What's considered a good blog? We have trainings that we can do and write about, but there's not really much to offer since they're pretty straightforward.
What's considered a good blog? We have trainings that we can do and write about, but there's not really much to offer since they're pretty straightforward.
<layman's perspective>
To me it seems no-one likes seeing blogs that are just filler blogs (i.e. blogs with no real content, just padding to try to get points without much benefit to readers). Us blog readers are not blind, we can see when we are being short-changed when it comes to reading a blog, so contestants are only losing out themselves by gaming the system by writing minimal content. Just keep in mind that blogs should help people, not be filler stuff.
For what the interim blogs could contain, Randall mentioned that in a comment earlier. And keep it helpful/interesting if possible. I think generally if a blog author, design challenge or not, has got something to say in a blog, then just say it, i.e. keep it authentic/real. People see through fake stuff!
On the other hand, if people write filler blogs with no useful content, then sure they might get some points, but I wonder what they will do when it comes to writing any longer final blog, which carries quite a lot of points. They will have no decent interim blogs to help them, if all they have is filler content.
To me it seems that anyone who wrote reasonable, authentic content throughout, will have a lot less work to do to collect their thoughts and summarize and present their key bits of info.
So, if two people both get the same score of 40 for their interim blog, nevertheless, the person who wrote more authentic and useful content, will benefit, because they will find it much easier to write the final blog and score highly with it.
Also, I can imagine it puts less pressure on you during the Design Challenge, because if you end up thinking you need to write a ton of content for an interim blog, then you might not spend much time actually doing lots of engineering work for the project. It's a balance.
In the past, some Design Challenges needed 10 blogs, and that seems like a lot of pressure throughout. I think if you try to think about point-scoring too much during the challenge, it's not good for you, and not good for the challenge, and not good for the readers. It's like going back to 10 lengthy blogs in that case. I bet you'll do better by simply keeping it authentic/helpful and don't stress yourself out either.
You'll then be in a great position to write with clarity about all the work and findings in the final blog.
</layman's perspective>
