Module 6 - the finale

Hi, welcome to the blog.  This week we're going to look into WCAG and POUR principles while analyzing a favorite website.  I don't necessarily have a favorite site so I decided on www.soccer.com.  It's an online soccer merchandise store out of North Carolina.  It has been around since 1984, used to be called Eurosport.  I have used this site many times for soccer equipment for my self, team and now my kids.  It continues to evolve and now has become one of the biggest soccer equipment distributors in the United States.  So, let's get to it.

First, what is WCAG?  What is POUR?  WGAC stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.  These are guidelines to make the web more accessible to those with disabilities.  They were developed by a group called the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).  POUR stands for perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.  WGAG is based on the four principles of POUR.  Lastly, there are these levels of compliance.  Level A, AA, AAA.  A is the minimum level accessibility.  AA is reaching a broader range of accessibility issues.  AAA is the highest level of accessibility and is difficult to achieve.

Now back to soccer.com.  The homepage layout is modern and inviting.  It's not too busy like other online retailers.  There are messages scrolling towards the top with coupons and promotions.  There's a "Help & Service" button as well up top.  The links are pretty straightforward underneath the top bar with a "SHOP", "MY TEAM", "GUIDE", search, log in, favorites and cart links buttons.  There's a main side scroller with large pictures of promotions under that.  To the bottom right a survey popped up asking for feedback.  At the bottom center there are promotions you can click and scroll through.

Scrolling down some you start seeing product for sale.  There are specific descriptions for each item.  For example: Mizuno Morelia UL Japan FG Firm Ground Soccer Cleat White - White - $279.99 (https://www.soccer.com/shop/details/mizuno-morelia-ul-japan-fg-firm-ground-soccer-cleat-white_A1120389).  Even if you're not a soccer fan you get lots of information in the descriptions- the brand, type of cleat, color and cost.  I would say the site is perceivable but it does target a certain audience.

The site is very operable.  The interface is easy to navigate.  Scrolling up and down.  The content adjusts to the width of your browser or phone.  All the links, text and images have a purpose.  As you click on the links to the products it takes you to the product page which has more information and pictures of the product including product specifications, ratings and reviews.  This gives customers more information to make the right decision when purchasing equipment.  

soccer.com is certainly understandable.  All the pictures, descriptions and prices seem to match.  I've visited the site many times and links all work.  Again, the site is easy to navigate through check out.  There is are articles, blogs, product demo and previews sprinkled throughout the site.  For example if you've never bought cleats there before there's a buyer's guide.  Or if you're looking a certain high end ball there might be a demo video.  

And finally, is the site robust?  From what I can tell it reaches a wide audience when it comes to accessibility.  I would point to the product descriptions that use specific wording for describing the equipment including colors, brands, and type.  Scrolling all the way down to the bottom of the site there is an "Accessibility" link that shares an accessibility statement.  It also has contact information for questions or concerns.  I had never noticed that before.  I believe that pushes the level from A closer to a AA making it more accessible to more people.

Something I did notice to be missing is audio accessible descriptions or images or products.  That would definitely enhance the experience for those with a visual disability.  Also, maybe more image descriptions in addition to product descriptions.  Like for cleat images on the product page it would describe as you click the product images: left cleat, right cleat, top view, bottom view, side by side.  That would be interesting.

What are your thoughts?  Hit the comments.  Until next time.

Mobile Hope Analysis

This week I wanted to analyze the Mobile Hope website: https://mobile-hope.org/

Mobile Hope is a non profit organization out of Leesburg, VA.  They support homelessness and at risk youth.  I've worked with them before with my wife during the Christmas Season at an event called Christmas Village.  It's an extensive Winter wonderland themed space with pictures with Santa Claus feature where they accept gifts and donations.  It's a powerful event held over most of December.  You can be an elf, gift wrapper, line watcher among many other tasks.  It's really easy to sign up to volunteer, only a few simple questions.  There's directions and times to arrive and coordinators and leaders.  Very comprehensive.

Back to the site, off the bat as you go to the site there's a pop up ask to "Stay Connected" where you can add your email address to join the mailing list to stay up to date on volunteer opportunities and future events.  They want to you get involved through your email address right from the start.

Next on the home screen you see at the top right the name/logo.  The logo itself is graffiti style and looks DIY.  The colors are inviting.  Top middle you see many important links.  As you hover over them you see more information.  Very user friendly and interactive.  I will go into an example a little further down.  To the right there are social media link to Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly twitter) and a link for donations.  Again, very interactive and user friendly, inviting visitors participate via social media or monetarily.  I recommend checking out the White Paper (https://mobile-hope.org/white-paper).  It explains the cause so much better than I ever could!

As you scroll down a little there are more links and opportunities to participate and support.  You can request help.  You can check out the White Paper (linked above) and much more.

I wanted to point out the "Get Involved" link.  As you hover over, it lists the many ways one can support Mobile Hope.  Whether is donating money, time, or things.  There are many ways to help for anyone from individuals to companies.  They  make it really easy to sign up and are very thorough with the expectations and training (if needed).  From experience, they are organized in the volunteer opportunities.

As you continue down the site there is much more information including stories and many videos and links to create interaction between visitor and Mobile Hope.  At the bottom of the site you see contact information including phone numbers, hours of operations, addresses, social media links again.  There are links to a blog, privacy policy and term & conditions.  Even a call for feedback for more participation from the visitor!  

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.  Does Mobile Hope seem like a user-friendly site inviting participation?  Until next time.

Ai generator exercise

 Using https://hotpot.ai/logo-generator/create I entered the prompt: rectangular logo with text "talvarenga's, digital writing blog, summer 2025" with an elephant and tried a few different style.  See below.  I didn't give me the banner I was quite looking for but it was fun to see the different styles of pictures.  I clicked the different styles to the right.  I found that hotpo.ai gives you 75 free pictures a day.  It's a pay site if you want more picture or feature.

Next I tried Canva.com with this prompt: "A rectangular logo design featuring an elephant. The text should read: "Talvarenga's", "Digital Writing Blog", and "Summer 2025". The style should be clean and modern, with balanced typography and a minimalistic design. The elephant can be simple and symbolic, either to the left of the text or integrated into the layout. Use soft, neutral colors for a professional and welcoming look." which I got from chatgpt because I used my picture generations for the day for my digital poster.  Anyway, these came out better.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Conducting Visual Arguments

 This week I wanted to analyze my own blog thinking about the reading- Conducting Visual Arguments.  Specifically the “Design Elements in Visual Argument” which are:

1. Use of Text
2. Use of Space or Layout
3. Use of Color
4. Use of Images and Graphics

After all the reading I can honestly say that my blog needs a lot of work!  

The theme I chose for my blog is called Simple Deep and I customized it to blue instead of the red (graphic 1).  Interestingly enough red is one of the colors that causes eye irritation.  Blue is my favorite color so I went with it.  I initially chose it because it seemed clean and simple.  I did chose to change the background to a grid/plaid pattern instead of the circular diamond pattern (graphic 2).  We’ll get to layout and color next but first the text and font.  I’ve had a blog before but never looked into the design.  This was a good exercise to click into the settings and features. 

Graphic 1

Graphic 2

I went with a plain white large Georgia font for my title.  The body of my blog is set to use San serif font Arial but on screen it looks like Times New Roman.  In hindsight, I would use matching Serif font like Bookman Old Style for ease of reading and then simply adjust the size for the body and size and bold for the title.  The title itself needs to be improved to something with more substance.  Maybe something like “talvarenga’s Digital Writing Blog Summer 2025” but in different rows and font sizes.  

For example:

Graphic 3

Next I noticed the fonts between posts were different (graphic 4).  This was not intentional.  I will be changing the fonts on the posts to match.  This will improve the aesthetic and flow of the blog.  Initially, I said I wanted to make a blog for new internet users and make it interactive.  I tried to put a poll in the first post and changed it up on the second one with a picture.  

Graphic 4

To the right I noticed the link for About me- View my complete profile.  Instead of doing the intro post I will fill that out to share a little more about myself.

Moving on to space and layout.  I was going with a newspaper feel (graphic 5).  Reading left to right and flowing downward with the header on top, footer on the bottom, bio and links previous posts to the right.  I will consider changing it to an even simpler layout and single footer.

Graphic 5

For color, I think I will explore an alternative color.  I chose blue because it’s my favorite color over the standard red.  I will try white with a softer grey background.  I’ll take some inspiration from the apple site I looked at for the discussion board.  I think the font will be changed to black or dark grey.  Depending on the look and feel.

For image graphics, I will continue to use pictures in between blocks of text.  I will keep consistent with the placement.  Centering images below the relevant text as to help the flow.  Previous posts have only had one picture or poll.  This post will have multiple pictures so I will stay true to that.

To conclude I learned a lot about the different elements that go in to visual argument.  This has led me to re think some decisions that I made at the beginning of the term to improve my blog.  As always, feedback is welcome.  Leave a comment.  

Thanks,

Tony

Module 3 - Blog Review

Hi, welcome back.  This week I’d like to review a blog (like Adlington and Feez did in Reading, Writing and Co-authorship in Blogs).

This blog I wanted to analyze is new to me.  I started by searching google.com for "blogger.com soccer” and looked a several results.  After clicking a few links I chose soccer-blogger because it had a minimalist layout and I could see it was current and had lots of content.

https://www.soccer-blogger.com/

This first thing that stood out was there was a post already today.  Then I noticed to the right “Recent Posts”.  See above.

To start, I clicked “About us” link to get to learn a little more about the blogger.  There was a short biography.  They used “we” seeming to mean there were several contributors.  After the short bio there was a section called 18 thoughts on “About us”, really just comments, dating back from 2012.

Next, I clicked “Contact”.  It only spelled out an email address, maybe to prevent spamming.  contact(at) ( thisdomainname.com)

 

Then I went back to the main page thinking to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the site.  Along the way I noticed many posts and lots of pictures.  I noticed pictures of line ups and statistics.

I stopped at a post that analyzed a Nations League semi-final game between Germany vs. Portugal in June.  The figure had the line ups and formation with player ratings.  Also, the figure included game statistics like time of possession and shots on goal.  When I clicked “Read more” link it expanded the post and had more pictures and more analysis.  Turns out the first graphic was from a German sports website, there was also graphics and analysis from the Portuguese and Spanish perspective.  To me that was very interesting to show multiple perspectives, very cool!

I went back to the main page and continued to scroll to the bottom post.  It was from December 2023.  It had analysis about Sevilla Manager Diego Alonso (at the time), several graphics and a trivia question.  There were also tags and categories.  I clicked “Read More” and it expanded the post.  Additionally there were “Related Posts:” and links to five linked blog posts.  Finally there was a “Leave a Comment” section where you can post if you enter your name and email address.  

To the right of the page I noticed a several sidebar boxes.  There were “Recent Posts” and Recent Comment” sections to search for other recent content.  There is a “Follow us on Facebook/Twitter” with links to social media sites to interact on other social media sites.  There is a “Blogroll” box with links to other related  or sister sites.  There was a “Tags” box with alphabetical tags, some of the works were bigger and smaller, seeming to indicate popularity.  Finally, there is an “Archives” drop down where you could search by Month and Year. 

Overall the site seemed very credible and informative.  The posts that I looked provided lots of information and multiple sources and perspectives.  The site was also easy to navigate.  I didn’t notice ads like I did on some other blogs I clicked on, which was great.  The used tags and links.  There was a comment box on most posts for feedback.  All in all very organized and thought out.  I will be following on social media.

Module 02 | Participatory Culture & Playbor

In this week's module we explored participatory culture and I wanted to focus specifically on playbor.

In Howard Rheingold's Net Smart: How to Thrive Online he explains in chapter three that there's power in social media participation but it only works if it's shared and amplified by others.  Howard distinguishes the difference between low threshold participation and high engagement as well as, collective intelligence versus collaborative intelligence.  Low threshold and collective intelligence social media activities examples could be simply reading, liking or commenting on posts.  A more passive approach to social media.  In contrast higher engagement and collaborative intelligence participation activities would include original posts, collaborating with others and moderating online communities, even leading them.  Actually creating and driving the discussion online.

In our discussion post this week we explored our own online participation.  I see myself on the low threshold side.  Mainly viewing, liking and occasionally commenting on posts.  I do however share fun memes and videos with friends in private chat.  I like the idea of creating and collaborating but there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day.  How about you?  Where do you see yourself?

In the reading I was really intrigued by playbor.  Is it labor?  Is it play?  Playbor is a combination of both.  Sites use participation (let’s call it play) to essentially gather information about users and make money from ads (the labor part).  Sometimes it’s deliberate and sometimes it’s unintentional.  I tend to believe it’s mostly deliberate.

As I was reading I thought about apps like instagram and Facebook and their algorithms respond to user behavior.  As I search for or like certain content I notice similar posts popping up in my feed the next few days.  For example, I liked a lawn mowing video.  It’s the guy who fixes super overgrown yards for free.  The videos are sped up clips of him doing the work and it’s very satisfying.  Now I see and like similar videos most days.  Each video ends with the creator saying “like, share and subscribe so I can keep doing this for free”.  The content creator is obviously making money on views and likes, etc.

I remember a specific time talking about air fryers with my wife as our air fryer’s door, at the time, fell off after extensive use.  Then next thing you know on my instagram and Facebook feeds there are many air fryer ads and posts.  These would continue to pop up for the next two or three days.  The idea obviously being I’d click on an ad and buy a product and instagram for example would get a kickback for pointing me in that direction.

That experience made me question how such specific content was targeting me so quickly. It felt eerie. I later realized I had agreed to app permissions that allowed my phone to listen to conversations when using certain apps. I’ve since turned off those permissions and continue to check them periodically, since terms and conditions are often updated without much notice. Needless to day we still haven’t replaced our air fryer and we still joke about it.

Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to chime in on the comments (no I'm not getting paid for this like the lawn guy)

 

Welcome!

Hi, welcome to my blog.  Thanks for visiting.  This is my first post. My name is Tony Alvarenga (https://www.linkedin.com/in/talvarenga). I'm currently a sophomore at Old Dominion University. I'm returning to school after a long layoff to finish my degree in Leadership (Interdisciplinary Studies). This blog is part of ENGL307T Digital Writing course.

I'm excited to share what I am learning in my Digital Writing course. I invite you to answer questions, comment and participate.

A little about myself:

• I'm married and have three children (10 year old twins and 7 year old daughter)
• I live in Leesburg, Virginia
• I'm an Operations Manager at a new medical technology company called VB Spine (https://www.vbspineco.com/) formally known as Stryker Spine.