Introduction
I’ve been following Mashable for years now. When I first began writing for TechWhirl back in August 0f 2011, my editors suggested a number of tech blogs for me to follow. Mashable was one of them.
The home page is a grab-bag of all sorts of things, featuring What’s New, What’s Rising, and What’s Hot. Those are the actual section headings that appear as you begin scrolling down. The images and text both increase in size as you move across the page. There’s a lot for the eye to see along with adequate white space.
You may see an article on Candy Crush under What’s New, satellite photos of Hurricane Michael’s destruction under What’s Rising, and a piece on another Google controversy (so what else is new?) under What’s Hot. The home page is basically a mix of culture, entertainment, and technology.
Layout and Navigation
At the top of the home page, Mashable offers a hamburger menu (we’ll get to that shortly), a link to their videos, and a link to their shop. The shop offers VPNs, headphones, speakers, dating apps — I think Mashable is aiming for a crowd somewhat younger than my own status of 50+ and married! — and laptops. I can’t vouch for the buyer experience, but it seems like a reasonable shopping site. Much as how people are always looking for their next car, people also always seem to be looking for their next laptop.
The top of the home page also offers a search function and links for their social media feeds (Goodbye, Google+!). Mashable offers links to their international sites as well. I can’t say I have ever seen this before (outside of straight-forward news sites), it appears international sites are rare. Let’s proceed to the tech side of this site. Click the hamburger menu (told you we’d get to it), and then click Tech.
Content
Mashable’s tech section is laid out like its home page, with the same What’s New, What’s Rising, What’s Hot sections. The page seems to endlessly scroll, too. When I visited, I saw teasers for these posts and many more listed under What’s New:
- DuckDuckGo, the pro-privacy search engine, hits 30 million daily searches
- Gillette’s heated razor is giving shaving a huge comfort upgrade — Future Blink
What’s Rising offered these:
- European authorities to investigate Twitter over GDPR non-compliance
- Real life vs. online life: For kids, is there a difference?
And What’s Hot had these
- Here’s how to tell if your Facebook account was one of the 29 million hacked
- Facebook now says 30 million affected by hack, will notify users
Again, the images and text both increase in size as you move across the page from section to section.
Conclusion
I read hard technology articles every day having to do with security or backups or yet another data breach. Mashable offers all sorts of easy-reading, technology-related articles and is a relaxing change of pace.
Have a job-related, business, or tech comm website you’d like me to review? Have some tips or tools to share with your fellow technical communicators, information developers, and content creators? Let’s network! Drop me a note: HelpFiles@TechWhirl.com. Follow me on Twitter, connect with me onLinkedIn, circle me on Google+, or email me at craig.cardimon@gmail.com. I enjoy connecting with others in the industry.
