On a Screen- 9.18

Visuals

I was really drawn to both Bernhardt and Wysocki’s ideas in using space on a page/screen, the decisions in creating a space for communication/s, the concept of being able to rhetorically analyze visual presentation of text and other features of a page/screen, or other media such as movies or photographs; and, Bernhardt’s advocacy of having students learn how to incorporate visual elements in their writing in the classroom in order to improve their writing as a whole. And Bernhardt and Wysocki got me thinking about the things I specifically think about when I write for my The Tiny Twenty-Something.

(Quickly on) Bernhardt’s Advocacy-

Bernhardt suggested in his article that because students are required to write strictly in an essay format, then it limits their opportunity to improve their writing because they are not being exposed to other types of presentations of writing such as varying types of typefaces, symbols, colors, sizes of text. However, I would argue against that- or at least argue against that students are unable to cultivate their writing skills because their English classes aren’t exposing them to multiple features. When I was in school, all my textbooks had more than one way of presenting information. Some textbook chapters provided sections of “At a Glance”- where you could get a preview or later a review of what had occurred during this math chapter or that section in history class. Some English textbooks had similar features too. In math and science there were charts, and graphs, summaries. In history books, there were spots put off to the side of the pages that were meant for side-info or quotes from relevant historical figures…..How does that not help students in learning how to categorize information and gain experience from reading/seeing such things?

Viewing a Page/Screen-

As I read the rest of the article and Wysocki’s, I kept making other relations in my head the more Wysocki made examples/discussed the concepts. One of them is in the decisions we needed to make when we all created out blogs. I have two blogs, and the first one The Tiny Twenty-Something gets tweaked with a lot, and I never thought that I was rhetorically thinking about my blog when I customized the appearances of my blog. Some of the things I thought of was

• Is this looking age-appropriate?
• Does this look fun and attractive?
• I don’t want  my fonts to look like [whatever the default was] because it looks “messy” or just visually ugly.
• Do I want my links to have the same color as the rest of my blog posts, or do I want something to subtly pop! when their mouse runs through the post?
• Do I want a search bar that is always present or do I want it to move in and out?
• *One of the few I take very seriously* Do I want my links to open as new windows, new tabs or just move on from the first page?

For my readers’ sake, I prefer that my links open up new tabs, in my head I’m thinking “it’s a new idea for them, but it doesn’t have to take them away from the first one.” My users can still move back really easily to my main post by just switching tabs. I avoid having my links open as new windows- I don’t want their desktops to get too messy

In my recently new design, I picked brighter colors that I thought would be livelier and I picked a layout that moved my posts, pages and profile to the side and in a way that disappeared whenever the user’s mouse left the left side of my blog. Then their focus can be on the organization of the rest of the blog: my posts (most recent, most popular, etc.) I also make sure the blog looks just right as something on a mobile device, laptop screen or a big computer screen- sometimes those can be really different…..These might just be wierd thoughts when I redo my blog. 
**Hopefully this didn't sound like I was rambling....**

🤔