Over the last 10 days, I have travelled to 3 different destinations within Asia. Being the Chief Executive Officer, it is ultimately my responsibility to ensure that the operations are moving along without any hitches. The last breach in safety occurring in Myanmar took me a while to rectify. But I am glad that there were no adverse effect on the evaluation process undertaken by the Stock Exchange of Singapore. However, I am still guilty as charge for neglecting my family, especially my 10 year old son. I decided to make it up to him by sending him to school this morning. Making our way to the car park, I had a funny feeling something was just not right. True enough, when I tried cranking the car, there was totally no response. My BMW was entering its eighth year of service and she rarely let me down. I guess my son is not the only one I had neglected over the last 10 days. I flagged a taxi and took my son to school. Like many "great man", the final decision when it came to capital expenditure like apartment and cars, usually depend on my better half. Was this a great opportunity to tell my wife that it was time for me to change my car?
After dropping my son off in school, I grabbed another taxi and headed straight home. Upon reaching, I took out my lap top and decided to look at some car reviews. I have always been an avid reader of car blogs simply because comments from other readers provide additional input that the author might have missed out. After all, no bloggers out there can claim to know or have driven every single car model. There are several blogs that provide reviews of cars in Singapore, but the 2 best blogs are Best Selling Cars Blog and My Auto Blog .
It may sound unfair, but when a reader first visit a blog, instant judgements are made within seconds. Vendalay Design (2012), discusses several characteristics of a good blog. The first characteristics, content, is what keeps readers coming back for more. While both Best Selling Cars Blog and My Auto Blog provide car reviews, both are slightly different in the way the contents are presented. The text message are written using the inverted pyramid model, providing a short summary of the review. My Auto Blog has a "Read more" button, which allows readers interested in the particular topic to read further.
The second characteristics is navigation. Navigating both blogs are fairly easy. Both blogs provide ample link to related topics, archives and comments. Best Selling Cars Blog even has a link buttons for "words" uncommon to readers.
The third characteristics is unique. Best Selling Cars blog is unique because it has links to the car market of many countries. The archives goes a long way back, reviewing prices and sales volume of these cars of the past.
The last characteristics is design. It is important that bloggers pay attention to design. This will provide the blog will a strong, consistent and visual feel in which the right things are emphasized and the viewer quickly make sense of what's there. The 4 key principles of good designs has been emphasized by Houle (2010) and that bloggers must understand how the use of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity can help make a difference to their blog designs.
Both blogs use lots of images to supplement the text document. The images usually have simple background which provides a strong contrast of the vehicle.
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| Contrast |
As both blog sites are supported commercially, repetition is most evident. Every page within the blog contains the same logo at the top of the page. The same background colour, elements and text colour is repeated throughout the pages of the blog.
Alignment plays an important role in making the blog look more professional. Both contents of both blogs are aligned directly in the centre. The images are fitted along the same margins of the written review. While white space are considered to be negative space, the generous amount of white space provide an uncluttered view of the entire blog.
Proximity is the grouping of like elements together and separating those that are not. Here we see an almost identical style of grouping the contents within both blogs. The contents of the blog are located centre left, while advertisement, links and archives are located centre right.
Houghton, (2012, Pg. 130) argues that while blogs maybe be an online home. But to get well connected, there is a need to be present elsewhere. Using one or two social network is a good avenue to reach out. In both of these blogs, we see the use of Twitter and Facebook to reach out to other readers by either sharing the link or twitt about the reviews.
Both blogs have left me fantasizing about my dream car. However, I need to device a convincing argument and put up a strong case to my wife, the "Judge".
References:
Gasnier, M 2013, Best selling cars - Blog, viewed 25 February 2013,
Gasnier, M 2013, Best selling cars - Blog, viewed 25 February 2013,
<http://bestsellingcarsblog.com/category/singapore/>
My Car Forum, 2012, My Auto Blog, viewed 25 February 2013, <http://www.mycarforum.com/blog/myautoblog/>
Vandelay Design, 2012, Characteristics of a good website, viewed 25 February 2013,
<http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/characteristics-of-a-good-website/>
Vandelay Design, 2012, Characteristics of a good website, viewed 25 February 2013,
<http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/characteristics-of-a-good-website/>
Houle, A 2010, My Ink Blog - 4 principles of good design for websites, viewed 25 February, 2013, <http://www.myinkblog.com/4-principles-of-good-design-for-websites/#comment-714853950>
Houghton, R 2012, Blogging for creative, How Books, Carver Road, Ohio
Houghton, R 2012, Blogging for creative, How Books, Carver Road, Ohio
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