Weekly reflection for November 1, 2019

[washingtonb21]

I have played around with some of the styling of the table of contents. Once we can link the titles to each work, I want to style each link so that it changes colors when you hover over the title of the work.

This is the link to see a visual of what I've been thinking: https://jsbin.com/cewabug/edit?output

[connerf20]

This week I've been thinking a lot about the layout of 'the peak' and Allison and Layne's really awesome design. I love the idea to focus more on the visual aspect of the section of the website. I am also excited about it because in the Shenandoah Literary Editing class Beth just assigned us a newsletter assignment and I think that 'the peak' would work really well in a news letter, especially if the piece we are working to promote in the newsletter includes a visual component.

When working on my photo project for my large format photography class I observed a lot of photo website that are mostly made up of images. I am doing a project on one of my favorite photographers, Susan Worsham, and I think that the layout and function of her website could be a really interesting way to design the peak as well. I've linked it below. Because you can't see all of the images at once and you sort of have to shift around and examine only pieces of works at a time it makes all of the images interact in a way that I find more compelling than when they are in neat rows. Of course, this works well with a curated photography exhibit displayed online so I'm not 100% positive that it's the way to go, but just another layout that could be interesting to consider.

https://susanworsham.net/

[ramirezj21]

I was thinking this week about navigating between pages. I wonder if only poetry should be navigable between the different works. It makes more sense to me as it allows for these shorter works to be more rapidly absorbed. I think that there could also be a way to differentiate between clicking between the different poets and the poems themselves. As there are multiple poets with multiple poems, maybe there could be a different arrow to navigate between the poets or an actual drop down menu. If a drop down menu was chosen, that could be effective for the other styles as well.

We started talking about creating a newsletter in our Shenandoah publishing today. My group (of which Fran is a part) was talking about the possibility of creating little sections like "5 poems to read with a cup of tea" or linking to pieces about the poems themselves. Would these go under The Peak? I wonder if there could be multiple sections of The Peak, rather than just a giant page that you scroll down. Or there could be a list of names/articles at the top that, when clicked, then scroll the page down the rest of the way to the article automatically. Making two separate sections of the peak would allow for one that is focused on analysis while the other is more focused on opinion pieces/interviews with the authors. Two distinct sections would also allow for The Peak to be a little more organized and less jumbled up. This could make reading it a lot easier and could lead to more interactions with the page as viewers see that there are different sections.

This is super nit picky, but I can't stop looking at the row on the right side with all of the different site selections. When you click on submit and are transported to 681, the whole row shifts to the right, and is past the end of the header "Shenandoah." When you go back to 682, I can't help but notice that the row is then forced way left. It seems like it should be situated somewhere in the middle of these two so that the furthest right link "the peak" lines up with the end of the H of Shenandoah. I'm not sure if it was intentional to not have this happen as it was obviously moved further to the left, but just a thought. The volume number looks like it's lined up to the left so I think it would make sense for the other side of the row to be aligned to the right.

[layneksmith]

I’ve been thinking a lot between the disconnect between a web page and reality. Practically, they are two very different experiences; reality being much more immersive and immediate. That being said, I do not believe it should be the goal of a web page or site to replace reality but rather to augment it. An online magazine should not necessarily eclipse the importance, neccesity, or attraction of a paper one. It should not draw customers away from the community of browsing for magazines at a Barnes and Noble, or of the experience of observing what magazines stack up on a coffee table at a party. With the current state of technology, it is not to say this could happen in practice, but with the exponential increase in innovation, it would be ignorant to think that Artificial Intelligence and 5G could not get us there (and get us there quickly). In working to augment the reality of a customer, a web page should also resist the inclination to engulf the customers in overly immersive online communities. Many benefits exist in the salience of online communities and interaction, however, in an increasingly divided world, the arc of the online experience should be to bring individuals together online AND inspire them to bring that fervor into real communities.

This is to say, when we think about things like the set up and structure of the table of contents, or even the "feel" of the Peak – we should think about what we can do to connect readers with reality but inspire them to turn outwardly to the world. Like, what can we as designers and editors do that will encourage and inspire engagement within our platform and in the larger community?

[coletta1]

With all the great ideas that have been going around about the peak, a next step is to work on actually putting it into place. Adapting the main wp theme to work for the unique structure of the peak will be an important step. Since the peak transcends the curated nature of each issue, there will be different challenges because it won't just be one and done published. I've been thinking about how it's important to keep it consistent with the rest of the site, but also differentiated. For example, nowhere in the peak does it actually say it is the peak. I think that having a header that lets you know where you are and also potentially a short description will be helpful.