Better Blogging challenge

Day 2 of Better Blogging Challenge (Audit of a blog site)

Summary - Day 2 ask you to look at a blog and to analyse a series of questions about it.

The guidelines for the web site audit are from the Problogger website. It is shown below with my comments in blue.

From Ms D's website

Don’t talk to them as they do - but watch carefully how they use your blog.

• How do they navigate?For starters, I navigated across the top of the banner of the homepage and looked at the different pages. Then I saw the banner might be a web cloud and tried clicking on it. I picked tidertechie which was the only one that actually worked. I was surprised by the music and the snow flakes. I felt they were more of a distraction - but that's just me.
  
• Where do they click?I did a short scan of the first three postings and then stopped. did not want to scroll all the to find out where the page stopped.
  
• What do they pause to read?Paused at headings and then went to sidebar. fascinated by Ms D's file Cabinet widjet. Must try that on my class blog when school starts. Also looked at links and catergories in the sidebar. Found these to be good value.
  
• What do they skip over?The other posts on the home page.
  

Once they’ve surfed your blog ask them some questions about the experience.

• What were their first impressions? Did the theme change completely in the last couple of days? First time that I looked at the website a few days ago it was very clean with no distractions. Was I on a different site somehow? Today's site was a bit tizzy with the banner clashing with the cartoon.
  
• What did they first think your blog was about when they arrived at it? Might be a school blog but nothing definite to show that it was.
  
• Did they find it easy to read/navigate/understand? Yes. Once I looked at it more closely I felt it was put together pretty well.
  
• What did they ‘feel’ when they first arrived at your blog? Confusion with the clash between the cartoon and the banner - where I was I supposed to look first?
  
• What suggestions do they have on how you could improve your blog? I don't really feel confident in offering suggestions here since I am just getting started out with blogs.
  
• What questions do they have having surfed your blog? Unsure.
  
• What words would they use to describe the design? Tizzy at first glance but then a well ordered site.
  
• What are the main things that they remember about your blog 10 minutes later? File cabinet and twitter widgets.