Most of the text that is seen within the website has some soft of visual element established with it. There is a large chart on the home page which is shown below. This is where a majority of the text for the webpage is believe it or not. Other elements of text are also encased by animated boxes, closed off by pictures, or laid overtop of interactive elements such as video examples.

The website contains, in some aspect, all five modes of communication.

Linguistic: Because the website does contain text, whereas little compared to most websites, it is still a form of the linguistic mode

Visual: Probably the most prevalent of the five modes, every aspect of the website includes visual elements. This is the main mode in that the website is set up visually attract users and then retain them.

Spatial: The spatial mode is seen throughout the website, with emphasis being shown on the front page. The width of the website is obvious, however the website creator(s) have done a great job with splitting up different “sections” if you will of the home page as you scroll down. An example of this can be seen below.

Gestural: This mode is very short and too the point, there are pictures of people, those people are making faces, thus the gestural mode is awarded.

Aural: Another very simple and easily found mode, aural is only seen in the videos. Each video has some sort of sound, most with a voice-over and subsequent youtube clip, but sound is with the video none-the-less.

2. Writer/Designer [textbook] V, L, S

3. Assignment Pad, open to February 11th [agenda] V, L. S

4. Breath Mints [labeled container] V, L, S, A, 

5. Undergraduate Research Notes [notepad] V,L, S

6. Design on T-Shirt [shirt] V, L, S

7. Cards in Wallet [License/gift cards/ credit card] V, L, S

8. Water bottle [Camelback] V, L, S

9. Pinterest App [on phone] V, L, S, G

10. Fit bit [bracelet] V, S, A

All of the items involved some sort of visual and spacial arrangement, as whoever made the object, purposely put certain parts there for a reason. Only the fit bit bracelet and the Icy Breeze breath mints (if you shake them), made noise. None of my items included all modes of communication, and none of them only included one mode. I included gestural on the Pinterest app because the reader can move the objects, and hold down the screen in order to present new findings. The other objects don’t change much when moved. The Fit Bit was the only item to communicate with something other than words. Instead, it buzzes when I have reached a certain number of steps taken throughout the day. The “dots” that show up, are spatially separated from one another to indicate what sort of progress I have made in exercise since the morning.

I created my blog today. I titled the blog ‘Lets Get Digital’ with the tagline ‘Writing and Digital Media Portfolio’. I also began browsing through themes and have chosen a temporary one for now until I can further explore some more themes.

Why I Did It… 

I want viewers to understand that this blog is meant to showcase and share the work that I accomplish in Writing and Digital Media. The tagline ensures that people understand that this is a professional blog where I will post pieces of my online identity. My hope for this blog is to be able to incorporate projects that I post here onto my personal portfolio page that I have created from scratch using GitHub.

I am looking for a theme that is professional and polished but is also visually friendly, exhibits good design, and has a digital or modern feel.