The Faculty Blog is one of the University of Chicago School of Law?s blog sites, with content on all kinds of law news, issues, and cases. Posts come from faculty, alumni, students, and other University affiliates. The blog targets to be a forum for open discussion on anything regarding law. As such, it is open to comments. It has been up and running since September 2008.
The ups and downs
Dialogue through comments and feedback on The Faculty Blog has a very academic atmosphere. Posts on a variety of law topics are accommodated, from debates to critiques and book reviews. Although all posts are in text format, some link to sites with video or audio clips.
The layout is very simple and easy to navigate. The site is split in two columns, the left for blog posts and the right for other navigation options: outside links, categories, archives, recent posts and comments. The site?s colors are also simple — just plain white for background and red and black for the text.
The simplicity, however, is also a downside. Being an academic blog, it is understandable for the site to have a formal appearance, but it does border on becoming a bit boring. Since it is just a two-column layout, there is no dynamics in navigating through the site, just a whole lot of scrolling down, down, and down — not exactly friendly for the non-academic readers. But for its target audience, the layout can be quite acceptable.
There is also no doubt that the content of The Faculty Law Blog is very extensive, which is why its categorization of posts could use a revamp. Posts are mostly classified under authors? names, which is disadvantageous for readers who are not familiar with the posts? authors. Perhaps a separate category list could be made — this time according to subjects of blog posts.
The Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog contains posts on issues and news regarding law and public policy. Its authors include the Marquette faculty, alumni, students, and others associated with the university. The site has been running since September 2008.
The plus points and the downside
Although the blog offers a wide range of categories, it is noticeable that the concentration is law be it criminal, family, or environmental law. The discussion is academic, and posts and comments go through editors of the site to make sure that civility and decency are maintained in the site.
While the site is an educational outlet, posts are written in a reader-friendly manner. Photos are also attached to some posts, usually just one placed at the beginning. This breaks the monotony of the blocks of text on each page.
The site has a three-column layout. The leftmost panel contains links to the categories, archives, comments and other outside links related to the blog. The central panel contains blog posts, while the rightmost frame contains names of blog editors and faculty, student and alumni contributors. Profiles of the editors and contributors are provided, as well as a link to each contributor?s posts. A faculty, student, and alumni “Blogger of the Month” is chosen and posted in the same panel.
The main page automatically shows 11 blog posts, resulting to a long downward scroll for the reader. Posts on the main page could have been cut shorter and a link could be made for continuations. Links for comments are posted at the top of each article; it could work better if the comments link be placed at the end of the post, letting the reader digest the information first before generating his or her opinion.
Layout- and content-wise, Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog is already quite easy to navigate and browse through — save for a few minor kinks that need tweaking.
