peer review one

I am doing this peer review on Hamish Johnsons website hamishjohnson.ca. As the website I am sure will see further developments and alterations throughout the semester, I will solely be reviewing what is currently viewable on the website. 

Upon first glance, the website is incredibly thought out, and visually very easy to navigate and distinctly demonstrates its purpose. The overall content seems to highlight Hamish’s interests, with the title page including his own photography, and an entire page titled “projects” dedicated to various bodies of work that he’s created! I am truly impressed with how professional the look of the website is and how straightforward it is to find content accordingly and efficiently. 

It offers multiple links to pages including the about me section, portfolio page (the title page), his projects, contact information, and publishing 101, which have been highlighted at the top of each page as well. I thought the project page was particularly interesting, and as a reader you are able see Hamish’s more personal achievements and projects in a very clear lay out, even with a concentration navigating option for the kind of project you are looking into. The publishing 101 page outlines a directory of the course material and assignments for the class from oldest to newest, in a clear and concise manner. The about me section includes a lovely description of Hamish, his interests, and sets the overall tone of his website. He also includes a cute animation when you place your curser on his self portrait. 

The overall appearance of the website and logo provides a clean, simple, and professional aesthetic while maintaining Hamish’s personal stylistic choices, like including his own photography on the title page. The writing is very clear and is consistent with the type faces, having more bold or large text for headings and page titles. A detail I also noticed was the tip jar in the bottom left corner, which I thought was so cool! 

The attention to detail and simple navigation and appearance of hamishjohnson.ca has made it a wonderful experience reviewing the site, and the amount of work evidently demonstrated by the websites capabilities and appearance does not go unnoticed! Such a pleasure Hamish!

peer review two

I will be doing my second peer review on Genevive’s website “Frankies Fork” frankiesfork.com. Upon first glance, Genevive has chosen a friendly, bright colour pallet including a light blue background, red for the type face, and yellow accents for spacers. The home page of the website contains a blurb establishing the theme of the website, that being “food, drinks, girl’s nights, reviews, recommendations, recipes.” I noticed the appearance resembles somewhat of a menu, which I related to the food aspect of the site. As progress is made and the website will be further consolidated, please take that into consideration as I am writing this review of what is currently available.

The navigation is simple, providing clear links to the various publishing assignments and personal posts. Within the navigation bar, Geniveve has included a posiel, blog post, and about me section. Within each page, a viewer can access the home page, and the navigation bar is presented at the top of each page. The theme stays consistent throughout the entire page, using the same colours and type faces. 

Some suggestions I would make for consolidating the site is to further development of the homepage. It can be difficult to grasp what the site includes and what it is about, being that there are no images to capture the theme until you scroll through to find a single image of an oyster dish without description. I also think if someone were to view the site, they might not understand what the home page is presenting and making the list of (what I know to be) the most recently completed assignments or blog posts more abundantly clear as to what that is, might be helpful. I might also suggest being more concise in the number of fonts included. I can see within the home page alone, there are five different fonts used and some text in all upper case or lower case, which can make it difficult for reading capabilities. I would refine the fonts included and focus on keeping the selection more balanced. 

Something I noticed that makes the site slightly more difficult to navigate is the spacing and can be seen within each page. Specifically looking at the “Napa Valley Guide,” the content is concentrated entirely on the right side, with a generous negative space on the left. This is a common theme throughout each page, being that all content is presented on only the ride side of a page. I think configuring this to fill out the space more evenly might be easier for a viewer, and so one can view more of the content simultaneously, rather than having to scroll quite far. Personally, the site may lack cohesion with the aesthetics and the contents included. I was unsure about what the site included and had to search for it as opposed to it being abundantly clear when opening the website. I would recommend adding more images and choosing a colour scheme and perhaps more graphics to illustrate the food review and fun aspects the website declares in the blurb. 

As far as the actual content goes, Geniveve has included such wonderful reviews, shared experiences, and other fun personal posts. I can tell that she has put in a ton of work with what she has curated and chosen to include on her site. I love the idea of a girl’s night, food review, and just connecting over a fun drink, so I truly appreciate the notion of Frankies Fork! The reviews and blog posts are so stinkin’ cute, and genuinely helpful. I particularly enjoyed reading about the kind of cocktail you are based on your zodiac sign; I found out I am a cosmopolitan!

It was a pleasure to review your site Genevive, and I appreciate all the work that you have put into it thus far. I am excited to see how Frankies Fork develops and what you continue to post.