There are many technology blogs on the Web today, such as my blog – Technically Easy. I haven’t reviewed many blogs that are focused on technology, and most blogs, such as this week’s review, are focused on the Web.
This week I take a look at a technology Web blog that is described by the author as helping to “improve the skills of Caribbean Web professionals.
Web Site: Caribbean Web Development
Description: Aims to provide tips, tutorials, hints and other resources that will help to develop, enhance and improve the skills of Caribbean web professionals.
Design
The design of Caribbean Web Development is the strongest aspect of this blog. I like the design, from the content to the navigational sidebars. Everything is as it should be in a blog.
To start, there is a content section on the left and two navigation sidebars on the right. The font size and type chosen for the content makes it very easy to read the posts. There is some whitespace between the posts that differentiates one post from the other.
The two sidebars are as easy to read as the content. On the left is the navigational links that includes recent posts, categories, archives, and an admin section. Neatly organized and easy to use.
The right side of the sidebars features the RSS subscription link and form, followed by the about text and then some sponsors. I like how the author has limited the advertising to the far right side so a visitor isn’t bombarded by advertising.
I like the colours that author has chosen. The header is in red, the content in white (except for one sidebar which is gray), and the footer is black. The colours complement each other very nicely without one colour overpowering another.
Overall the design of the blog is top-notch, which makes it easy to read the posts and navigate through the pages in the blog.
Focus
The focus of the blog seems to be geared towards helping Web development in the Caribbean. The blog certainly focuses on the Web, however, it seems to be less focused on the Caribbean.
Many of the posts can be read and used by everyone interested in Web development, regardless of where they may reside. I was looking for Caribbean specific Web development, such as local classes, but had trouble finding information specific to that area of the world.
From the information in the archives, the blog is still young, so the author may yet provide information for those in the Caribbean who are interested in Web development.
Content
The posts on the blog are focused on the Web and provide different Web sites, and tips to help those interested in Web development. The posts are not too long, so those that like short posts may enjoy reading this blog.
The author includes one image in each post that is appropriate for the topic discussed. This is both a good and bad thing. The good is that the images are appropriate for the topic, and that they are high-quality. The bad is that the images can sometimes be large. For those with slower connections, you may experience longer load times.
The content is well-done, however, the images can be quite large and take some time to download especially when there are several on one page.
Spelling and Grammar
While the design of the blog is the strongest aspect, the spelling and grammar is by far the weakest. There are many instances of spelling and grammar mistakes that caused me to reread a sentence to understand what the author was attempting to say. Some visitors may also find it difficult to read at times.
If the spelling and grammar doesn’t make it difficult, the long run-on sentences may. At times an entire paragraph of five to ten lines was one long sentence. By the time I was finished reading the sentence I lost the point of the sentence.
The spelling, grammar and long sentences would need to be corrected to make this good blog a great blog.
Overall
The design of this blog, from the content to the sidebars, is really well organized. The content is very easy to read, and the navigation links are well organized and easy to find.
The content is nicely done with short posts, and high-quality graphics. The only problem is that those high-quality graphics can be quite large, which increases the download time.
A clean up of the spelling and grammar errors should be done, as they are numerous and takes away from the readability of the blog. Correcting those mistakes will make this good blog a great blog.