Meet the newest author at Wisdump! Haven’t heard of Wisdump? It’s former blog of Paul Scrivens, of 9Rules fame. It was sold to Splashpress Media, who owns such sites as Performancing and Blog Herald, and I’ve been asked to contribute over there on a weekly basis.
My first article is one on some really basic blog layout mistakes that are all too common, and easily avoidable:
- Fluid Layout – two words: bad idea.
- Too Wide – who decides how wide your blog should be? Your readers.
- Important Stuff in the Footer – extended footers are great, just don’t count on many people seeing them.
- Not Enough White Space – let your blog breathe!
Jump on over to Wisdump to read the full article!
Good points. I agree about the footer. It’s a good place to replicate some links (so that if users find themselves all the way down there, they can easily navigate elsewhere, without first having to return to the top of the page).
White space, is I think one of the most important–makes for better contrast, and is so much easier on the eye. This page is a good example.
Hi Randa – Congrats on the Wisdump gig. I agree with you on the fluid layout point, but reckon that one might stir up a bit of debte.
congrats Randa!!
Congratulations! I look forward to reading your pieces.
@Johno – thanks for your kind comment – glad to hear I’ve got an adequate amount of white space since I’m preaching about it.
@Aaron – yeah, I’m interested to see if I get much vehement disagreement. Already got one commenter who didn’t agree. I just don’t get it. I wonder if it comes down to how reader focused a blog is? Seems like you’d want to do whatever is best for the reader, not whatever you think looks good.
Thanks Shaz and Laura!
It all goes back to the basic rules of newspaper design. Anyone who has a background in journalism will know that in design the rules of following the eye, and white space are key. Start at the top and see where your eye follows…clockwise, right? So, what do you want to put where their eye stops? Your most important information of course.
Actually I dont get it. If you dont have a fluid layout, then how can your readers adjust the website width?
@dt – that’s the point, they don’t adjust the website width. They can adjust the size of their window, but the width of the web site is fixed. You could make the case for letting the reader decide what width they want the post column to be, but then the reader would have to take the extra step to resize their browser window. I maintain that we should present the content to them at the most readable width and make it easy on them. Your own web site is fixed width except for the very top ad header.
Congratulations Randa, to be honest I have never really read Wisdump, but will keep my eyes on it now.
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I have a feeling that my blog is violating at least two of those design concepts.
It’s fluid, and there’s not very much white “empty” space. You might want to differentiate between white and empty space, because some blog backgrounds are BLACK.
Just kidding.
Most people are stuck using whatever free theme that they find, without much ability to go into the code and change things to better suit their purposes. I’ve played around a little bit with the CSS on my site, but I wouldn’t want to go crazy and change a bunch of things that undoubtedly would break functionality under the hood.
Ah thanks for the clarification! Learnt something new today.
Hi,
Informative points to the bloggers.I appreciate that “Important Stuff in the Footer” concept.Because many not aware of it.Good going!Keep it up.