Peer Review #2

This last week I had the pleasure of looking at Sandy’s website In My Kaizen. I love reading personal blogs, so I was quite excited to see what she had done. The website theme that Sandy used was refreshing, as it was different from any ones I had previously seen used by classmates. 

Her landing page is simple and neat. It was nice and easy to follow, and I was able to get a quick understanding of what her blog was about. I do wish that upon clicking the discover button on her landing page it would direct me to another page that has more information about her Kaizen journey. Nonetheless her site is easy to navigate through her menu bar. The menu bar is made up of three main headings: about me, blog, and posiel. Each of these headings have subheadings, so when your mouse goes overtop the main more headings appear under the broader topic. I think that design feature is always a good one, as it keeps the menu bar simple by having their work fall under categories.

Sandy incorporated some of her media platforms in her website. By scrolling to the bottom of the page readers find a link to her spotify, pinterest, and vsco accounts. I like the addition of these links to her website, but I’m curious as to why she wouldn’t include her instagram on there as well. You would never be able to find out all this extra information about Sandy had she not used a website as her platform for showcasing her writings. Erin Kissane writes about this in their article Contents May Have Shifted. They bring light to the positives of using websites, as hyperlinks can take the readers directly to the source of the content they’re talking about. This is exactly what Sandy has done throughout her site.

Sandy’s use of colours are beautifully simplistic and complement the content very well. When Mauve came and talked to our class about design features she outlined five design principles to keep in mind while creating one’s website. I thought Sandy was able to achieve unity/harmony through the colours in her colour scheme, as well as balance in the layout of her content. She was able to use contrast through her colour scheme and also through the typography she chose. The typography isn’t anything crazy, but it works fine for the site. It is a good one as it is easy to read and it fits with the theme of a blog. Sandy has also done a good job of making sure that what she includes on the site does not take away from the great content she produces in her writings.

My favourite part of Sandy’s website is the recent posts displayed on her home page. Some of the posts have very intriguing pictures and titles, and the whole collection makes me want to read what she has to say. It makes her work seem very real, as it’s not so polished and overly put together. I was very impressed with Sandy’s work, and will definitely be checking back in to get some of her sisterly advice.