The lowdown in 2 sentences:
This site provides lots of cool health information and provides a public good since it encourages people to be healthy. The theming is quite consistent and gives off a very relaxing atmosphere consistent with a place that was designed for your well-being.
However, there’s more to the website that cannot be summarized in just two sentences. Starting off with the landing page, I find it interesting how the about page was integrated with the welcome page. This made it very interesting as the first page that is being welcomed is about the writer. It provides some interesting information such as their hobbies and interests. It also provides information about the inspiration to start this blog.
I think that it would be more useful if there was a separate landing page, and this was moved to a separate about section. This would help by creating more mystery and forcing the user to explore some pages. I also must recognize that I may be a bit biased since I designed my website with minimalism in mind.
In terms of the theming, I really like the pink theme used overall, and the font choice makes it a very relaxing read. It really plays into the theme of health and mental health overall because of how relaxing the colours are. Someone who is stressed out will be less stressed after seeing the website.
One thing I would like to possibly see changed is a reliance on less text and more visuals to complement the website overall. I feel that as of right now it feels a bit too cluttered and overwhelming with all the text on the pages. I believe that the recent posts for example should give a sample of the amazing pieces on the page, and not all the pieces available on the site.
Looking at some of the pieces demonstrates the expertise about the topics related to the blog. For example, most of the blog posts are short, concise, and to the point. The post about Physical health just has three paragraphs, links to the resources, and explains it in a short and concise manner.
However, some of the posts would also benefit from some visuals to “break up” the space into blocks so it doesn’t look as if we’re just reading a huge wall of text. The reason why this idea of visuals instead of text keeps coming up is due to Warners reading about “Public and Counterpublics” where they state that “Images solicit our gaze. Look here! Listen! Hey!” (Warner, 2002, p.419). This would help capture the reader’s gaze and engage them more with the website.
All in all, I believe that her blog has some things that need to be worked on like formatting, but I really enjoy the content posted on the website and really helps solidify its position as “The coolest health blog.”
References:
Warner, Michael. 2002. “Publics and Counterpublics.” in Quarterly Journal of Speech. 88.4.