i “quotednews.com”

Once, they were all the same.

I’m not a web design expert to scrutinize the page layout with the header and the sidebar nor whatever that holds my eyes on screen. What the color scheme would be or where to put which, is what I don’t know.  My eyes are seeking for content.

That was my understanding way back when I visit a website or a blog. I don’t care about how it was presented to me. I know yet what I am looking for. So what with the design.

 If I want to find out the details on a current earthquake headline for an instance, I use the magic keywords and browse through the first links google or yahoo shows me. It’s what I chow in to kill time, not something that I feed on myself every day.

 It was all about the content. And I was seeing no difference. It’s just the same news taken in different words. At least, back some eras ago.

Apparently, they are all different.

PITHING QUOTED NEWS

[For better quality, click here]

VIDEO SYNTHESIS

I posted the video script somewhere in this blog. 

[For better quality, click here]

IF-I’M-THE-EDITOR’S COLLAGE:

Below is the original screenshot of the Quoted News site.

Below is my edited version of the site, the way I would want it to be if I'm the editor. 

Have you noticed the changes?  Here's the detailed wanna-be changes in outline form:

• The two small pictures beside the slideshow of featured articles were removed. I replaced them with Daily Weather Forecast small widget. 

• I added an announcement caption (marquee) under the slideshow's caption. This would feature important announcements (e.g. DepED/CHED's declaration of class suspension).If there’s no urgent announcement like this, the schedule of the featured events in "My Calendar" can be displayed.
  
• I added "My Calendar" widget below the google search engine. This calendar features the schedule of any events (e.g. Social Watch Assembly). The events that will be posted will be filtered. This will be a good portion for potential advertisers and sponsors. Moreover, this could be one way of promoting the site.
  
• I have had the header changed. 'Quoted' and 'news' are maroon in font color. I moved the "sign up and report your news" on top beside the 'subscribe" button.
  
  
• I changed the format of the ads in the Sponsors section in the sidebar. Instead of a collage of ads, I changed it to a slideshow format. So, it would not look cramped in one corner.

• I added the EDITOR’S PICK section in the second-level of the navigation menu. It's on top of the google search engine. It would feature anything under the sun. It could be a book blog, movie, a restaurant or what not. It can invite potential advertisers and sponsors.

 I was not able to include the following in my version of the site:

• Replacing the 'Popular Posts' with a more integrated save-spacing widget, 'Read-Rated-Discussed' as that of Telegram’s will make it look better. It would have the same format [picture beside each content tabs] but the integrated format will be adapted.

• Twitter widget like that of Telegram’s can be added in the remaining space under "Stats" section.

My Humble Recommendations to quotednews.com Editor:

"We, at QuotedNews aspire to be the avenue of much news you desires to hook with: "

 -Little mistakes like this should still be changed. 

"If you want to contribute your own news story please read our guidelines."

-This was included in the "About" page. I think there's no need for this to be included since there's a whole page allotted for the guidelines: "Write for us" section.

"Copyright © 2011 "

-According to Kevin Mudloon, either the symbol or the word should be omitted. It's redundant already. "One must die."

VIDEO SCRIPT:

These are my blogposts, too:

WHAT I PERCEIVE? [Criteria: Content Design Relevance]

HOW’s THE TRAFFIC? [Criteria: Discoverability Community Social]

THANK YOU:

Quoted News 

Newspaper Website Design: Trends And Examples

Telegram

The Reader Blog Critique Checklist

Kathryn Narciso

PITHING quotednews.com

[pithing [pith′ing] Etymology: AS, pitha: the destruction of the central nervous system of an experimental  animal in preparation for physiologic research]

Not medically speaking, I did not mean to destruct the blog’s credibility in any sense; this is solely me and my not-so-deep scrutiny.

WHAT I PERCEIVE? [Criteria: Content Design Relevance]

As usual, everything lies clear on a white background. It has a blue-black general color scheme. Blue colors the headlines, article titles, and the navigation elements. Black colors the rest of the content.

It has a two-level navigation menu, that which is, separated. On the topmost is the first level menu dedicated to the main blog navigation. Just below it is the brand header, where the second level navigation menu is under. The second level is for news content navigation categorized in tabs.

I would say that there’s no widget overload on the sidebar area. There’s only one dedicated area for sponsors.  It’s a dynamic sidebar since contents’ arrangement changes as you navigate through the other pages in the places. Atleast, in my observation they’re all the same small-sized ads in motion. The colors of the ads are visually accenting the color scheme of the blog.  

The rest of the space in the sidebar is mostly comprised of the tabbed contents. The areas are dedicated to content-related widgets such as recent posts, popular posts, and the archives in a monthly chronological order. They are neatly tucked in the side.

I noted a specific dedicated area for advertisement. But, as of the moment, there’s no ad posted yet. It’s just: “Advertise here.”

On the upper right corner, the multimedia platform below the second-level navigation is the space’s main spectacle . It displays in a slideshow the news pictures of different featured articles with captions below it. Beside it are two small pictures. These integrated pictures are, of course, linked to the articles.

I like it that there’s much space dedicated for the news content. Simplicity is beauty. It’s not a busy site at all. For each navigation category, including the homepage itself, are 10 headlines only. It’s shown in a very organized way whereas in one featured headline, beside it is the small picture of the writer,  the news picture, and an unfinished excerpt of the article that serves as an overview with the “Read More..” button below it. Along with this are the comment buttons. Voting buttons are placed in the side occupying a little vertical space.

And of course, I won’t fail to mention the pages behind the 1^st level navigation links. It’s a good thing that the details in the About page don’t mix with the ones in the Contact Us page. The sitemap is just what I have expected it to be.

Later, I find out an interesting idea behind the overall ‘un-busyness ‘as I would put it. There’s not much ad as it may seem to be, but as you check out each article, there it features one advertisement just below the title.

It’s a one ad per article. Very nice. That figures the neat organization.

All the more, the site doesn’t fail to recognize their contributors. As you would see, there’s a little area dedicated to the writer at the bottom of each article.

As I would thank Kevin Muldoon for his helpful critique checklist, I would quote him with his one important note: ‘Most common mistake ever – "©Copyright" which equals saying copyright twice. One must die.’

Funny that at the bottom of the page, it states  ‘Copyright © 2011 Latest News. All rights

reserved’.

HOW’s THE TRAFFIC? [Criteria: Discoverability Community Social]

With social media integration, the blog draws more traffic into it. Unlike websites, blogs make use of voting buttons evidently. In this blog, it’s always beside each post. There’s a google +1 button and the facebook ‘like’ button.

It also has a comment area, in which it will direct you to two ways of leaving your comments. It could be through a facebook comment post. Or a comment directed to the blog itself.

Another is that you can click on the Subscribe  button to receive instant updates from QuotedNews feed via RSS or EMAIL.

There are three dedicated widgets in the sidebar area supporting the criteria mentioned above.

First is the Receive Free Updates portion. Facebook and Twitter are notably featured. Second is the Connect on Facebook section indicating how many ‘likes’ does the site currently have. Lastly, the ‘Stats’ is shown. It features the current community that visits it every day and its ranking showing its level of discoverability so far.

No site is perfect. But to me, the makes of this news blog is noteworthy. I like it as it is –clean and simplified.