Author Archives: bhavika bhanot
Fall Blossoms
Peer Review #1
This is a peer review on my classmate David Nam’s blog “Pro Gaming Review”.
Firstly, we will talk about the design aspect of the blog. I can see that he has thought about and put effort into how his blog appears visually. At first glance, the colors are very eye catching and I’m sure a person visiting his blog will be intrigued and want to take a deeper look at the blog’s content. The color contrast is well chosen because the purple heading and blue background make the blog pop and stand out. The blog is very organized and it is easy to find posts because they are organized into relevant categories. The labelling is also done accurately and when skimming over his content I can see that he has put effort into what he’s written about. The vision board is a Venn diagram/mind map and he has a description to go along with it talking about how he narrowed down to choosing to make a blog on video games from a bunch of his hobbies. About the vision board, I feel that he can add more imagery so that it appears as an actual “vision” board rather than an infographic of some sort. I would also suggest talking more about further plans and ideas and where he plans on taking this blog.
Secondly, I’ll talk about the content of his blog and his online self he has created. I like that he made a connection to his childhood in his ‘About’ section because as a reader/viewer it helps you understand where this hobby is coming from and even for non-video gamers it helps them better understand the personality of the blogger. He has a section dedicated to gaming reviews which I think is very helpful for people wanting to try those video games because if they search on google they can narrow down to David’s blog and will find helpful information. The reviews are personal in the sense that they come from his experience and don’t seem fabricated which connects to what we learned in class about having a true presence of yourself. It’s important for blog viewers to be able to see who you are as a person and what your opinion is not what others think or have said about the same thing previously. I can also see he has kept up to date on assignments and that is commendable because it is very hard to keep going and keep consistent. That’s also another thing about creating a successful online self. David staying on track and consistent with his work, is very good for his personality online because when he has more viewers and people who look forward to his reviews and content, they will stay engaged and be excited to see content. Eventually more people will be drawn to his blog due to content but also because of consistency. A good example is “Wikihow” because they post so often that even if the content is not as helpful or engaging, they have people viewing their page a million times. This is why I feel David has done a good job with keeping consistent and making good content. Overall, I’d say his blog is doing well and learning has been applied well. Only suggestion is talking more about his vision of the blog and maybe adding more visuals if possible. Also his reviews and assignments could use a bit more thoughts. Other than that he has done a great job.
Below is a link to David Nam’s blog “Pro Gaming Review”.
Installation and Vision Process
Blogs are A LOT of work, let’s just put that out there. If I didn’t have someone to guide me on the entire installation, editing, backend process I don’t think I could have gotten my blog up so fast. I found that making an account and registering the URL and domain was even a little hard for me. I couldn’t decide what name to use for my blog’s URL and the fact that I couldn’t change it after was something pressurizing. However, once I decided on the name I could tell that not being able to change it is better because you learn to own your URL name rather than keep changing and rethinking it continuously over time. After that, figuring out how to set up categories, make posts, edit the actual blog itself, was so mentally draining for me. I just couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong and how to access everything. I had a lot of help from Jaiden, my TA otherwise I was going to keep drowning in worry.
When I learned how to do editing I thought about how I was having such a hard time because of the mental block I had created for myself with overthinking. I have also learned that blogging is not easy at all. It takes a lot of you; your time, your energy, your personality, and your heart and soul literally. I’m still in the process of learning and making my vision of how I want my blog to look come alive. It’s very difficult to recreate the vision in your mind’s space out onto a canvas; whether it be on paper or digitally and you can’t understand that until you try it yourself. My blog is nowhere near what I want it to look like or “imagined” it. It’s a work in progress and creativity is not my strongest pursuit which I know a lot of people say but are saying it as a casual statement. I realize that my blog may not look like what I want it to right now, but I’ll keep working on it to get as close as I can.
