The Weblog Review

The LA Examiner, an online newspaper of sorts for the Los Angeles area, suffers from two important problems.



Firstly, the design is too bland. Black and white is only a legitimate choice if it works (obviously enough) and here it doesn’t. This site needs an injection of colour to make it a little more readable.



Secondly, and this isn’t helped at all by the design, is the problem of information overload. There’s simply far too much on the front page. The blog, though fascinating and full of great articles, is too long for the front page alone to hold. There are also simply too many links running down either side of the content that distract attention away from the content.



This is a shame. The excellent news coverage offered by the site is let down by some ineffective design. If the links had been moved elsewhere, the posts trimmed down, and a more imaginative colour scheme used, this site would be fantastic for anyone interested in events around LA. After all, no-one thinks of LA as monochromatic. Or at least a smog-colour scheme should be used instead.LA Examiner

The photograph used as the masthead for this site immediately sets the tone for what is to follow: an artistically written blog that looks at the writer’s life as if seen reflected in a curved mirror. Fortunately this blog is far more eloquent than I am.



Elizabeth’s site is very creatively driven. The images used are mostly black and white, which, combined with a monochromatic design aesthetic, works a lot better than you would at first imagine.



Navigation is simple enough, and works well, although the layout doesn’t go very deep into the site. This doesn’t matter greatly, as the blog is the major focus of the site (it’s been running since may 2000).



The narrative is compelling, and the further you read into the site the more you begin to appreciate it. Though perhaps not quite on a par with bluishorange for sheer literary ability, this site pleases consistently enough to be visited often.burntsienna

This is a group blog with about twenty contributors, most of whom have their own websites.



The site achieves a good balance between interesting content and different writing styles, which is a good thing really considering just how many people are involved.



Other than the blog and archives, the main feature of the site is the ability to get involved yourself; if you are so inclined you can join the present team of writers and post to the site as well.



The design is okay, though fairly simple, and the colours not particularly imaginative. However, trying to decide on a colour scheme that would satisfy all of the writers is probably too much to ask for.



The site is still young, but certainly worth a visit.Index42

This is quite a charming little site, with some interesting posts and some nice photos. There are plenty of useful links scattered around the place as well, so the focus isn’t totally on the author’s life.



Design wise, the colour scheme is a little haphazard; plenty of colours are used but the site lacks an overall scheme. It also looks a little disjointed because of all the white space around the sides, and the site logo at the bottom doesn’t fit with the rest of the design.



The navigation is frames-based, which seems an unusual decision because the links within the site are all text-only, and the frame itself is too big to be devoted to such a small amount of material. The different sections of the site could easily have been grouped together so as to make it seem like each one had more content: the book reviews could have been grouped with the writings section, and it seems strange to have both “info” and “bio” pages, when they too could have been combined. The end result is that it appears as though there is less content here than there really is.



Other than that though the site looks very good, with some interesting photographs at the top of every page adding that little bit of detail that would otherwise have been lacking.



Outside of the blog there are a couple of areas worth a look: book reviews (there are only a couple so far), and various other writings (including a piece about the Final Fantasy movie that raises some clever points).



This is a good blog with a reasonable balance between posts and off-blog material, with only a few design problems. Worth visiting all the same.Floue

I was quite taken with the amusing photo of Moby and simplicity of the blog area. I clicked on the 2 other links on the site and didn’t find too much. A little about the writer and 3 black & white photos which I liked is where the links lead me. However I wish I didn’t have search for other links around her site. I ended up pretty much lost. There are hidden areas, which would be fine … except it would be nice if they were not hidden to the reader. She seems to only post a bit on the 7th of each month, which I tend to prefer a bit more than once a month. But I do like the simplicity of her site and the little icons at the end of her posts for email and such.Tilted Wisdom