted the HTML code in the template to only show a summary of each blog in the main window. This makes it feel like the blogs are consistent in length even though they aren’t. Similarly, I read a tutorial on how to adjust the date on each post. Each post reads either Saturday or Monday. I think this is important in information delivery because your audience will always know when they can expect your next post.
These are just a couple of things I’ve thought about while using blogger. I wanted to interact with it and mold it to suit my purpose. I feel like I’ve achieved this and look forward to what else the tool has to hold!
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