Assignment: Peer Review #3 (“Nick McKay’s Professional Portfolio”)

For the third and final peer review, I will be analyzing Nick McKay’s blog from a business/monetization perspective. To provide a brief summary, his website is a portfolio that showcases the various projects he is/has been involved in relating to interactive arts and technology. From what I have seen thus far, it truly showcases Nick’s passion for these kinds of endeavours. I enjoyed browsing through while getting glimpse into the effort and creativity that goes into them.

Challenges Identified in the Second Peer Review

I would first like to start off with the aspects Julianna mentioned in peer review #2 regarding what she believed could be changed. Julianna initially states how she saw that the links to his personal social media accounts are not very locatable as they reside on the bottom-right corner of his blog. While I personally do not think this implementation is a huge issue, I do agree with her in regard to possibly moving them or even simply enlarging the icons to enhance their visibility.

Another feature she found and what I noticed as well is if one were to click directly on “My Projects,” it brings viewers to a blank page. Individuals need to utilize the arrow to access a drop-down menu so they can view the different types of projects within the “My Projects,” category. However, when clicking directly on “My Writings,” as well as also having a drop-down menu, it does in fact display all of the posts placed under this category, indicating that Nick possesses the know-how to impose the same for “My Projects,” which I encourage.

Brand and Business Strategy

The site does present a compelling brand. Nick’s originally designed logo is definitely a step in the right direction in terms of establishing his unique identity. His business strategy is very persuasive as not only are his professional posts clearly representing the blog’s topic, they further encourage the targeted demographic to engage in a type of call to action. The term ““call to action” refer[s] to any ask or request that you make of a user on a site,” such as “shar[ing] on social media,” which is precisely what Nicks has executed (“Call To Action,” (n.d.)). He facilitates viewers sharing his content by having buttons linking to different social media platforms situated underneath posts following the words, “Share this.”

I also like how Nick exhibits work that involves relevant issues. An example would be undertaking projects supporting causes including designing a sticker for the “Marine Mammal Incident Reporting Hotline” and writing a report on the ethics of self-driving cars. The fact that Nick seamlessly incorporates these issues whilst simultaneously adhering to his website’s focus, he demonstrates a keen understanding concerning effective content creation practices.

                                                                            New Challenges Faced

In addressing the new challenges this blog faces and my observation is completely dependent on whether Nick is considering this undertaking for clarification, it might be difficult to utilize Google AdSense or any other ad-based monetization strategies due to the site’s layout and colour scheme without them seeming overwhelming or distracting. But as I said, the difficulty is only applicable upon his decision to do so.

Conclusion

The challenges stated above are no different to what Julianna elaborates on in the second peer review and in my opinion, are very minor. Overall, Nick has quality content that is presented really effectively on his website and I look forward to what he has in store for the future of this portfolio.

References

“Call To Action.” (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/call-to-action/

McKay, N. (n.d.). Marine Mammal Incident Reporting Hotline. Retrieved from: https://nickmackayportfolio.com/2020/03/11/marine-mammal-incident-reporting-hotline/

McKay, N. (n.d.). The Trolley Problem Becomes a Reality: The Ethics of the Self-Driving Car. Retrieved from: https://nickmackayportfolio.com/2020/01/22/the-trolley-problem-becomes-a-reality-the-ethics-of-the-self-driving-car/

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