When I clicked on the link to Amy’s blog I was immediately met with color. Her home page greated me like a fun Pinterest board and the nostalgia granted from the range of tie-die patterns added a fun contrast to the more modern sharper themes I have seen. Amy masters her own personal cyberinfrastructure as coined by Campbell Gardner through elements of personalization like quotes by Lee Taeyong, a celebrity that she appreciates (2009). Amy’s posts are also very clearly accessible when you begin scrolling down the home page and her menu bar is also large enough for individuals who may require larger text to see. These elements combine to form an overall holistic front page that offers insight into Amy’s character and personal development.
My suggestions for Amy’s home page would be a seperate and distinguishable button for accessiblity that would allow for users to further increase font size or inverse the color scheme of the website. In terms of design on the home page I feel that the amount of content and different colors may come off as slightly overwhelming upon first click, this is generally a personal preference but for the sake of clarity and visual aestethic, potenitally sticking to a three color pallete like VisualModo details could benefit the website.
As I began to explore Amy’s other tabs I was able to find some posts generally focusing on the themes of Genshin and Kpop. Both of these topics are not things I am particulary interested in or am very familiar with but I can tell from the posts that Amy has a high level of understanding regarding these topics. Her writing targets a very niche public most of whom who are interested in topics such as these, but some of her content also branches over to her identity as an SFU student and a public of communications majors who may relate to some of her perspectives on classes (Warner 2002).
One element of having a niche public such as this means that her content may not appeal to a large group of people which is an option and a choice in itself. If Amy is looking to combat this lack of understanding by the larger public she can make a choice in adding a few posts or a seperate introductory page to the more specific and advanced topics that she covers that dive into the basics of the topic so readers can familiarize themselves and then read the rest of her content with greater ease.
Taking an average of all the posts on Amy’s blog I can gather that the blog has a very personal feel that translates into the writing style. Her posts address the reader personally yet also convey her own views on the topic with ease. I appreciate this familiaty that is cast within the writing as it allows for comfort even within unfamiliar topics. I believe this element of Amy’s blog follows the proposal of students having, “more control over their scholarship, data, and digital identity” as Amy manages her blog in coordination with her personal online identity (Watters 2015).
It was an enjoyable experience to read and view a blog that covered topics different from my own and the opportunity allowed me to open up to someone else’s personal reflection online which I feel is a valuable experience.
If you would like to check out Amy’s blog yourself feel free to check it out here.
Works Cited
Campbell, Gardner. “A Personal Cyberinfrastructure.” EDUCAUSE, 9 Sept. 2009, https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure.
Pires, Claudio. “How Many Colors You Should Use for Your Website.” Visualmodo, 16 Nov. 2022, https://visualmodo.com/how-many-colors-website-should-use/.
Warner, Michael. “Publics and Counterpublics (Abbreviated Version).” Quarterly Journal of Speech, Nov. 2002.
Watters, Audrey. “The Web We Need to Give Students.” Medium, BRIGHT Magazine, 25 June 2019, https://brightthemag.com/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713#.4d7j8rs6x.