Design and web blogs

Yes, blogs are more personal and less professional. But do we still have to adhere to design principles when publishing a blog. From Jakob Nielson’s Alertbox, we’ve got some ideas to discuss.

Personally I believe that the intention of a web blog would justify the design and aesthetic considerations. If it’s just a personal diary for family and friends, maybe the rules can be a little relaxed. But if it is anything much more, we have got 10 commandments to stick by.

Since there are millions of blogging going on the cyberspace every nano-second, information about who is the blogger is crucial. The auto-biography and photos act as a identity for yoru digital space.

Do you find the description of my posting relevant?

Do you notice that often the description of a blog title does not coincide with the entry. Titles are important as they serve as a window for anyone searching for a particular content on the WWW search engines. Treat them as a micro-content. Now I have to re-look at all my titles for the previous posting 

As I said earlier the intention of starting a web blog is very important. If you want to write on a particular subject, there will be many people out there searching for these information, so when putting up links, we have to describe where these links would be leading us to. People do not want to get lost in surfing irrelevant information especially with a flood of resources out there.

Link up to your past entries as a newbie to your blog would not have read your past entries. Also refrain from categorizing your entries by date. A calendar might be the most common form of categorization but topical categorization goes a long way and it’s easier for viewers to browse on a particular subject.

How often do you blog? I am guilty of irregular publishing too. But in this article, one of the rules of thumb for blogging is to have regularity in publishing. Otherwise viewers will stop patronizing your site and that’s going to cost you alubale audience.

I stared off this blog as a form of News blog critique. Today I have decided to enter a bit on the design aspects. But sticking to a theme is important for a blog to get popular and be taken as a credible resource.

I cannot say this here but try to get your own blog domain name says the commandment. Free domain names do not reflect well for your seriousness about blogging. I deliberately did not mention the 9th commandment as I do not agree with that. Do you agree that what you write in your blog is what you write for your future boss?

Read more about blogging and design here.

The challenge dividend

Designing for blogs