Great design online is difficult to pigeon-hole, as it varies massively in different contexts. Design for blogs, however, is a different kettle of fish to website design. These points are written for blog design, where the definition of a blog is something that you want people to actually read the content
- Busy is not good
Imagine settling into reading your newspaper and the advert to the right of the column youre reading starts flashing bright red and green, stars popping out and a message screaming Read me! Read me! pops out at you. I give you 2 seconds to throw the whole thing away. A blog should focus on the content, and give the viewer a nice comfortable context to take it in. This means clean, uncluttered lines, consistent with the brand. - Use compelling images
My colleague Shane often berates me for falling into the minefield of visual clichs out there. Take this site: (40 Media) these guys have listed the top 10 cliches designers are guilty of. Dont discount the role of images in drawing attention to the content of your site. The top banner, side bar, or even background, is rich canvass material for some juicy imagery to substantiate the content. - Clean, cool typography
Check this site out.
I actually love the design, but I reckon its a good example of form overriding function. Reminiscent of the David Carson design era, harking back to 90’s pop-culture rags like Radar Gun. This is graphic art student material, but the question is: Does it work? The typography is edgy and compelling, taunting you to come closer. The problem is, I couldnt read more than three lines without my eyes drifting. Im not sure if this is a good thing, but if a goal of a blog is to retain readership, then one tip is make it readable. (On the side: With the exception of one or two surfing titles, all those amazing David Carson mags with the cool typography are now extinct. I reckon a classic case of form not marrying function.) Blogs call for clear, legible text.
- Clearly defined navigation
A huge issue in website design, this applies for blog design too. Check out your categories do they make sense? Is it easy to find your way to where you want to be? Some blogs have 100 categories running down the tramlines, which may work on some of the bigger blogs, but I suggest a handful of clear categories when writing on a targeted topic for a targeted audience. Do you have links to external sites? Do you have a link to your site? Are there unnecessary links that distract the audience from the more important ones like Subscribe or the RSS feeds? - Use Widgets sparingly
Widgets can look cool. Typepad calls them Bling for your Blog. You want your blog to be different. You want to throw in some features that the blog next to you doesnt have. So you go to the widget section in your blog interface, get kitchen sink feva and throw the lot in. Your blog then becomes a jumping, crawling, wriggling compost heap of distraction. If the focus of your blog is retaining readers, then distracting them is not a good idea.
I made these points up, taking from observations in my own research over the past couple of weeks. This list is intended to be a guideline, a starting point, and not as a Blogging Bible. This is especially relevant since Im not a successful blogger yet (spot the irony, all you skinny chefs out there). These points are more notes to self than a holier-than-you do this because I say so. Mike and I are looking at the rules we want to follow in creating profitable websites, the rules for creating a successful blog is part of that process.
Addendum note: To all those free thinkers out there, throw these rules out the window and figure out how to do it different.
