While setting up my DoOO website, I have made several design choices. I have considered what kinds of people would read my posts and I have made my decisions based on that. My website is for readers, who are interested digital discourse analysis and languages. In the future, I might post my own art as well. Maybe just to accompany other posts or I’ll post it on its own. Because I have studied graphic design in the past, I feel qualified enough to trust my own instincts on most things involving design. In this post, I will be explaining why I have made the choices that I did by using multimodality. Kress (2010: 79) claims that ‘mode is a socially shaped and culturally given semiotic resource for making meaning.’ From this we can understand that the views of modes are shaped by society and the environment in which people grow up in. As stated in Jones (2019: 31), multimodal discourse is seen by analysts as a discourse, in which multiple modes work together.

Layout

While working on my website, I have spent majority of time on choosing the layout. I wanted something minimalistic but also artistic to match my personality. In the end, I chose a theme called ‘Rayy’, because it’s very simple and well suited for writers with its features. Kress (2010: 92) states that ‘the organization of material through layout produces and realizes specific social and ontological arrangements in the world of this interaction.’ The first thing that reader sees is the layout so it’s important that it reflects the content of the website. I have specifically chosen a design with a centered header, because I wanted to add my minimalist logo to this layout to give off the impression of professionalism. The logo has a shape of a circle that wouldn’t look good if it was left or right aligned. The logo contains my initials and I also used it as my site icon.

Menu

My menu is currently set up above my page instead of the side. Setting it up on the top is much more modern, it looks more professional and it’s easier to locate. My sidebar, which contains widgets like the search bar or archive and is less important, is placed on the right side of my website.

Background

I have not changed the background in any way and kept it from the original layout. The background is very simple and I haven’t altered it, because I like that it doesn’t stand out. The focus of my website is not the background but the posts, which is why the background is plain and the text is more visible. The simple background is also framed, which makes it resemble a book page, so it’s fitting for a writer’s website. I have considered possibly changing the background from one colour to a light two colour pattern, which I might do in the future, because it would most likely be more eye catching.

Hyperlinks

I have used hyperlinks quite often in my last post. They are a useful way to redirect reader to another website without interjecting the posts with links in brackets. I have set up the option ‘Open in New Tab’, which prevents the link to open in the same tab.

Colour

I have chosen a simple colour scheme for my website. I’ve kept the colours of the original layout, because they fit well with the minimalist aesthetic I’m trying to achieve. I’ve kept the background in simple light colours, which makes the black font stand out. The black frame around the white background highlights the content of my website. ‘ Colour, as a background ‘wash’, frames by establishing the ‘ground’ on which things ‘are’, ‘belong’, ‘happen’, ‘take place’’ (Kress 2010: 151). The logo that I have added to the website is in black and white and it goes together with the layout. The background that is around the black frame and the hyperlinks are the only elements on the website that are in colour. The background is in very light orange, which nicely frames the whole website. Hyperlinks are orange and when they are hovered over, they turn red. This makes them visible and stand out from the text. I’ve considered changing the colours and maybe I will in the future, if I find a colour combination better suited for my website.

Font

Font might be the most important mode of my website. Because I plan to write posts, picking the right kind of font is important. If the readers have difficulty reading on my website, because of a complicated font, then my website will never reach success. Right now, I’m using font from the original layout, because I think it’s very easy to read. However, in the future I might choose a sans serif font, because it’s simpler and therefore more suited for a minimalistic website.

In conclusion, I’m happy with the multimodal choices I’ve made so far, but I think that I will change the font and work on my sidebar in the future. While writing this post, it made me think about what exactly I want to do on this website in the future. I want to write about topics related to languages that interest me. Because of the research that I’ve done, I think that I know even more about graphic design then I did before.

References

Jones, R.H. (2019) Discourse analysis: a resource book for students. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge

Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London: Routledge.