Comments on: Does blog design matter?

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 02:36:15 +0000

does blog design matter? sure, depending on what age you are. if your more mature, then you want something more simplistic. And if your younger, you want to see pictures, bright colors, and designs that attract you. Personally, if i dont see someone who would take the time to personalize, and design their blog, maybe their blog doesnt deserve the apprechiation from readers.

toodles!

By: Duncan Riley

Duncan Riley — Sat, 21 May 2005 11:44:38 +0000

I agree that design matters, but at the top it doesn’t apply, if you look at the design layout of the Daily Kos for example its not good, and he is even apply the same design to his sports blogs, which leads me to believe that its not the most important aspect. Content is, at the end of the day, king, but design for the rest of us helps a lot. When I follow the Alexa stats for Problogger.net for example, I know that the page views per reader are definately enhanced due to the design, which is one of many examples

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Sat, 21 May 2005 00:56:04 +0000

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By: Rich Brooks

Rich Brooks — Fri, 20 May 2005 17:26:14 +0000

Arguing what is more important, content or design, is like arguing what makes a rectangle bigger: height or width?

A good looking blog with bad content won’t last, and great content in a shoddy wrapper will often be considered of poor quality no matter how good the writing. (If you have any question whether or not this is true, pick up a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book: Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking.)

What I love about blogs is their simplistic layout. However, they are generally still well designed. The default choices at Blogger or Typepad are all (mostly) gorgeous.

That being said, after months of looking at my own blog, I decided that I wanted our designer to take a crack at it. (He hasn’t yet.)

I do believe there will be a lot more custom designs for blogs going forward, both for better or worse. No matter how nice the default layouts may be (compared to so many poorly designed Web sites out there) ultimately people will want to express their individuality through design as well as through content.

By: Jon Gales

Jon Gales — Fri, 20 May 2005 15:51:53 +0000

I think to take a site to the next level it has to be designed nicely. Advertisers, especially the big ones, aren’t going to want to touch a site that uses a default template. If you haven’t put the time or money into fixing up your own house, why should I pay to put a sign on it? If you want to do those big ad deals in the future, get a designer today.

By: Peter Flaschner

Peter Flaschner — Fri, 20 May 2005 14:11:15 +0000

I think Vix hit it on the head, and it’s what I alluded to when I said “You can fool people with design once, but only content will bring them back”

Newsreaders certainly do flatten the field, and to an extent they take design out of the equation. That being said, people like shiny things, and individual site design will ALWAYS count.

There are ton of offline examples: take cars. All cars can get you from a to b. The transportation factor is akin to a site’s content. It has to be there, or you’ve just got a bunch of useless parts. Styling is what sells them though.

Newsreaders are a fabulous way to skim information. When there’s something of interest though, I follow the links and visit the actual sites.

By: Fred On Something’s Comments :: Does blog design matter? :: May :: 2005

Fred On Something’s Comments :: Does blog design matter? :: May :: 2005 — Fri, 20 May 2005 14:08:12 +0000

[...]

May 20, 2005 Does blog design matter? Filed under: On Blogs Does blog design matter? […] In a medium where many argue ‘conte [...]

By: Fred

Fred — Fri, 20 May 2005 14:05:34 +0000

Hello,

Some blogs are pure peace of art. However, does it make it fun to read? I don’t think so. But, a blog well designed (not necessarily graphically) is essential because it could, unconsciously, tell the readers how he is committed to the task. So, if a blog is up-side-down, I’ll check at it 2 secs and go away nonobservant the content… because I’ll not take the time to read it.

Salutations,

Fred

By: Vix

Vix — Fri, 20 May 2005 08:16:27 +0000

A good design trumps content for a first time visitor but ultimately people are going to keep coming back if the content is good. What’s the purpose of a pretty page if there’s nothing interesting to read.

Though if you were to give me two blogs with similar content but one had poor design I’d be going back to the other blog…

This brings the question to mind, just what is good design? Is it aesthetically pleasing? Is it something that is readable?

By: John Evans

John Evans — Fri, 20 May 2005 08:15:10 +0000

Clean and simple (dare I say, minimalist) design always beats the frantic MSN approach because it caters for utility as well as pleasing visuals. Blogs start out with an advantage, because they’re simple beasts at heart. So, yes, design is important, but so is simplicity. Ultimately, content is everything.

By: Danger Stevens

Danger Stevens — Fri, 20 May 2005 07:16:36 +0000

When ProBlogger was undergoing it’s upgrade to WP 1.5 I remember coming to visit and seeing the default ‘kubrik’ theme with the blue banner at the top. I was surprised at just how shocking it was. For some reason, the content of this website is permanently married to the color scheme and general layout (at least in my mind).