I’m really glad you liked the post. Happy May!

http://www.changeforge.com/2008/05/18/form-or-function-the-on-going-debate-between-usability-or-utility/

I must say I enjoy reading the many posts on how to make slight improvements towards an overall goal of making the best blog possible. I must admit I do not intend to make a 6 figure income doing this job, but I really enjoy the exercises in how to communicate with your audience better and increase overall reach.

It’s all planned up early during the birth of the site to get it to be easily readable with the 2 columns layout, and while the bulk of the design is up, I’d add or tweak the design to beautify the site in other areas (eg: header, sidebar, or the menubar).

Glad that it worked pretty well for my site!

In particular I was struck by the thin headline (it’s a good point that I’ve never actively considered) and the adds – I do want to be selling my own products one day but I’m not up for it yet. I need money to help run my site, however, so I think I’ll stick with advertising for now.

Primarily, this is reflected in the single-column layout which I chose because it keeps the clutter out and the focus on the content. Of course, it’s easy to do so when I have no intention of using the site for income and thus need no ads or widgets.

The other main design choice was to integrate the blog portion as tightly & seamlessly with the other pages of the site as possible. And for the most part, I think I’ve succeeded in making the transition from the dynamic, Blogger-generated pages to the static, hand-coded pages pretty smooth. I’m hopeful that our readers aren’t able to notice when they go from one to the other (and back).

In terms of distraction free readability: TechCrunch and MCutts blogs are the most easy on the eyes.

In terms of coolness and beauty – there are so many gorgeous designs – but sometimes your mind drifts off the topic

In my case, splitting up topics into different domains and blogs was one design element I chose to be able to target my readers more effectively. Not everyone who is reading about my personal day wants to know how best to sell an item on ebay, and that person may not want to know what my church did today in their service, so much like you have done here, I try to parse out my topics.

If it isn’t done on purpose, it will reflect on your blog as if it was done on purpose, or something like that.

I know all too well how easy it is to get trapped in the hole of thinking your design is simply intended to look good. When I redesigned my blog, I went through three different designs until I realised that I need to focus on a design that helps me to achieve my goals, rather than a design that simply looks appealing.

In the end, I went with a less eye-candy design (albeit still quite nice) in favour of a design that improves the page views per visit of my readers, promotes comments, and defines a funnel for my visitors to travel through to get them to where I wanted them to be on my site. Since I launched the new design, I couldn’t have asked for better results. I instantly saw improvements compared to the old design.

I think there may be a lesson in there for the many of us that have a goal of monetizing the site – don’t overload it with ads, and if you do Chris recommends keeping them “tasteful and unobtrusive.”

I am just now starting to introduce ads and trying my best to keep the ads to a minimum, relevant (through AdSense) and unobtrusive. Certainly a challenge to balance all three.