RoH Blog

I’m immediately intrigued by the structure of this site in its ability to titillate the user’s interest by providing a relatively small, succinct sample of nearly all topics this blog covers within the home page. While using ‘my’ before titles is about as astoundingly creative as using ‘i’ in today’s Apple-ridden world, I’m impressed by the overall simplicity and clarity of RoH’s blog. It can be arguably be considered too minimalist, however, in its lack of personality (barring the tagline); no insight into the blogger’s gender, for example, is initially provided as its signed header is illegible and its blue colouring could be for aesthetic purposes only. Still, Ryan O. Hicks, the creator, has had this previewed in a variety of best blog writeups to develop an admirable fanbase among designers.

The use of colour is fabulous; blues, white, green with the grey texture really highlights and frames the content without being overbearing or becoming a little sore on the eyes. Every link has a rollover effect of some kind, depending on the type – images with dotted frames, underlines for links, background highlighting for navigation – for quick acquaintance to functions without even thinking. While as a reader I appreciate the overview to recent blog topics, I feel that there are a touch too many as you’re required to scroll downward with a huge amount of blank space on the right (blog entries don’t even cover half of the page width). I’m also a little disappointed by the thin black bar of nothing that might be called a footer.

 Hierarchy of content appears to suit the creator’s focus; site title to the top left as per customary, and to its immediate right is a tagline about Hicks and the site’s purpose, perfect for a scanning reader. Recent blogs and photography are positioned at the same level as one another with a two-column spread;  to me, this highlights both subjects as being equal in prominence to Hicks. Clicking on a picture takes you straight to its own Flickr page, and while this allows others to comment freely on his work, I’m not a fan of having to leave the site in order to see the full picture - using Flash as a popup would work better for functionality and convenience (Hicks also has a Flickr link immediately below the imagery anyway). 

I also noticed his ‘archive of inspiration’ is one very large blog post rather than a division into categorical content, making it hard to view with such an extensive page length and difficult to find a specific image. This method is the same throughout; all blog posts are listed on the one page, greatly hampered by uncategorized  data, none of which are available for comment. Tweeting each entry is the only way to keep track of Hicks’ content. Last, but certainly not least, there is no way to contact him!

Jrvelasco

While I am a front-row fan of integration between imagery and typography to create something special (and thus this site inherently possesses its own personality and uniqeness), the layout of Jrvelasco’s blog irks with its overwhelming number of links, or avenues to new little niches, on the home page. Like any other reader, scanning users bypass the large introductory blurb to the left after the second sentence or so, while the eye is attracted to the glaringly red links in columns that require scrolling to glimpse the end of. A three paragraph blurb is, frankly, a waste of space when the blog design inappropriately distracts the user’s focus with an inopportune reading structure. There seems to be absolutely no order of relevance or importance to subsections, which quickly leads to confusion and disinterest. The navigation bar is crammed into an unconventional position, neither horizontally across the top nor to the immediate left or right. At first glance, there is no indication via theme as to the purpose of the website or its content.

 Four columns of content and no visual balance to indicate hierarchy, this blog is difficult to follow in its design and worse to read. The ingenuity in the creation of mini-headers to subsections, while memorable and unique, fail in the support of written content. Colour use is, however, tastefully chosen in reds, soft yellows and black to coincide with a slightly aged, calligraphic theme.

DigitalMash

Rob Morris’ DigitalMash is a professional portfolio of freelance work hailed by web developers, graphic designers and magazines alike as expert design. Amongst the beautiful features of this site, an immediate eye-catcher are the titles with complementing icons where appropriate. Rob Thomas, the creator, has been involved in the development of numerous popular ads by Nike, among others, and the minimalist yet effective communication of data to users is clearly witnessed here. The soft gradient lends every page a natural flow and hierarchy to content with neutral, non-intrusive colour change. Each page is centered and labelled with no-frills large black font for each page title, exuding professionalism, cleanliness and boldly understated ability. A vibrant pink is used to highlight linked font as well as the navigation bar, which adheres to web conventions in its horizontal positioning, rollover effect and title at top left. Thin division lines between header, content, and footer provide natural separation for the eye, a design that supports content without interrupting flow of content. I appreciate his vertical listing of portfolio work in order to adequately compare design methods, style and techniques for an easier overview of his wide-arching skills.

Atypically, DigitalMash’s footer tends to change content according to the area within; this is a cause for navigation confusion when the user is unsure of which page contained a complementary link at its footer. Taglines are positioned where appropriate – there is no erronious text to be found. Due to the nature of his template, all blog posts also require an image to function as an icon link to the specific page; while this a quaint and quite unique approach, images for certain topics might be unsuitable and has the potential to become tedious the more frequent the post. Updating of content is surprisingly frequent and Morris is attentive to replying to comments left by his audience, encouraging regular visits and broadening awareness via social presence.