Isn’t conceived and given birth in an overnight effort. Since blogs emerged and are now being taken seriously by corporate bodies, blog designing is evolving with the need of standards compliancy and functional purpose. It’s maturing quicker than we think as more corporate blogs arise and adding to that, some companies are even hiring writers for their blogs.
So, with that cleared out. Let’s start what’s really needed in search of that ‘perfect’ blog layout. Well, you’d definetely need to figure out the content and try to narrow that down. Once that’s done, you’d want to see your competitors online who blog about the same thing. Then add something unique to your entries every time you’re posting. Even an additional cartoon to illustrate how you felt while posting might help. ;)
Now comes the fun part with lots of work. But not to worry, there’s a very good guide that’s been written by Peter @ Almost Cool, HERE. I simply enjoyed his article and it gave me more confidence to make sure I’m producing a functional design for my upcoming revamp later.
In his article, his guidance on how to come about the perfect layout is a contextual visualisation to success. Whilst reading it, images were already forming in my mind on what needs I’d have to fulfill in my revamp later on. He strongly suggests that ideas should be sketched, arrow-ed, labeled, and scribbled if possible.
A perfect layout should be able to provide a richer user experience. One such example, as I quote Peter:
“Real†design flows from the content. It supports and augments it through non-verbal connotations and subconscious cues. It leads the user’s eye where you want it to be led.
I believe that the more columns you plan to use, the harder it is to guide to user’s eye. However, not to worry since colors can sometimes do wonders for you. :) I’m not really prepared to explain in detail my whole process on designing a blog but would place that somewhere atop my list after the revamp.
In the meantime, is your blog layout functional enough?