In this blog post I am providing feedback to the following projects as part of their beta digital artefact products, continuing on from the initial peer review:
CAITLINROSS.STUDIO Digital Portfolio by Caitlin Ross and;
MOOD Podcast by Julia Belikova and Anthea Tomaras.
CAITLINROSS.STUDIO – Caitlin Ross
In conjunction with my initial peer review, Caitlin has worked towards her website keeping in mind about how she is wanting to be perceived to her general audience. This is regarding her potential employers and professional network in order to secure herself a full-time position once her university studies have commenced.
Her online presence is noticed as her website it currently underway, and has engaged with fellow students through weekly seminars, and discussions on social media. In order to gain momentum and traction towards the final release of her website, I suggest providing updates to her webpage as frequently as possible showcasing all the different works available. Practicing frequent updates will excite the audience as well as keeping them informed, and would especially be helpful to her connections on LinkedIn.
Experimenting with the WordPress domain, Caitlin found her developmental trajectory to be inefficient as this method proved to show some complexities. Having purchased her domain name, she has shown her ability and commitment to venture into different routes of website creation, thus landing at her current situation using SquareSpace. Her digital artefact has brought attention to an underlying branding process as elements such as fonts, colour palettes, user interface and user experience are all taken into account. I brought these important factors to light in my initial review and she has taken this feedback onboard extremely well! In order to gain a solid feedback loop, I suggest Caitlin reach out to fellow peers, alumni and working professionals to review her portfolio so to gain input from those in the workforce.
As a product I would suggest altering the homepage copy, in order to position herself as a practicing professional, whether it be through digital media, social media, marketing, etc. An example of this is:
“Caitlin Ross is a Marketer, Digitally-savvy, Social Media Specialist.“
As mentioned in her beta project, Caitlin is actively seeking courses to further strengthen her skills using the platform, which is highly commendable in her efforts as this is something I would definitely suggest. Coming from a graphic design and site navigation perspective, I would suggest combining her ‘Let’s Collaborate’ and ‘Contact’ page as this would minimise the number of menu options in order to keep her site simple. As for her ‘Portfolio’ page, she could potentially incorporate her marketing background at her current employment with the consent from her workplace to showcase real-world projects. In addition, I would like to see a page dedicated to her artwork/photography under a ‘Media’ page to differentiate her work.
MOOD Podcast – Julia Belikova & Anthea Tomaras
Witnessing the development of the MOOD Podcast by Julia and Anthea online has been great, especially throughout their many iterations and experimentations with different platforms. In terms of their branding, they have covered a wide range of musicians and artists spanning internationally so to not limit their abilities, where their aesthetic is supportive in the type of content they are producing.
The duo have a consistent schedule in terms of the release of each episode followed by audiovisual content that is followed up on their Instagram page making for real-time engagement with their audiences. Using Buzzsprout for their first couple of episodes, the pair have decided to make the switch to Anchor following a suggestion from a fellow peer from the weekly seminar, where they found its features to be better suited for their work. Taking on board this suggestion and making the switch has become beneficial for the two as it revealed to be simpler, faster, and easier to use. Additional iterations come from their variety of content pushed across their Instagram page in their use of stories, IGTV, and profile grid, all providing varied content that was also suggested by myself in the initial peer review.
Julia and Anthea’s developmental trajectories have gained a speedy momentum as they have a clear understanding of who they are, and how they want to be perceived. Their online presence is exceptional up till now, where they constantly engage with their users in their varying content. Utilising Instagram as their primary social media platform to support their uploaded podcasts using Anchor, Spotify and Apple, the pair have continued to engage with audiences by asking their audience questions and suggestions, what they’ve been listening to, what topics they should cover, who they would like to see on the podcast, and even dream collaborations between music artists. This intensity of feedback is applaudable as Instagram provides this opportunity for content creators to constantly iterate.
After watching their podcast on IGTV in collaboration with Isaac Percy, I suggest looking at creating more podcasts with a visual setup as this can engage more audiences to listen as it’s nice to match the voices to the faces. At an operational standpoint, I would suggest using Asana to plan and schedule episodes, when to complete a script for their following podcasts, uploading content to Instagram and to plan a regular day dedicated to podcasting to keep the communication between themselves constant and succinct. To further their digital artefact, Julia and Anthea may want to consider posting to TikTok or/and Instagram Reels providing snippets into their podcast episodes in order to gain a following on these respective platforms and make the switch to either Spotify or Apple. This could increase their follower count across socials, as users tend to shift between these similar platforms. Their existing efforts in posting regular Instagram stories is effective and should be maintained for the future, with regular highlights of each episode to be added to their account as well.
These projects have been a pleasure to write about, especially since I know each creator is intrinsically attached to the subject. Big congratulations on all you’ve achieved so far! Very excited to see where these projects take you in your careers!
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