How Much Time Do You Spend On Blog Design?
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I’m presently going over the finishing touches for a brand new look here at Entrepreneur’s Journey. I’ve hired the help of a web designer to create something a bit more polished than I could do myself. Generally I’m limited to hacking themes or templates when it comes to websites. This site is currently running the WordPress Pool Theme that I modified slightly. Thankfully WordPress has over 300 themes to choose from with more added every day if you search around the web (Regulus from Binary Moon being one of my current favorites that I am experimenting with for YaroStarak.com).
Small Business Branding is also getting a once over and is presently sitting in limbo with the default WordPress theme. The new layouts for both my blogs will look relatively the same once all is done but with distinct design elements to clearly identify them. The idea is for these two sites to form the basis for my own “network” although I won’t be calling it a blog network.
Design Is Personal
I’ve wasted time this week. I haven’t been practising the 80/20 rule. It’s because I’ve been working with blog design. Design, by it’s nature, is creative and as such often blurs the lines of productivity vs self satisfaction (how intertwined are those two concepts?). I’ve spent time trying to get a box to align in a column because I wasn’t happy with how it looked knowing full well it didn’t impact the usability of the site.
Usability vs design is one of the age old issues that web designers face every day. As a web marketer I understand that usability and function should come before design. Of course good design enhances both usability and function but I’m sure many a website owner has spent a little too much time trying to make something look “pretty” just because they like the look, not for any practical business or functionality reasons.
Are Results All That Matter?
Pure marketers working online look at the web as merely a communication tool to get across a message. Pure designers look at a webpage as a canvass where they can express their creativity and “paint a picture”. How do we find a happy medium between these two extremes?
For me, results are NOT all that matter. Yes they are a mandatory requirement. I won’t build a website that doesn’t have some purpose and the site design has to assist in achieving that purpose. However I will not make choices purely to maximize results, I will make choices to maximize personal satisfaction, which includes results and other more creative aspects of myself and my ego.
Copy Counts
Of course when we come down to it, the copy, the written words, are the most crucial element of any blog or online marketing strategy. As is well known, it’s the content that carries a blog and the copy that makes a sale. We really should spend 80% of our time working on the content and 20% working on the design, if not even a more disparate ratio.
I find it surprising how many business don’t use the services of a professional copywriter for their websites. It is the words on the site that are responsible for the sales (in an 80/20 sense), yet most people care more about how a website looks. Of course for blogging we are not necessarily trying to make a sale so copywriting for sales may not be relevant, but it’s still important to think more about content than design, and this week I have been doing the opposite.
That being said, if your blog is your hobby, then a design change is much like getting a new paint job for your bike. It’s fun – that’s why you are doing it – so you can spend as long as you like on design indulging in the “beauty” of it all regardless of the audience you might be neglecting by not writing for a week.
New Content
Speaking of content, I will be publishing a new article series once the new blog design launches here at Entrepreneur’s Journey. Last year I talked about an eBook I was producing for this site focused on starting an Internet business. I’ve just about finished it. I’ve decided to release it in two formats, as individual articles for this blog and as a complete eBook package. So stay tuned, there is some good stuff coming!
Yaro Starak
Blog Designer
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I agree. I have spent many a time debating wether something looks better one pixel to the left or one pixel to the right. At that point I know it’s time to regroup and focus on what really matters. I spend enough time on my blog as I need in order to get the look I want, I never settle for sloppy design. I believe that design does matter, just as wearing a suit and tie makes a more professional appearance than a t-shirt and jeans. But it really depends on what you are selling, if you are selling boat repair it won’t matter as much as if you are selling yourself or a professional service.
Yaro,
I do notice when I use my desktop that your blog runs off the page. I have my display set to 800 x 600 — in your new design make sure the pixel width is in the 600-700 range…that way your blog will be easily seen on 800×600 or 1024 …displays — not to mention it will make me less cranky as I will not need to scroll to the right!
I am a web designer (amongst other things) so I spend a lot of time fussing over a few pixels. It is frustrating at the time, and it is obviously blowing the very important 80/20 rule to pieces. But as a web designer, it is my job to get it looking perfect, and I always feel accomplished when I get it just right, despite the ‘wasted’ time.
The fact the clients usually come along later and wants it pink, purple, and yellow with animated flying cows everywhere is another story…..
Can’t wait for that ebook btw!
Hi Yaro.
Design, and re-design, and designing again will be the ruin of me if I don’t get a grip!
I’ve mentioned before that I have an unhealthy obsession for perfection and it’s not until I stop and take a break from my own head that I realise I’ve just squandered away the hours on a micro detail that could have been spent far more productively.
Whenever there’s ‘dynamic’ content that needs to be applied to my site, I use the services of my web developers, but it’s impossible for the poor soles to meet my unreasonable standards when doing a bit of design work. I’ve actually had quite a falling out with them this week over a job that I considered to be sub standard with little attention being paid to detail. IMO!!!
Hmm! Good post and it reminds me not to take myself quite so seriously and focus more on the end product than the micro details.
Cheers
Aitch
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get the new design into the 800*600 resolution without some horizontal scroll bars. I’ll have another go but it’s may not be possible given the elements I’m trying to squeeze into the design.
The main thing about the new design is that it allows me to highlight some important features and provide some guides for new users. At the moment I don’t like that a first time visitor to this website may not understand what it’s purpose is given the random nature of the front page articles.
I have no doubt though that some people won’t like the new design, but I think the majority will.
I’m using one of the main wordpress themes (Green Marinee) but I keep playing around with it to get it to my liking – I’m still not entirely happy.
In my opinion, dodgy design is one of those things that can take the edge off good content – for instance if you continued to use the classic WordPress theme on your Small Business Branding site you’d need to provide some pretty good content to get me to keep coming back.
Jakob Nielsen, the usability guru, has an interesting take on design. I think his principles are a great starting point with regard to web design (http://www.useit.com/). Particularly these points – http://www.useit.com/about/nographics.html
Prior to having done human-computer interaction subjects at uni, I was obsessed with designing and then constantly redesigning sites, without even being conscious of the quality of the content. What can I say, I love the creative feeling of web design. However, you’re right Yaro – in the end, its the content that keeps people coming back.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this diatribe, but I guess it was to point out Nielsen’s usability guidelines!
Yaro- I am looking forward to seeing the new design here and at Small Business Branding.
I’ve been promising to redesign my blog for ages. I have so many things going on, that it is really low on the list of priorities.
As a website designer I should take more care of my blog, but for me, my blog is just an outlet, it’s not anyting that impacts on my core businesses (so it can wait!)…
I love the look of this blog. In fact I kinda modelled my latest design of my blog at mattgeri.com after it.. hehe, hope you don’t mind…
Anyway, looking forward to seeing the new design.
Matt Geri
Hi, I personally design my blogs 2-3 days, so it’s taking a long time, how can I do it faster? Thanks.