2006 will be the 5th year that I’ve been designing blogs and I’ve been reflecting on some surrounding issues. Here’s three of them for now.
- The sidebar(s) - Standard blog software’s templates are all 2 or 3 columns. Almost all blogs are 2 or 3 columns. As a result, most people want blogs designed with 2 or 3 columns. That’s ok… but what ends up happening often is that the sidebars are just filled up with stuff, just because there’s columns there. Have a good long hard look at many sidebars and ask yourself if it’s necessary to have all that extra complexity and text on the page.
Could pages be created specifically for people wanting that information? e.g. Archives – apart from a page footer to navigate to previous posts. e.g. Blogroll – could this be on its own page along with informative descriptions as to why you like/read those blogs?
Consider creating a fun “About me” page with update information on what you’re listening to, reading, doing… and create a teaser which randomly pulls out an item from this page on the home page.
Don’t clutter your page with too many things other than your main message – your content. - The individual post archive template – So much thought and effort goes into creating a nice design for the home page and usually the individual post archive template is a clone, an afterthought. Remember that for most blogs, a large chunk of traffic is via search engines or link ups where people arrive on an individual post archive, rather than on your home page. Imagine being a visitor to your blog, who’s arrived to an individual post. Is it clear they’ve arrived on a blog? Is it clear who the author is and when it was written?
- Blogspeak – So almost everyone knows what a blog is, but there’s a tonne of other in-crowd-jargon that bloggers are using constantly and, in many cases, probably unnecessarily. Remember what it was like when you first heard all of these terms… it’s a little overwhelming.
“Syndicate”? That word didn’t mean much to me as a Kiwi. I only knew of it being something to do with TV shows in the US.
“RSS Feed”? “XML”? What about using “Subscribe” or “Be notified of updates”? (And of course, adding the funky new standard Feed icon for those who recognise it.)
“Permalink”? Hardly necessary – just link the title of your post to the permalink. No weird word, same functionality.
“Blogroll”? Try “Blogs I recommend” or just plain old “Links”.
You get the idea. Step back from your blog every so often and try and reduce the jargon for the uninitiated.
Let me know what you think of these.
your thoughts
redstar
Hi again,
I’ve been reading this post with great interest. You are absolutly wright about the columns. I’ve been looking at my own sidebar, and almost had to puke. When i always said(that means” i was the one telling my self) to make it clear on my blog, and not to many frusten(dutch) in the sidebar. I’m gonna change some things anyway in the coming weeks.
By the way. You are living in New Zealand. The funny thing is that I’m living in Zeeland. Its a verry small Island in Holland.
Jef
Liked your comments of blogs, especially your thoughts on the profile and pulling out some teaser info to entice people to look at your stats. And the nomenclature surrounding blogs (rss, xml, etc.) is horrible. I barely know how they work and I’m in Interactive advertising. For the average blogger, difficult to understand.
My wife and I have been contemplating moving to New Zealand. Any thoughts on employment possibilities for copywriters and interior designers down there?
Justin
it’s funny because i’ve always wondered why the internet uses words like permalink and blogroll. glad someone agrees that it’s not needed. who came up with permalink anyway?
Dennis Bullock
I am not a fan of the sidebar for the exact reasons you pointed out. That is why I made the switch on my site. But your comments on styling of single post pages made me think about how that looks on my site. I think it needs some work, what do you think?
Bryan Casteel
Great points Rachel. My wife and I have been working hard on our Paris travel website and we have had to be very cognizant of these issues. We are using WordPress because of the increadible flexibility over a static site, but we have had to remove as much of the “blogspeak” out of the site as we can. Our visitors are not necessarily blog reading type people so we are trying to toe the line with the technology and the visitor.
One of the hardest things to get used to when starting to read blogs is the amazing clutter on the pages. So many sites are so busy that you can’t see the content. For blogs to really go mainstream (for say people in the 30’s and older), design is going to have to play a much bigger role. Keep up the great work.
Rachel
Hi Jeff,
Let me know if you decide to come down here! As for those job areas, I’m not too sure but at the moment, unemployment is at an all-time low and there’s a skilled labour shortage here. An online job site you could have a look at is Netcheck or also the NZ Herald (search their classifieds)
Stephan L.
‘PermanentLink’ , ‘Date’ , ‘Time’ , ‘Title’, ‘comments’ ,’powered by PHP, Apache,…’ , ‘Download firefox, thunderBird’,….
puah!
nice tips rachel.
Rachel
redstar, thank your Dutch explorer Abel Tasman for the name hehe
Rachel
Dennis I really like your blog’s design
Maybe on your individual archive pages you could say a little bit about the blog or link to your (currently empty) colophon for people who want to know what you/the site’s all about.
Veronica
These tips are right on target. Your blog is great.
I really agree with Bryan Casteel about the clutter on blogs. It’s ugly and unnecessary.
What made people think things like a “permalink” were a good idea in the first place?