Depth Perception

Genre Analysis and Further Context

Science article hosting websites tend to come in two forms: personal blogs, and magazines. While this is a blog, I chose to take inspiration from the magazines in my design, as magazines align much closer with the type of articles that will be hosted here. Clarity and concision are key in this genre, as users need to be able to identify if they fall into the intended audience at just a glance. CRAP design principles helped guide the decisions made to make the pages readable, with high Contrast colors to increase legibility, Repetition in the design of articles, menus, and information to clearly see what type of element something is quickly. Images and text are Aligned with each other, and related links and information are in close Proximity. 

A featured article is highlighted at the top to give users a clear place to start, followed by a brief description of the author and content to further communicate the purpose of the website. Inspired by science magazine websites, the blue boxes inform the user of the article’s category. I want to further include a way to add an estimated read time for each article as I believe that is valuable information that should be shown up front, but I haven’t found a good way to implement it yet. Pages showing articles exclusively of one category can be found through the menu, as well as a link back to Home, and a (not working yet) contact form. This both allows users to narrow down to a single topic of their interest, and clearly informs users what topics are commonly discussed on the website. The menu is placed on both the header and the footer to make navigation easy and intuitive.