For the assignment, I chose to delve into the first project – take an existing website and critique the information flow. I chose this assignment because it is something I have never done before, or actually never even thought of doing. I wanted to try something new and learn something different. I focused on the blogging website, wordpress.com. I thought this site might be a great site to critique, due to its many tabs and sub-tabs – there would be a lot to go through. By going through the information flow, it has helped me understand the website at a much deeper level, which will hopefully benefit my blog.
Firstly, I clicked on each tab and distinguished where the tab led to, and what the content on the page was about. This was a very lengthy process due to the amount of content on the website. By doing this, I got an understanding of the sites information flow, and how the site was put together to help viewers understand what and where things were.
While I was doing this, I was becoming accustomed to the site, and understanding how a blogging service works and the benefits of using wordpress.com.
Once I had searched through each link, I took the time to understand the functions and useability wordpress.com had to offer. I thought about why I would choose wordpress.com as a blogging site as opposed to any other site such as typepad.com, tumblr.com, twitter.com etc. To me, wordpress.com had a user-friendly system such as tumblr.com; however tumblr.com was too straight forward for what I was looking for. Then there was typepad.com which looked like a great site to use, however you had to pay to even use your initial blog, which led me back to wordpress.com. Meanwhile twitter was sitting back in the ranks, but down-falled for a blogging site as you could only use 140 characters – restricting the information you send out.
So by doing research on other blogging services, I have narrowed down to where I am comfortable at being, which was with wordpress.com. The proof is above (for me) as to why I would choose wordpress.com. Although the choice may be very different for someone else wanting a variety of other things. It all depends on what you want out of a blogging service. I was also taken by wordpress.com due to its creative illustrative design of blog themes. There is a very large range of different designs, beginning from classic and ending in funky, fun and out there!
WordPress.com’s information flow is strong and effective, and gets the point across very easily. Their login and preferences are very similar to every other blogging site – the basics of email address and password. WordPress does have the added security with the password protector; however twitter also has an added protector. I think one protector is enough though, otherwise the blogger is going to get annoyed at having to do too many things – after-all, signup is meant to be simple.
So the process I went through was pretty simple. Learn about the site and how the information flow works, and compare the site to others and discuss what improvements might need to be made. I personally don’t think wordpress.com needs to make many alterations. I only had one thought – which was to add a home page to one of the pages that doesn’t have it – in which isn’t a very large change. So, in conclusion, wordpress.com has a very beneficial information flow – easy to manoeuvre, understand and become accustomed to. They have handled the site very well, intricately placing the tabs in their desired places, and making each possible click of the mouse an effortless motion for the blogger.
