D is for Design

When I visit a new blog I can be very judgemental. If it doesn’t look visually appealing then I probably won’t stay long, and I certainly won’t return. The design is very important. Obviously everyone has different opinions on what they like, but for me……

• it should look full but not cluttered,
• clean and fresh,
• have big bright photos or images,
• have a readable font in a normal size (nothing too fancy or small),
• definitely not have white writing on a dark background,
• it should be simple to navigate – I especially want to find the about me section, the follow button and the blog archive easily

I can see I need to improve my sidebar areas and make sure navigation around the site is easy. My blog can look a little cluttered sometimes, but I like the double sidebar layout for now. Perhaps it looks cleaner with one sidebar and a larger blog post area, but then I find too many things listed in the sidebar so it becomes a longer process scrolling down to find things.

I’d be interested to hear what you think are the key design elements, and what changes you’ve made to simplify your own blog layout.