The State Worker is a news blog that delivers to a specific niche of people – state workers in California. These stories often come in bursts, producing three or four posts daily, each always covering any possible piece of information that a state worker can find useful. As a student assistant for the State, I also find this blog’s posts interesting because most all issues going on at the state level affect me either directly or indirectly.
Length of Text: Each post consists of a fairly concise cluster of paragraphs. Just about every single post is under 20 sentences. I like that and I think it’s important that it’s kept that way because it makes it easier for state workers to read it on the fly (at work?) without spending too much time.
Scanability: To me, this is where Jon Ortiz and The State Worker come in handy. Ortiz bolds key points, figures, and names in each post as to direct attention to the most important pieces of information in the story. For example, the latest post I’m reading is about the closing of short-staffed DMV offices today (Columbus Day), even though they should have remained open. Without even reading the first sentence, I can scan the story and find these bolded words: Watsonville, Compton, Oxnard and Hoawthorne are closed, work at nearby worksites, and DPA is working to confirm which offices closed. That peaks my interest because it draws attention to key references that make you want to read the entire article. What article am I talking about? Read it here.
Chunking: There really isn’t any chunking in The State Worker’s posts. What is "chunked" are quotes from official legal documents to which Ortiz is referring to. Luckily, Ortiz always puts these in a gray box to distinguish legal mumbo-jumbo from his own writing. Along with the gray boxes is always a link to read the entire document the quote came from, should the reader decide he/she wants to read the whole release. With the “gray box” style and linking away from the site, I feel Ortiz does a nice job keeping chunk-free.
Headlines: The State Worker has very relevant, one-line-sums-it-up headlines that gives you an instant idea of what lies in each post. Additionally, Ortiz occasionally addresses the readers directly in the headlines, asking for feedback (Like his article “It’s Columbus Day: What are you seeing, state workers?”) The headlines do a good job at specifying what is in each post.
Copy Editing: The State Worker is very in sync with AP Style. I am not surprised, as Ortiz is a seasoned journalist who has a long list of stories he’s written. I don’t expect anything less from him.
Use of inverted pyramid: This isn’t always used because the stories are so short. But when it is used, it usually concludes with extra quotes or “follow-up” sentences to wrap the story up like: we called EDD and then e-mailed several questions about he federal notice. We’ll post the department’s response when we get it. However, each post has a topic sentence that delivers the most information, a follow-up sentence, a other relevant details. Though not strongly used, the use of the inverted pyramid is present.
Page titles: The page titles are just OK. On the main page of The State Worker, the page title reads: The Sacramento Bee – The State Worker. If you click on a post to open it in a separate page, the title always reads “The State Worker:” first. This isn’t the best-case scenario because if someone is reading more than one page, it’s easy to get confused with the page titles in the title bar. I say The State Worker makes page titles the title of the current article that is pulled up on the page.
Legibility: Because the posts are short, and the use of bolding key points is constantly used, legibility is very good. I have yet to be caught up in the postings by Ortiz. It is also a plus that the ads stay in one place – off to the right-side of the page.
This Week on The State Worker: The controversies following the now defunct Columbus Day “Holiday.” Is Columbus Day a thing of the past? Did any state workers even report to work today, as they were instructed to do? What’s next in terms of furlough days and unpaid holidays? Check out the last few articles up on the page and find out – plus, read what actual state workers are saying about the current issues.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Kausfiles- Mickey Kaus
Length of Text: Mickey Kaus keeps his postings relatively short and almost always limited to a paragraph. His sentences are clean and thorough.
Scanability: Kaus' postings are suitable for scanning. The page format is easy on the eyes as there isn't a whole lot of distraction. Occasionally he will highlight a sentence or two that are the most important in the paragraph, so even if you just read those few lines you get a sense of the paragraph.
Chunking: If a posting of Kaus' is longer than a paragraph, it's usually because he is adding an excerpt or quote. The excerpt or quote is offset from Kaus' text. He may also chunk together different posts when they are within the same day or add an additional P.S. or P.S.S posts as well.
Headlines: He tends to keep his headlines around five words or under. The headlines seem to be vague but interesting. For example, Kaus' latest headline reads: Obama v. Pajama.
Copy Editing: Kaus doesn't follow any strict rules like AP Style, he seems to write in a concise manner with excitement. He writes in a way that you would expect of a blogger's style, but doesn't make the spelling errors that average bloggers do.
Use of inverted Pyramid: As Kaus' postings are usually condensed to one paragraph so he doesn't need to use the inverted pyramid format.
Page Titles: The page title is the same for every page of his postings: kausfiles.com It's a very clean page so you don't get lost or confused when browsing through.
Legibility: His page is very clean and can be boring, unless you are very interested in what he has to say. The text that draws the most attention are his bold sentences or phrases.
This week:Kaus' short posting is about an "unnamed Obama aide's "take off the pajamas" jibe". I don't follow politics closely and Kaus always seems to know about all of the dirt that goes on so his postings aren't always clear to me. He says that bloggers should not calm down and to keep Obama on his toes.
Oct. 6
Mickey Kaus' blog linked to Slate is a pretty clean site. The page is fairly long but there are only two ads on the site and they are small. As you scroll down, all you can see are his postings on a white background. It's a very simple site and that is convenient.
The font on Kaus' site is in a simple font that looks like size 12 font. It's more modern looking that Times New Roman. Links are in blue and important phrases are in bold.
I have a wireless internet connection and when I use the university's internet connection, Kaus' page loads almost instantly with the ad taking the longest time to load- which doesn't bother me at all.
Kaus always attributes his quotes properly but actually rarely uses quotes. He, more than often, rephrases someone's point and links it assuming you already know what he's talking about.
There is hardly any ads on the site and he often links sites that only refer to what he is talking about (usually a news article, press release or a political figure's blog). It seems like his audience is pretty dedicated to his blogging and he seems like a straightforward no-nonsense kind of guy.
Kaus' page is very simple. His blogs are separated by a little red line and the Kausfiles blog post takes up the left side of the screen while the popular tags, most read/emailed frames are on the right for about half a page.
Scanability: Kaus' postings are suitable for scanning. The page format is easy on the eyes as there isn't a whole lot of distraction. Occasionally he will highlight a sentence or two that are the most important in the paragraph, so even if you just read those few lines you get a sense of the paragraph.
Chunking: If a posting of Kaus' is longer than a paragraph, it's usually because he is adding an excerpt or quote. The excerpt or quote is offset from Kaus' text. He may also chunk together different posts when they are within the same day or add an additional P.S. or P.S.S posts as well.
Headlines: He tends to keep his headlines around five words or under. The headlines seem to be vague but interesting. For example, Kaus' latest headline reads: Obama v. Pajama.
Copy Editing: Kaus doesn't follow any strict rules like AP Style, he seems to write in a concise manner with excitement. He writes in a way that you would expect of a blogger's style, but doesn't make the spelling errors that average bloggers do.
Use of inverted Pyramid: As Kaus' postings are usually condensed to one paragraph so he doesn't need to use the inverted pyramid format.
Page Titles: The page title is the same for every page of his postings: kausfiles.com It's a very clean page so you don't get lost or confused when browsing through.
Legibility: His page is very clean and can be boring, unless you are very interested in what he has to say. The text that draws the most attention are his bold sentences or phrases.
This week:Kaus' short posting is about an "unnamed Obama aide's "take off the pajamas" jibe". I don't follow politics closely and Kaus always seems to know about all of the dirt that goes on so his postings aren't always clear to me. He says that bloggers should not calm down and to keep Obama on his toes.
Oct. 6
Mickey Kaus' blog linked to Slate is a pretty clean site. The page is fairly long but there are only two ads on the site and they are small. As you scroll down, all you can see are his postings on a white background. It's a very simple site and that is convenient.
The font on Kaus' site is in a simple font that looks like size 12 font. It's more modern looking that Times New Roman. Links are in blue and important phrases are in bold.
I have a wireless internet connection and when I use the university's internet connection, Kaus' page loads almost instantly with the ad taking the longest time to load- which doesn't bother me at all.
Kaus always attributes his quotes properly but actually rarely uses quotes. He, more than often, rephrases someone's point and links it assuming you already know what he's talking about.
There is hardly any ads on the site and he often links sites that only refer to what he is talking about (usually a news article, press release or a political figure's blog). It seems like his audience is pretty dedicated to his blogging and he seems like a straightforward no-nonsense kind of guy.
Kaus' page is very simple. His blogs are separated by a little red line and the Kausfiles blog post takes up the left side of the screen while the popular tags, most read/emailed frames are on the right for about half a page.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
ProPublica - Assignment 3
ProPublica publishes in-depth news stories, most of which, if not all, are the kinds of stories we normally see in newspapers. I'd say the stories, in general, tend to be very text-heavy for online publishing.
Length of text
- The stories, in general, are about the same length as stories we read in newspapers. They range from 500 to more than 1,000 words in length - which is not good for online publishing. One example is a story on the California Board of Registered Nurses, which is probably easy to read for an expert, but not for an average user.
Scanability
- Because the stories are text-heavy, it's more difficult for users to just scan the story for keywords and important details. The Web site doesn't use bullet points or outlines that Nielsen talked about, but instead uses long sentences and paragraphs that would probably bore the average user.
Chunking
- Some of the stories are separated in sections based on what's important and logically relevant. One example is an article about civilian contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, which contains hypertext anchors that lead to more detailed explanations, stories and documents. This saves users the time of having to read more details that may not interest them in the first place. However, I think the article itself could've been shorter and easier to read.
Headlines
- I think the headlines clearly tell what the stories are about. However, I think some are a bit longer than necessary, like this one: "With Labor Leader on California Pension Boards, Financial Firms Fattened Union Campaign Fund." I think this headline should start with the words "financial firms" since they're the main subject of the story, and the supporting words should be in a subhead.
Copy editing
- I didn't see any AP style or grammatical errors. However, most stories have long sentences that could've been separated into two, clearer sentences.
Use of inverted pyramid
- The stories use the inverted pyramid. On the main page, for instance, the first or first two paragraphs of the stories are shown, followed by a link that says "Read more." The first two paragraphs give the most important details and tell the users right away what the stories are about.
Page titles
- I think in this case, the titles of the page are the headlines. And again, they do a good job of telling the users what the content of the page is all about.
Legibility
- The content of the Web site is very legible. It uses black font color against a white background. The text is in sans serif typeface, which is simple and legible.
The top item is a story about civilian contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the headline "Civilian Contractor Toll in Iraq and Afghanistan Ignored by Defense Dept." The story gives the numbers of civilian contractors who've died and been injured right away because these figures are important details in the story. The writer/editor also chunks the story by using hypertext anchors that lead to more details. However, the paragraphs are really long and could've been separated into shorter, more concise paragraphs. For online reading, I think this story is a bit difficult to read.
Length of text
- The stories, in general, are about the same length as stories we read in newspapers. They range from 500 to more than 1,000 words in length - which is not good for online publishing. One example is a story on the California Board of Registered Nurses, which is probably easy to read for an expert, but not for an average user.
Scanability
- Because the stories are text-heavy, it's more difficult for users to just scan the story for keywords and important details. The Web site doesn't use bullet points or outlines that Nielsen talked about, but instead uses long sentences and paragraphs that would probably bore the average user.
Chunking
- Some of the stories are separated in sections based on what's important and logically relevant. One example is an article about civilian contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, which contains hypertext anchors that lead to more detailed explanations, stories and documents. This saves users the time of having to read more details that may not interest them in the first place. However, I think the article itself could've been shorter and easier to read.
Headlines
- I think the headlines clearly tell what the stories are about. However, I think some are a bit longer than necessary, like this one: "With Labor Leader on California Pension Boards, Financial Firms Fattened Union Campaign Fund." I think this headline should start with the words "financial firms" since they're the main subject of the story, and the supporting words should be in a subhead.
Copy editing
- I didn't see any AP style or grammatical errors. However, most stories have long sentences that could've been separated into two, clearer sentences.
Use of inverted pyramid
- The stories use the inverted pyramid. On the main page, for instance, the first or first two paragraphs of the stories are shown, followed by a link that says "Read more." The first two paragraphs give the most important details and tell the users right away what the stories are about.
Page titles
- I think in this case, the titles of the page are the headlines. And again, they do a good job of telling the users what the content of the page is all about.
Legibility
- The content of the Web site is very legible. It uses black font color against a white background. The text is in sans serif typeface, which is simple and legible.
The top item is a story about civilian contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the headline "Civilian Contractor Toll in Iraq and Afghanistan Ignored by Defense Dept." The story gives the numbers of civilian contractors who've died and been injured right away because these figures are important details in the story. The writer/editor also chunks the story by using hypertext anchors that lead to more details. However, the paragraphs are really long and could've been separated into shorter, more concise paragraphs. For online reading, I think this story is a bit difficult to read.
Mark Kleiman- Legible Blogging
Mark Kleiman’s website “The Reality Based Community,” is an easy to read blog that incorporates short, succinct paragraphs. It is a highly legible blog, but it is not without its design flaws.
Length of text: Kleiman’s blogs are usually fairly short and include paragraphs of about two to six sentences. His posts are simple and don’t require pages upon pages of reading, which can be daunting for blog readers.
Scannability: Kleiman’s blog is easily scannable and doesn’t include continuous blocks of text. He and other contributors to the blog use short paragraphs and divide up the text with links to other sites with related material. These links are colored dark blue to make them visually stand-out.
Chunking: The only chunking in the blog occurs when the author uses other sources and pulls quotes from them. These quotes are usually highlighted in a lighter shade of blue than links, so they easily stand out from other text.
Headlines: The headlines in this blog leave something to be desired. They are clear and easily identifiable but there are never and subheads or bulleted lists. Some of the headlines are not descriptive of the content which is a bit confusing. At least a different font is used to make the headline distinct.
Copy Editing: So far I have not discovered many misspelled words or grammatical errors in Kleiman’s blog. Occasionally an error appears like the one I found today that should say “collecting sales tax” but says “collecting sale s tax.” Whoops, looks like someone forgot to use spell check.
Use of Inverted Pyramid: For the most part it appears that Kleiman’s posts begin with a gist of the subject and then proceed to add more detail as they go. However, some of the posts are so short and opinion-based that there is really no need to use the inverted pyramid.
Page Titles: Kleiman’s blog does a good job of giving each page a title related to the post. However, when one clicks on a subject "category" from the left-side navigation bar, a page pops-up with every post in that category. One then has to click on an individual post to get a proper page title that is not overwhelming.
Legibility: According to Nielsen’s standards, Kleiman’s blog has optimal legibility as most of the text is black on a white background. Any remaining text is dark or light blue so it is legible and easy to read. The font is not too small and none of the text moves or does any distracting flash animation.
The top item on Kleiman’s blog as of this post is titled “Wish-I’d-said-that-Dep’t,” which is a horrible headline as it doesn’t say much to the blog’s content. It starts with a quote by Thoreau and proceeds to talk about the New Jersey Star-Ledger’s editorial on Jon Corzine and Chris Daggett. According to Kleiman, the editorial’s remarks will help Corzine get re-elected as governor, even though the remarks were negative.
Assignment 2 Monodoweiss Web Design
The blog Monodoweiss has a variety of user friendly attributes. The use of screen real estate is especially good. Weiss, the main contributor of the blog, views content as more essential that ad space. There aren't any ads on the homepage or subsequent pages. The pages are at least 80 percent devoted to content. The fonts are properly displayed which allows for a quick read.
Loading response times are good. I use a wireless internet connection and was able to quickly load the blog. This way a user can freely search through the blog and its pages. For certain users they'll enjoy the use of ALT text attributes.
The structural links are apparent on Monodoweiss. There are a list of recent blog posts to the right of the screen and associative links throughout blog posts, allowing users to get more information about that specific topic. Reference links are also available which help keep users on the right track if the current page isn't the right one.
There were link titles throughout the Monodoweiss blog which help navigate users. Weiss also uses link colors which show blue if they haven't been visited. There isn't any advertising on the blog other than solicitation for donations.
"Goldstone Variations" is the top post on Monodoweiss about United Nations John Sawers gave a speech upholding the Goldstone Commission, which I believe says that Israel destroyed Gaza's flour mill and dropped white phosphorus on school children. The blog wasn't very clear on what the debate was over, it said that "Goldstone's assertions are hotly-disputed, when in fact no one has denied that Israel destroyed Gaza's flour mill or dropped white phosphorus on school children." This was the only part that mentioned what the debate being discussed was about. More context and background information about what Goldstone's stand is would have been useful too.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Joanne Jacobs - Content Design
What Joanne Jacobs’ site lacks in web design, it mostly makes up for in content design. I have a few content-related critiques of her site but overall, her site is very user-friendly as defined in chapter 3 of Nielsen’s book Designing Web Usability.
Length of text: The length of text in Jacobs’ posts are generally 50% shorter than they would be in print comparatively and some are even shorter than that. Jacobs gets to the point of her post quickly and in as little words as possible. However, Jacobs site is based on references to other blogs or articles, so the information is usually not original material, but rather, a summary.
Scannability: This is another area where Jacobs’ page shines. Because her posts are so short, they are automatically easy to scan. Jacobs does a good job of breaking up her posts with indented paragraphs but she only occasionally uses bullets or subheadlines. The reader can easily pick out key words and focus on what they see as the most important information.
Chunking: Because Jacobs never delves too deep on her topics, no “depth of content” is sacrificed, as Nielsen puts it, by shortening text. Jacobs uses hypertext well to break up information and her hypertext is always a link to a longer piece about the topic.
Headlines: For the most part, the headlines on Jacobs’ site are in “plain language” and don’t try to be “cute” or “clever,” but there are exceptions. The subheadline below her nameplate is clever as well as informative and, I think, explains exactly what her blog serves to do. It reads “Free-linking and thinking on education by Joanne Jacobs,” and her page is entirely based on links and informal thoughts.
Copy Editing: It’s clear that Jacobs copy edits her posts effectively and thoroughly. I have yet to find any grammatical or spelling errors. I can definitely appreciate this because pages that do have errors seem amateurish and the errors are often distracting to web readers like me.
Use of Inverted Pyramid: Most of the posts that reference news articles are written in inverted pyramid style. Jacobs starts with a lead, usually different than the lead in the original article, and the lead is often more suited for her audience. However, on most of the posts that reference other blogs, inverted pyramid style is not used. Additionally, some of her posts are only one-sentence long, others are simply video clips and a few of her posts don’t fit into any stylistic category.
Page Titles: The page titles on Jacobs’ page are short and straightforward. The most prominent page titles are at the top of the page and help the user navigate to information about the author, freelance opportunities, details about her book and of course, her blog. Each page title is unique which avoids confusion to the reader.
Legibility: For my eyes, the grayish-black text font does not contrast sharply enough against the white background. I would prefer a deeper black. Jacobs uses a plain-color background with no design, her font is big enough to read easily and no text moves or blinks. Also, her posts are left-justified and she never types in all capital letters.
The top post on Jacobs’s page is unlike any other post I’ve seen on her site. For the first time that I’ve seen, Jacobs has inserted her own original commentary. The post, entitled “What to tell a prospective art teacher,” is a seven-sentence-long open question to the teachers in her audience. No links to other articles or blogs are present here. Even though it’s nice to get a glimpse of Jacobs’ personal life, I wish this post were more compelling and I think it could be.
Length of text: The length of text in Jacobs’ posts are generally 50% shorter than they would be in print comparatively and some are even shorter than that. Jacobs gets to the point of her post quickly and in as little words as possible. However, Jacobs site is based on references to other blogs or articles, so the information is usually not original material, but rather, a summary.
Scannability: This is another area where Jacobs’ page shines. Because her posts are so short, they are automatically easy to scan. Jacobs does a good job of breaking up her posts with indented paragraphs but she only occasionally uses bullets or subheadlines. The reader can easily pick out key words and focus on what they see as the most important information.
Chunking: Because Jacobs never delves too deep on her topics, no “depth of content” is sacrificed, as Nielsen puts it, by shortening text. Jacobs uses hypertext well to break up information and her hypertext is always a link to a longer piece about the topic.
Headlines: For the most part, the headlines on Jacobs’ site are in “plain language” and don’t try to be “cute” or “clever,” but there are exceptions. The subheadline below her nameplate is clever as well as informative and, I think, explains exactly what her blog serves to do. It reads “Free-linking and thinking on education by Joanne Jacobs,” and her page is entirely based on links and informal thoughts.
Copy Editing: It’s clear that Jacobs copy edits her posts effectively and thoroughly. I have yet to find any grammatical or spelling errors. I can definitely appreciate this because pages that do have errors seem amateurish and the errors are often distracting to web readers like me.
Use of Inverted Pyramid: Most of the posts that reference news articles are written in inverted pyramid style. Jacobs starts with a lead, usually different than the lead in the original article, and the lead is often more suited for her audience. However, on most of the posts that reference other blogs, inverted pyramid style is not used. Additionally, some of her posts are only one-sentence long, others are simply video clips and a few of her posts don’t fit into any stylistic category.
Page Titles: The page titles on Jacobs’ page are short and straightforward. The most prominent page titles are at the top of the page and help the user navigate to information about the author, freelance opportunities, details about her book and of course, her blog. Each page title is unique which avoids confusion to the reader.
Legibility: For my eyes, the grayish-black text font does not contrast sharply enough against the white background. I would prefer a deeper black. Jacobs uses a plain-color background with no design, her font is big enough to read easily and no text moves or blinks. Also, her posts are left-justified and she never types in all capital letters.
The top post on Jacobs’s page is unlike any other post I’ve seen on her site. For the first time that I’ve seen, Jacobs has inserted her own original commentary. The post, entitled “What to tell a prospective art teacher,” is a seven-sentence-long open question to the teachers in her audience. No links to other articles or blogs are present here. Even though it’s nice to get a glimpse of Jacobs’ personal life, I wish this post were more compelling and I think it could be.
Capital Notes - Web Usability
"Capital Notes" is an easy blog to navigate around and to read. According to Nielsen's book, Designing Web Usability, chapter 3 explains content design and what to do to create a successful site with regard to length of text, scannability, chunking, headlines, copy editing, use of the inverted pyramid, page titles and legibility.
Length of text: Myers' blog posts include some quick paragraphs with short sentences however some sentences are written a bit longer.
Scannability: The blog is fairly easy to follow with scanning. Some words, phrases and names are written in bold black text to bring attention to them, different colors are used for links,
Chunking: The home page uses chunking well. Each post includes a short paragraph explaining what it is about. However, on my screen (a 10.5") not much is shown "above the fold," so scrolling through the site to navigate is necessary. Each post, when selected, doesn't include multiple pages; it requires scrolling down the page to read the post in its entirety. When Myers uses long quotes or excerpts, chunking of the text is used for easy reading.
Headlines: For the most part, Myers uses clear, important headlines, however sometimes "cute" or "clever" headlines are used.
Copy editing: Myers does a good job at editing his posts. There are few, or no, errors and the writing is "tight," leaving out elaborate details.
Use of the inverted pyramid: Myers uses the inverted pyramid style throughout his posts, starting with the most important information first and then going into less importance as the blog ends.
Page titles: Each headline is a page title leading readers to the blog posts. There are no page titles though when past months/years are clicked on for older posts, i.e. June 2009 doesn't have a page title announcing that page is just for posts from June 2009. The dates are listed in small, italic text above the post, but other than that someone could get lost in archives with no title.
Legibility: The blog is very legible. The background is white with no distracting graphics. The text color is black, blue or orange resulting in high contrast between the text and background. The font for the story are of good size and the post time and labels of the blog are smaller text. None of the text is distracting or moves.
Nothing has been posted to the blog since the birth of his son, October 3, 2009.
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