Website research - Simon Calder & Donald Bostrom.

 As I am creating my own website presenting my work in my progression route, which is English language, I have started researching journalist websites. Two journalist websites I have found very interesting, are Simon Calder and Donald Bostrom. They are both traveling journalists. This website research will assist me in understanding how to create my own website so I will consider the overall design, colours, and typography, navigation, usability/user-friendliness, links and mobile view. 

I will begin with Simon Calder Website. His homepage states that he is a travel journalist and broadcaster. Navigation is very easy, takes me straight to the biography of an author, which is easy to read, contains couple of photographs. Another site takes us to Simon's podcasts and connects to Spotify, Apple podcasts, and Google podcasts. It also connects to Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast. His Writing website connects to articles written for Independent, The Standard, Conde Nast Traveler, High Life magazine, and Group Leisure and Travel. Link to Waitrose Weekend doesn't work. On screen website links to you tube channel and to the film 'From Alligators to Astronauts: go one step beyond Orlando.' Speaking website tells us about the events and conferences he was taking a part in. Family Travel website shows us a story of Simon's family holidays, long list of places he has visited with his family, as well as some family photographs. Travel advice site gives us some tips if something goes wrong on holiday. I do find this very useful and might save it for the future. At the end there is a contact details site.

On the right side menu there is a list of his social media contacts, all work fine and are easy to navigate. 

At the bottom of the site there are pictures from travel that can be enlarged, and direct links to videos from the travels.

At the top of the website, just under the navigation menu there is an easy, quick navigation, that takes us straight to different materials from the journalist.

Overall experience is good, although I think design looks little bit old dated, I do not like the choice of colours. I checked mobile view of the website. Navigation and all sites were working correctly. I think the website looks better and navigates easier on mobile view. 

Second journalist website I have researched is Donald Bostrom website.

His homepage states he is a journalist, photographer and a graphic designer. Navigation bar takes us to his projects. Some of them are written in English, some in Swedish, which I found disappointing as I thought they could be interesting to read. 

Next site is Bostorm's photography, which I think is very touching and beautiful. Then we can go to a site with all of his books, then texts. Unfortunately for me part of the texts are written in Swedish. Last button takes us to authors blog, it's followed by magnifying glass (which I did not noticed at first), it helps us to find anything we might be looking for at the website. 

At the bottom of the website we can find a travel map, which I find really interesting. I think it's a nice addition to the overall. 

Another navigation bar at the bottom of the site helps us move around and look for anything we can be interested in. 

Overall experience is very good, I think design looks clear and nice, I like the choice of colours. I checked mobile view of the website. Navigation and all sites were working correctly. I think the website looks good on mobile view as well. 

Comparing both websites, first was a little bit disappointing, although both websites had interesting elements. I might be using the first one for my personal benefit, like family travel advise. I prefer second's website design, although not everything was written in English, so I couldn't understand it fully. Second website was more interesting due to the journalist content and photography, and due to more modern website looks.

This was a good experience, I have re analysed my own website design and decided to change couple details, to make it look more modern, and to be more inviting.