Visual factors in constructing authenticity in weblogs

Audience responses

I sought a modest sort of empirical input on this subject from a class I taught in Fall 2003, Introduction to Information Design. There were 26 students in the class, roughly evenly divided between those from the area (NE Michigan) and international students (mostly from Taiwan, with others from India, Morocco, and Thailand). A few are working professionals in the field; some are university staff; most are preparing for positions.
I posted links to 25 websites, asking them to choose three and post comments in a forum. Of the three, one was to be “good,” one “bad,” and one “so-so.”

Here’s the prompt:

On-line, “writers” have to create their authenticity as a textual quality. The same is true of writers in other, more established genres, but part of the text is created for authors by publishers and originating institutions, by cultural expectations of the medium, and by other factors.

This activity will help gather audience impressions of some weblogs. The first six will be discussed in class; from the rest, browse them, then choose at least three and post an entry on the designated forum in Blackboard. One should be chosen for effective design which helps establish its authenticity; one for a mixture of strong and weak points, and one for overall negative effect (relative to the others).

There was a brief demo in class, drawing on six sites as examples. The specific weblogs they examined: Slashdot, Evhead, Eschaton, Douglas Rushkoff, Everlasting Blort, Fuckedcompany, Megnut, Oxblog, Oliver Willis, Lying Media Bastards, Scripting News, Kottke, Instapundit, Lisa Rein, USS Clueless, Plasticbag, Mickey Kaus, Nowarblog, Eszter's Blog, Baghdad Burning, Robotwisdom, Eric Alterman, Brad DeLong, Disturbing Search Requests, Veiled4Allah. (All were working at that time except Disturbing Search Requests—two students reported that it timed out on them. One student browsed the sites from a public school with a content filter, and could not access several.)
Given the context of the activity, their responses showed a preference for clean, clear, transparent designs which allowed access to the weblogs’ content. “I enjoyed Oliver Willis because I like to see visuals of people. The text was clear and easy to read and the site was userfriendly” (RE)

(Students in the Winter 2004 class were decidedly more negative about Oliver Willis' site, noting that his image looked unprofessional and was unfortunately placed next to the word "stupid" in his header.)

This is Fall 2003 image

This is the Winter 2004 image

One student's comment:

This is a political site with a definite liberal Democrat bias. Most commentaries are anti-Bush or pro-Kerry and there are ads for Democratic Party candidates. The banner has an American flag background and the content is very consistent in its message. The text is clean and easy to read and there are links to source material for the commentaries. Where the author's authority is hurt is in the banner where he has included a picture of himself that makes him look like a doofus. He is shown wearing a T-shirt and a goofy look on his face, not the impression most serious political analysts like to put forward to the public.

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