Jakob Nielsen of Useit.com recently posted his yearly Web Design Mistakes that created an uproar. BusinessLogs stood up to Jakob‘s annual findings along with some others who defended their views from the field.
But soon after, Jakob then posted his Top Ten Design Mistakes of weblog usability. This time he decided to reveal obvious usability secrets of maintaining a good weblog.
However, note that as much as Jakob is as much a guru in usability, Steve Krug is also considered one because usability at times is mere common sense. ;)
Jakob revealed the ten repeated mistakes found on new and existing blogs to help old and new, reach a wider audience and as he put it; ‘respect your existing readers’ time constraints’. Respecting the readers’ time is something new to me since most people do take time off in work and relax by enjoying one or two blogs.
I’m going to test the mistakes against my current weblog design and layout. I’m not surprised that already there are few common mistakes. I know this cause I actually read his article before posting this.
1. No Author Biographies
Yes, no ones knows what I do unless they visit my mini portfolio of projects and read my concise biography.
2. No Author Photo
I’m working on that for the new design though I’m not sure if it’s considered a photo. ;)
3. Nondescript Posting Titles
This, I try to hold a strict discipline ever since I started this blog. Before the switch to MT 3.2, I used to think title text that continuously linked to the introduction of the body text was cool. It was like this:
A Creative Designer Needs
To be the bla bla bla..
The other reason I hold the discipline now is for the benefit of Google sniffing. (if there is any)
4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go
Using cool link titles like this is so cool creates a disadvantage to the expectation of the viewer. From my opinion, it’s not to say totally wrong since this plays with human curiosity. So maybe the best way to put this is that it’s a bad habit to pickup.
Link titles should be kept as accurate to the article context as possible while maintaining a certain length as not to disrupt the layout.
5. Classic Hits are Buried
Ho ho. This, Darren also has time and time again advised many probloggers to do. If there’s a good article or related article to a potential great post, you need to link it to your current entry. Not only does this promote more page views but it allows your visitor to discover more of your value.
6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation
This one I’ve not used for a very long time. I don’t find the calendar on my weblog that effective enough as a navigation unless your method of posting revolves around the dates.
7. Irregular Publishing Frequency
One of the other commandments in becoming a problogger or a good blog author, try to maintain a regular publishing schedule. However, to me this also should count for replacing missed days. Kinda like if I’m suppose to blog an entry a day and I blogged two yesterday, I’m able to replace the next day. :P
8. Mixing Topics
It isn’t great for a weblog to be known as a source for frequent website design articles with frequent entries of funny doodads. Even if you wanted to mix topics, make sure that they’re closely related and doesn’t stray too far from the niche topic.
9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss
This was a weird one. This mistake I think shouldn’t be considered a very serious mistake because a weblog is a personal journal. As much as anyone likes to call it a marketing tool or something else, a weblog maintains as a place used to voiced personal opinions. If my future boss actually tells me that I need to stop writing bad things about whatever, then I’d rather advise the boss to stop reading my blog.
You don’t have to read a blog if you don’t like the content. You can police your employee but not the author of the internet. His blog isn’t working directly under you.
10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service
This is one of the factors why I started posting about Domain Names. While everyone is going to have a name.blogspot.com account soon, their name.com won’t be available anymore later. So watcha gonna do? Watcha gonna do when there’s no domain for you?
Other than reading Jakob’s article, the comments left on ProBlogger was very insightful and some of the commenters added other common mistakes that they found.
I think you misunderstood no 9. Jako means that since whatever you post online ends up cached and archived elsewhere, one day in the future, when someone wants to know more about you (like a potential employer, a girl interested in you, a future mother-in-law(!)), they could search for your name and find your blog and your posts. So it’s important to remember that if you don’t want certain people to read a post, either don’t post it or password-protect it.
Hmm, I suppose that was another way of viewing it. Anyway, the belief I suppose is still the same. :)