Blog Development

What does it take to become a blogger?

I created this blog during the last week of August and named it Plowing the River. The title was intended to suggest a journey of discovery and progression in technical communications, specifically in writing and design elements. Wow, I had no idea how prophetic the theme of the blog would turn out to be! I often felt as if I were really plowing a frozen river, only to have the ice reform as soon as I broke through, especially when trying to learn how to apply a new app or gadget - but then, there were also days of smooth sailing when things worked, and new discoveries were made.

I would like to take you through a little of my developmental growing pains, and I will try to recapture some of what I found interesting about my posting assignments and design process, using screen shots, videos and commentary. Let's start with the first task of the process where the goal was to create a blog, and pick a template. I sorted through dozens of pre-made templates, in Blogger and throughout the web, before I settled on the Rounders 3 template, which I chose mostly because of the color scheme. Prior to beginning this blog, I had very little blogging experience, having created my first blog as a class assignment last semester using a blog site that contained little room for design issues. I did enjoy the discovery process of finding topics that matched the subject, but I felt silly actually publishing them because they were so obviously the work of a neophyte. I found the process of writing my first post for this blog to be both interesting and a little awkward at the same time, perhaps because it is hard to find your "voice" as a novice blogger. I don't think I was very effective in defining a mission statement, simply because I wasn't sure what direction the blog would take me or how well I could steer it. But, onward! Original blog design September 1, 2009

Next, during the first week of September I tried posting a couple of thoughts on blogging and what communication can do for our lives, and that felt pretty good, that I was able to do it and it wasn't too bad. After that little baby step, I tried to develop an analysis of the design principles used by corporate websites, and I selected a Nature site and an Adobe site for this task. I found that blogging was easier for me if i had a goal to complete, a defined task, rather than to just try to write general comments and thoughts, so I started to look at each post in terms of message. During the next two weeks, I changed "skins" or templates a couple of times, trying harbour, jellyfish and rounders 4 templates, and I added an rss blog feed, a blog archives section, and a followers gadget to my blog. Blog redesign #2

The next two assignments I completed were a lot more fun, and helped me to start to relax a little bit during the creative process. I was able to write a post about the highly passionate subject of typography in the design world, and learned a great deal about emotion and typeface. Selcting a video to go with this post was enjoyable and added to the learning process. My next post was written to evaluate websites based on designs for specific age groups, again an enlightening exercise. Blog Design #3

In between the actual writing of the posts, I continued to play around with layout and design and discovered that a great deal of the enjoyment of reading depends on a useful and appealing layout, although I believe it is possible that novice bloggers might get too caught up in the physical aspect of blogging, and lose sight of the point of blogging to communicate. Blog Redesign #4

The next assignment allowed me to get into the more technical aspects of typeface, and learn how to evaluate and choose types for specific tasks. During the next month, I was able to complete posts on the emergence and future development of Web 2.0, and Social Bookmarking using Delicious, a social bookmarking tool. The Web 2.0 assignment helped me to start to think of future technologies beyond the present day, and how to encourage my workplace to start to avail themselves of the new media.

Blog Redesign #5

Learning to use Delicious was fun, and I felt like I was really beginning to appreciate the opportunity to learn hands-on application of the tools I was incorporating into my blog. I also enjoyed seeing how some of my followers were developing their blogs, and became braver in my own as a result of their efforts. As for the design aspect of my blogging venture, I kept experimenting with design, color and typography changes and read the opinions of my colleagues and others on the web about the virtues or horrors of left column vs. right column reading, bold vs. italics, etc.

Blog Redesign #6

Over the next few weeks, I was able to blog about the Power of Imagery,(one of my favorite topics), and perform an analysis of a website I had designed (ai!,Quelle horreur!) which certainly cemented my annoyance at being unable to create the design the way I would have preferred because of a lack of familiarity with the necessary tools, but that is a Fixable Element...to the future>

Blog Redesign # 7

The website design and review for the last two assignments was based on learning styles assessment, and those assignments gave me a better understanding of how people who are interested in technical communication and design have to maintain an awareness of their preferences, their strengths and weaknesses in order to better serve their clients and audiences.

Blog Redesign # 8

My last two tasks have been to write about how eye-tracking applies to usability issues, (another assignment I loved) and to try to understand my development as a blogger. During this last week, I have changed the site back to a wide format with a very minimal use of color or fuss, even though I understand that syle is not the most popular, simply because it looks cleaner and easier to follow, at least to me. I am pleased to report that I was able to create and place my own logo on my blogsite, as well as my first flash banner, yeah! As a final view for this week, I've included a sample of my present site, with sidebar and a video of the flash action in the banner.

Blog Redesign #9 Sidebar

Blog redesign #9

After completing this review, I am able to understand that blogging is an evolving, organic, continuous process of learning and development, both as a writer and as a designer. Althoug I have prior experience in the technical aspects of computer science, most of that was behind the scenes, and I was not very comfortable with the public presence that a successful blog requires.

I feel much easier in my blogging "skin" than I did at the beginning of the semester and this blog has inspired me to improve my other class blogs, as well. I would have to rate my Plowing The River blog as a very positive growth experience.