cre8d design

What if we voted? asks the question: if the rest of the world could vote in the upcoming US election, who would they choose to be president? This was designed, coded and implemented for a client in a matter of hours and was fun to put together.

While not scientific, it certainly is interesting to see if the results reflect what happens in the US election primaries. We get a considerable amount of election coverage here in New Zealand, with full page spreads outlining the candidate histories, policies, perceived strengths and weaknesses. Not a day goes by here without in depth updates on the election campaigns.

At the end of 2005, I posted some of common blog design trends out there. Time has marched on and it was time for an update. While many of these trends are not new, they are becoming more common and requested by clients when starting a new blog.

» Stacked entry dates

Dates are displayed compactly, to the left of the blog entry either in one-page-a-day mini-calendar or something simpler. Sometimes dates also stick out of the layout as little flags.

Examples include: veerle, denk-licht, works4sures, superfluousbanter, tickerville, BubblesSOC, and cult-f.

» Handmade elements

Breaking up the perfectly straight lines, shiny buttons and smooth gradients comes design which adds handmade looking elements to the design to bring a sense of originality and humanness. Whether it be masking tape, bumpy lines, drawings or watercolor paint – even the appearance of something handmade – gives the impression of breaking up the computer-driven design.

Examples include: Carsonified, Jardedigital, The World’s Leading, eleven3, Fray, Web designer wall, Verbalized and Daily Candy.

» Farewell thee tag cloud?

Once the rage, many blogs have now removed tag clouds, or relegated them to an archive page, rather than center stage. Others are using them in different ways (such as we are with Throng).

» Goodbye “Web 2.0″ design?

For a long time, all the clients I came across requested that their site must look “Web 2.0″. Many now just want to be more original. While “Web 2.0 design” will remain with us for some time yet, newer blogs are using less rounded corners, gradients, shiny buttons and badges and exploring different ways of presenting blogs which complement their site’s content. Not all blogs are tech blogs!

» Out with one trend, in with another

I’d like to say that blogs are becoming less cluttered but it’s probably not true. The tiny narrow sidebars which were crammed with badges, blogrolls, reading lists, subscribe buttons and more from blogs of past have evolved into wider sidebars with grids of square ads, widgets, avatars of side visitors, Flickr feeds, badges to Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. There will be new widgets, gimmicks and information crammed into sidebars for some time to come.

» Stretching it out

This has been happening for a number of years, but more and more blogs now sport wide screen layouts. Larger photos are being used, larger embedded videos, larger ads, larger headers. Few are liquid-based layouts but some blogs are now so wide, the reading length is less than optimal. Expect to see bigger ad formats become standard – recently spotted on our local newspaper site: 320px x 600px ads!

» Goodbye left hand column

The skinny left hand column has gone from many blogs, replaced with a wider right hand column. The three column layout has been switched to have the content in a very wide left column, with two wide right sidebars. This places more emphasis on the latest blog content as we read from left to right. The clutter is swept to the right side of the page.

» Introducing…

Many blogs now have a handy introductory paragraph for new visitors in a highlighted box. Many start with “Welcome to…” or “Hi, I’m… a …. who … . I blog about …”. If it’s a more personal blog, or the blog author wants to set a friendly tone with his audience, a photo will sit up to the right of the paragraph.

» Branching out with fonts

While designers are usually stuck with a limited number of fonts, the SIFR trend of using Flash to display any font (while keeping it readable by search engines and not an image) is still spreading slowly (even though it has been available for years). Expect to see these more on designers’ blogs, or professionally designed blogs as it can be quite technical to get it working well – even though there are WordPress plugins to help.

» But wait.. there’s more!

Have I missed something out that you’ve been noticing in blog trends lately? Please share!

Can it really be six years since I first started blogging? In that time there have been so many developments, trends and changes. I still keep in touch with some of the original contacts I made in the world of blogging. A few have since stopped blogging, but a remarkable number have their original blog and continue their routine of sharing their reflections and experiences with the world.

As the blogosphere has grown, niches have separated out much more distinctly than they were in general. You can get lost in a world of blogs for any hobby or interest and spend the day wandering through their communities. I’m pleased to see many companies blogging and changing the face of their interactions with clients. Blogging is being used by advocates for causes – and not just political – and acheiving amazing results. Some bloggers are making vast amounts of money through their writing and savvy SEO + ads models.

Feedreaders helped us keep on top of our favourite blogs, but I also still enjoy the experience of reading a blog in its original form.

Blogging for money has its advantages and disadvantages. Try googling for the latest hairstyles or many other things and you’re often hit with topical blogs with great SEO but so full of ads and no helpful content (or just copied content from other sources) that you’re left to sift through the mess and resort to other sources (“now where’s that latest magazine to flip through for ideas?”).

It comes back to the content and – even more than the content – the relationships formed through that.

But you know all this.

Last year was a difficult one for me but we ended the year on a high note: by travelling the world on a round-the-world ticket. So many places, so many cities. One of the highlights for me was to meet bloggers who I first got to know all those six long years ago via their blogs. It was fantastic to be able to sit down and chat in person completely naturally. They reflect on the experience too: see BD and Darryl‘s thoughts.

It’s time for me to write more on this blog again and to offer my thoughts on blogging – six years down the track – and life in general.

I’m a little weary of some of the bells and whistles people are squishing onto their sites these days before even getting to know their audience, or even find their blogging voice. I hope 2008 will see people choose to make smart choices about what not fill their blog with, as much as fill it with.

A Happy New Year to you all!