Isys100 -Blog Report
Constantinos (Dean) Vosnakis, Matt Arnold, Jack Delaney & Akhil Arya.
1. Explain why you chose the blog topic and your decision on the final design of the blog.
Having discussed several different topics including; food, movies, television shows and sports. As a team we concluded that music is an ideal topic to explore as a team, as it would provide us with a large array of controversial topics that would encourage page views and discussion. We ultimately decided to look at a mixture of reviewing the latest or classic songs and analysing current trends in the music industry. As a team we felt that we could write content that was new, fresh and exciting to read.
The blog design is a minimalistic style design, we wanted to keep it simple, clean and elegant. From the logo and name designed with the first letters of the names of our team, to the tour bus driving in the background everything on the page makes sense relating to our topic. The colours and backgrounds compliment the overall theme of the blog while not detracting from the content.
2. How does the video in the last post relate to your blog? how does each member in your group contribute to the process of making the vlog?
The vlog portrays how the Mad Jams content is created, whether it be from listening to music while walking your dog, completing assignments or going for a drive. When music is heard and ideas are sparked it is the duty of Mad Jams blogs to provide our loyal readers with our content. You never know when or where inspiration will strike, so the vlog shows that we are always prepared and put the blog content over our daily lives on a regular basis.
Each member of the team has their own 30-40 second segment filmed by themselves, where they show how they get inspiration to write their content. Making a vlog is a challenging exercise to accomplish with work commitments often ruining plans. So as a team, we though this approach would work best for us.
3. What were the largest challenges with a team assignment?
There are many challenges that a team assignment can bring. Luckily for Mad Jams, every team member worked well together and there was no personality clashes. The biggest challenge that we faced as a team was time management and the effect that had on the constant stream of blogs being published. The majority of our group are mature age students who are working fulltime, hence it is hard to dedicate much time throughout the week on writing blog content affecting our organisation as a whole. This also impacted our ability to come into university on different days as most of us had work commitments. Considering this, we would all agree that our blogs could have been posted slightly more consistently but on the overall scale of thing, we are happy with our final product.
Another challenge we did not anticipate was the vlog itself, with each of us having little to no experience using editing software, it was difficult to firstly film content then edit it together with other content. This proved to be more difficult than first thought and required a lot more time and effort than we had originally thought. But working together we helped each other out to achieve a result that we are happy with.
4. Compare a blog that has similar content to your blog and critically analyse your site comparing to theirs (layout, usability, content, delivery style, etc). Provide a URL to their blog.
www.pitchfork.com
Pitchfork is widely regarded as one of the most influential music blogs on the internet and it is not hard to see why when examining their content. Pitchfork has similar content to that of Mad Jams but takes it up a level to include a more thorough coverage of the industry, not just music. Pitchfork looks at reviews, best new music, artists, festivals and a lot more to extensively cover the music industry.
The layout of the blog is somewhat similar to Mad Jams blog, it is not extravagant, it is clean organised and effective in portraying its content. It is set out well with easy navigation to the section you are after. Where Pitchfork differentiates itself from Mad Jams, is its usability and content, the sheer amount of diversified content is staggering and the ease of finding and accessing that content is highlighted by their use of tabs, featured articles and easy to navigate sections. This is an area where Mad Jams could improve to display our content like Pitchfork and make it easy and straightforward to use the blog. They also differ in their delivery style, they use a box model which portrays each of their different sections and diversified topics for readers to easily navigate. In contrast Mad Jams simply does not have enough content to do so and have differed by providing our stories with a sidebar allowing quick access to our other content. However, considering that Pitchfork has 35 paid employees, it is easy to see why Mad Jams with just 4 volunteers does not quite reach up to Pitchforks high standards.
The future aim of Mad Jams blogs is to move towards a point where they can display our blog in the style of Pitchfork in terms of its sheer content, delivery style and usability.
Having discussed several different topics including; food, movies, television shows and sports. As a team we concluded that music is an ideal topic to explore as a team, as it would provide us with a large array of controversial topics that would encourage page views and discussion. We ultimately decided to look at a mixture of reviewing the latest or classic songs and analysing current trends in the music industry. As a team we felt that we could write content that was new, fresh and exciting to read.
The blog design is a minimalistic style design, we wanted to keep it simple, clean and elegant. From the logo and name designed with the first letters of the names of our team, to the tour bus driving in the background everything on the page makes sense relating to our topic. The colours and backgrounds compliment the overall theme of the blog while not detracting from the content.
2. How does the video in the last post relate to your blog? how does each member in your group contribute to the process of making the vlog?
The vlog portrays how the Mad Jams content is created, whether it be from listening to music while walking your dog, completing assignments or going for a drive. When music is heard and ideas are sparked it is the duty of Mad Jams blogs to provide our loyal readers with our content. You never know when or where inspiration will strike, so the vlog shows that we are always prepared and put the blog content over our daily lives on a regular basis.
Each member of the team has their own 30-40 second segment filmed by themselves, where they show how they get inspiration to write their content. Making a vlog is a challenging exercise to accomplish with work commitments often ruining plans. So as a team, we though this approach would work best for us.
3. What were the largest challenges with a team assignment?
There are many challenges that a team assignment can bring. Luckily for Mad Jams, every team member worked well together and there was no personality clashes. The biggest challenge that we faced as a team was time management and the effect that had on the constant stream of blogs being published. The majority of our group are mature age students who are working fulltime, hence it is hard to dedicate much time throughout the week on writing blog content affecting our organisation as a whole. This also impacted our ability to come into university on different days as most of us had work commitments. Considering this, we would all agree that our blogs could have been posted slightly more consistently but on the overall scale of thing, we are happy with our final product.
Another challenge we did not anticipate was the vlog itself, with each of us having little to no experience using editing software, it was difficult to firstly film content then edit it together with other content. This proved to be more difficult than first thought and required a lot more time and effort than we had originally thought. But working together we helped each other out to achieve a result that we are happy with.
4. Compare a blog that has similar content to your blog and critically analyse your site comparing to theirs (layout, usability, content, delivery style, etc). Provide a URL to their blog.
www.pitchfork.com
Pitchfork is widely regarded as one of the most influential music blogs on the internet and it is not hard to see why when examining their content. Pitchfork has similar content to that of Mad Jams but takes it up a level to include a more thorough coverage of the industry, not just music. Pitchfork looks at reviews, best new music, artists, festivals and a lot more to extensively cover the music industry.
The layout of the blog is somewhat similar to Mad Jams blog, it is not extravagant, it is clean organised and effective in portraying its content. It is set out well with easy navigation to the section you are after. Where Pitchfork differentiates itself from Mad Jams, is its usability and content, the sheer amount of diversified content is staggering and the ease of finding and accessing that content is highlighted by their use of tabs, featured articles and easy to navigate sections. This is an area where Mad Jams could improve to display our content like Pitchfork and make it easy and straightforward to use the blog. They also differ in their delivery style, they use a box model which portrays each of their different sections and diversified topics for readers to easily navigate. In contrast Mad Jams simply does not have enough content to do so and have differed by providing our stories with a sidebar allowing quick access to our other content. However, considering that Pitchfork has 35 paid employees, it is easy to see why Mad Jams with just 4 volunteers does not quite reach up to Pitchforks high standards.
The future aim of Mad Jams blogs is to move towards a point where they can display our blog in the style of Pitchfork in terms of its sheer content, delivery style and usability.
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