About.com: Desktop Publishing, ‘The Meaning of Colour’, viewed 14 October 2007 http://desktoppub.about.com/od/choosingcolors/p/color_meanings.htm 

Au, Sharon, Personal Blog, viewed 28 September 2007, http://negi.wordpress.com/

Bauer, E. 2007, Simply Recipes, viewed 7 October 2007, http://www.elise.com/recipes/

BBC, The Editors, viewed 28 September 2007, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/

Kodak, A Thousand Words, viewed 28 September 2007, http://1000words.kodak.com/

New York Post, Fashion Blog, viewed 28 September 2007, http://blogs.nypost.com/fashion/

Nielsen, J, 2005, Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes, viewed 1st October 2007, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html

Rob’s Book Reviews, viewed 28 September 2007, http://www.bookreviewsblog.com/

TravelBlog, South Korea Travel Blog, viewed 28 September 2007, http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/blogs-page-1.html 

Wikipedia 2007, ‘Blog’, viewed 28 September 2007  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Wikipedia 2007, ‘Verdana’, viewed 14 October 2007  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdana

The process of creating a blog is exciting. I have a personal blog but the blog is hosted by Blogger. I purposely chose to do a blog hosted by another service provider, WordPress. The reason is I want to explore other features in another service provider. The main changes between Blogger and WordPress is that the users cannot make changes to the font, font size and font colour in WordPress while Blogger offers the flexibility to change these features.

This is the first time I am writing on a serious topic. It is indeed tough for me as I have to do research first before writing. However, I must admit that I learn a lot from the information gathered and is able to write confidently in a professional manner.  

It is a nice and enriching experience for me to do this assignment.

Font
The font, verdana, is used consistently on the blog. Accordingly, verdana (Wikipedia, 2007) is a font designed to be read on computer screens even at smaller size. The font, verdana, is of wide proportion and the letter spacing is loose and hence this makes it easier for the readers to read online.  

Colour
The blog is mainly made of three colours, beige, white and brown. Beige symbolises simplicity and calmness. White symbolises cleanliness and can match with any colours easily. Brown symbolises friendliness as it is a colour of nature too. The author most probably wants to create a simple and friendly impression.

Header
The header in this blog is simple and uncluttered. On the left side of the header is the title of the blog while a google search is placed on the right side. In my view, the author wants to make it easier for the readers to search on the Internet for the same recipe shown on the page of her blog.

Subheading 
Under the header, there are four subheadings namely, About, Recipe Index, Subscribe and Shop. On the About page, it introduces the author and the origin of all the recipes in her blog. On the Recipe Index, the readers can do a quick search on different recipes based on subject or recipes. The readers can subscribe to the recipe by filling in their email addresses in the Subscribe Page. They can even do purchases on kitchen equipment in the Shop page.

One noteworthy feature on the right side of the subheading is the ability to adjust the text size of the font on the blog. This is a flexibile and an excellent feature incorporated by the author.

On the whole, this blog is well-organised and user-friendly. Certain additional features such as the Subscribe and Shop allow the readers to engage activity in the cookery. I feel that the author must have done a thorough analysis on the various cookery blogs on the Internet before perfecting her blog.

Structure and Photographs
In the blog, Simply Recipes, the classification of recipes is placed on the left side while advertisements are placed on the right side and some at the bottom. In the centre, it shows the different recipes highlighted on the blog.

For each recipe, the title of the recipe and where it is filed are placed above a photograph of the dish. Below the photograph, there is a short description of the dish. Readers can click on a link to contiue reading the rest of the recipe such as ingredients and methods.

It is easy to navigate and each recipe is shown clearly on one page. On the main page of the blog, each recipe is accompanied by a picture of the dish. This layout makes it easier for the readers to look at the ‘final product’ of the dish before clicking on the cooking instructions.

The photographs on the blog are taken in a close and clear shot. In this way, the readers will be attracted by the appetising dishes.  

In some recipes, the author actually takes the photographs of the step-by-step instructions. This is beneficial to readers in the case where they have no idea of certain cooking terms. For example in the recipe of Chai Ice Cream, the author shows photographs on how to tell if the custard is ready.