Kamigoroshi
12-16-2007, 06:22 AM
I blog at Footsteps in the Mirror (http://kamigoroshi.net) and usually about once a year or so, I change my blog design as the wind blows. While I've had this current design for almost a year now (which I built from scratch) and a lot of people say it looks nice, I haven't really had any comments from new users regarding the both its design and its practicality.
Now my blog is a personal and commentary blog and a lot of what I post are words which are rarely punctuated with pictures. Because of that, what I did was separate the blog into 3 sections.
The first being the top layer where the latest posts, asides, 3 random posts and my twitter (http://twitter.com/kamigoroshi) posts are highlighted.
The second is my main content where subsequent posts after my latest posts are placed chronologically.
The third is my right sided sidebar which displays elements which I feel are most important first to the least important last.
If possible, check out the blog first before reading any further and comparing it to what I hoped to achieve.
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The idea here is that newcomers to my blog don't have to necessarily read the first post. They can scan through the other things that I write to get a good idea of what my blog is about. Because many of my single posts aren't interesting on their own, I hoped that by maximizing the display of older posts without cluttering the page up too much, new readers are more likely to stay and perhaps subscribe to my blog.
So at the end of it, the single post pages for the blog doesn't have this kind of elaborate setup, instead focusing on the post itself with previous posts and comments on the sidebar. The single posts are more minimalistic but shouldn't skimp on the important parts.
Assuming that all of you haven't read my blog, what's the first impression you have when reading my blog? If you like personal posts, does it strike you? If you like commentaries, does it strike you as well. Would you check the archives or spend more time going through random posts? Is it practical? Does everything have its place and is there a place for everything?
You can say whatever first impressions on your minds about my blog. I'll take it into consideration when I'm rebuilding (or retweaking) the blog theme again soon.
Now my blog is a personal and commentary blog and a lot of what I post are words which are rarely punctuated with pictures. Because of that, what I did was separate the blog into 3 sections.
The first being the top layer where the latest posts, asides, 3 random posts and my twitter (http://twitter.com/kamigoroshi) posts are highlighted.
The second is my main content where subsequent posts after my latest posts are placed chronologically.
The third is my right sided sidebar which displays elements which I feel are most important first to the least important last.
If possible, check out the blog first before reading any further and comparing it to what I hoped to achieve.
__________________________________________________ ______________
The idea here is that newcomers to my blog don't have to necessarily read the first post. They can scan through the other things that I write to get a good idea of what my blog is about. Because many of my single posts aren't interesting on their own, I hoped that by maximizing the display of older posts without cluttering the page up too much, new readers are more likely to stay and perhaps subscribe to my blog.
So at the end of it, the single post pages for the blog doesn't have this kind of elaborate setup, instead focusing on the post itself with previous posts and comments on the sidebar. The single posts are more minimalistic but shouldn't skimp on the important parts.
Assuming that all of you haven't read my blog, what's the first impression you have when reading my blog? If you like personal posts, does it strike you? If you like commentaries, does it strike you as well. Would you check the archives or spend more time going through random posts? Is it practical? Does everything have its place and is there a place for everything?
You can say whatever first impressions on your minds about my blog. I'll take it into consideration when I'm rebuilding (or retweaking) the blog theme again soon.