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Archived in Spending hours on a blog post can be a waste of sweat and tears if visitors don’t stop for a read, which is why blog design is so important. Blogs should be functional, easy to navigate and easy on the eye. So you should think carefully about the elements you need to include and how your blog can reflect your personality.
Good blog design aids readability, and provides an elegant frame in which your carefully chosen words can shine.
Pulling readers into your content
Web visitors are a judgemental bunch, with the attention spans of gnats. So your blog design needs to tell them at a glance what you’re about and whether they might be interested in what you have to say.
Your blog’s header is the first element people will focus on when they arrive. So it should reflect your personality and appeal to your target audience if it’s going to pull them into your writing. Many aspects of a blog can be easily customised yourself. But if you really want your blog to pull in readers then paying for a professionally designed header can be a canny investment.
Your header can be used to display your logo, illustrate your topic or to feature a slogan telling people what you’re all about.
Other elements
You want to keep people engaged with and reading your blog for as long as possible. So deciding where to position elements that helps them navigate your content is worth some planning.
Elements could include an author bio, subscription options, links to recent posts and a search box so people can delve into your archives. The most important links should be kept above the fold, which means they should be visible to every visitor without the need to scroll down the screen.
Links to your Twitter and Facebook profiles are also popular, but you should be careful not to clutter up your blog’s sidebar. You don’t want visitors feeling overpowered by too much going on and clicking away in confusion. Sometimes simplicity is best.
Minimalist style or action packed collage?
In basic terms, minimalist blogs are carefully arranged to feature plenty of white space and evenly arranged images. Links and widgets are kept to a minimum so that visitors’ attention is focused on the blog’s actual content.
Alternately, you could take the approach adopted by many graphic designers and fill up the screen with graphics, logos and customised icons. There’s a fine line between creating an impression of organised chaos or a blog designed by a child left alone with the crayons. But when done well it’s certainly eye catching.
Top Ten Beautiful Blog Designs
Here’s a mixture of different blog styles, layouts and personalities. Whether minimalist, collage or retro, what these blogs all have in common is that they’re excellent examples of beautiful blog design:
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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Great post! I am a very visual person and so I always tend to take the time to read blogs that “look pretty”… It may be silly, but it is something I just cannot help.
Next on the list of things to do… Spice up my own blog! Thanks!
August 18th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Hey ! Thanks for featuring my website, completely designed by soulvisual (so talentuous )