10 important design tips for your blog
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Image by Alsterstar.
1. Use a decent theme.
Don't use the theme that came preinstalled with the blog. Search for a better theme. Or at least change the header! If your blog looks like thousands of other blogs, nobody will remember it. Readers have a short attention span. I've already forgotten what I was talking about...
2. Don't use a dark or "busy" background.
This is likely to be determined by the theme you use, but I strongly recommend that you only use black text on a white background, or a light background. A black background with white text can be very hard on the eyes.
If you want to use a background image, make sure your content is readable. You could put a simple background image around the edge of your site and display the content on a light background. Whatever you do, don't use a photograph and put the text directly on top of it. This does not look good, even if it's a great photo. You don't write on a photo.
3. Keep ads and widgets to a minimum.
I have seen so many blogs with ads, widgets, games, awards and other assorted junk cluttering up their sidebars. It looks messy, and it slows everything down.
Don't add "just one more widget" because someone wrote about it, or because other bloggers have loads of widgets. Many widgets serve no purpose whatsoever and just get in the way. If you want to try a few things out, try to limit yourself to a couple of new items at a time - don't just add everything you can find.
4. Content should be the main focus.
Aside from keeping ads and widgets to a minimum, any bits and pieces you do put on your blog should not draw attention away from your content. Surrounding your posts is not a good idea. Make it easy for readers to find the content of your posts - don't make them hunt around.
5. Don't make the text too small.
Some "designers" think it's "cool" to use ridiculously small text, with the excuse that you can always increase the size in your browser. This is crazy. Use a respectable font size as your default - don't make your readers push their noses right up the screen to read your posts. It just leaves noseprints on the screen.
6. Use colours to distinguish between navigation and content.
Many blogs have one or two sidebars alongside the content, sometimes with a horizontal navigation bar across the top as well. It helps to use a subtle background colour for your navigation areas so it's clear where the content starts and ends.
I have actually seen sites that blend the whole lot together, which causes a big problem when reading - some of the lines within each post actually run into the navigation links!
7. Beware of scrolling.
Except for a few special cases (Plurk is a good example) most sites should not have a horizontal scrollbar. The content runs from top to bottom, you expect to scroll down to read a long post, but you don't want to scroll across the read the end of each line.
Even vertical scrolling can get annoying if it's excessive. Don't put too many posts on your front page, especially if you want to display the full text of each post. I prefer to use the "more" tag in WordPress so the first part of the post is shown on the front page, but the rest isn't visible until you click to view the full post.
8. Avoid animated images, marquees, and blinking text.
At best, these are a minor distraction that just gets ignored. At worst, your readers won't be able to concentrate on reading your content. Avoid them, or you might have readers who spend more time watching the animations than reading your posts.
9. Keep everything neat.
Some sites don't make very good use of the available space. It seems like even a tiny box has huge spaces above and below it. The FeedBurner "subscribe by email" box is a good example of this.
Changing the default code is a good way to tidy things up a bit. Have a look at my home page for an example. Neat and tidy!
10. Give your site an identity.
A logo, an icon, a photo of you, there are a few ways to give your site its own identity. Even if you use an existing theme, you can modify it to make it your own. This will help with establishing your site.
Do you agree with these tips? What other design tips can you think of that are important to bloggers?
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Comments on 10 important design tips for your blog
2
I have to agree with all your points. The matter of the horizontal scrolling is a very important one. It is simple to give a theme a flexible width, in other words it will scale immaterial of which screen resolution is in use. These type of themes do bring with them their own set of problems e.g. one cannot scale images for use in different resolutions. These themes do not appear to be very popular neither. If one looks at the more successful WordPress themes in the themes directory you will quickly notice that most of them are fixed width designs.
This does now leave us with a problem. Which resolution does one design for. If I choose too big a resolution I get horizontal scrolling in the smaller resolutions. If I choose too small a resolution I get that tall skinny design in bigger resolutions.
I personally design for a minimum resolution of 1024 X 768. The guys still using 800 X 600 or smaller will have to deal with that irritating scroll bar. One has to draw the line somewhere.
3
The main point here is that you don't want to take away from your content. So make sure that your content is the main key and you can do that by making your fonts in your content section large.
4
You forgot to mention that everything doesn't have to be a straight line to be neat. It is possible to have an unconventional theme design but for it to still be organised. :)
I agree with everything else you've said. And to turnip's comment I would like to say that your sidebar isn't as bad as if the whole blog were written that way. But I'm sure he knows that already :P
Also... is that your desk? If it is that's just way too freaky clean.
5
I would add "If in doubt, hire a designer." Before I knew about "good" design, everything I designed myself looked like clown pants (and that would still be true even if I followed your very helpful tips). Thankfully, my designer is also my husband, so he doesn't cost much.
6
2. Don’t use a dark or “busy” background.
The only time I see black work well is with photography or video, with black as the background.
What took me a long time to learn is that blogging is not creating an artistic page. You creating reading media, which does not work well on an artistic background. Text and art don't mix together very well.
Imagine trying to read a book or paper with wolves or a sunsets on every page...or even just a book with white pages and purple text...wouldn't sell.
Logos are the only place you can do what ever you want with it.
Also learned that large amounts of most colors don't work well on any sites, especially yellow.
7
If you do use a black background, use grey for the text. It's much easier on the eye. For any other dark colour use a lighter shade of the background colour, or another colour that looks good but not white!
8
I think I broke the rules on most of the above.. I do have a dark background and white text, I've heard mixed reviews 1/2-1/2 for/against. I have focused on #4 though, and try to tie each piece of art with a story about it, or the subject of the drawing..
Breaking into "blogging" and learning has been tough, asking questions that are deemed "what are you" stooopid.. well, yeah because it was virgin territory.. learning slowly, but it changes so quickly.
9
Turnip, I'd say the sidebar is a bit different - you don't sit and read through it as you would with a post.
Fragile, notice the "image by..." text at the top of the post - it's not my desk.
Sarah Jo, good point, not everyone can or should do their own designs. My wife helps with the graphical side of my theme :)
Alan- agreed, readability is the key.
Babs - I'd find that even harder to read...
Susie, things can and do move on quickly, but there are some fundamentals that don't change much. These tips should be pretty much universal across blogging platforms and for years to come. :)
10
Damnit Ben. I was hoping for some insight into what your desk looks like :P
11
Wish my desk looked that clean!
12
I agree, and #2 is my biggest pet peeve of all. It KILLS my eyes when someone has a dark background with light colors.
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"A black background with white text can be very hard on the eyes", Just look at your sidebars here.
"Avoid animated images, marquees, and blinking text". I saw this tip last post you made. Does anyone ever use marquees and blinking text anymore" Animated images are fine if they don't loop forever or change very slowly. I find animated headers annoying too. Bad idea I see used in many WordPress themes these days.
Scrolling will always occur for somebody out there. I design for 1024x768 monitors or wider. I'm sure the 800x600 people of the world hate me.
The widget that bothers me most is IZEA Ranks. It hangs my browser every time. Making me wait and reload a page when I know it's going to be all Pey-Per-Post isn't making me like your blog more.