Item 2-5(d): Designing for online vs. prints

One of the biggest problem with designing blog is the issue of credibility. Print is an old media; therefore, the composition of designing had long been establish. For a more trustworthy output, a blog should include the blogger's information and picture to show reader who's output they are reading from (Nielsen, 2005). Furthermore, Internet acronyms such as 'irl', 'lol', etc. should be avoided. Most importantly, citations and sources used must be listed out as to credit and provide factual evidence to blog posting. Bloggers mostly take this for granted; therefore, it is hard to sometimes trust news dissemination through blogs.

Whether it is in print or online, salience is a very important point to bear in mind. According to Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), the role of salience is to grab viewer's attention. Therefore, it is important to make a strategic hierarchy of viewing focal point such at an effective title that lead to article's content. If pictures used or title to a post do not relate to the content of the blog or printed article, it would confuse the viewer.

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References:

Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, 'The Meaning of composition', Reading Images

Nielsen, J. 2005, Weblog Usabiliy: The Top Ten Design Mistakes, Useit.com, viewed 19 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html