Developing Preference

This week, I got to take a look at articles by Gita Jackson and Reece Rogers. Jackson wrote about Baldur’s Gate 3, and Rogers wrote about the Moltbook AI social media platform. Both of them did things that I took note of, although not all those notes were things that I want to do myself.

Rogers’ piece really caught my attention because of the content. What I really appreciated about it was that it told a story. The content flowed very well, and everything was placed in a way that made sense. Rogers was able to bring a sort of narrative structure to his article that felt like I was moving through a place. It has dimension to it.

What I didn’t care for as much as the aesthetic components. Now, I wouldn’t say anything was particularly wrong with it. In fact, it looked rather professional and conventional. I think it felt sterile, which is what I didn’t care for. I thought of all of the ways that the page could have been themed and styled to give off a social media application vibe.

Jackson’s article provided the exact kind of flair that I like to see. The inclusion of one of the environments or set pieces as a background photo at the beginning of the piece was quite unique. The article uses pink accents on quotation marks or block quote markers. Pictures being included throughout was really nice as well.

What I did not like about Jackson’s article was the content. Of course, the content was essentially just opinion. I certainly don’t have an issue with Jackson having an opinion, even if it’s one that I think is wrong. What really got to me was the layout.

The content is delivered in a manner that feels quite ‘stream of consciousness.’ I didn’t feel like I was being led through a story. Instead, it felt like reading Luther’s grievances to the church without the list being numbered.

I do think that this style can be effective. If you want to give off a casual, intimate voice to the reader, then I think this is one way to do that. However, I think that trying to argue a point gets a bit muddy in this specific case. It reminds me of the dialogue in the film Uncut Gems. Nothing is all that clear and the main idea is kind of hard to pick out.

Overall, what I’ve really taken away from both of these is a mix of content and aesthetic. I’d prefer to incorporate more aesthetic choices that resemble Gita Jackson’s article while using the dynamics and dimensionality found in the Rogers piece. Working with CSS for the Writing Digital Culture project should allow me to experiment more with design choices in particular, so I’m looking forward to seeing what I’m able to pull off.