Design

    Through some brief searching, there seems to be a consensus on what does and does not work in online communication. The wording isn't always that same and some of the finer points might be different, but the main ideas seem to point in the same direction. To sum up what I found here, designs should have contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.

    To exemplify these principles, we can look at this blog. The first principle is contrast. This means that things that are not alike should be quite noticeably different. You can see this by looking at the the differences in the font sizes from the title to the actual post. There are also different backgrounds for the posts and the site. You can see contrast in the noticeable separation of the post from the sidebar and the borders around pictures separating them from the text. Also there is the double space between each paragraph to give the reader a chance to pause.

    The next principle is repetition. This means thing that are similar, should be similar. This can be seen in using the same color scheme, text font, and paragraph format throughout the whole blog. It can also be seen in the similar sizes of all the posts. There placing of the title and side bar are also consistent throughout the blog. There is also common voice throughout the blog in that it doesn't seem like many different people are contributing.

   The third principle is alignment. This is meant to mean that everything should direct the reader and be where it is expected. This is seen in this blog by the centralization of the body and that all of the paragraphs line up. The title is also in line with the edge of the post's background, and the post and sidebar are directly across from each other at the top. In posts with pictures, they are always right, left, or center aligned and not somewhere in between. In the Introducing Experts post, there are both left and right aligned post, but they have balance and are not placed in such a way as to crowd part of the page. In the other two post, the pictures are centered and about halfway through the post to give readers a place to pause.

    The final principle is proximity. Proximity is meant to keep relevant pieces together. One example is that the hyperlinks to sources are at the first mention of something, or in the case of some pictures on the picture themselves. Another example would be in the sidebar. The Blog Archive keeps all blogs that were created organized chronologically. In the About Me section, it gives a brief biography, but it also gives a link to my Google+ page for more information. After the post, all of the various ways to share the blog on social media are also grouped together.

    With these four logical, and simple principles, I  have accomplished my task of creating a visually appealing blog with minimal effort. The principles of alignment and repetition helped establish a baseline between all of the posts. Contrast helped spark interest in the various areas of the blog, and proximity kept all of the information relevant in each part of the blog together.