Reflection 3: Oct 22nd, 2024
This week, I focused on curating my content and published several posts. As for the content, I published two new posts for the Matcha Hunter Series. In addition to that, I also work on my content plan by reorganizing the position of them and switching some out in exchange for content I feel like would be better. With the design and visual aspect of the website, I was trying out some new color palettes. I asked my friends to view my website for feedback, and some of them suggested switching the background color into a darker color for the text to stand out better. There is no problem with the readability of it, but something darker will make the text color pop and stand out more. After trying multiple colors, I still did not find a dark color that would fit with the overall vibe I want for my website. I want the atmosphere to be cozy and pretty with the pastel for a softer style, and changing to something dark looks a bit too stiff and serious. Therefore, I decided to keep the color palette like before and increase the text size. This way I can still keep the color that I want and not affect the user experience.
Another feedback from my friends is to add a menu bar. Even though I added hyperlinks in all of the titles and one can click to see the content, it does appear to look like the title is underlined and a bit confusing. Therefore, I wanted to add a menu bar so it could make navigating the site easier. As for the search bar, I am planning to shorten the gap a little bit. If one accesses my site from devices like laptop or tablets, it would look normal. However, when accessed from mobile devices, the search bar stretches too much and if you want to click search, you will have to scroll all the way through the other end to click. This is not only time consuming but also looks unappealing. I also forgot to include alt texts for images so I will be updating on that for accessibility. Therefore, I planned to have these issues resolved and installed in the following week.
With user experience, it is stable but there are some points that I want to improve. Instability experience on different devices is something that has been bothering me. There is a weekly testing I do for my website, and the experience varies between devices like tablets or laptops versus mobile. For instance, with the search bar, it would look fine on tablets or laptops, or devices with larger screens in general. However, with mobile devices that have a relatively smaller screen in comparison, it does look unappealing and not professional-like. Similarly, with the content, I feel like reading on mobile devices would be easier, and the image quality is also way better. However, on laptop or tablets, it would look like the images are too big and quality is not as decent. After researching and drawing from my own experience, I think that a website design should focus on either one. If one wants it to work well on mobile devices, it would not be as effective as laptop or tablet supported layouts. With the laptop/tablet option, there is more space for designers to work with. Yet, when being compacted to fit within the small screen of mobile devices, some of the technical aspects would not look and work the same. I want users to have a universal connection for any devices they use, but in the meantime, I probably would reorganize the panels and layout to see which one will work best.