Peer Reviews

Radu’s site “Radds Games” reviews indie video games. The site’s design is really cool. The live graphics on the homepage capture the essence of a video game, and the bold colours and fonts really enhance that vibe. My only recommendation for the site’s design and layout is to add some additional categories to the menu so it is easier to navigate between the blog posts and the PUB101 content. 

When completing these peer reviews, I find it really helpful to read all of my peer’s process posts to develop a better understanding of their vision. Unfortunately, Radu only has 1 process post on his site, and I couldn’t use it as a resource for this review. With that being said, it’s pretty clear that Radu set out to create a site that appeals to other people who appreciate gaming as he uses a lot of vocabulary that is pretty unique to the gaming community. What I enjoy about the content, even though I am not into video games, is how thorough every review is. I was really able to gain a good understanding of each game just through Radu’s commentary. We are already in week 11 though, so Radu is behind in his content as he only has 6 posts. 

The reading from week 10, “State of Mobile,” really helped me to come up with some ways that Radu could increase the marketability of his site. The reading provided some examples of how different types of video games appeal to different demographic groups. I think that Radu could use this to inform some of his content. Radu could tailor his content towards his target demographic, whether older versus younger age groups or female versus male, by reviewing the types of games that appeal to that specific demographic. Additionally, I think that Radu could grow his site by linking it to other social media sites. Based on the little bit I know about video games, a lot of people who play video games enjoy doing so online with their friends, so it would be fitting for Radu to start a discord server where the site’s audience can come together and play the games that he has reviewed. This would allow Radu to directly interact with his audience and build a community. In the same vein, Radu could livestream his gameplay for his audience and do real-time reviews. 

Overall, Radu’s site lacks some content, but the content that is available is high-quality and clearly tailored to a specific audience, and the design is simple but effective. To increase the marketability of his site, Radu could narrow down his target audience and review games that appeal to that group, as well as expanding his site to other social media platforms. 

Julia’s Digital Diary is an online collection of her varied interests, ranging from books and music to food and fun activities. In the “About” section, Julia explains to her audience that she wants her blog to be where she can talk about all her interests in one place. The home page of the site is designed to look like a notebook. The different shades of pink in the header are striking, and they remind me of diaries that I had as a younger girl, which creates a sense of nostalgia! 

Julia’s site exhibits great balance. There are photos of varied sizes across the site that create visually appealing asymmetry. In addition, the photos used across the site, like the photo of Julia in the sidebar, create a nice contrast that makes her posts pop. I also think the site has accomplished a good sense of unity, as the font, colours, and style are uniform and consistent across the entire site. I thought it was great that the site’s theme carried over to Instagram as well. 

The site is easy to navigate, with clear menu categories and post titles. As I was navigating through her site, though, I noticed that when you click on the “Blog” section, you are directed to a blank page. To fix this issue, Julia may have to edit her posts so that they are included on the blog category landing page. Additionally, it appears as though Julia is still working on a lot of her content, as there are a few posts that have titles and photos, but no content. 

I enjoy the content that is up so far on the site. As someone who is also into books and music, I love hearing other people’s opinions on these topics. Julia’s writing style makes you feel like you are having a conversation with her, which is entertaining and relatable. When reading her post about “Nook,” I noticed that she mentioned a previous post she had written about another restaurant and included a very clear link back to that post, which is super smart. Additionally, I appreciated the seamless integration of her Spotify playlist in her “for life music” post. 

I think that Julia would benefit from reading the assigned article from week 7 by Travis Gertz. In this article, Gertz discusses ways in which site administrators and designers can learn from editorial-style designers. I think this design style would translate well to Julia’s site, as it almost reads like a magazine. Overall, the design and layout of Julia’s site are visually appealing and easy to navigate, and her content is super fun to read. 

My classmate Karamveer’s site “Blockchain: The New Internet” is a blog dedicated to discussing the evolution of blockchain technology. Immediately, I was impressed by the design of the site. The site is sleek, organized, and easy to navigate. I tend to associate darker colours with topics like business and finance, so I found the black and blue tones used across the site to be quite aesthetically pleasing. 

Before starting this review, I read all the content on the website. The process post from week 2 stood out to me because I saw some clear connections to Gardner Campbell’s work. Campbell (2009) explains that by giving students a digital space in which they can create freely, they would learn and practice a wide range of skills that can be applied to other avenues of life. In addition, having a digital space, or personal cyberinfrastructure, allows students to express their passions and interests in diverse ways (Campbell, 2009). In his week 2 process post, Karamveer shared that he works as a software engineer outside of school, so he was able to use his skills from that field to develop his website. He also mentioned that blockchain technology is something he is passionate about, so blogging about it was an easy choice. I found it really cool that in just a few weeks of class, there are already such clear links between how we run our sites and the material we are learning about in class. 

I spent some time trying to figure out who the intended audience is. There is some background information about blockchain technology in the “about us” section, but I found that the actual blog content went a bit over my head, as someone who has no background knowledge on the topic. As mentioned by Hollenbaugh, (2021), content creators tend to imagine an audience, and create their content with that audience in mind. From my perspective, it seems as though Karamveer has imagined an audience that is equally as passionate and knowledgeable about blockchain technology as he is. While Karamveer did mention in his week 4 process post that he uses simple language to make the information more accessible for people with varied levels of knowledge about blockchain technology, he could widen his audience a bit more by making a “blockchain technology basics” post, or something of that nature, for people with little to no knowledge of the topic. 

Overall, Karamveer has created an online self that demonstrates a passion for blockchain technology, as well as educating others about the topic. Karamveer’s interest in web design is also made clear through the sleek and simple layout of the site. 

References 

Campbell, G. (2009). A Personal Cyberinfrastructure. EDUCAUSE Review, 44(5), 58.

Hollenbaugh, E. E. (2021). Self-Presentation in Social Media: Review and Research Opportunities. Review of Communication Research, 9, 80–98.