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Is your Blog Usable, or a Jumbled Mess of Information?

42 Responses (Add) | Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 9:50pm

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When someone visits your blog, can they find their way around easily? Is everything neatly organized on your site… or is it more of a jumbled mess of information, links and text? Here are some excellent tips to help you get (and keep!) your blog organized.

  • Be predictable. When we want to know what a site is about, the first thing we look for is an ‘About’ page. When we want to contact the owner of a site, the first thing we look for is a ‘Contact’ page. When we want to leave a comment, we usually look to the bottom of a post. When we want to subscribe to a blog, we look for the subscribe button at the top of the sidebar. These things are so common that they’ve become standards… things we expect. When we can’t find the standard, we look for the next most similar thing. By adhering to these predictable standards, you’re actually making it as easy as possible for your blog’s visitors to do exactly what you want them to do. Sometimes being predictable is not a bad thing!
  • Be obvious. Look down at your keyboard, and you’ll probably be able to spot at least one key that you’ve never noticed before. This is either because you have no need for it, or you don’t know what it does. It could be the most useful key ever, but your hesitation when confronted with the unknown has probably stopped you ever pressing it before. What if it deletes everything you just wrote? We don’t like not knowing what the result of our actions will be, and so it goes with your blog. Non-obvious links and buttons will very rarely be clicked. Would a new visitor know what this does, or where it leads?
  • Subtract the unimportant. By hiding important elements (your most popular posts, your feed icon, your comment button) amongst a dozen other unimportant things (widgets and recent comments), you’re making it harder for readers to do what is truly important to you.
  • Limit options. A category list with 10 categories is a lot more usable than a list with 50 categories. Too many options creates overload, which leads to deferral: a visitor will not engage with that element at all. Your list of 5 most popular posts will get clicked more than your list of 20, and so on. Simplified options make it easier for the visitor to decide where they want to place their attention. Too much choice will actually hurt your blog’s usability.
  • Do the little things. A usable blog, aside from the above, is also made up of many little touches that make your visitor’s browsing experience easier, such as:
    • Does your header image link back to your main page?
    • Does your blog have an about page?
    • Does your blog have a contact page?
    • Do your headlines match your content?
    • Is it clear where your links will lead?
    • Do you use frequent paragraphs in your posts?
    • Do you have comment links at the bottom of your post?
    • Do you use sub-headings?
    • Are your posts less than 2/3 screen-length wide?
    • Are you making your best posts easily accessible?
    • Are your links easy to pick out?

    All of these are things you should think about, and improve upon where needed, if you want your blog to be successful.

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42 Comments

Professional Online Publishing: New Media Trends, Communication Skills, Online Marketing

March 28th, 2008
at 8:27am

Chris PirilloIs Your Blog Usable, or a Jumbled Mess of Information?When someone visits your blog, can they find their way around easily? Is everything neatly organized on your site… or is it more of a jumbled mess of information, links and text? Here are some excellent tips to help you get (and keep!) your blog

My DElyMyth - /dev/null | DElyMyth - /dev/null

April 11th, 2008
at 4:00pm

Usate interruzioni di paragrafo frequenti? Avete link per commentare sotto i post? Insomma, sono cose magari piccole, ma che applicate possono rendere il vostro Blog infinitamente piu’ leggibile! [Chris Pirillo

Windows Vista Torrent

March 28th, 2008
at 9:24pm

Tech Interviews Learning how to Ride a Motorcycle What can You do in Alaska? Collectors Collect Collectables Norwegian FoodIs your Blog Usable, or a Jumbled Mess of Information?Buying Music ala Carte vs Renting with Subscriptions Jordanian Food Turkish Food (not Turkey) Are you the only Person who Isn?t Blogging? How to Manage your MP3 Files and Tags

2pactim

March 27th, 2008
at 10:15pm

i wouldn’t say junk but it does need to be updated or things need to be moved around imo

bokense

March 28th, 2008
at 12:05am

I mailed him this top 5 list :)

Stevenup7004

March 28th, 2008
at 1:06am

1337th comment.. why do you care? o_O

bokense

March 28th, 2008
at 1:06am

Think whatever you want but deep inside of you you know its a lie.

evan21293

March 28th, 2008
at 4:41am

Chris i am sorry but I think your blog is unorganized I never can figure just what i am supposed to be looking at.

linkmario2

March 28th, 2008
at 4:52am

fuck u u fucking geek ass mother fucker

spells14

March 28th, 2008
at 4:53am

i agree totally with you evan.. i have the same issue..

Halelujashit

March 28th, 2008
at 5:07am

i get this stuff in class nowadays this is Ianteraction design and i could gecognize hick’s and Fitt’s law from my classbook….

i guess it IS kinda usefull.

when u are interested in this interaction design things try to google dan saffer!

imsohood29

March 28th, 2008
at 5:55am

I cant really find where it starts or where the comments are

Jacob

March 28th, 2008
at 2:23am

Wow, first off something about the tagjag thing. I tried to leave a comment but I keep clicking on the tag for comment, confused me for ever.

Anyways, I hope your new design is better than this one, nothing against you but this website is hideous.

Tony Lawrence

March 28th, 2008
at 4:57am

The thing I struggle with is big index pages. There are some categories where I have many hundreds of posts. I can sort ‘em by date or by popularity but still it’s just a big clumsy list.

I think my next project is to front these with a “Best of..” page that will let you get to the full list if you really want to but otherwise just shows a handful.. of course identifying that handful is troublesome and constantly in flux.

nanciesweb

March 28th, 2008
at 1:48pm

To answer the title, it’s a jumble mess of information.

I’m working on changing that – eventually.

rebirth13579

March 28th, 2008
at 9:12am

Those are some really great tips!

I have never had a blog and as far as right now I do not belive i will have one. Though, I really do ant to make one and give it a try. With all the recent Top 5 blogs here it seems to be getting easier already when I have not even started.

If anything is a must is to be organized, when a blog or website of any kind is not organized you can count on me leaving because I am on a time limit and can not go around trying to find something when i dont have the time.

Great tips! Please keep them coming.

Cumbrowski

March 28th, 2008
at 11:09pm

getting back to the homepage from any detail page of your blog is hard to do. You either manipulate the URL or know that you can click on the Chris caricature on the right (below the fold). At the place where there should be a link to the homepage is banner ad instead.

gocyclones

March 28th, 2008
at 4:53pm

Well since my blog is still on the old WP Lockergnome site it is a mess. :P

Really I can’t wait until the drupal stuff get’s rolled out. I just did the exact same thing with the TagJag comment link at the bottom of this post. Having the comment link at the top is useless to me. I just read the article and now I want to comment on it, why do I have to go up to the top to do that?

hichez

March 28th, 2008
at 5:15pm

I think this is for websites, because usually blogging software and websites like blogger include feature like these built in. So unless you are a total goof and screw with the CSS and html I don’t think its going to be that much of a problem. The tutorial we need is how to coordinate colors. Something i go to site and I can even read the text.

visit me:
http://pixzel.blogspot.com/

Excessum

March 28th, 2008
at 6:56pm

A well written Top Five! I am not really good at blogging because the last blog was a utter mess…just horrible! :P

After watching the video and reading the list, I am…inspired(?) to start a blog again-this time in a orderly manner! Hehe.

Thanks to anybody who sent this in and thanks chris for reading it to us. :)

SerenadedAbyss

March 28th, 2008
at 7:33pm

Like always I find tips that I can use once in a while… I will use these tips for my blog so that its more streamlined and doesn’t have a lot of unneeded stuff on it… I will pass this along to a couple friends of mine… I think they will need these tips too.

BarricadeSlade

March 29th, 2008
at 4:27am

Anyone know where he got those backrounds, i’m in love with the m lol

Kevin S.

March 28th, 2008
at 9:46pm

Great tips. I am definitely going to keep these in mind, as I want to start my own blog. I’ll probably add these to my bookmarks.

Kevin S.

Intrepid

March 28th, 2008
at 10:46pm

These are really good tips. I’m about to move my blog to Wordpress (It looks so much better than blogspot), and then buy some webspace.

Josh Magelitz

March 28th, 2008
at 11:08pm

Very good tips, I’ve never started a blog but would maybe hope to start one up in the future.

Robert "macky"

March 28th, 2008
at 11:09pm

Back when I used to blog, my blog was pretty useful because I hand-coded it, and, throughout the coding, I used the KISS philosophy [keep it simple, stupid], and I soon discovered, there was such a thing as being to simple / to usable. I figured out that end users don’t generally like having very verbose things thrown at them, most people like fancy interfaces and whatnot. So as I’ve been working on version 2 of my blog, it’s been hard to keep in mind, where is the fine line between usability, jumbled mess, and what people want to see.

whoknew

March 28th, 2008
at 11:26pm

I am currently creating a CMS that is going to simplify my online experience! I know that I have tons of blogs and post many things over the internet that in turn make it extremely difficult to manage. I love the tips that you have you have posted here and I will be sure to put some of the tips in effect! Great Post!

Toastpaint

March 28th, 2008
at 11:38pm

Thank so much for this List, Chris!
I am setting up a blog very soon, and this will help me decide whether or not it is working.

Thanks,

Toast :)

iloveyoshi0xo

March 29th, 2008
at 5:26pm

I use firefox 2. I don’t really think I want to use beta 4 until the final version comes out.

dave

March 29th, 2008
at 12:16pm

Great tips, but I’m curious why you don’t follow them? Your page is a mess of information, and a video that automatically starts without my asking it to.

Is this a case of doing as I say, not do?

marz11

March 29th, 2008
at 11:58pm

dont get me wrong…i luv watching chris’s videos. he’s very entertaining and he’s very smart but sometimes the videos are just too long…

ToxicUH

March 31st, 2008
at 5:48am

Lol, I love his videos also. I don’t think there long enough :P

destructon62

April 3rd, 2008
at 8:23am

sometimes i like long videos

korockid

April 3rd, 2008
at 4:47pm

chris, you are a faggot ass n00b mactard.

go die in a white flurry of overpriced shitty white plastic.

koolmanv92

April 23rd, 2008
at 10:45am

does anyone know where to get the wall papers that he has

mayhempk1

April 25th, 2008
at 6:10am

ff2/3 and safari3 ftw

jedaqia

April 28th, 2008
at 2:03am

I think you might have a very common problem .ADD. Attention Deficit Disorder … err…or just being human. Some ppl can’t focus on one thing on one particular time. I also have that problems. I suggest while watching long videos, do something else & you just let yourself hear it. Something will definitely catch your attention & you can switch to watching. Put full volume by the way.

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