DocbyDesign

Blogs come in all shapes and sizes, so to speak. Numerous classifications and genres have been created in order to differentiate blogs from one another. Here are some of the types of blogs available to us:

Personal Blogs:
Personal blogs are like online diaries or journals where users are be able to pen down thoughts, activities and such. This is possibly the most popular type of blog.

Corporate and organizational blogs:
Corporate blogs are usually made private and can only been seen by their corporate members and clients. Organizational blogs, are mainly used for marketing, advertising and branding purposes.

Blogs defined by genre:
These blogs are mainly distinguished by their content. For example, a political blog will contain all there is to know about the politics in a certain country or even the world. Other genre blogs are; travel blogs a.k.a travelogs, house blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, and classical music blogs.

Media blogs:
Vlog (video log), photoblog, sketchblog and tumbleblogs are catogerized under the media blogs because they focus on media content.

And lastly, moblogs:
Moblogs are blogs that are updated or created via the mobile phone.

Many blogs are a combination of styles, which makes identifying unique types difficult. In my opinion, a type of blog can be easily identified by the content of it, the format of writing and also the layout of the blog.

The content itself would be a give-a-way. By reading the introductory paragraph, you would be able to distinguish the type of blog. Pictures would also be helpful. For example, a fashion blog would contain an introduction paragraph about fashion, equipped with pictures of the latest fashion, and the language used will be very informal and conversational.

References:

1. Wikipedia, online, retrieved on 25th September 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#Types

What started out as an online diary has now grown into something that is actually beneficial to the world. Blogs have come a long way into becoming one of the top tools used for education, marketing and of course, for leisure.

There is no actual measurement to determine how large the current blogosphere in the world is. However, it has been agreed that blogs are indeed a global phenomenon that has hit mainstream.

Trends, stories and behaviors influence the rest of blogosphere and mainstream media. The latest trend that can be observed through the World Wide Web is blogshop where clothes and other accessories are sold there.

Other benefits of blogging in Malaysia include:
Blogging is now used as a learning and assessment tool in colleges (such as this blog right here)
Blogging also serves as a forum where other users can share discussions about certain things.
A new age marketing tool for small time business enterprises.

So far, blogging has given us the means to communicate better with the world outside of ours. This can definitely open our eyes to news things and different views.

Don't you think so?

References:

What exactly constitutes as a good document?

Considering the fact that the majority of readers and viewers don't always read the text in a document, but rather scans the document as a whole (Jakob Nielson, 1997), it can be concluded that the designs of the document play a large role in making it a good document.

So, from my point of view, a good document will need an interesting and eye-catching layout to begin with, followed by a witty, straight-to-the point text.

The purpose of having a good designed document? (Reep, Diana.C)

• they guide the readers through the text by directing attention and also increases the reader's ability to remember the highlighted sections.
• they increase the reader's interest in a document. Eye-catching and attention-getting formats keeps the readers focused on the intended document.
  
• they create a document that reflects the image you want your readers to imagine and remember.
  

Below is an example of the presentation slides my group compiled for one of our presentations:

Based on the 3 purposes of having a good designed document, I shall now highlight some of the improvements that can be done on these slides:

1. There is not set highlighted sections in this slide. Although all the points are crucial to the presentation, there should be highlighted key words in order for the readers to remember the points given.
   
2. Since this was a class presentation involving students, a more friendly image could have been projected in order to keep the students focused and interested in the presentation. But the image reflected through these slides were straight-forward and clean, which sometimes does not appeal to the younger generations.

References:

1. Jakob Nielson, 1997, How Users Read On The Web, online, retrieved 11 September 2009, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
2. Reep, Diana.C, 2006, Document Design, Chapter 6, pp. 133-172, retrieved 11 September 2009, from Unisa Library
   

Here is a more elaborated version of the purpose of this blog:-

Basically, what I aim to do with this blog is to create a certain awareness as to what exactly is a good document, along with it's elements, the essentials of it and how to create a good document design. I will also explain the purpose and importance of a good document design in the few coming posts.

The main target audience for this blog would definitely be my classmates as well as other communication students who will be or already are involved in this similar subject. Professionals and researchers of said subject are more than welcomed to comment on the posts and documents that will be posted up in this blog. The more, the better. And not forgetting, other students from other majors and colleges, and random readers who just so happen to stumble on this blog, you are all definitely welcomed too.

I think that should suffice as the first post. Hope you'll continue showing your support for this blog.

Please and thank you!