Blog Design
Designing how you want your blog to look can be an important decision, do you want it to say something about yourself and therefore represent an aspect of your character? Should your decision be based on fumctionality in order to house all the side bar widgets which may serve you well over time? Or should your design be based on simplicity, ease of use just to get your message across?
When deliberating these choices, I opted for all three! The design had to be sleek, not over the top, but aesthetically pleasing with a choice of widgets which would serve future entries but easy to use when posting entries and uploading images.
However, a number of functions are missing, which, had I’d designed the template would have included a visitor count, extended side bar widgets so as to post information/pictures in the vast, redundant space on either side of the blog and a feed which sends responses to replies left by others so as to keep the narrative continuous rather than flipping from blog to blog. Of course, I would need to have skills in using Javascript, HTML or even XHTML and other internet languages, which are currently non existent within my repertoire of knowledge!
When using templates, many bloggers probably experiment with initial designs so as to view the blog’s style, either by adding short posts or small pieces of information prior to adding a substantial entry. Decisions can then be made as to what needs to be added or discarded. Some templates are just too colourful, claustrophobic in their design or limited in what they offer. Others are simply “just not right” for who you are or what you want to convey.
Blog designs are an important feature when setting a path for communication, which is why the visual design chosen for this blog incoporates a cool header as the most salient feature to signify Digital Play. All posts incorporate either text, images and videos with hyertextual depth, thus serving as inter-textual references to highlight specific points. The semiotic text of this design provides an ‘explicit trajectory’ for readers to understand the information posted and establish meaning. However choice is afforded to the reader as to which post to read first, therefore the meaning text becomes unilateral so that readers are not confined to the linear order of the entries but can choose between mundane narratives and reflective narratives as well as themed or topical pages of interest.
