Author Archives: shhhkrystal

Essay Two

ShhhKrystal is the handle I created for my blog as it is an abstract way of describing my personality. However, only I and people who have read my biography know the real meaning behind the name. As I did not want to use my real name for my blog, I opted for a handle that included my name but had an abstract beginning. Shhh is a sound people make when they want others to be quiet. Being an introvert, I prefer being alone most of the time but I do enjoy company once in a while. When I am in a group of people, I tend to be the quiet one. I prefer listening over speaking. My blog is an outlet for me to share my style with the public. Thus, requiring me to “speak” but through a blog as a medium. ShhhKrystal is a girl who prefers to not speak but speaks in another medium.

My blog was originally for myself. To keep track of how I have changed and how my style has developed throughout the semester. I realized that through this blog I am able to share my experiences and my style at the same time. Although my blog posts are solely on clothing pieces, I include brief explanations on how I decided what to wear and some random facts about what I encountered if something interesting arises. I also try exploring design trends I find and use them as my featured image instead of posting a picture of myself in different clothes (which readers will end up seeing inside the post anyway). My audience is those who are linked specifically to my website through Instagram. I imagine that most of my audience is interested in fashion and are interested in specific pieces I wear, which brings them to my blog.

Designing my blog took me the longest as I had no experience with creating a platform about myself. I had a few Tumblr accounts in the past and was actively posting and reblogging for a few years. Since the blog was not about me but about interests that I had at the time, I had more freedom with how I could design my page. I did not have to introduce myself, show my followers what I looked like, or share specific details about myself. The disinhibition effect worked well for me; I had the choice to conceal my identity and live a separate life (Suler, 2004, para. 5). I also used a very minimalistic theme with a navigation bar aligned to the left, and a one or two column post area; no images whatsoever that related back to my true identity.

I started with a similar theme when I first created this blog and I realized it was not working. Following conventions, most fashion bloggers have an about page and share details with their readers to build a connection and earn their trust. With ShhhKrystal, however, I included an about me page to introduce myself to my readers. As I show my face in my posts, it seemed like an introduction was necessary. I did not include a full close-up image of my face to “draw [a] boundary between [myself] and others” as “managing the shifting public/private continuum is also an important part of a blogger’s experience” (Chittenden, 2010, para. 26).

The goal for the overall appearance of my blog was to incorporate the use of grids. I always enjoyed grids with pictures as I found it really enjoyable to look at and it “gives [audiences] a hint about what’s inside [the post] and teases out [their] emotion” (Gertz, 2015, para. 64). The landing of my blog is a statement introducing exactly what my blog is about. I particularly like how it teases readers and pushes them to scroll down to view more. I made sure to incorporate affordances in my blog to guide readers through my site as “designers should be concerned about informing users about the outcomes of users’ actions (Kaptelinin, 2013). This gave me an opportunity to incorporate more colour into my blog as the background colour is white, the headings are black, and body text is grey; too minimal for my liking. The affordances are displayed when links are hovered to indicate to readers that it is a clickable entity.

My definition of publication has changed drastically after this course. Courses I have taken at Simon Fraser University and working at SFU’s school newspaper gave me the perception that publication was mostly on print materials. The publishing course I have enrolled in prior to this course required us to print out everything for submission, and the school newspaper is printed as well. I never knew publication included the online spectrum; I thought there was another category for it. I have learned that publishing is a lot more than just words. The secret behind a successful publication is the collaboration and harmony between text and design simultaneously (Gertz, 2015, para. 63).

Moving forward from here, I do not plan on continuing this blog as posting consistently is extremely difficult for me. If I do try my best to post consistently, the quality of the posts would not be where I want them to be. Instead, I will try incorporating what I have done on my blog to my Instagram account. Being extremely wary of how others perceive me, I do not post as much as I would like due to insecurities. However, after this course and gaining more experience with being photographed and pushing out style content, I am a bit more confident.

 

References

Chittenden, T. (2010). Digital dressing up: modelling female teen identity in the discursive spaces of the fashion blogosphere. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676260903520902

Gertz, T. (2015). Designing Machines: How to survive the digital apocalypse. Retrieved from https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines

Kaptelinin, V. (2013). Affordances. In The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction. Retrieved from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/affordances

Suler, J. (2004). The Online Disinhibition Effect. Retrieved from http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html

Developing Guidelines

As my site revolves around fashion, appropriate community guidelines should allow my audience to comment on my post to share their opinions and ideas. Of course, I would expect trolls on my site. There really is no way to prevent trolls from surfacing unless interaction was cut off completely. I will allow trolls to express how they feel about me, however, it has a high possibility of being deleted by myself as I do not want to promote argument on my blog. I want to create a platform where others interested in fashion can share their own opinions on my outfits and how they would alter it to suit their style. Although my self-esteem will be hurt by trolls, my main goal is for my audience to connect with myself and each other. I wish to create a safe platform for those interested in fashion can connect. For that to happen, comments must be open; which also opens the doors for trolls. However, I knew these are the correct guidelines for myself as receiving messages from trolls can help me grow into a stronger individual and learn and completely understand that the only people I need to please are those I care about. There really isn’t anything to implement for this to take place. All there needs to be is discourse in the comments of my blog posts.

 

featured image retrieved from https://i-h1.pinimg.com/564x/42/3e/e6/423ee66105bb21adce4db73e64e49f7f.jpg

COMME des*

I recently noticed on Instagram that a bunch of people are using this one template where their photos are placed in a vintage frame. I found out the app was called unfold and proceeded to download it myself. Sadly, you do have to pay for the template bundles but all of them are under $3.00. I think that’s pretty good. To support the designers, I purchased two bundles myself; the one with the vintage frames and a new one that just came out recently. I was contemplating whether I should buy these frames at first because I can easily create them myself but I figured they were created for accessibility in the first place. Unfold is also a very simple app to use. It would be a lot faster for me to use the app than to create it myself.

I tried using the template in a style I have been seeing often on social media. I think it worked out in the end. I am going to admit that I like the featured image more than the layout here though.

 

 

Anyways, onto the fit. I’m wearing the Gwyneth sweater from Aritzia tucked into my TopShop mom jeans. add more dimension to the sweater? I don’t know if that made sense haha. My mom jeans don’t even look like mom jeans on me. I hate it when that happens. It’s sooo hard for me to find jeans that actually fit my legs like mom jeans. Oh well .. I’ll find a pair someday. I finished my outfit off with my black CDG chucks.

 

That’s all I have for today loves!

Self-Assessment (5%)

Throughout this course, I have learned an abundance of strategies that can be used to create a successful blog. Although I haven’t got as many views, I have to start somewhere. Using a social media platform is definitely more effective than a website as people are on their phones for hours in a day. If I were to continue my blog, I would attempt to grow my Instagram follower base to gain more engagements. If more people look at my Instagram page, they could possibly click the link to my blog. I would give myself a 4 for my self-assessment. At the beginning of the course, I had no problems with keeping up with the workload just because the course load for my other classes was also pretty light at the time. Near the middle, however, is where I began to fall off. I became swamped with projects and I became more inactive. Though I was consistently taking pictures of my outfits. I began to pick it up near the end, but page views went down significantly as I was not as active.

Aside from having a well-designed blog, consistently posting is just as important as ensuring your blog is appealing and having interesting content. By enrolling in this course, I had to push myself to blog about what I am passionate about. Style. If it wasn’t required in this course to start a blog, I would have never started it. My blog required me to become more comfortable in front of the camera and now I can say I am; not completely comfortable, but more than I was before. I want to take this experience and bring it to my Instagram. I want to upload more frequently and upload content that I like. I’m one of those people who cares about what my feed looks like, but with the experience, I got from being in front of the camera, I’m more open to more options now.

Common Comfort

Today’s been filled with homework. I went to a café out in Koreatown and stayed there for about six or seven hours. Comfort was my main priority today. I bought a few things from Aritzia during the boxing day sale and the Gwyneth sweater was one of them.

I’m surprised I bought it in the white. Usually, I would go for darker colours because I don’t think light coloured sweaters look as good on me.

I was eyeing this sweater for a long time but I held off buying it mainly due to its price. But last year Oak+Fort had something extremely similar, but it was made to be oversized. I was waiting for it to come back this year but sadly, it hasn’t . . .  yet. Although now what I have the Gwyneth sweater I probably don’t buy the Oak+Fort one if it comes back. But who knows.

I had the black jimmy pants for a while now, I think I mentioned them in an earlier blog post as well. This jacket is also (somewhat) new. I purchased it in November I think. Well, technically my dad bought it for me. He was nice enough to offer to pay and give it to me as my birthday present. Thanks, dad! I’ve gotten some good uses out of this coat.

I had a dilemma of whether I should wear my black Comme des Garçons converse or my regular white chucks. I went back and forth a few times but ultimately decided on the white. I’m still not sure why I picked white. Maybe I was feeling bright today.

Overall, this outfit was very comfortable. I could wear this to sleep. A downside, however, is that the sweater was a bit itchy but maybe that’s because its new.

 

Billie’s Bellyache

I have been listening to Billie Eilish a lot recently and my favourite out of all her songs has to be bellyache. Her voice sounds so mesmerizing throughout the entire song and that’s why I enjoy it so much. I also really enjoyed the music video. The colours used are so bright unlike the lyrics of the song. I just had to gif a section of the video.

Monday Blues

Another one of my favourite brands is MondaySuck. They’re a streetwear brand that I stumbled across on Instagram and I love their apparel and accessories. What sucks though is that shipping and converting from USD to CAD really jacks up the price. I always go on their site and put a bunch of stuff in my cart but I never go through with the purchase just because the first time I ordered from them I also got hit with duties. Duties + currency conversion + $20 CAD shipping is not fun. The Lovers Paradise hoodie was worth the amount I paid; I think I paid at least $120 CAD. But I’m okay with it since I wear at least once a week. It’s literally my favourite hoodie. I got the hoodie so long ago I don’t think MondaySuck sells it anymore. They have a similar one, but they don’t have “Lovers Paradise” on the back. Which, to be honest, is the main reason why I bought the hoodie.

I really recommend their apparel. I’m currently eyeing the white quarter-zip with the orange outlined “mondaysuck”. I just can’t get myself to spend another $120 .. black Friday really killed my wallet.

I layered a long white tee under the hoodie so it would peek through the bottom. I’m also wearing my BDG ripped jeans again, champion socks, and continental 80s. It was chilly on that day as well so I wore my Oak+Fort black sherpa jacket from last year.

 

Google Analytics

What surprised me the most about me analytics was that they were higher than I expected them to be. I was in the process of revamping my theme and I put everything else on hold because my previous theme had some major problems. Even though I just started developing my blog I was getting 9 visitors weekly. It was hard for me to promote myself as I had a fear of posting frequently on Instagram, yeah, I know it’s kind of weird. But it amazed me that those who followed me would even click a link that I put out.

Another metric that surprised me was the number of visitors I had a month. It just seemed unreal to me that people are going to my site and reading content that I have put out. When starting this blog, I didn’t know how I would like it as I am a rather shy person. But putting my stuff out there isn’t as bad as I thought. If Ipost more frequently on Instagram and start tagging my clothes form where I got them and include my URL in the description, I think the number of visitors on my site will rise exponentially. Also, I can utilize the function on Instagram stories where you can swipe up to include a link to give my followers easy access to my blog.

 

 

 

The Power of Data Trails

Prior to this course, I only thought of data trails as data given to me from people by tracking engagements on my website. I never thought about how I also contribute to others’ data analytics. I’m on the computer all the time and I never realized I was feeding companies with information about myself. That’s kind of scary. I remember talking about how ads are curated to each person in lecture and I find that amazing, but creepy. Especially how ads show up depending on what you search, but they can also show up if you just talk about something in person. I feel like if I get to learn the algorithm behind it I would be somewhat scared to use the internet so I’m better off not knowing how it works exactly.

I do not try to avoid getting tracked by these programs just because everywhere I go (on the web) they ask me for my information. Information that seems harmless like my name and my e-mail. After listening to Suzanne’s Amazon experience, I honestly had no idea data trails include card payments. Now I’m wondering, where does the card information go to. With all the information companies are receiving about us daily, the fear of having one of those company’s systems hacked becomes greater.