The Duke Law and Technology Review iBlawg provides the academic journal the opportunity for faster publishing of articles and commentary; and discourse with the legal and academic communities.
The entire blog is built on the wordpress CMS (as is this blog) which allows the editors to easily update and manage content, moderate user submitted comments and control spam. The site validates as xhtml strict 1.0 and passes section 508 accessibility requirements, guaranteeing search engine favor and an ease of use for nearly any type of visitor.
The content is displayed in a fixed 450 pixel width, with generous margins and increased leading, to ease on screen readability. Additionally, all of the text is resizeable and, because it conforms to standards, will render well on a number of mobile browsing equipped devices such as pda’s and cell phones.
The theme was developed to blend in with the law school’s existing academic journals yet also reiterate the technological purpose of its content. The green and grey color scheme was chosen because it is a popular theme for technology oriented sites (xbox, nvidia, amd,) which draw upon nastalgia for the early “green screen” computer monitors and the green hues abundant on pcb’s. The images help communicate the journals bigger themes of communications & media, patents & technology, and biomedical issues. The rounded navigation items and subtle shading help to frame each item and add “human touch” to the presentation.
