Does Blog Design Matter?

[ses5909]

I'm not talking about for your blog.. when you go to a blog for the first time. Does the design matter?

I blogged about if blog design matters (http://www.theblogexperiment.com/blog/2007/07/30/how-important-is-your-blog-design/) and I would be interested to hear other's opinions.

[Cedric]

Personally if I visit a blog site that is way too colorful and the designs take too long to load, that's it, I'm outta the blog. It's very important because sometimes good design soothe your eyes. You tend to have the interest to stay longer. I don't know if I should call it MAGIC. But good design definitely makes me stay

[Jeremy]

I'm a very visual person, so I can say that without a doubt, design does matter. Now, I may not look at a site and immediately pass judgment on it, but if the design is clunky, makes stuff hard to find or is otherwise difficult to read, even if I'm not actively thinking about the design I'll be turned off subconsciously.

A lot of people say design doesn't matter because most of your regular readers probably follow you through RSS, which is true. And if your goal is to only reach those regulars, you can probably get away with a poor design. But if you intend on grabbing new readers who come via search engines, stumbleupon or any other outside source, ALL they see is the design. The content they came to see might be pure gold, but you generally only have a few seconds to make a good impression to make them stick around and before they dig into reading they will be presented with your overall layout and design.

So, I think it depends on your audience and the purpose of your blog as to how important design is. Clearly there are examples of sites that look like a pile of dog poo, yet have tens of thousands of subscribers, just as you have sites that look simply amazing, yet have very few readers. It might not make or break your blog, but it can certainly enhance it.

[HAWK]

I'm with Jeremy. Bad design definitely turns me off. If the content is amazing then I'll not veto it all together, but crappy visuals will give the blog a definite handicap when it comes to getting my attention.

[Harrison]

I prefer those clean and nice design especially those can help me to search what I want easily. I think every visitor to our blog is same - looking for information. So the most important element of a good design is helping your visitors to read and make their eyes comfortable.

[Megan]

I prefer those clean and nice design especially those can help me to search what I want easily. I think every visitor to our blog is same - looking for information. So the most important element of a good design is helping your visitors to read and make their eyes comfortable.

Amen to that!

Clean and Simple is the way to go for me.

Usability and Design need to be taken into account equally.

[Oliver]

I guess yes and no because if you could had a white page with black text then you'd be getting your post across easily for everybody to read. Although if the design is done well enough then you could create something soft and comfortable for your readers and focus them wherever you want.

[goldfries]

I'd say design is important. :)

A blog, just like any website, is like a house.

Sure, you can have your whole house with minimal furniture (eg plain page, white background with black text. nothing else) or you could decorate it nicely, leaving a more welcoming feeling and makes your visitors feel like coming again. :D

having a design is like having an identity, which is why I don't use freely available themes.

[Jelena]

While it's not the most important thing to me, it does matter. Some blogs that I track through bloglines, I don't visit very often if they publish complete entry in their rss, so I don't mind how they really look. But, if I get a desire to comment on it, I eventually visit them.

For new blogs I explore, yeah, it is very important to me to easily find things I usually check:
About me page, rss feed, and categories. I actually also like when people write how many posts they have in each category. That's one way of finding out what's the main topic a person is blogging about.

[millzee11]

I'm not talking about for your blog.. when you go to a blog for the first time. Does the design matter?

I blogged about if blog design matters (http://www.theblogexperiment.com/blog/2007/07/30/how-important-is-your-blog-design/) and I would be interested to hear other's opinions.

I think content it still king, but once you have your blog establish try and work on the design if it needs it.

[rodaniel]

Content is king and RSS is an awesome way to get that content delivered right to your doorstep. There are, for example, blogs for which I regularly read the RSS feeds that are not well-designed when you arrive at the site.

But if you're inspired (or upset or curious) enough by an article to followup with a comment, you'll have to click thru the feed link and actually visit the blog site. Then the design factor kicks in!

[adalante]

I think design plays a very important part, most people are captured visually and i think that's how the iPod got it's fans :P, i'm in the midst of redesigning my blog now as i think it's a little messy as it is.

[goldfries]

sometimes we think DESIGN = woaaahhhhhhh fancy flash and all!

not really. when we talk about DESIGN, it's not about wow factors - at least not to me.

to me. DESIGN is a matter of
- having a look at feel that suits your content
- comfortable to the eyes

i personally prefer clean feel. unfortunately not all my clients see that.

[ses5909]

A layout and usability is also very important to design. if your navigation is down the right side of your page, that isn't very intuitive for people!

[goldfries]

yup. layout and usability as well.

[samwoodfin]

A layout and usability is also very important to design. if your navigation is down the right side of your page, that isn't very intuitive for people!

It is if you're a Mac user. :)

[ses5909]

It is if you're a Mac user. :)

but how often do you see that in a website? Generally its in the top or left right?

[samwoodfin]

Actually, I see it in a lot of blogs. We've been trained to seek out the navbar or sidebar. So long as it's not at the bottom, it's pretty easy to pick out.

[dojo]

Good unique design is important for anything we present on the web. Don't see why a blog should make any difference. So yeah, I do consider that design matters a lot