Overlapping 20 Popular Blogs

Aug 262009
 

Just playing around last night I decided to overlap 20 popular blogs ranked by fans on Technorati. I wanted to see if there was some hidden consistencies in their layouts. After I overlapped each blog at 10% opacity, I cranked the contrast, and this is the end result.

Headers

I think most of us would expect to find the header on top, and that is where it was prominent when I did the overlap. It was not the case for all blogs though. Many had ads on top, or even content snapshots that pushed the header with logo down as much as 300 pixels. I think mine will stay where it is. Continue reading »

Poll – Do you prefer to subscribe to blogs by email or RSS?

Jul 302009
 

I almost completely forgot this weeks poll! Over the past week or so, I have read a few studies on how a large percentage of users don’t use the RSS buttons to subscribe to a feed. Many use emails. What I see on some of the sites that publish their numbers though, is that it’s the other way around. So this leads me to this weeks poll

Here is the poll: Do you prefer to subscribe to blogs by email or RSS?

Archive of Previous Polls on BWI

Easy to Find Recent Articles

Sep 102008
 

One of the great things about blogs is their natural method to display recently added articles. Whether you have a regular website or a blog, an important feature to have on your home page is an easy method to access recently published material.

It’s Gone Now!

Here is something I hate, and I am sure many others do as well. I find a link or article on the home page of a website one day, and when returning at a later date no longer being able to find it. A common occurrence for websites and blogs is to have their newest items posted on their home page, not a problem. The problem kicks in when it gets buried into some unknown directory. The visitors hopelessly struggles to find that article that they know they saw on your site. Blogs are great at avoiding this, mostly because their default templates include an automated archive.

The Archives

On blogs, archiving old posts are automatic. On this particular site, I show the last five posts on the home page. One could use the “Previous Entries” link at the bottom, or simply use the archives I have in the left menu. Items are archived by category, and by the last three months of material. What if those don’t work? Use the search function. I can’t be expected to keep recent posts on top forever you know. At a certain point, usability falls onto the responsibility of the user. They have a bookmark function for their browser, they can use that if it is that important.

Looking at this Lixux Server Blog, you can see another example of archiving. Though they don’t show the months archives, they include direct links to all of their recent posts in their right side bar. Monthly archives in their case would be an uneccessary step because posts are not made frequently enough to need it. It would simply be more work for the visitor to use a monthly archive.

On a basic website, archives are still important. If you run an online store you could have an archive of recent promotions, if you have an educational site you could have an archive up the latest updates, and so on. Whatever it is new that you put on your site on a regular basis, inlclude an easy to find archive of recent updates.

Where do you put the archive? On the home page! You don’t have to have the entire archive listed there though. A simple link to an archive page is good enough. The goal is to give your visitors a method to find the recent stuff.

Forcing Eyes Into Content

Sep 062008
 

Last week I took on a quest to look at 1,000 blogs and websites. I was looking for that special something that draws me into a site, and actually read some of their content. Well I found something, and to no surprise to some, it was images.

The Biggest Draw

skincare 300x142

What I found after looking at all those sites is the power of the image. I’m sure that most of you have heard “An image is worth a 1,000 words”, and that fact is important here. On the web most people scan for content. We read headers only, we skim text at best, and we look for lists. One of the best methods to quickly gain information is to scan images. They provide massive amounts of information in seconds.

While on my quest of 1,000 blogs I also came across many websites, and the fact stayed the same. Images get you to look. The screen shot you see here is from a skin cream manufacturer. They used a basic shopping cart software to host their site. I could have easily skipped over this site without paying much attention, but the image draws attention. They also had images of their products on the home page, something I would also strongly suggest if you run an online store.

What Kind of Images?

Well their were all sorts of images that got me to look a little deeper, and on all sorts of different kind of site layouts. A few keys I found were:

  • Make your image fairly large – 300 pixels or so wide
  • Center it in your layout – So it is obviously the first thing you should look at
  • Keep it above the fold – Obviously you don’t want to hide it if you are using it to draw visitors in

This doesn’t work for everyone’s layout though, like mine for instance. I do plan on adding something though to get that walker by to look though. The image draws you in.

Here are two other things I noticed. Images with animals almost always got me to look. This might be just a personality thing though, so don’t go designing a site with animals all over it just because I like to see pictures of them. I don’t consider myself a big animal fanatic, so I do wonder what the connection is, and if others have noticed this.

The other thing I saw, and it really started to bug me was YouTube videos. I saw a ton of blogs with YouTube videos. Videos are great, but they come at a price. The video screen shot takes longer to load than the rest of the site. When I looked at all those sites the video at first seemed like a good idea. Then I turned, and started thinking, “another stupid video”, then it turned into “done looking at that site” the second I saw it had a video. I do not have a problem with YouTube videos, but I am thinking you might want to be careful where you place it.

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