Monthly Archives: November 2022
Messed up on my meal plan + Gym Update
So on my last blog post about my fitness update, I told you guys that I can eat rice again but alternating veggie only days and rice days…
Well, I’ve been doing that for the last few weeks but turns out I was only supposed to do that for a week—oops!
It was just funny because when I told my boyfriend (aka my personal trainer) about it, he said “I thought I was clear on this” but I misinterpreted what he said.
All good though! If you guys mess up like I did, just know what it’s okay because it’s all part of the process!
Gym Update
I should also note that I haven’t been to the gym the last few weeks either. I was so caught up with school stuff that I am always feeling so tired everyday and I just did not have the time to workout while having so much studying to do and having time to rest.
Now that things are kind of getting a little more chill, I am planning to go back this week!
Just a reminder—it’s okay to take time off from the gym to prioritize other things. We all get busy so it’s okay to rest, but be sure to not overwork yourself to the point our mental and physical health gets compromised!
Process Post: Busiest month
We are about 3 weeks out from the last day of school and I couldn’t be any more excited.
The last few weeks have been so busy—the busiest I probably have ever been in my entire academic career. I attend so many meetings for group projects and office hours.
But despite the fact of how busy things have gotten this term, I am confident that it is all worth it because all the hard work I put into my assignments, projects and overall studies will pay out.
Here’s to another successful semester!
The Power Of Positive Self Talk
What is self-talk?
Humans internally communicate with themselves throughout the day, knowingly or unknowingly. This communication is referred to as “self talk.” Self-talk is programmed into our minds, and it is an integral part that either lifts the person up or makes them fall.
Why is positive self-talk important?
Positive self-talk is when the internal communication focuses on positive aspects and makes a person feel good about themselves. Positive self-talk has several advantages for our mental health. The major benefits of positive self-talk are increased self-esteem and better stress management. For instance, this 2019 study showed that students who practised positive self-talk before delivering a speech experienced lower levels of anxiety. Similarly, another 2020 study shows that positive self-talk had motivating effects on the athletes.
Some examples of positive self-talk include: “I didn’t succeed, but at least I tried”; “I am proud of how far I have come”; “I am not afraid of the outcome; I will keep my focus on the present.”
I would recommend you watch the following video by Swami Mukundananda, where he describes it nicely.
The post The Power Of Positive Self Talk first appeared on Self Therapy.
Transmedia Marketability
Creating Considering Cardamom has been a learning curve on just about every front imaginable. I always used to think of blogging as something easy to do, that you could just sit down and write whatever came to mind and people would give you money for it. I never really understood how someone could make a full living off of something as simple as that, and I will be honest, I definitely thought that bloggers were a little bit ridiculous when they complained about how much work they had to do. However, being on the opposite end of things now, I can see that there is a whole lot more to blogging than just writing.
One thing that I know I’ve definitely taken for granted is the presence of an audience just waiting for content to be distributed to them. On most social media platforms that I’ve participated in with a public account, it has not taken long for me to develop a relatively large audience with very minimal effort. One funny Tiktok using a trending sound could get me over 16K views. Running a blog is very different, as I’ve noticed from looking at my analytics. The last time I checked, the high point of traffic on my site was a grand total of 11 people. Judging from the fact that they logged in on a Monday and the class for which I am developing this blog had an assignment due on Tuesday, it was no great surprise to me that my fellow students might want to see what I had done to gain inspiration for their own assignments.
I think that in the future if I choose to continue this blog, I would want to incorporate social media into my blog to help grow my audience. When it comes to recipe sites, I rarely seek specific blogs out on Google. More often than not, I end up finding a delicious-looking recipe by scrolling through Tiktok or Instagram and getting a link back to the site where the recipe is hosted. This idea of transmedia storytelling is something that I know I have experienced several times from a consumer perspective, but was not aware of the name or intention behind it. The use of different mediums to appeal to different audiences all contributing to the same overall brand is something that’s seen in social media, entertainment, fashion and more. From a back-end point of view, this is a brilliant strategy and one that I myself would love to give a shot when I have the time available to film and edit social media videos.
The Perfect Roti
Roti are a staple in Indian cooking. Just about everything that you eat could be improved with the addition of a roti next to it, from curries to sabjis and sometimes even dessert! I know that when she was younger, my mom would break off little pieces of her roti and use them to eat kheer, which is almost the Indian equivalent of rice pudding. Roti is such a permanent fixture in both our diet and our culture that oftentimes, mother in laws will judge their son’s partners based on how round their roti are before the two can be married. Hopefully my mother in law is not that traditional or judgemental, or else I’d be in hot water with my lopsided roti!
When I was a kid, I used to love helping my mom making rotis to go along with dinner. We still have baby videos with me and my sisters playing in the flour while my mom portioned out dough next to us. We even had a little baby sized rolling pin so that we could copy what she was doing. I remember getting bored easily, thinking that making roti was so boring and time consuming, and not understanding why I couldn’t just eat white cheddar mac and cheese for every meal.
Now, given that I’m a little older and have much more experience in the kitchen, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at just how easy making roti can be, and I hope to practice my rolling skills a little more!
The Perfect Roti
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Makes roughly 12 roti
Ingredients:
1 cup durum flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup water + more as needed
1 tbsp oil
Instructions:
1. Mix together durum flour, whole wheat flour and water. Knead until the dough does not stick to the side of the bowl, add more water as needed to achieve this.
2. Drizzle oil around the outside of the dough and then knead again to combine.
3. Let rest for at least 15 minutes and up to overnight.
4. Portion out dough into small balls, roughly the size of a golf ball. Roll between floured hands to make round and push down to form each ball into a little disc. Coat lightly in flour and set aside as you portion out the rest of the dough.
5. Roll each disc out flat on a lightly floured surface, trying your best to ensure that it maintains a round shape. The flat roti should be about 1/4 of an centimetre thick.
6. Heat a tava or a flat, non-stick pan on medium high heat. On another element, either place a small heat proof metal rack as close as possible to an electric element, or on top of the gas flame.
7. Flip a rolled out roti onto the nonstick pan and let cook on one side until it changes and darkens in colour. Flip the roti then, and use a spatula or tongs to push down the edges to ensure they are cooked evenly. Allow to cook for another 30 seconds or so before transferring onto the metal rack.
8. Turn the heat on to high below the metal rack and allow the roti to puff up. If you notice only one area of the roti is bubbling, lightly press on it with a spatula or tongs to encourage the spread of the air. Once one side has some nice charred colour, flip to the other side and cook again until the colour matches before removing from the heat.
9. Repeat the same process until you run out of dough. Serve with your favourite Indian dish, or slap some butter on it and enjoy!
Peer Review #3: I Wear Your Grandad’s Clothes
For this week’s third and final peer review, I had the pleasure of reviewing Makena Leyh’s site: iwearyourgrandadsclothes.com. What a great site and theme idea!
Starting off with design, the dynamic page element immediately grabbed my attention. I really like how the blog posts slightly move while scrolling the page, making the site more engaging from a user’s perspective. Upon landing on the homepage of the blog, I’m met with so many captivating images. This paired with the cream background, really makes the content pop. Great work!. I also love how minimal the page is. This design decision allows the site’s content to shine through, rather than being too busy, cluttered, or distracting.
Makena has done a great job of creating a personal connection with the audience which invites them to engage with the blog further. For example, the site title: “I Wear Your Grandad’s Clothes”, paired with the slogan below “Because sustainability is SO in right now!” is witty, on brand, and a great way to introduce your audience to the site. It is definitely a form of expression and your personality is revealed to the audience. This reminds me of what Gertz (2015) had explained regarding making design and content decisions in a more authentic way to forge human connection. I noted this time and time again on your site which really is the framework of successfully marketing your website to the intended audience group.
I highly suggest you add an “About” page because this will definitely create an even more personalized and dynamic site for your audience. It would be nice to see how you put together an “About” page that reflects your site’s theme and invites your users to explore the blog more.
As for specific blog content, I loved your meme. The image once again had that captivating movement effect while scrolling which drew me in as the viewer. It was clever and again connected with your intended audience. Your guest post with Spiderman was also really clever. You did a good job tying it into the blog’s theme and speaking to the intended audience. This was effective particularly with the sentence:
“I’m really here to spread an important message of how YOU can help me and the rest of the Avengers save the world from our biggest threat EVER – like even worse than Thanos – climate change.”
Your content titles are also super creative and captivating. This once again makes your audience interested in diving into the site’s content.
My final feedback is regarding website marketability to the intended audience. While your designs are great, you could definitely add more content. I was looking forward to seeing more public posts from your site that engage with the theme. This way, someone that’s interested in thrifting and sustainability could connect more with your site. The guest post was a sneak peak into this discussion with an intended audience and I’m looking forward to seeing more.
It would also be nice to see a “contact us” page where viewers could get in touch and potentially request different blog post topics. More posts, and an “About” page will really drive in more user traffic, ultimately making your site more marketable. Organic search is a huge source of blog traffic (Hollingsworth, 2018), making SEOs and keywords great tools to grow your website audience.
Looking forward to seeing you develop more content! Great work Makena 
References:
Gertz, T. (2015). “Design Machines. How to survive in the digital Apocalypse.”
Hollingsworth, S. (2018). “12 Reasons Why You Business Absolutely Needs SEO.” https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close
Peer Review #3
Site Development
As I complete my third peer review of website developments, this process has been great experience in bettering my own content through analysis of other successful individuals work. For this review, I was tasked with assessing Brianna’s website Perfume Log”. I really enjoyed reading through this website as it was super easy to navigate and explore. The focus of the site is for readers to learn about new perfumes and use this information to make informed decisions on perfume purchasing. When first entering the site, you are greeted with a simple and fitting home page where navigation to posts is direct. She has a variety of different reviews and a super engaging rating system that helps consumers clearly understand the product.
Typography
I felt that the typography of Brianna’s website is suitable for her content, as this site has a clear focus, and the chosen fonts and flavour is a great match for the perfume industry. I would advise considering the centering decision for the home page description. I feel as though it may be more suitable to reorganize the setting of the writing as it makes it slightly confusing. As for the image choice for the home page, I think there may be a better way of placing the image. Considering a layer of the image with text could be a fun change or else maybe clearer portion of writing and add extras picture in between.
Content Development and Categories
Brianna’s content was very enjoyable to read, she is engaging and provides valuable reviews. I found that her content is very solid and the only suggestions I would think to mention revolves mainly on the categories she has set. The PUB 101 section is great and clearly stated so not edits in that regard but where I believe could benefit from refinement would be in the perfume log. I think that creating subcategories for the perfumes whether they are split up based on review score, type of perfume or even a price point could be super interesting.
Marketability and Intended audience
Most importantly of this peer review is the emphasis on the marketability of Brianna’s website and how has she aligned the intended audience. Firstly, the marketability of the “Perfume Log” is well established. The ability to interpret and enjoy the high level content with great reviews as well.
Regarding Generosity & Content Marketing
Regarding Generosity & Content Marketing
Last week, a class I am in, Publication of Self In Everyday Life, had a guest speaker named Steve Pratt.
Steve has an extensive history in the publishing field, He most notably founded a company called Pacific Content which was recently acquired by the Canadian telecommunications giant Rogers. He is now moving on to develop his own consultancy for creatives titled The Creativity Business.
During class, Steve did a presentation where he provided an overview of what it takes to build a creative-based business.
After viewing Steve’s presentation two particular points stuck with me:
- Generosity is critical to making the world a better place
- Content marketing is perhaps the best way to build your own brand
Why Generosity is Critical
In my own life, I have traditionally defined virtuous acts as acts which are good for the sake of good.
In viewing Steve’s presentation I realized demonstrating generosity by taking generous action, is perhaps the purest form of a virtuous act.
Steve described generosity as giving, without expecting anything back in return. A definition that aligns with my own definition of virtue.
If we all gave without expecting anything in return the world would most certainly be a better place. If we all thought a little bit more about being generous, perhaps more hardship could be overcome and more social problems around the glove could be solved.
The trait of generosity is now one I know I will embody moving forward.
The Power of Content Marketing
When Steve was presenting, he talked about many of the amazing brands such as Apple, Slack, Spotify, and more that he got to work with as a part of Pacific Content. The whole time I was incredibly curious as to how Pacific Content was able to acquire these pretentious clients, so as soon as I got the chance to ask I did.
Steve’s reply was simple and something along the lines of “we made content.”
Steve explained that simply having content on the internet that showed Pacific Content knew what they were doing when it came to podcasts led to these companies approaching them.
The irony is that the content explained how to do what their business did. They explained how to do they job they could provide, yet people paid them to do the job anyways.
To me, this seemed backward. I had believed if you have a secret formula, you typically do not want to let others know what that secret formula is.
What I now know, is that no, you are not only telling others how to do your job, you are showing that you know what you are talking about.
The content marketing created by Pacific Content was incredibly powerful, because clients realized they could help them create great content because of the evidence that Pacific Content provided with their content marketing.
Conclusion
Generosity and content marketing. Two simple concepts are incredibly powerful.
Two concepts, that will make my life and the world a little better.
Peer Review #3: Examining Abysmal Guides
Peer Review #3: Examining Abysmal Guides
Context
This website was created for a class at Simon Fraser University titled Publication of Self in Everyday Life. In this class, we are developing our own digital identities and assisting our classmates in doing the same. This is the third and final of these reviews.
In this review, I will provide my evaluation of the site AbysmalGuides.com in regard to its intended target audience.
The Target Audience and Content Strategy of Abysmal Guides
The author of Absymal Guides provides a description of their target audience and content strategy in their post titled My Ideal Audience.
In this post, they describe their ideal audience and the content they are creating targeted at this audience. Their ideal audience is beginners or new players of the game Genshin Impact. They then go on to explain that they will be creating posts that help introduce players to the game, as well as some posts describing some deeper nuances which will require the basic information knowledge they provide in their other posts.
Abysmal Guides has developed a clear and concise target audience and an appropriate content strategy to approach this audience.
While this target audience is concise, I do believe that it would be worthwhile for the author to further empathize with their target audience. With this information, they could further explore the demographics, psychographics, and behaviours they believe this group has to better create content suited to this audience. It is worth noting, that this is an analysis they may have done but not published on their site.
Examining the Content of Abysmal Guides
Abysmal Guides’ Landing Page
When an individual arrives at Abysmal Guides, they are greeted by text explaining the site’s purpose and a background image from the game Genshin Impact.
The text that immediately grabs the audience’s attention is a large “Welcome to Abysmal Guides”, after viewing this text the audience likely then goes on to view a caption saying “Just another blog about Genshin Impact guides”. I love the large welcome as it does make me feel welcome, but am a bit thrown off by the caption as it does not assert that this site is the place I need to be. I believe that using stronger language and saying something like “The Genshin Impact Blog for Beginners”, would confirm for the audience that they are on the correct website would improve the site.
The landing page then goes on to explain the two purposes of the site, the fact that it exists as a guide for Genshin Impact beginners and that it was created for a class. This context is something I am sure the audience appreciates as it depicts transparency and lends credibility to the site’s information.
Following this, the audience can then see a few recent posts on the site with clear categories above titles ensuring the audience viewing the site can get to the posts they need to see.
Posts
In examining the content of AbysmalGuides.com, I began by viewing the post Things to Know Before Starting Genshin Impact. This post is well-structured and easy to read, very appropriate for this site’s target audience. Reading it gave me a good overview of the game and has enabled me to an understanding that I did not previously have.
Next, I wanted to view a character page as the author described these types of posts as ones that could be viewed and understood only after gaining a basic understanding of the game, so I viewed the post Venti Character Build. This post is again well structured, providing an overview of the character then diving in to specific attributes of the character.
Conclusion Regarding Content
Abysmal Guides is well written. The content fits the audience very well, and the author has accomplished what they set out to do in their initial post. I am greatly appreciative of this and enjoyed viewing the site.
Affordances on Abysmal Guides
Affordances are defined as action possibilities provided to the actor by the environment. They are critical to making the uses of an item immediately obvious (Kaptelinin, n.d.). In evaluating Abysmal Guides’ design I examined the site through the lens of affordances.
Affordances That Make Sense
- The menu bar on the top, provides an immediate easy way for users who know what they are looking for on the site to find what they are looking for.
- The sidebar on the side of the screen has many good elements which make navigation of the site much easier.
- The headers found on public posts make Abysmal Guides, guides easy to navigate. This is greatly appreciated and useful for the users as it minimizes the amount of time they need to spend on the page to find what they are looking for.
Affordances That Could Be Improved
- Author title – Currently, all the posts are authored by “Admin”, changing the name of this poster might be worth exploring, though the title Admin does lend the posts some credibility.
- Category colours – The categories above the post titles are coloured which makes the site much more visually intriguing, but these colours do not mean anything as they are randomly assigned which makes them confusing. If different colours went with different types of categories, it would be useful and intuitive.
Affordances That Could Be Added
- An easy way to access the post Things to Know Before Starting Genshin Impact, immediately after arriving on the site would be a nice touch and fitting for the site’s target audience.
- Headers could be added to the posts created for the course. They are currently on the posts for Genshin Impact which makes them easily navigable and it would be nice if the author carried these ideas over to their other posts.
Conclusion – Abysmal Guides Successfully Targets a Niche
Abysmal Guides does a fantastic job targeting their content at a niche. The site is functional and easy to use, providing users with a positive experience.
In the article Embracing the Power of Niches, Steve Pratt (2020) explains that targeting a niche can allow a content creator to reach audiences that others have not yet realized, and I believe that this site has done a fantastic job implementing this principle. This is evident in the fact that several of the posts on the site have comments from users thanking the author for the information they provide (for example, on the post Things to Know Before Starting Genshin Impact).
I greatly look forward to seeing what Abysmal Guide develops into in the future and thoroughly enjoyed evaluating the site.
References
Kaptelinin, V. (n.d.). Affordances. The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, Chapter 44. Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/affordances
Pratt, S. (2022). Embracing the power of niches. The Creativity Business. https://creativitybusiness.substack.com/p/embracing-the-power-of-niches
YVR Black & White: Kris Hooper
This week’s artist is one of my personal favourites, Kris Hooper. Hooper works on classic street and candid photography. He has a way of focusing in on certain objects and elements in each shot. He creates a certain focal point in his photos, creating a mini story in each piece.
Many of his collections are in black and white which is really striking. While the colours are muted, Kris brings each image to life purely based on composition. Often highlighting a lone person in his photography, he tells a story with each photo. I feel like his images reveal how big the world is and how we all have a story.
He also highlights Vancouver’s distinct streets and infrastructure. Hooper breaks down the city’s development and structure, and whether or not this is on purpose, he has done an incredible job of capturing the city’s skeleton. He shows us what YVR’s core looks like in black and white. The black and white really makes the elements pop and sets an introspective tone for the images.
Kris makes me reflect on everyday life in the city. People commuting to work, shopping, getting coffee with friends — they’re all living their lives. The images may look solemn on the surface but when you look at them with intention, you really see their beauty unfold!
Check out some of his work from the collection Twenty-Odd Squares:
Blog: How much does it cost to charge a Tesla?
I feel like this question is the most common question I get asked from non-EV users. For this blog, I will try my best to be as transparent as possible in the most concise and digestible way for all my readers. This is the best estimate on how much it costs to charge my Tesla and I will be comparing the charging costs against how much it costs to fill up my gasoline car which is a 2011 BMW 323i.
We will assume the follow charging rates from BC Hydro electricity (BC Hydro, 2022) 0.14 cents per kwh (BC Hydro has two rates, step 1 rate of $0.09 per kWh and step 2 rate of $0.14 per kWh, the average household tends to pass the step 1 threshold so we will be using the step 2 rate to calculate the electricity cost). To make thing’s easier, I have an iPhone app that tracks my at-home charging history on my Tesla Model 3 called “Optiwatt” (not sponsored). The app does not track how much I spend on Tesla Superchargers or Pay per use public charging stations (these tend to cost ~$0.50 per kWh) which I have never used since I got the vehicle.
For gas prices, we will assume premium gasoline costs $2.00 per litre since BMW’s and other german vehicles require premium gasoline (Park Ave BMW, 2020). I could provide receipts here of all my gasoline purchases, but I will just estimate how much it costs me to fill up my BMW with an average amount of driving.
Let’s start with the Tesla Model 3, since I got the car in March 2021, it has only costed me a total of $409.82 with 27,353 kilometers on the odometer. To put it into perspective, a full tank of gas on my BMW 323i costs me ~$120 which gives me ~600km of range. This means that, if I spent $400 on gas for my BMW, I would only get to drive a distance of ~2,000km versus the entire 27,353 total kms driven on the Tesla! Don’t believe me? Here are the screenshots from my optiwatt account…
This is just a quick and easy way to explain how much it costs to charge my Tesla Model 3. Charging costs vary by municipalities, countries, and the type of chargers you use. I’m hoping this gives my readers a glimpse of how cheap it is to charge a Tesla. Of course there are many other factors that go beyond the scope of this blog, but I am more than happy to go deeper into charging related questions via comments, email or by scheduling a zoom meeting, so feel free to leave comments on this post or contacting me via email at vancitytess@gmail.com.
References
BC Hydro. (2022). Residential rates. BC Hydro – Power smart. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://app.bchydro.com/accounts-billing/rates-energy-
use/electricity-rates/residential-rates.html
Park Ave BMW (2020). What Type of Gas Does My BMW Take? Park Ave BMW | BMW Car News and Research. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from
https://www.guideautoweb.com/en/makes/bmw/3-series/2011/specifications/4dr-sdn-323i-rwd/
Featured photo: Manthey, N. (2022). Tesla opens paid charging at (some) Destination Chargers. Electrive.com. From: https://www.electrive.com/2022/08/04/tesla-opens-paid-charging-at-some-destination-chargers/
Process Post #10: Updates to Tess Drives Website
I have made some notable adjustments to my website ahead of both the peer review and second round of feedback from our TA Lauren. I added a recent posts section to my homepage, updated the featured posts section and have done some initial alt text adjustments to the photos across the website.
It took me a while to figure out how to put a recent posts section onto my homepage. Since my homepage runs on Elementor, it was only possible to add in a recent posts section if I had Elementor Pro—which I was definitely not paying for. I could have used some html coding but I have never took a comp-sci course in my life so I was also not going to go down that route. Instead, I was able to add a recent posts section from the WordPress side and that fit the glove perfectly! I was able to display both my public posts and my Pub 101 posts that have dates to clearly show when they were posted. I feel like Lauren would definitely appreciate this when she’s grading my work…
For my featured posts page, I looked to Lauren’s feedback from round one and she told me it would be nice to have the titles of the posts under the featured posts photos. Initially, I did it that way because I was struggling to add text under the images, but through some careful trial and error, I was able to figure it out! And I have to say, it looks much clearer now as to which image belongs to which Tess Drives post. I also updated the three posts to reflect more current posts that my viewers may be interested in. The difference between recent posts and featured posts is that the recent posts are chronologically ordered from oldest to newest and featured posts are random posts to catch the attention of readers.
Last but not least, I had some free time to add some alt text to most of my images on my website. It was a pretty simple process, I just had to go into WordPress and go to my media library and individually choose the photos to add alt text. I found it odd that on the public facing side of things, you can’t actually view the alt text without using the “inspect” function. I guess I was expecting something similar to Twitter’s alt text where you can click into the “ALT” badge and view the alt text from there. I like this touch, I am going to see if there’s a plugin I can install to my website to have alt text show like that.
Peer Review #3: Stephanie Gorwill (swagfashionblog)
Link to website: https://swagfashionblog.weebly.com/
Design
What works well
Upon landing on the homepage of the website, it was interesting to see that Stephanie chose Weebly to design her website instead of WordPress. I like this ambitious move as it shows that she is courageous enough to step away from the status quo and make her website stand out more.
Stephanie does a really great job setting the scene for her website viewers, she has “Fashion & Lifestyle” in large white text and a Louis Vuitton monogram background as contrast. It is extremely clear what the website will be about just based off a few seconds on the homepage.
I love how minimal her menu bar is and it has only the important tabs needed such as “Home,” “About,” “Public Content,” and “Pub 101” with a drop-down menu for Public Content and Pub 101. It makes it super easy to identify and navigate through the website.
Lastly, on her “About” page, I love how it has a “collage-style” aesthetic showcasing her personal photos, a biography, and her social handles.
What needs some improvement
I noticed on her website she had two buttons that were not linked to pages correctly. The first one being the “read more” button on her homepage and the second one being the “Pub 101” tab on the menu bar. I would suggest her to go back and properly link these pages as it is common for users to expect these to be functional buttons
Although I did like the use of the Louis Vuitton background, I would suggest Stephanie to use a higher quality photo. It is evident that the image has not been optimized for the website and it is quite distracting visually since it is the background for all her pages and content on the website.
Lastly, I would change the logo/website name on the top left corner from Stephanie Gorwill to the actual name of her website (supposedly SwagFashionBlog?) as it is confusing whether the website is a personal blog or a fashion blog.
Content
What works well
Going into her public content, it is great to see that my initial impressions of a fashion blog is carried over to her content, it is exactly what users like me expected.
Stephanie has gone with the approach of choosing fashion items that she has personally purchased and giving her overall review of the item. She does a great job with this by even comparing the items to similar products like she did with her blog post called “The Aritzia Super Puff” where she compared this product to a similar product offered by Canada Goose.
It was also great to see that Stephanie reviewed some products that were unisex such as the Artizia Superpuff and the Nike Mercurial Superfly 6 Elite AG-PRO Fast AF – ‘Total Orange/Black/Volt’ (wow that’s a mouth full! haha).
What needs some improvement
One of the main aspects Stephanie can focus on is perhaps making her blog posts a little longer. I noticed that each blog post was only around 200 words. As a reader who is interested in the content, it was a little disappointing when I reached the end as I had so many questions that Stephanie probably could have addressed if she wrote more!
While this sound knit picky or outright annoying, I did find one typo in Stephanie’s website in her blog post called “Coach Mini Charlie Backpack in Pebble Leather Black” specifically the line “If you’re on the market looking to purchase a mini backpack…” This probably should be changed to “in” rather than “on.”
Marketability to Intended Audience
What works well
As mentioned earlier, I love how the theme of fashion is clearly portrayed to the audience and is consistent across both her design elements and content. As a person who is into both streetwear and luxury goods, it is great that Stephanie does not limit her audience by only producing content to one specific gender or one specific fashion category. This will allow her to gain more traffic on her website.
What needs some improvement
While Stephanie does a great job of listing her social media handles in her “About” page, it would have been nice if she was able to link her profiles to each handle. In addition, it seems like she has given her personal Instagram and Facebook profiles as her Instagram is on private and the Facebook profile requires you to add her as a friend. I believe these should be listed under a “contact us” page rather than the social media handles as these two platforms do not relate to her fashion content.
React-ing to Angular
(Week 11)
Hehe. For you front-end devs, I am learning Angular. Coming from a background of React I have been forced this semester to learn angular.
Ok, forced sounds bad, while in actuality I would rather be using React, Angular has been pretty similar and the learning curve looks nice and loggy.
Going over the architecture was interesting. Going over the Angular CLI was interesting. Going over data binding was interesting. Going over routing was interesting. blah blah blah. Same fruit, different orange.
Like programming language, there are very similar if not the exact same concepts spread out over various syntaxes, so jumping from one language to another isn’t a huge difficulty. Actually, if you learned how to code via Python and are jumping to C, you’re probably going to have a not-so-great time for the first bit. However, if you’re old and learned C/C++ as your first language, jumping from one language to a “higher” level language is not that bad.
When we’re talking front-end web dev platform to front-end web dev platform, as far as React and Angular are concerned, the jump is similar. On the first class of my CMPT 272, the honourable lecturer Bobby Chan said as people protested his choice of Angular, “If you know React, then you know React. If you know Angular, then you know React.” Do I agree? Yes??? I think that if you learn React crash-course style, then yeah learning Angular from the bottom up via the architecture, components, directives, templates, pipes, etc. will only benefit in porting over to React after the fact. However, if you are actually paying attention to the nuances of React and trying to understand how everything is linked up, then the missing boilerplate is not going to be a problem.
Of course, all of this is my opinion. Switching from React to Angular or Angular to React is going to be different for everyone.
In case you may be interested in the differences, here is a link that may help.
We have two weeks left of school (yayyyyy), and that means lots of projects (booooo)! One of those projects, you guessed it, is in Angular and it is going… ok. I have barely started which isn’t the best, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to take too, too long. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it so far, but for my CMPT 272 class, all of our projects this semester have been about pigs… So many pigs. This project is no different and I need to make a pig tracker. Sounds dumb, but also cute and maybe, potentially, useful? I will use it to track my dog Totoro after the end of the course. Also… I AM ALMOST DONE FOREVER. YAY! Except for maybe grad school one day, but who knows?
Anyhow, this is no longer on topic so I think it’s safe to say that this process post is done.
Bye!
Analytics, SEO, & Audience Growth
The data Google Analytics provides is important because it supports a user’s specific goals. Its benefits derive from how a website owner chooses to use the data that it provides. It is important to have specific goals in place to optimize Google Analytics use. This versatile tool ultimately helps create better-informed decisions surrounding website engagement and marketing. So, if used correctly, Google Analytics helps grow a website’s audience.
A notable aspect of Google Analytics is its ability to uncover patterns and trends from website users. These trends reveal a lot about a website’s audience and not only informs increased viewership, but also fuels better user experience (Hollingsworth, 2018). I could use Google Analytics to optimize SEOs and ultimately create a more accessible site. This would make my site more efficient and help me achieve my blog’s goals.
To the same degree, mobile phones have created key mediums for accessing apps, games, and websites. According to State of Mobile (2022), in 2021, around 233 apps and games generated over $100 million dollars. Mobile phones have catalyzed more screen time than ever, which means more time that could be spent on websites and blogs. This also means more money spent on digital media, creating an opportunity for monetizing websites.
Finally, on the topic of tactics to ensure growing viewership, SEO is critical. Organic search is a huge source of blog traffic (Hollingsworth, 2018), making SEOs a fantastic tool to grow a website audience. SEOs build blog credibility, as well as give deep insight into site users’ behaviour (Hollingsworth, 2018). SEOs are a cost-effective tool that allows website owners to understand what their users really want.
How does this all apply to YVRchives? Well, this knowledge will allow me to leverage the plugins Google Analytics and Google AdSense. I can understand how to serve the best content to my audience as well as monetize my site through ads that will actually be useful for viewers.
References:
data.ai. (2022). State of Mobile 2022.
Hollingsworth, S. (2018). “12 Reasons Why You Business Absolutely Needs SEO.” https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close
The Last Twitter User Standing
This week in POSIEL, we examined the idea of bringing our blog content to other social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, and yes, even Twitter. And after some consideration, I decided that I will be utilizing Twitter, as a secondary platform for my content! Now I know what you’re probably thinking:...
PR #3: A Sustainable Fashion Blog
(Week 11)
Wow. Dressing sustainably (DS). I know this peer review post is supposed to be about analyzing your audience and marketability and this may tie into it… but damn, the optics (in a good way)!
The layout, the topography, the framing, the contrast with the colour pops and the neutrals. Your site looks very clean, approachable, and professional.
How your site presents itself/your brand/the way you market yourself, sets an idea of what kind of audience you have and could potentially attract.
Who I believe your audience may be
The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding has dropped and smeared on the ground in front of you. Albeit not the best visual, it’s more of a metaphor for how apparent the topic of your site is. Your site is about sustainable fashion and it’s obvious. That obviousness is great as it allows those who stumble across your site the directness they need to either stay or leave, because why stay if you don’t care for the content? The fact that you allow the experience for your audience to be an obvious one, builds a more niche audience while strengthening their alliance with your brand. Those who are looking for a sustainable fashion alternative, those whose default is to shop sustainably for anything, those who love fashion, and those that care about the planet, are your audience. Taking a look at these possible audiences, these counterpublics range from small to large audiences. In that regard, I don’t believe numbers will be an issue for you to grow your brand and your audience and this can be quite powerful. How do you harness this power in numbers? Marketing.
Some points on marketing
You have the material, and you have the vibe, but you need to work on marketability.
I’ve pointed this out in every peer review, and yours, regrettably, is no exception. I’m noticing that your images do not have alt text. I cannot claim to be an expert in any regard towards the shrouded mystery that is Google’s search algorithms, but I know one of the many data points are the content you have going on in the background, in the code. Alternative/alt text is not just some fictional topic that Lauren and Suzanne are trying to convince you is real. It exists, and it exists here:
Now, why is this important? HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a programming language that is used to build the structure of a web application or component. In this day and age, we use HTML5 which is semantic. This means, the code that we developers use has meaning, it’s not just a waterfall of <divs> anymore, it’s a grouping of relative content tagged with semantic tags.
Again, why is this important? Giving meaning to code allows that code to be categorized more easily. Alt text lives in the <img> tag as a property. It is meant to give an alternative definition to the image source for those that may need or choose to use it. It is also used as a data point for Google’s search algorithms to categorize your site and content and allow those that are searching for sustainable fashion to find sites and information that are related to sustainable fashion. Yes, alt text is important for accessibility, but it is also important for boosting your site in relevancy for Google aka boosting your marketing. So, more of that.
Aside from boosting your marketability via alt text. What I found interesting about your blog posts was the form at the bottom of the posts that allows your audience to sign up for emails on comment updates! This is great. It allows those who are interacting with your site to multiply their interactions with your site and drive up your page viewings, and time spent on that page while lowering the page bounce rate.
Take it or leave it – Some Advice
What do people like about fashion? How it looks, how it makes you feel, and how it may inspire others. This is great, however, if we cannot see fashion, is fashion really there?
Tree falling in the woods aside, I feel that you could attract your audience more if you use more images. Fashion is huge on sight and how what they see makes them feel, so it feels like fashion and images of fashion should go hand and hand. I would suggest including more images on your main blog post page as well as just adding more images on the individual posts themselves, for example:
It would be cool if there were some screenshots/images of the banners of these sites so that your audience doesn’t need to read a whole paragraph to get a feel of the site you are recommending. Linking and backlinking are great for SEO and increase your marketability.
I mentioned numbers and how you have them, but I believe that the numbers you may have may be underutilized if you do not ensure smooth, usable interfaces for ALL devices. Your desktop site is tops, but the responsiveness of your site’s home page for mobile users is (I’m sorry) horrendous:
Being accommodating to as much of your audience as possible right off the bat will only help you in keeping new visitors and growing your numbers.
I also mentioned how I think it is great to ask your audience to further interact with your site by sending them emails for responses to their comments. Perhaps just adding a general email list that allows your audience to sign up for new post updates will help with your marketability and deepen your fan base.
Overall
I think you are doing a great job. Great aesthetic, great concept, good content. There are just a few suggestions I believe would take your site to the next level in terms of growing your audience and adding more marketability.
Hope this was helpful in some way! Bye for now!
Peer Review #3
This week I had the opportunity to look over yet another website of one of my peers. Caffeinated Tammy is a personal and lifestyle blog run by Tamanna about her daily life, the things she enjoys, and her experience as a first generation Indian immigrant. As a child of immigrants, it was wonderful to read through her blog and see someone who had such similar and still opposite experiences to myself. There is a refreshing overlap between our content, with both of our blogs being dedicated towards remaining in touch with our culture.
In terms of marketability, I think that Tammy has done an excellent job in ensuring that her site can be discovered by her intended audience. She has links to several different social media platforms indicated clearly at the bottom of her site. One thing that I would recommend in terms of social media links is to have the social media links and icons also listed at the top of the site as well. The lists of pages on the menu are on the right side of the header, leaving space for social media links on the left side. In general, it is generally unlikely that readers will read anything that is “below the fold” unless they are given sufficient motivation or are looking for something in specific. Following this logic, we can assume that they will not be scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page and therefore it is likely that the social media links will be missed.
The social media platforms themselves are as well quite well chosen in regards to Tammy’s intended audience. Her choice in uploading posts to TikTok, Instagram and Twitter make logical sense given that the user demographics of each of those sites are generally younger audiences. Based on how the algorithm on TikTok in particular works, those who interact with content that is similar to Tammy’s will be more likely to see her posts. The title of her website is also both distinct and inoffensive enough that a Google search will lead to the intended blog, and there is little overlap with other platforms. Furthermore, Tammy’s use of social media operates in the same fashion as transmedia storytelling, in that each platform linked can be consumed almost entirely on its own, however they all contribute to the same overall story. Overall I have little to suggest, and can’t wait to do more stalking into her site!
Peer Review #5
Marilyn Brimacombe’s blog is a place where the author (Marilyn) aims to share tangible tips, tricks and hacks for beauty, wellness and lifestyle, as well as how to live your best balanced life.
When I first got onto the site, I noticed that the site overall has a certain aesthetic and style to it—clean, cute and girly. The first thing I noticed was the carousel of images, which visually illustrates what the site is generally about. As a user of this site, I am particularly drawn to it. I also saw a few hints of pink in the images, which feels like it ties the entire aesthetic together. The font choice also fits the aesthetic well, making the entire site consistent, which makes me want to keep navigating through the site.
Another thing I like about this website is how easy it is to navigate through the different categories of the site. Not only are these categories shown in the top navigation bar, but they are also shown closer to the bottom of the homepage as clickable images with a text label of the respective category. In addition, I think that the categories are well chosen because it shows the type of content I would want to see as someone who is part of the intended audience.
One thing I think would make the homepage a bit stronger is to add a little bit more detail on what the site is about or what its goal is. Currently, the only pointers I saw that hinted what the site is about is the tagline under the site title, which reads “The ultimate guide to beauty and wellness,” as well as the categories. Adding another short blurb on what this site aims to do for its intended audience might be something that could incline more users to stay on the site and learn more about all the tips and tricks for beauty, wellness and lifestyle.
Diving deeper into the site, I can see that the headings of each post are really big in the previews. This catches my attention and inclines me to read more about them. Moreover, titles and general content for each post is well related to the goal of the site, which is a good thing because as a user in the intended audience group, it would make me confused if the content did not relate to the goal of the site and would make me not want to continue using it.
Lastly, the about page is great in describing with detail who Marilyn is, what she does and why she does what she does. The goal of her site is very clear here, and she ties in her passions and interests, and what she does to the goal of her site in a cohesive way.
Adaptability in a Community of Digital Devices
For this week’s process post, after reading through this week’s reading by data.ai, stating that in 2021, “the average American spends 4.1 hours on their mobile device”, this got me thinking about how content viewed across various devices needs to be adaptable. Since there is such a wide variety in screen sizes and colour output screens, websites and various applications can look completely different across devices.
When I first learned about building a website creating my personal one for my portfolio, I learned about the usage of breakpoints and media queries. In the code for the website, specifically in the stylesheet, this defines where elements can be set or changed on the page, depending on the screen size that the webpage is viewed on. Although a quick solution can be zooming in or out of a website, issues can occur of overlapping elements on screen (such as the navigation buttons overlapping each other) and elements that may not be completely viewable (such as an image). Majority of the time, this can be defined by the horizontal measurement of the screen, though depending on the website’s content, sometimes there are vertical breakpoints that are also defined in the code.
In using WordPress for our blogs, luckily these breakpoints are already pre-defined in the themes that most of us have chosen and are already flexible when it comes to moving elements around the page such as columns, rows, and the website’s navigation. Looking at PROJECT: Offline from my phone, my website reformats nicely with the navigation collapsing into a hamburger menu. I’m curious to see how my website would appear on a bigger screen than my desktop, such as a TV.
In taking consideration how screen sizes can fluctuate, colour output also changes too; such as Apple products with their retina displays and other devices that may have their OLED displays. This has been a common issue of mine recently as I’ve stumbled upon this when editing my photos.
After making the switch over from using a MacBook Air to a PC desktop, I have an older monitor that I use for my desktop. Recently, I’ve found that after I export my edited photos and when I view them on my phone, the photos appear much darker than I’d expected. I haven’t quite figured out if this is an issue regarding the settings on my monitor or the monitor itself, but it’s been annoying having to continuously transfer my photos onto different devices. And yes, I also miss my Apple computer lately.
I suppose there is a community when it comes to using technological devices. Therefore, it’s important that we keep being adaptable for having content being responsive for various screens and to be frequently checking how our content looks across these devices. Who knows what the next aspect ratio on a device may be, what if a new device came out tomorrow that is 1:1…
Blog Review: Year of Mess
For the third blog review, I have been assigned to review Mika’s blog, “Year of Mess”.
When first arriving to her website, the first thing that caught my attention was the photo of a little girl, which I assume is a photo of Mika when she was younger. The caption at the bottom reads, “when did messy stop being okay?”. The narrative and thoughts I had when I first visited her blog and seeing this was, “How could someone get mad at this little girl? She is still young and still learning so yes, being messy is okay. So then why is it wrong for us to be ‘messy’, aren’t we still learning too?”.
And I really love how this photo highlights what the blog is about.
Mika uses an asymmetrical layout for her website with her content taking up the left side of the page and a fixed navigation along the top of each page. Along to the right side of each page, she has a blurb with a quick tagline of what her blog is about, as well as a more recent photo of herself. Below, there is a section that highlights the most recent posts on her blog to read.
As most of her blog contains the usage of serif fonts, I’m curious to learn more about the choice of a sans-serif font for her main logo. It does contrast well to be distinctive from the rest of the site, but it seems slightly drastic from the website’s overall cohesiveness; perhaps because this font in particular is stretched more in the horizontal axis. There is some inconsistencies with the usage of capitalization and non-capitalization as a stylistic choice in some of the headers and captions, however, this does not impact the content contained on her blog.
Mika has also added an accessibility tool bar to her site, which is currently in a blue colour. I think if she added some blue accents to her site, this would incorporate a nice splash of colour to her site! However, if she also wants to keep to more minimalistic look to her blog, I think changing this to a pink tone to match her photo would make it more suitable!
From reading the “About” section of Mika’s blog, realizing afterwards that this is a transcription of the provided auto file on the page, Mika’s personality and voice uniquely shines how she transcribed it, and this continues through the way she writes across her blog. She incorporates the usage of italics and bold words to make her writing more dynamic, in addition to incorporating some onomatopoeia. Through her writing, she commonly breaks her paragraphs between each sentence, however it is incorporated well to break up the thoughts and ideas in the post.
As a perfectionist myself and learning how to navigate through learning to let go the anxieties that confront me day to day, I’ve enjoyed reading through some of these “messy” posts and find myself relating to some of the topics and emotion that she discusses. In “I’m Glad My Apartment Flooded (Part 1 of 2)“, I dealt with a similar experience of helping a relative with their house flood and it reminded myself of how incidents like these are common for others too. As her stories are well detailed (like this one!), I think she can take advantage of the widgets provided with WordPress and add these to her posts! Adding a simple photo/visual or another element I think would really add to the narrative!
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed the authenticity of Mika’s content from the personal examples she’s faces in her own life and learning about what she took away from that experience. I noticed that Mika did not choose to implement ads onto her site. However, I think this was a better decision as I think the implementation of banners would take away from the authenticity her blog showcases.
Mika has done an awesome job curating her blog for her audience. Year of Mess reminds us that we are all human; sometimes things happen and we are not alone in facing bumps in the road like these and we can learn from these experiences, together. It has been a pleasure to look over your blog and I’m excited to see the blog’s final product in the coming weeks!
