My name is Alison Gold, but my friends and family call me Ali - and you should too! I am majoring in Psychological and Brain Sciences, with minors in both writing and communication design.

I am a plain-language communicator, a journalist, and a graphic designer. I hope to work within the healthcare industry, making medical information more accessible to the public through clear written and visual communication. I believe digital communication is especially important for sharing information, as the Internet is the world's largest free resource. I hope to learn how to allow my writing and design to live on a web browser.

I do not yet have experience with HTML or CSS, but I am extremely excited to learn. I have worked with digital prototyping for a user experience class using Figma and Sketch.

I would like to learn how to publish a website that is not only visually appealing and easy to navigate, but also responsive to many different types of devices, both mobile and desktop.

I believe a key component of designing for web, versus paper, is keeping the user experience in mind. Users will be clicking and interacting with mobile platforms in a way that is not possible for print materials. This is the key distinguishing factor between these two media, and one that informs how digital platforms should be designed and used.

The Outline is a modern, online-only news source that prioritizes design. Each story has unique visual elements, and the background of the front page has eye catching patterns. The page is also responsive to changes in browser window size, so if the reader expands the window, the site reconfigures to seamlessly improve ease of reading. Animations are integrated into the page to creative interactive elements. Cropped photos, eye-catching shapes, the site's hallmark squiggle line, and more, seem like they would clash and be too much for one place. However, The Outline's design is beautiful. It uses simple, large, consistent, fonts, reduces overstimulation. All in all, the Outline makes even boring stories appear exciting.

I think Glossier - an affordable skin and makeup brand targeted toward natural looks for millenials– has a website that exemplifies effective communication. Glossier's color is millenial pink. It communicates its calm yet hip aesthetic effectively with clean, black, large headlines on soft pink and white backgrounds. The headlines cleverly and boldly communicate the brand's all-natural stance, with sayings such as "Casual, uncomplicated makeup that lives with you," "Makeup is a choice," and "Inspired by Real Life." Glossier's website has clearly labelled product categories on the top of the page, such as Skincare, Makeup, Body, etc. Clicking these categories takes the shopper to a page of those products. The Glossier site also has a blog, in which writers share how easy to use and affordable Glossier's products are. The overall aesthetic, ease of navigating, and approachable writing and content on the site communicate much about the brand's values and differentiate it from other beauty brands.

"The Well" by Northwell Health appears to be just like any other consumer-facing digital health magazine, resource or publication. It regularly produces what read as well-written news articles and opinions pieces. In reality, the site is a marketing piece for Northwell Health, an extensive health system that spans New York. Click on any listed "news" article, such as one reading "What is Secondary Infertility?" and the user goes from the Well homepage to the article page. At the bottom of the article are links to reproductive endocrinologists at Northwell, support groups for infertile women through Northwell, and fertility experts, also through Northwell. This is an incredibly impressive marketing tactic. Northwell is genuinely helping readers gain access to important, correct, information. In the meantime, they are building a reputation as a knowledgeable, trustworthy source for medical care. The direct links to the Northwell website also help push this.