What kind of first impression does your blog make? And do design + usability matter…?
I’m going to answer the question I just posed. Yes. Design and usability matter.
Why am I so confident about this answer? Because in addition to common sense, communications design has been my world for close to 14 years. Blog design these days reminds me of where Web design was five years ago. Some bloggers put a great deal of effort into what kind of user experience their blog will offer, while unfortunately many others don’t even give it a second thought. And aside from things like usability–some people succeed at making their blog a unique fingerprint through how they write combined with the way the blog looks and feels. Is one better than the other? Hard to say–but chances are, you will remember a “customized” blog vs. generic template that you’ve seen a hundred times before.
So back to the user experience of your blog. Isn’t good content enough? Yes and no. People who want your content will most likely suffer through bad design–but you have to ask yourself this question. If you respect your readers, why would you want to make anything unpleasant for them?
So what are the hallmarks of a “blog experience” that is less than ideal? Here’s a short list of what you might want to avoid.
Blog Roadblocks: Try to avoid advertising, promotions, or other distractions in the main body content area of your blog. It’s the equivalent of turning your back to your readers in the middle of a conversation.
Bling Binging: Blog Bling such as search, swiki’s etc. can be useful as long as it’s not overwhelming. Carefully decide how much bling you really need and what purpose it serves. And also try to keep these away from main content. Too much bling and you risk coming off as a “Gansta”–or even worse, Liberace.
Blinking Spinning Rotating: It was bad in 1996 and it’s still bad now.
Noise: Try to avoid background images–especially behind copy.
Multi-colored Madness: Stick with 2-4 colors maximum and try to be consistent.
Legible Lunacy: Don’t sacrifice legibility for a cool design effect. People are coming to your blog to read it–not to admire your “black” concept.
Convention Tension: Stick with basic web conventions like clickable logos etc.–unless you have a really good reason to mix things up.
So that covers basic usability. But what can a blog say about your personal brand? Design and how you write can differentiate your blog from others and help you define your own personal brand. Take Diva Marketing, for example. Now there’s a great first impression. It’s unique, fun, consistent, easy to use and the theme is simply delightful as is the writing style. They go hand and hand. Diva Marketing definitely has “blog brand”.
Now let’s take a look at a commercial example. Nuts About Southwest also blends a wonderful visual design style that is on brand and consistant with the casual writing style that feels totally Southwest. But again, it’s also usable–uncluttered and easy to peruse (a professional design firm was behind this). Both are solid blog experiences. But both examples are also not the norm. Many blogs suffer from some of the ailments mentioned in the previous list. Or if they are usable–they may simply come across as bland, generic or not in alignment with the writing style that gives it personality.
First impressions count. It’s why design, marketing and PR firms stay in business. Companies realize that their sites are often times a primary touch point with consumers who often go to the website first. So wouldn’t these principles also be true for blogs?
Related posts:
- Personal Brand Organization Tips
- Protecting Your Personal Brand
- Positioning your Personal Brand
- How to Create Your Own Personal Brand
- Personal Branding: What’s Your Value-Add?
Tags: Usability
GREAT post David! I am constantly worried about the design of my blog, and the fact that Blogger starts with such crappy templates doesn’t help matters. I love the look of Logic+Emotion, very clean and ‘easy on the eyes’.
I’m going to have to print out this post and go attack the Garden’s template this weekend
Mack,
I actually think that Viral Garden does fairly well in the above areas. Especially in “blog brand” with the them you have come up with.
I would recommend the use of images to help draw in the reader to your posts (as you did on your last post). It also helps add a little relief as sometimes all text can seem a little daunting.
Also, the green type on green background can sometimes be a little difficult to read, but not terrible. Maybe going slightly lighter on your type will help.
But overall–I think you are in the “doing it right” camp. And I’m not just saying that because I like you.
BTW, if anyone else wants a few tips–I’m happy to take a look and provide some brief commentary/suggestions. Our clients usually pay big bucks for this kind of thing so take advantage of it while you can.
Great post. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately too. I’m planning on updating my blog template over the next couple of weeks.
Any thoughts on combining a personal portfolio site with a blog? I’m thinking, maybe on the homepage of your site, pull your recent blog posts in and wrap your profile and portfolio content around it. But the blog would still have a dedicated location off your main site.
“I would recommend the use of images to help draw in the reader to your posts (as you did on your last post). It also helps add a little relief as sometimes all text can seem a little daunting.
Also, the green type on green background can sometimes be a little difficult to read, but not terrible. Maybe going slightly lighter on your type will help.”
You’re right on both points. I am too lax about putting photos up, and I’m not a huge fan of the green on green. I will have to try a lighter type and see what it looks like.
You are doing an amazing job of adding visuals to L+E, as I’ve already told you. Kathy Sierra is known for her’s on CPU, I think L+E is coming up strong on the outside
Scott,
It’s a personal choice. Depends on how you want to position your blog (self promo vs value add vs. both). And the million dollar question is why are people coming to your blog? Start there.
That said-there are so many nice tools that can be used to add portfolio type functionality. Flickr can be used this way. I’ve seen some other open source tools that do mini slideshows. Can’t think of the names right now.
Just keep it off to the side (or in a strategic location) and be tasteful about it.
Mack, you are so full of kind words. People are going to think I’m paying you off. I swear–I’m not! We haven’t even met!!
Great post, DA!
Here on the Daily Fix, I don’t have a lot of “play” space, but the top graphic is my most favorite spot for having fun and expressing some of the blog’s personality. Believe it or not, I probably spend more time trolling Flickr, Google Images, or other image sites for the “perfect” graphic than I do on anything else.
I know David often grows his own, so to speak. But what about the rest of you? Where else do non-designer bloggers go for images?
Friends don’t let friends use blogger (sorry mack), but if you want to get off blogger i’ll host you for free on media temple as long as you keep all your graphics on flickr (no not you guys, just Mack).
For photo’s check out the stock exchange: http://www.sxc.hu
(sort of a photographers run stock photo site, tonnes of free stuff, and not crap free, but good)
No takers on my offer? So there must be some wonderfully designed blogs out there. No need to change anything. All totally usable, easy on the eye and differenciated.
So, here’s a blog I came across recently:
http://doc.weblogs.com/
Is there a brand here? That’s debatable. One could make the argument that Doc is intentially evoking “un-design”.
But I don’t buy that. Aside from the content, I think this blog looks like hundreds of other sites/blogs that I’ve seen. Many from individuals who are not overly concerned about “their personal fingerprint” or brand.
While I’m offering a critique here–I also think that the “all copy” approach is a little overwhelming. My eye doesn’t get a break away from the text. Imagine if a magazine did this…
And I’ll also throw out that the choice to make the template “expandable” is not ideal as it looks cramped on my laptop, but really odd on my 21 inch flatscreen.
This is an honest critique–not a criticism. I’m a firm believer that good design delivers differentation and value. It’s why we love our iPods, RAZR’S and don’t mind shopping at Target.
OK, Mr. Smarty Pants.
I know I sign your paycheck and all, but what do you think of the design + usability of this blog your holding in your hands?
Usability actually is not too bad with the exception of the banner that I have to pretend isn’t there even though It’s hard to avoid because it pushes all the copy I’m trying to read over to the right.
A banner at the top or even better yet a skyscraper would do this more justice. And how about this? A skyscraper AD to the right might actually be even more effective since it would likely stay visable as you scroll down the page vs. the square ad which scrolls away after the first paragraph or two.
Personal fingerprint: If you’re going to do the whole “typewriter thing”. Push it further and own it. The Daily Fix font looks like it’s trying to evoke a classic typewriter look, but the orange and blue along with no other visual cues don’t really take this far enough.
Lastly. When I first saw “the blog” link at the top of the page–I thought it would take me home. I didn’t realize that’s the way you get to blog archives. Better to call something what it is.
Does this mean I’m out of a paycheck?
Ok David,
I’ve never fancied myself as a designer, mostly media buying, strategy, marketing and such. However, I got caught up in too much bling and decided to redesign. Check me out and let me know – http://www.ericfrenchman.com. I have some ideas myself and want to know what you come up with.
Eric
Eric,
Usability is not too much of an issue on yours. But some things to consider.
1. Although bling is off to the side–is it all needed? Too much bling or advertising can make the content seem “cheap”. Mostly because it’s all mix and match stuff yelling at you in all different ways. In your case they are on the sideline but still…
Think NY Times.com Lots of advertising and “stuff” but tastefully designed and carefully laid out. Elegant even. I would simplify.
2. Great name! Begs for a Theme.
You have the opportunity to own this phrase in the blog world. Your blog needs attitude–just like the name. The red header isn’t cutting it.
3. Again–the expanding template is not always the best choice. Here’s why. When you do this–you lose control over breaks and how your copy looks. Breaks in your text are important. They affect flow. By going “fluid”–your flow becomes arbitrary.
4. Might not be a bad idea to use a really light gray to “anchor” your stuff in the right column. Help seperate your content area from “bling fest”.
Really though. Not too bad. Biggest areas of opportunity are a “theme” for header (it’s begging for one) and some discretion on bling and advertising.
Karl –
Thanks for the graphic suggestion(http://www.sxc.hu). Cool stuff — but their pricing seems a little convoluted — i.e. “credits” rather than cash? Or am I missing something?
David – thanks for the shout out about Diva Marketing. When Peter and I redesigned Diva we were challenged with maintaining what had unintentionally turned into a ‘blog brand’ and supporting business objectives. We decided to blog the entire process on both of our blogs including posting all the comps. We thought it would be an interesting learning experience for us and for others; we were also curious about the feedback we would receive.
Although, I believe that graphics are an important marketing blog tactic, what I didn’t realize was that by *not* providing readers with visual cues to guide their perceptions of the ‘brand’ Diva’s readers had developed their own ideas of what the site/brand should look like.
What was even more amazing to me was their passion about the design elements from color to image and more. As we well know, bloggers are not shy about voicing their opinions! Here are a couple of comments:
“I picture you in a cool outfit, sipping a cosmopolitan or martini, very Carrie Bradshaw. Smoking a Cuban cigar.”
“The design does not say “Diva” to me . Too much corporate in a fashion designer sort of way..and the shoe element feels thrown in, not part of it.”
“I wonder, if they had to visit the site regularly as we do with blogs — would they have even stronger opinions about the design? My guess is … yes.”
Link to Diva comps – http://www.theblogstudio.com/blogarticle/we-have-a-winnah#comment
“we were challenged with maintaining what had unintentionally turned into a ‘blog brand’ and supporting business objectives. ”
“what I didn’t realize was that by *not* providing readers with visual cues to guide their perceptions of the ‘brand’ Diva’s readers had developed their own ideas of what the site/brand should look like.”
Toby. Excellent story. Somehow I knew there was a good one behind Diva.
Eric–are you taking notes? Brand Happens. If you leave your brand totally up to intepretation, people will fill in the blanks. A great brand is both defined and open to intepretation, but there needs to be a strong foundation.
Just like Toby’s design did not say “Diva” Pardon My French does not say–well… “Pardon My French!”. Hence it needs some attitude. I think this would go a long way with readers.
And Toby–I really like the winning design. It’s in sync with your brand persona.
Last point–Toby mentions that her reader’s expressed passion. Back to Doc’s brand (or lack of)–there is no passion, but more importantly the brand comes across as NEUTRAL. But if you read Doc’s writings–he’s far from neutral and has definite opinions.
Take this quote for example…
“Oh, one more thing. The bill that passed the house flipped a large bird in the general direction of the nation’s municipalities”
Seems pretty passionate.
Is his blog in sync with his personal brand? You be the judge.
Oh I hear you my fellow Prof blogger. That’s why your post was very timely. I decided to start changing it around and have been playing with some design. The blog when I started served me well, but with increased traffic, more experience, and Mack’s advice about visiting as many blogs as possible I noticed it was time for a face-lift. Thanks and I will work with the brand some more.
Eric
I really think your post was interesting. My boss has recently assigned me to make a blog for my company, but I am worried that all those bad things you listed that could happen will happen. What are the best measures to get started? And what is this garden posts that people are responding with?
Maggie,
The best thing you can do is become familiar with good design and branding. Try this:
http://www.designinteract.com/sow/archive.html
There are many different kinds of examples here. Some are clean, some are flashy, some are even more usable than others–but most of the examples here have their own definitive voice.
Google is also a great resources. Type in phrases for what you might be shooting for like “usable web pages” etc.
Basically get familiar with the basics and emulate. Most people who make these mistakes never bother.
Not sure about the garden posts comment. Did you mean Viral Garden? That’s Mack’s blog.
PS, I just looked at your company link. For a highly usable and clean b2b site, see Grainger (worked on this). b2b doesn’t have to be ugly.
Hi, just wanted to give you some props for the post. Good to see there are more personal branding fanatics out there.. keep up the good work, I will keep on reading!
David,
Great post and to the point. Extremely helpful tips to anyone starting a blog or who is blogging for their brand.
I plan on reading more!
Maria Elena Duron
Thanks for very interesting article. btw. I really enjoyed reading all of your posts. It’s interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else’s point of view– makes you think more.
So please keep up the great work. Greetings.
Great
WBR,
Alex
http://world-pharma.pillsfm.com
My favourite pharma supermarket
It’s true, if something has a bad design or is too cluttered I do not even bother to read it. First impressions do count. Great article, thanks for the tips.
http://www.personavita.com