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Great Blog Traits: Design
Written by Scrivs on April 26, 2006
Being well-known in the design community had its benefits when we started the Network. The majority of first round submissions were design related sites done by designers and a great deal of these sites were top-notch with regards to design quality. The Network got labeled as one where all sites are beautiful and over time people became to believe that a requirement to join us was a great blog design.
Well to be honest, design does play a factor, but it isn’t about beauty.
When looking at sites, the ones with great designs do keep us on their pages longer, but that doesn’t replace great content. Sites that are simply unreadable due to their design get about 2 seconds of our time. We don’t expect beautiful, but we do expect clean so that we can get to your content. We are not a design gallery and we don’t showcase great designs, we showcase quality content, so please make it easy for us to get to.
Don’t fall under the misconception that everyone uses RSS. You want people reading your site then give them the content front and center. Don’t get cute with things because you probably get annoyed just as easily when visiting another site and you can’t get to the content immediately. So you see, design does play a huge role, but not in the way you probably thought.
April 26th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Sadly, not everyone is a Michael, but most people can come up with something.
What are your thoughts on templates? For instance, Kubrick is a great looking theme, even if half the blogosphere uses it (that’s probably why they use it). Would the fact that a blog was using something so unoriginal be a bit of a turn-off?
April 26th, 2006 at 11:56 am
Jesse: Yes you’re right. In fact I proudly use Kubrick on my site. (It just works.)
While page design is important, I feel as if the actual page layout is just as important. Someone who’s using K2 on their website should also take the time to layout their articles properly.
Text should be separated correctly, images should look good on the page and blockquotes should be used properly.
April 26th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Yea, I used Kubrick for over a year and half, and it’s really an easy-to-use template. Recently I switch to Foliage Mod, and have been very happy with its minimalistic approach. Like the post mentioned, the most important thing in a design is the way the design presents the content. If a design presents your site’s content in a effective and organized way, then you probably have a decent design. Everything else comes as bonuses.
April 26th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
I think most of the popular templates have great layouts. The only problem is customising them so your site doesn’t look like everyone else’s, which not everyone is capable of, as Jesse aptly mentions.
April 26th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
With the number of templates readily available to users floating around the net, I’m pretty sure that the average reader wouldn’t know the different between a original layout or prepackaged layout unless a note was made in the footer.
What about this scenario: Content is awesome, layout is assinite, but the reader is enticed enough to subscribe to the feed and follow content through their reader. How is that for a 9rules submission
April 27th, 2006 at 12:53 am
I agree that a website that has great design is a very good plus, but also if it load fast!
April 27th, 2006 at 11:21 am
A site that uses a template isn’t a plus in my book, but it isn’t a negative either. We know everyone isn’t a designer so making that as something negative about your site wouldn’t make much sense for us as it would take away from the purpose of the Network.
Just don’t pick a shitty template though…:-P
April 27th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Yep, I recreated my blog like five times before I got the right choice for my readers. It had to be fast, web2.0 likely and cool so everyone will enjoy it.
As I always say, “BALANCE is more.” Balance between what the user is looking at, and what the user needs to use.
Cool post.
April 27th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Whoring for hits.
"Welcome back Jordan. I’ve missed you over the two days that you’ve been gone".Aww, th…
April 28th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
what if the content is for not really for americans.
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July 14th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
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