Posted: 11:30 a.m. 10/15/01

Analyses of two weblogs, "What does not change" and Salon's "The In Box"

1. What does not change

The graphically beautiful "What does not change" touches lightly on mainstream news but focuses mostly on photography. Web designer and photographer Stephen Voss maintains the site from his home in Portland, OR. His nearly daily updates usually consist of a new photograph that he has either taken or found, accompanied by a few paragraphs of text explaining the picture and providing some background. He also links to topics and subjects that he mentions in his text.

Voss makes extensive use of typography changes to gracefully set off his menus from the weblog text, and he also uses it throughout his "Experiences" section on his site. "Experiences" are storytelling through photos and text, and when they are created, are linked to in the weblog. While the high-level graphics of "Experiences" obviously set them off from the rest of the weblog, the use of Verdana font remains the same through most. This typographic choice helps the flow of the site as an uniting quality. It goes to show that, while weblogs are often a daily project, they can have special, periodic sections that fit the site's theme as well.

But the implementation of "Experiences" does not detract from the site's focus, the special features, even as good as they are, seem secondary. The weblog is not pushed aside for this shiniest, fanciest quality. The weblog takes up most of the front page, with a right-side menu bar only suggesting what else could be on the site. The archives are readily accessible from the menu bar, but could also have been linked to at the bottom of the front page. After all, as the weblog entries go back in time on the front page, it doesn't make much sense to scroll back to the top to reach the archives. But this is a small flaw.

One more thing in terms of user navigation: the right-side menu bar is used very well. By having a graphical element on the left side (a photo strip tilted 90 degrees counterclockwise), the text on the right side - in this case the menu bar-- cannot be ignored. I think right side menu bars too often fail because viewers are distracted by left text menus, where they are largely accustomed to seeing menus on the web (example: Chicago Tribune).

2. Salon's The In Box

The In Box weblog features entries from Salon's technology staff that comment on hot trends, odd news and the news that falls through the cracks in technology coverage. The writers come across as far more disarming than in their full-length articles and prove they know what's going on in Web culture. Several times, after I have heard about a new trend on the Web, they have commented in the next day or so with the full story (example: "Do-it-yourself rolling blackout". Considering how college students are usually a step ahead of the general population on the Internet, the Salon weblog must be picking up most trends before most people do, a great accomplishment for a news organization.

There are typically important links throughout the entries, usually at least three or four, and the writing is informal but still tight. The weblog, however, is not updated nearly enough, usually every three or four days. It seems like writers so in tune with the technology world could do better, but you never know at Salon these days. Maybe David Talbot has Damien Cave putting together erotic photo galleries in Cave's spare time.

The archives are easily accessible via a link at the bottom of the page, but the link inexplicably opens the past entries in a new browser window. User navigation does seem to be a problem here. Links to the many different archive pages are not found in one place, meaning viewers must either use the search engine or go page by page backward through the archives to find what they want. Also, although a regular features for months now on Salon, The In Box has no link in a menu bar, just a constant link amid a field of other links on the front page of the Technology and Business section.