Is It a Blog? a Website?

No, it’s a weblog! Confused yet?

Well, don’t be embarassed by it because a study by Shel Holtz at WebProNews.com shines some light to the agenda, Blog Design An Obstacle To Acceptance. His study was about the usability of blogs. Not only in terms of design but the overall view of it. The study was conducted by enlisting few users who are web-savvy but didn’t know much about blogs.

A clear example of how even a web-savvy person might not be as knowledgeable as the blogger was proven when Shel said;

Most didn’t know they were looking at a blog at all and were surprised and confused when told they were.

The study performed was well thought and definetely proofs itself as a simple guideline most corporate or content focus blogs should adopt. Not only did the study explain how the more simpler users see blogs but also it reminded me of what it was like visiting something new.

I believe the study came at the right time since I’m planning to revamp soon. It opened up my options again and made me think back if I really should combine the blog and portfolio together. In the study, users were even confused by the consistent look of the blog and the original website. This made me think that having a consistent design of both blog and portfolio might not be a good thing.

There’s really quite a few pointers I’d suggest most serious bloggers to look at when reading the summary. Here’s the short list from it:

• Always have the word ‘blog’ that can be visually seen.
• Authorial photos and articles (that’s what the users refered) aren’t signifiers.
• Submitting comments to a blog is not universally understood.
• Declare the purpose of RSS terminology and mechanisms.
• The most recent post on the top doesn’t adhere to conventional web behaviour any longer.
• Mainstream consumer expectations far outstrip implementation of blog interface and feature elements.

Get a hold of the PDF copy from his website if you can. In the summary, you’ll be able to read the user responses when asked to perform certain tasks as well as their understanding of certain elements. This is why sometimes we need to setup a few pesonas for ourselves before just jumping into a project. And I feel a little ashamed to have forgotten the small percentage of these people. sigh..