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Creating a Blog Design You Can Be Proud Of

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Why creating a good Blog Design is Important to Your Blog's Success

Now you can have your blog and quit your job



Alright so you got a blog, you got awesome content, and you pretty much marketed it to death using all the latest tools such as technorati, digg, reddit, and so on. But how come your readers aren't sticking around? Where are all the comments, glory, and fame for your hard work researching those posts, gathering links, and making sure your spelling/grammar was perfect?


It could just be your blog design.

A blog design is pretty much like the clothes you wear. While you might be the coolest person you know that doesn't mean you can go into an room and expect people to take you seriously when you are dressed in flip flops, got a neon glowing tie on, and haven't washed in weeks. Now why would you dress your blog up in a similar fashion?




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Content of page at a glimpse

Only a snippet of what the page has on creating a blog design...

  1. Why blog designs are important
  2. Blog Design 101
  3. Five Blog Design Mistakes that Make You Look Dumb
  4. On creating a blog design that works
  5. Best blog design resources
  6. Why usability is important
  7. Why color is important to blog design
  8. Why creating visual interest is important
  9. Why typography is important
  10. Why measuring your progress is important
  11. Why continual improvement is important
  12. Blog designs that I hand picked for excellence
  13. Functionality and why it is important

Why blog designs are important

First impressions are important in creating a blog design




When someone visits your blog for the first time the design of your blog gives it a certain feel, it presents you in a certain way, and most of all it represents who you are. It is your online persona that people see before they read your content. You might have great content, but people won't know if they leave your website after 30 seconds because they decided that you lack credibility and knowledge just based on your design.

It might sound shallow, but we humans have to deal with so much information overload in this day and age that we have developed a system to deal with this overflow of information. We make quick assessments based on rules of thumb we have developed over time from surfing the internet. According to Jakob Nielsen's research, the more experienced a web user is the less time they spend on a page before moving on.

Blog Design 101

Tips for creating a blog design



1. Now you can have a blog and quit your job

Focuses on why blog design is important to your success and backs it up with sound research.

2. The secret of great blog designs

Goes deeper into research studies that can be used to help you build a better blog design.

3. 5 Simple ways to make blog designs POP

Focuses on techniques that can help make your blog design stand out from the rest.

Five Blog Design Mistakes that Make You Look Dumb

...and how you can avoid them when creating a blog design


1. Hard to find RSS button
Now why would you hide it from you readers?

2. Hidden dates
Hiding dates only frustrate users.

3. Ads > Content
This communicates your priority to the reader and they are more likely to leave before reading any content.

4. Sidebar = Link dump
Don't make this mistake unless you don't want people to use the sidebar.

5. Large blocks of text
It's almost impossible to read large blocks of text without crying. Avoid this!

Read more on the five blog design mistakes and how you can avoid them.

On creating a blog design that works

important areas to focus on when creating a blog design




1. Usability
Specifically usability theories/rules that are specific to the area of blogs. Not all web design usability applies to blogs. There are also times when these theories can be bended. It can be tricky at times, but I will help you.


2. Color
Different colors mean different things and certain colors are better at getting a certain message/feel across than others depending on the topic your blog covers or your goals. This is where the color of psychology is important and some graphic design skills is handy as well.


3. Typography
While typography is always important in web design, it is especially more important in blog design, because it pretty much the essential blood to a blog design. Using the wrong type, too many types, or not having any rhythm could ruin the experience of visitors.


4. Visual interest
You can build and design a blog following everything, but one of the keys to a good blog design is visual interest. What is visual interest? It is that something extra that makes it appealing for the eyes to look at, easy to read, and makes people say wow all in one. It is all about the details here, every pixel matters.


5. Statistics
How else do you plan to measure the success of a blog design or where to improve on if you are redesigning one? Just cause it looks nice, doesn't mean it is working nice. This is where you will find what works and what doesn't.


6. Continual Improvement (redesign)
I believe there is no such as thing as a complete design, there is always room for improvement no matter how small. The process of improving little by little over time will produce amazing results as you zero in on the design that works the best for what you are trying to accomplish.


7. Functionality
While blog design is an art, it is first and foremost an interface people use in order to get information. That is why it is important to give more life to a blog design by increasing its functionality through the use of javascripts, ajax, widgets, and the like.

Best blog design resources

latest posts about blog design tips




These are the latest posts from my blog so you can see what is going on right now or see things that are useful, but maybe not ready yet to be added here.
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Why usability is important

besides making you millions of dollars from your blog design




The basic idea behind focusing on usability in blog design is to create a blog that is easy to use, intuitive, accessible, and makes finding things very easy. It sounds easy, but from the blog designs available on the internet it is not apparently true.

Now if you are new to usability, you might be asking yourself "why should I care about usability when designing a blog?" And that would be a great question to ask. While it won't make you millions anytime soon, what it can do for you right away is increase the number of visitors that visit your blog to be able to successfully find the content they are looking for. This is important because when a visitor finds the content they need, they get all giddy with this feeling called happiness and this translates to a greater chance of increasing your loyal readership by one.

Everyone counts in this case, because word of mouth has a tendency to spread like wildfire on the internet. One person gets what he wants from your blog, then he recommends it to someone else who is looking for something similar, and so on until you have thousands of visitors worshiping you. If that is your sort of thing that is. I prefer millions of dollars, but that is just me.

Links to resources about blog usability

because we can all use help on building better blog designs

Books on usability for blog design

make that blog design easier


  • Don't Make Me Think:
    A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition


    Don't Make Me Think by Steve Kurg

    A short book that is straight to the point about usability. Its covers subjects such as how to test for it, examples of the good and the bad, and just great overall information.

    [book review in progress]


  • Prioritizing Web Usability
    (VOICES)


    Prioritizing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen

    One of the most important books on the subject of usability. This book is filled with useful information on how users use the web, common usability problems, and solutions to them.

    [book review in progress]

Why color is important to blog design

without it, there would be no rainbows in blog designs




Rainbows are cool and all, but what is even more important than that is to use a color scheme that wraps your message in the best way possible. Color can do this because it can evoke emotions depending on the combination, saturation, brightness, and how long you stare at it.

There are lots of color theories about the reflection of light, absorption of light, and the alignment of the planets. But I'll let you off the hook if you don't know anything about those things. The following list of resources will help you find a color that suits your blog and its message/goals. You can even find an in depth coverage of the color theories if you are interested.

Links to resources about color to help you with your blog design

color for your blog designs

  • Common color associations

    Wikipedia has a good list of common color associations with no ads or spam to get in the way of your enjoyment.

  • COLOURlovers

    A good place to find some inspiration on colors or themes. It is like a social network for colors.

  • Web 2.0 colors

    A color palette of the popular web 2.0 colors. I found it pretty cool to try out the shades they had used.

Books on color to improve your blog design skills

because blog designs need color


  • Color Design Workbook:
    A Real-World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design


    Color Design Workbook by Noreen Morioka

    A pretty exhaustive book on anything you want to know about color. Besides learning how to use color better you will learn awesome conversation starters about color for parties.
    [book review pending]


  • The Principles of Beautiful Web Design


    The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird

    This book just doesn't cover color, but every aspect of web design as well. It gives you a more complete overlook on applying color, texture, text, and pictures in order to create a website. It belongs here more than it belongs in any other category though. Good read.
    [book review pending]

Why creating visual interest is important

because it makes it pretty




Visual interest is pretty much what it sounds like, they are designs that are appealing to the eyes whether its the way a comment form is made or how the page is brought together. They are also known to cause fuzzy feelings inside sometimes.

If you take away all the visual interest on a blog design, you would be pretty much left with a bunch of boxes of plain text. Ok, so most blogs aren't that bad, but you get the point.

Links to resources about creating visual interest

because we can all use help on building better blogs

Books on creating visual interest


  • 1,000 Graphic Elements:
    Details for Distinctive Designs


    1,000 Graphic Elements: Details for Distinctive Designs by Wilson Harvey

    A book on how a variety of different fields create visual interest. It is great to look at areas outside of the web to get inspired.

    [book reviewing pending]

Tutorials on creating visual interst in blog designs

This is a series of tutorials to create a complete blog design.

Designing a blog Part 1 - How to create a clean blog header

This goes over the basics of creating a blog header. The header is a very clean, simple, and yet beautiful header. The PSD file is included as well so you can play around with it. Enjoy.

Why typography is important

not all font are created equal




Typography is important because there are other fonts in this world besides Arial and Verdana. It is also important because it teaches you that using five different types of font on one page is not a good idea. Depending on what font you use and how you use it, it can have a dramatic affect on readability. There is also a certain rhythm that needs to be maintained for reading to be natural.

Did you know there is even a certain amount of characters long that is considered comfortable to read? They figured this stuff out years ago and just because we are online, doesn't mean the rules change. I don't think I need to tell you why readability is important, but just to cover my bases, its important because if they can't read your content without straining their eyes, they will leave your website pretty fast.

Links to resources about typography

because we can all use help on building better blogs

  • The Elements of Typographic Style applied to the Web

    The information provided on this website improved my typography skills like no other. It made sense of typography for me. I recommend giving at least this one a read if you don't read anything else on typography.

  • The Anatomy of Web Fonts

    The more you read about typography, the more you will understand why it is important so read this. Its good to read explanations from different people because it helps to sink the idea in deeper.

Books on typography

Why measuring your progress is important

when it comes to creating a blog design




Besides the fuzzy feelings progress can give you, it is the best indicator of whether the changes you made to a design had any effect on getting you closer to your goals. Every blog is unique in that they all have their own goals, idea of success, content, voice, and direction. The fact that no blog is the same (unless you copied and pasted someone's else blog) means that you have to track your own progress.

Without any means of measuring progress, you could be doing all the right things, but you wouldn't know if it actually had any real impact on your readership. So do yourself a favor and check out the resources on how to measure your progress.

Links to resources about measuring your progress

because we can all use help on building better blogs

  • Feedburner

    Burn your feed and make it easier for people who use different services to grab your feed. It also keeps statistics about your feed so you can measure how well you are doing in terms of the number of hits, subscribers, and what are the most popular items people are looking at in their readers. Its also free.

  • Google Analytics

    It is packed full of features that you can use to track your visitors and figure out whether changes you made to your website have any effect. You can play around with it and try to figure out its more advance tracking methods, but I suggest reading the book because it gives you what you need without the hassle. Best thing is that it is free, thats a steal considering that before google bought it, it was selling for $200 a month.

Books on measuring your progress


  • Google Analytics 2.0


    Google Analytics 2.0 - Book Review

    This is an article that reviews the book "Google Analytics 2.0" and why it is important for not just web designers, but blog designers to pay attention to more than just how many visitors visit their website or subscribe to their feed. It will show you where you can improve your blog design.

Why continual improvement is important

the art of improving again and again




Redesigns happen for many different reasons, sometimes it is due to a change of goals, a change in branding, or the current design just sucks. Generally redesigns aim at improving over the previous design, which is very important, but not always done right.

Sometimes a redesign is focused purely on cosmetics and in doing so end up actually making the blog much worse by decreasing usability or accessibility in a number of different ways. That is why it is important to ask the right questions when redesigning in order to focus on the changes that will bring the best results.

Links to resources about redesigning

because we can all use help on building better blogs

Books on redesigning


  • Web ReDesign 2.0:
    Workflow that Works
    (2nd Edition)
    (VOICES)


    Web ReDesign 2.0 by Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler

    If you search amazon for web redesign, this is the first book that pops up. While it has received rave reviews, I found the book a bit too much on the cryptic side and slow. If you find yourself in the bookstore, check it out yourself to make sure if its written in a style you like before buying. I don't recommend it, but it is worth a browse at the bookstore or borrowing from a library to get some ideas.

Blog designs that I hand picked for excellence

Because words are just not enough, here are some great examples.

These are designs that I felt represented the best from what I have seen on the internet. For even more blog designs, visit my blog design gallery featuring the best blog designs I found on the internet.

curated content from Flickr

Functionality and why it is important

the art of making your blog do more




If you strip everything from a blog so that all it has left is what defines a blog then you would just have posts and comments. Everything that is added after that should be done in order to improve these basic elements.

Two blogs can have the same design, but the one with added functionality will easily beat the other if that functionality makes it easier to use the blog in order to achieve the user's goals.

What is added functionality?
It is hard to define because it can come in many forms, but the basic idea is to help the users achieve their goal. This can be in the form of giving better feedback in forms, giving the user more control of how the blog is displayed, or hiding information until a user decides he wants to see it and clicks it.

Links to resources about adding more functionality

Books on adding more functionality

Books on blogging better

Learning how a good blog works will help you design to make it work even better

  • blogging heroes - Book Review

    The book has 30 interviews with some of the top bloggers today, including joystiq, engadget, the unofficial apple blog, and so on. Check out the book review to learn more.

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BlogdesignGuy

I am a web designer who specialized in blog designs. Visit my own blog where I teach you how to design a better blog in order to get more traffic, subscribers,... more »

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