https://shimmeringserendipity.com/
OVerview
shimmeringserendipity.com is a blog run by Sharlene, with content focused mainly on photography, accompanied by thoughts she has in her life.
Visuals
Upon visiting, audience will immediately notice fun, bright gradients on a site that is decorated with lots of gorgeous photos, making this website a nice space to immerse yourself in when you feel like relaxing. It’s a difficult task to lay out gradients and photos next to each other without making each other fight for the viewer’s attention – Sharlene, however, has approached this in a clever way where the colours blend with each other softly, and thus has found a sweet spot where her pastel-coloured gradients enhance the appeal of her photography.
The use of emojis also works in favour of her online identity. It’s a risky decision to make the titles of her blogs consist purely of emojis, but there are enough posts to be able to see that a consistent pattern has been established, and the little embellishments add to the overall ‘soft vibes’ of Sharlene’s blog.
The one area that I feel like could be pushed further would be the typography. Sharlene uses Inter (I believe) on her navigation bar, but this font is commonly considered to be a more ‘functional’ font – used as a sort of ‘default’ font for many apps and business-oriented websites. There is so much intentionality in shimmeringserendipity, which can be seen in the image layouts, colour choices, her weekly musings, and kaomojis, that allows me, an anonymous viewer, to explore and enjoy Sharlene’s blog as much as she clearly does. But that’s exactly why I feel like Inter, which commonly communicates a ‘uncurated’ feel, doesn’t speak to her visual ethos as strongly as other sans-serif fonts would. Perhaps taking some time to observe fonts from other websites that Sharlene feels like matches her vision would help.
Navigation
Because the content and visuals of Sharlene’s site is already well-established, my biggest, and only, real critique of the site would be the navigation and hierarchy. The landing image on website makes it not so obvious that there’s content when you scroll down, so audience may, at first, opt to look for site content through the nav bar. In this case, “About” becomes the most attractive button to click on, as the combination of all-caps text with emojis emits the most exciting tone out of all the button options I would have as a viewer. Perhaps this is intentional – it is natural that before a viewer starts reading a blog, they would want to know about the author – but it leads me to wonder if this is the most optimal navigation path for the purpose of PUB101, where blog posts are the main content, not the ‘about’ page.
Overall experience
Although I point out suggestions for typography and navigation as possible next steps to elevate her website, through her photographs, it’s not difficult at all to tell that Sharlene already has the skill set for making everyday objects look so gorgeous, and is able to apply this knowledge to her blog. I believe that her blog is already quite successful with design choices: through a sophisticated usage of colour, kaomojis, and thoughtful layouts, she successfully establishes a mood in her blog that is refined, yet inviting, like a refreshing cup of tea on a sunny spring day.
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