Filed under: Assignment
Now that we’ve reached the end of the quarter the one element I wish I could have learned more about was the design features behind blogs. Although I made personally touches here and there and played with widgets I’d love to be able to take it to the next level. BlogDesign.com came up with a list of the 5 Ways to Make Your Blog Design Unforgetable!
Among the list include:
1. Break the Norm
2. Pay Attention to overlooked areas
3. Increase the functionality of your blog design
4. Take one design feature and run with it
5. Unique blog design
Filed under: Assignment
I used delicious to check out some additional cupcake blogs because I thought the words “delicious” and “cupcakes” couldn’t agree more. 
I had already seen the top search results but liked that they were arranged by popularity to get a better idea of which cupcake blogs were in the front running.
First off, I stumbled across Bake it Pretty which is a great resource for buying fun baking tools. The blog itself is really cute but the tools themselves are even cuter! I’ve seen similar merchandise on other sites but the layout and availability on this site was very useful.
I also checked out Joy the Baker and she has a section devoted strictly to cupcakes. Her photos are really user-friendly and I will definitely have to recreate one of her yummy recipes for our blog!
Two weeks ago a friend introduced me to “Stumble Upon” during a class where we were watching a silent film for two hours. I was instantly saved from deadly boredom. Stumble Upon is the largest personalized content discovery engine on the Web with over 8.5 million members. My classmate also recently did a presentation on Stumble Upon posted on her blog, “The Vogeler” which highlights how certain organizations are utilizing this technology.
For me personally, I’ve been using this technology in order to browse popular sites on the web. When you sign up for a free account you end up checking any categories of interest and Stumble Upon will refer websites to you within those categories when you select “Stumble” on your browser. So far I have found funny cat videos, great recipes, and amazing photography websites through Stumbling. I urge everyone to take the time to set up an account and begin to Stumble away!
In the meantime, check out “The Cutest Video of All Time. Period.” which I came across while stumbling.
Well, it makes you a genius in MY book, because why else haven’t you gotten one yet? (other then cost of course). However, i’d say a good 25% of my monthly income goes to my iPhone bill and i’ve never once regretted the decision. Every time Im asked about my phone I have no problem explaining to people all the wonderful features and end up starting my own little sales pitch (Apple, are you hiring??). Smart phones are changing the future. I can hardly even remember the time when I had a flip phone. I do however remember that every time I received a text I had to log online which took quite some time, texting really had yet to evolve at this point. Today’s smart phones have longer battery life, easily accessible web access, nicely formatted texting services, and are generally all around user-friendly.
Here are some more reasons why the new smart phones are so successful:
- The smart phones are much more powerful than the personal computers from a decade ago. You can run high quality, full motion pictures without it being jerky. In fact, all of the pictures Alayna and I use for our OHMYNOM.com blog are taken with our iPhones and have incredible quality. The applications available to the iPhone also make it easy to photoshop your photos directly from your phone as well.
- Apple iTunes has more than 65,000 applications to choose from. Which makes customizing your phone for exactly how you want to use it easy. Whether you want business applications, cooking applications, games, they are available to you with a few simple steps!
- You can search for directions using the GPS function. This has to be the highest selling point for me. I don’t own a car so navigating the city involves knowing bus routes and times. The Map application on the iPhone can determine your current location and give you immediate directions specified to walking, driving, or busing. You can also use this feature to check traffic patterns.
- You can use the device as a portable music player. It works the same as the standard iPod however instead of carrying them both around you have the convenience of having both devices in one. Remember the days when you had to lug around a large portable CD player? Yeah, I try not to either.
- Smart phones are more interactive. Integration with social networks, content sharing sites, chat and other social features are being built right into the platform. I realize that the only time I generally access sites like Facebook or Twitter is when Im using my iPhone and since I now have been using my phone as a camera as well I use the phone to upload all of my pictures.
Filed under: Assignment
http://www.millonesdevoces.org/contenido/
From Obama’s campaign fundraising and rally for healthcare reform, to fighting the FARC with Facebook, its clear that social networking websites are rewriting the rules of public engagement.
In January of 2008, Oscar Morales, an engineer with no political experience, created a Facebook group called “Un Million Voces Contra Las FARC (One Million Voices Against the FARC).” In just one month, Morales found himself organizing a 12-million person, 200-city protest against Colombia’s violent guerilla group.
Facebook has become a catalyst for causes. Although the movement against the rebel group FARC has much of its activism existing solely online, it still shows great potential for raising money, creating change and inspiring a new generation of politically aware young people. Facebook members everywhere are showing a desire to get involved in social causes, even if that involvement means just attaching a badge to their profile or joining a group. An application called Causes created on Facebook makes getting involved easy with the opportunity for any Facebook user with a little passion to create a cause, recruit friends into that cause, organize events and even raise money.
Social software provides a new way of virtual community building and enables interaction, communication, and cooperation. One of the crucial benefits of the virtual sphere is that it is not restricted to geographical constraints. The internet allows us to trespass national boundaries and communicate globally with use of online communities. Facebook allowed individuals to bring together rallies on a global scale as seen with the simultaneous anti-FARC rallies that took place in over 165 cities across the globe.
The speed with which Facebook users installed the application and became “fans” of the rally is one of the reasons for the mass amount of attention given by other forms of media. The massive social phenomena continued to grow with exposure from TV networks, newspapers and radio stations. However, the use of online social media is what really allowed the anti-FARC campaign to reach a global scale without any political party or experienced leader involvement.
What social media has to offer is a sense of trust. So much internet activity can be done anonymously leaving most users uncertain and suspicious of many things they encounter online. However, with use of Facebook, messages are no longer anonymous but instead can be quickly traced back to their source and this source can be placed in the context of other relationships. The message can spread extremely fast by being passed across all facebook users, and people will respond and act on it because it comes directly from friends.
Filed under: Assignment
According to a new study from the University of Melbourne, by Dr. Brent Coker, I’m currently increasing my productivity by up to 9%. How so you ask? Well, I’m at Salon Voda on South Lake Union working as a receptionist and also surfing the web in between phone calls, cleaning, and other miscellaneous duties. Yes, apparently by surfing the web I am also increasing my overall productivity (I’ve definitely got to run this by my boss).
Allowing myself to engage in fun internet surfing, in reasonable amounts, in between tasks provides my brain with an opportunity to reset itself. People benefit from getting rewards after completing mini-tasks. (However, those who show signs of internet addiction may end up with a reduction in overall productivity). Being able to balance personal life and work is important.
A professional worker is not just somebody who puts in eight straight hours of work, five days a week, but instead someone who puts work into a project and makes sure everything gets done with the highest quality. Managers need to trust that their employees will get the job done and the final result should show the devotion or lack there of. When employees are treated and respected as a professional, then they are more likely to be happy, productive, and loyal.
Filed under: Assignment
The one thing I really admire about the Cupcakes take the cake blog is their devotion to cupcakes alone and the fact that the names behind the blog are very clear. The blog has a more personal appeal because it includes names and pictures to the creators claiming to just be dire hard cupcake fans. Not only do they include pictures of a wide variety of uniquely decorated cupcakes but they also talk about new store openings, charity events and all things out of the box that still involve cupcakes. However, it doesn’t appear that they actually craft any of their own cupcakes but instead just blog about others.
The Cupcake Bake Shop provides hundreds of fun recipes with a user-friendly step-by-step process for readers to easily create the unique flavors and designs. They list exact ingredients for all the flavors as well as beautiful pictures for the steps. It seems like the blog is really fun to browse but I wouldnt necessary use it to track down a recipe per say (but maybe i’d stumble across a fun one). The blog is fun but I wish it included more than just recipes and long how-to lists.
Cake Spy’s blog includes links to fun recipes, an online shop with cute cupcake merchandise, a bakery travel guide, and baked goods stories. The blog includes all types of baked goods and is not just limited to cupcakes. However, with our cupcake blog we would strictly focus on highlighting cupcakes and venturing out to different wheat free options, vegan options, ect. Cakespy also utilizes different forms of digital media with links to their own facebook fan page, twitter account and flickr account.
Filed under: Assignment | Tags: Congress, Obama, Organizing for America, Twitter
By use of microblogging, President Barack Obama and collegues were able to rally 315,000 people to call into Congress to voice their support of health care reform in just one single day. Obama also held a live webcast to answer questions for thousands of supporters. By viewing the thread of Obama’s recent tweets you can see that the grassroots group, Organizing for America, initially set a goal of 100,000 calls to Congress which was tripled by the end of the day. This call to action proves how Obama was able to reach thousands of voters, even some who don’t generally engage in the political progress. Read more about the nationwide event “Time to Deliver on Healthcare Reform” here.
Follow Barack Obama on Twitter
I’ve read time and time again that the minimalist blog proves to be the most successful. Too many widgets, ads, pictures or links can be overwhelming to readers and most individuals will not want to take the additional time learning how to navigate a specific blog. The minimalist blog instead provides mainly “white space” with clearly defined links and navigation. I mostly enjoyed Liz Lantz blog theme, layout and navigation. Liz’s obviously has the blogosphere figured out. Not only does she include a personalized picture as well as an about me section but she has created a catchy name for herself (Media Bug) and provides a description for why she is blogging in the first place. My favorite feature of Liz’s blog is that her page only displays a preview of the post allowing the reader to click to read more information or to easily scroll through to the next blog post. Moreover, the column on the right gives readers the option of searching the archives or viewing recent posts. Not only is this blog easy to navigate but visually it is very pleasing as well.
Ironically, Keala and I have the same blog theme! I enjoy this theme because of the simplicity as well as the white background with accompanying black font. However, it has been brought to my attention that the font is a bit difficult to read because of its small size. Six Revisions provides “10 Important Traits of a Great Blog Design” and lists “Blog Readability” as the most important element to any blog design. Not only do font colors and backgrounds play a significant role in readability but the article stresses the importance of large, readable font which can easily be changed using the web browser (we gotta get on this!).
I really like the large picture banner and soft blue color of Kyle’s blog as well as the user-friendly layout. The theme comes with a right hand side bar that should really be utilized! In this space Kyle can provide easier navigation for readers as well as personalized touches. While content is a crucial aspect to any successful blog, its good to add a little style and flare as well. Although you don’t want to risk over-doing it, having additional tools and links on your site give readers more options other than scrolling through the blog’s archive. I would also recommend working on coming up with creative blog titles that lure readers in! This article on “Blog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes” claims that most individuals only read the first three or four words of a headline when making the decision to read further.
Lizeth did a great job with catchy titles and easy navigation by including a categorgies section as well as a monthly archive. However, this wordpress theme was the least visually pleasing to me. Although I enjoy the simplicity I think its lacking in personalization. Perhaps adding a simple picture along the side or choosing a theme that has a picture header at the top may be more appealing. The header is the first thing readers see when they visit the site and the “5 Ogilvy Tips for Blog Design” state that visual should come before text in order to draw the eye of the reader and further lure them into the text below.
While your at it, check out 13 Things to do on Twitter besides Tweet
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