Link to Sarah’s blog site: https://sarahjoyelawa.com/
The peer I have been assigned to review is Sarah Elawa’s blog site. This blog revolves around the dedication to Sarah’s self-care as well as their health and well-being. Sarah makes weekly posts that are transparent about their progress toward the outlined goals mentioned on the homepage.
First and foremost, I want to start by saying the site looks well-made and intuitive. The nav links are clearly named making it relatively easy to navigate through the site without me having to guess where certain categories of posts are (as pictured below).
The overall theme of the website is very calming, taking inspiration from nature with its light green background. The color that has been chosen for the background is not too vibrant so it is shocking to the viewer but not too faint that they wouldn’t notice it’s there. Good choice of color overall.
The posts are consistent in terms of using two columns and having clear titles to denote a new section (as pictured in the two pictures below).
The site has plenty of white space as well as good margins making the pages feel well-designed without making the content feel squished or improperly balanced.
Also, I want to point out that the accessibility of the website is really well-thought-out. The clickable side nav allows the user to change the size of the text, underline nav links to be more apparent, increase the contrast, and make the typeface bolder to increase readability.
However, I think the image chosen to be used for the ‘about me’ section (as pictured below) was not as clear compared to other images used throughout the website. I was confused when I first saw it as it did not give me a clear sense of who you are and it did not seem entirely relevant to what your blog site is about. I would suggest replacing that image and finding one that represents you or the essence of your blog site better.
Furthermore, I would like to have seen different type weights (i.e, bold, semi-bold, medium, etc.) used throughout. I think there was a slight oversight in the type weight usage for ‘The Goals’ titled (pictured below) and the titles for the goals you are setting out to accomplish. As of right now, there was no sense of visual hierarchy other than where the titles were placed. I would suggest making the ‘The Goals’ title consistent with the rest of the titles used in other sections such as the ‘About Me’ section (within the homepage). I would also suggest changing the size to be smaller than the ‘The Goals’ title to establish a more clear visual hierarchy.
To add to that, I think the layout for the goals you are setting out to achieve could be designed better. The first row had all of the titles and images aligned together which makes me believe that this will be the established layout throughout. However, the second row and onwards have the goal on the far left misaligned with the rest of the goals within that row. I would suggest either reducing the size of the text, reducing the amount of text, or finding an entirely new layout altogether.
One minor nitpick that I have with the site in terms of content is that the ‘About Me’ section repeats the same text in two different places (as pictured below). In my opinion, I believe it would be better to have the about me section on the homepage to be more concise and explain to the viewer what exactly the blog site is about and have the dedicated ‘About Me’ page be the more in-depth paragraph that you already have.
I would also go back and make sure each paragraph break is more apparent as there are a few inconsistencies within some posts where there wasn’t any space between two paragraphs.
I think overall, Sarah did an excellent job designing their blog site. There is plenty of white space, the accessibility features are well-thought-out, and the typeface chosen is readable and scannable. There are only a few minor issues and nitpicks that I have mentioned previously that I believe when addressed, would make the site even better and feel more polished. Hopefully, these comments are somewhat helpful.
Good luck with the rest of the semester as well as with your goals, Sarah! You got this!! 💪💪💪
