Interactive Communications (GAD1002M)
Blog Design
To record my University work and give myself a online presence I have decided to use Blogger.com as it seems simple to use and easy to maintain.
I used the starter template Simple to begin with.
I used this template so that I could get used to the blog posting aspect of Blogger.com
I quickly found that there was an issue with managing posts on the site so that they could be easily grouped together. I initially thought that this problem could be solved with the use of the Pages Gadget. Pages are however limited to 10 per blog and its only possible to add one page per post.
I decided that to use this site as a legitimate repository for my uni work I would need to solve the problem of making sure my posts can be navigated easily by lesson and topic.
Blog Design
After getting to grips with blogger.com I began to experiment with the design aspect of the site. After adding a contact page and a about me section I used the design template editor in blogger.com to design a better theme.
I used the template Picture Window as a base from which to start my design as I felt the blurred background image was inoffensive and provided a comfortable environment for people choosing to read my blog posts.
I did however change to layout so that the About me section is on a separate page as well as turning off comments and disabling the blogger.com nav bar. I also changed the overall colour theme from red to green.
As a way of solving the problem regards to organising my posts, I added Labels to each post so that they will be grouped together. I then added a Labels page to the front of the blog and inserted the HTML code for each label type so that when clicked it will take you to all posts with that label.
In conclusion I am happy with the overall look of my blog though a issue for the future is that this blog will only be able to effectively contain a single years work. I will need to create a new site for each year of my studies.
