As blog design has evolved, getting a theme has become easier. Premium themes have become more advanced and allow for simpler customization to be done by the owner. However, just because you buy a theme and use it straight out of the box from a site like WooThemes doesn’t mean you have a design that “works.”
Custom themes are becoming more and more of a necessity rather than a luxury, and bloggers are becoming more involved in the coding and technical aspects of their design. More and more people are starting to do it themselves, and relying on their own skills rather than the skills of others.
Some just outsource the work to others. But still, more and more people understand the importance of a blog design, and are investing their time and money into getting one that works.
As someone who has always created a custom theme for his blogs, I can definitely tell you that it pays off. But, it’s not easy to just start designing.
As a minor continuation of an article I published last week which I revealed how I learned to design, I created a checklist of things you need to make sure your blog design has in order for it to be a success.
Now I have written a lot about design in the past few weeks. I suggest you go through the design category here and read over the articles in there. They are highly informative, and will help you make some important decisions about your blog design.
The Designers Checklist
For those of you who are diving into the world of custom blog designing, I suggest you make sure all the following elements are intact with any design you put out.
1. The “WOW” Factor
There should be something about your design that on first glance will amaze anyone who looks at it. The more aesthetically pleasing you can make your blog (without losing functionality), the better it will be for your “WOW” factor.
Your “WOW” factor can be anything really. It can be something simple like your logo, some nice typography, or even the colors you use. If you’re more advanced in graphics design, you can create cool illustrations and place them throughout your design. See: Tutorial9’s header.
2. Easy navigation
Every part of your blog needs to be easily accessible. From the navigation links in your header, to the archives page, navigation is one of the most important parts of your blog design. If no one can get anywhere, what’s the point of viewing your blog?
There are many forms of navigation. You can design how people travel through your site in any way you want. But, when it comes to navigating — you need to keep it simple. Being innovative is great, but getting too fancy in your navigation is risky.
Smashing Magazine has a giant list of some nice navigation trends, if you think seeing them will help you come up with some cool navigation elements.
3. Emphasis
This is an important element too, especially on a blog design. The one thing that should be emphasized the most on a blog is, without question, the content area.
All throughout Design Versus Week, I talked about two different elements of a blog design that had impact on how much your content stands out.
Since blogs are often packed full of information, it’s easy to create clutter and end up with less emphasis on the things you want to stand out. A lot of bloggers’ go wrong by filling their design with ads, and for that, well — you’re on your own.
4. Memorability
What’s so memorable about the blog design you have? When I visit a blog that has a premium theme I’ve seen dozens of times, it’s obviously not memorable for its own look, but for the look it shares with dozens, if not hundreds of other blogs.
Have some sort of element that is unique to your own blog. Even if it’s a custom theme that isn’t anything great, you still have a better chance of it being remembered because it’s unique to YOUR blog.
5. Minor Details
The smaller details of a blog design are often left uncared-for. I blame the name of it, it’s called minor details. Of course not many people know to take care of those things.
But the truth it, the minor details (such as the font used in the body, or an icon being placed in the sidebar) are just as important as anything else. I believe that you don’t need a design with flashy graphics or complex illustrations, so long as you take into account the smaller, finer details.
What’s on your list?
When you go to change your blog design, what are the things you look for? I told you five of the many things I look at when I design my blogs, so I’m interested in hearing some of the things you look at.
Contribute to 2.0!
I plan to write a checklist 2.0, and want to include your suggestions in it. I want this to get big guys (I’m talking a possible free, comprehensive eBook one day), so give me all of your suggestions for the next version of this list!
26 Discussions
Just a few hours ago I read an article on same topic from weFunction and contemplated it for a while to come to almost same conclusion, but somehow you are better in translation them to such words that it’s a piece of cake.
I’ve bookmarked this one and previous two articles to read again while I am working on upcoming things.
King Sidharth´s last blog ..Why ‘King’ Sidharth – the Secret Behind ‘King’
I think the design should be soothing to the eyes. It should not be very bright and not very dark. It should something in between so that readers are able to read without any strain.
Gautam Hans @ Blog Godown´s last blog ..The “4 Move Checkmate” of Blogging
I love the way you promote great design alongside great content. It’s an excellent list you have here. I find that we often become satisfied with the big elements somewhere in the development process and then later, a month down the road, the little things start annoying us. It’s best to have this list handy from the beginning of a design or re-design.
Hmm! Only 2 and 4. Need to give emphasis to others.
By the way please do a detailed post on how to create the WOW Factor.
Agent Deepak | Blogging. Marketing & Success´s last blog ..Interview with Lee Ka Hoong of My Blog 2 Day
I just want to add that a blog design that is easy to navigate would also benefit your readers who use assistive technology in accessing your blogs. Persons with special needs who use assistive software are a very loyal group, so if you show that you spent time making your blog accessible, they’ll greatly appreciate it and recommend your site to other people.
Julius´s last blog ..The Challenges of Blind Internet Users
Great checklist. I am gonna try them in my projects.
Thanks!
Chris-Daily Health Care Tips´s last blog ..Fastest Way To Lose Weight. Important Info On Losing Weight Fast
Excellent stuff, thanks. I’ll pass this list on to our Designer. He could do with a quick reminder!
Andy @ FirstFound´s last blog ..Four Ways You’ve Failed Your Website
Hi Alex,
This is a great post and a must read for anybody who wants to have a good website design. Your blog should be easily navigable and also have a “wow” factor i.e. should also be attractive.
Thanks for the great post,
Onibalusi
Onibalusi Bamidele´s last blog ..5 Reasons Why You Must Build Your Mailing list now
The most important thing for me would be navigation/usability. Assuming one didn’t just happen to stumble across your blog accidentally, they came for a purpose, one purpose, and that’s your content.
WOW is great if not overdone, but that will last but a minute. I’d much rather be memorable for what I offer, then looking pretty.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..TweetMeme Installed! I Have Some Questions…
This is a great checklist that I’ll be using when creating a customized theme for my own blog. Pretty excited about it.
Moon Hussain´s last blog ..11 Ways to Make Passive Income
Great list. I recently re-designed my blog and I am very happy to say that, for at least me, my blog meets those standards.
Glen´s last blog ..Ditch The Default Design!
As I transition from a free site to having a domain/hosted site: “I need to have harmony between my domain name, site logo, site theme and overall design and layout.” I am a firm believer in brand creation, which gives a lasting impression and impacts the visitor. I came to this site via Michael Dunlop (the UK genius). I stayed on the site because you have ALL the elements in place for the first time visitor and better yet, for folks like me to return.
Leon Aldrich´s last blog ..Twitter Suspends Account for Tnavres64
Well explained list as always.
Brad´s last blog ..Surfing Angourie Back In The Day
Well, the first list is my problem? How can I have a WOW factor when I’m just using free template that I’ve tweaked?
Reza Winandar´s last blog ..5 Types of Comments That Attract Attention
Great list, one thing I do regularly on my blogs is going over them and “de-clutter” them. For me the best design tip is having a design that follows the KISS prinicples and, yes, that is easy to navigate. I pay special attention to the adspaces I have to avoid that my blog get taken over by them. As for my favorite blog design tips, that would be having a custom header and favicon! SY
PS I see you have set comments to be nofoloow now, too many spammers?
hospitalera´s last blog ..Improvements on Ceramic Sinks
Great post. For me 2nd and 3rd is the most important. Anyway a Good Blog should follow all the checklist. Your Blog is exactly following all the checklist. Nice Blog man..
Chandan Dutta´s last blog ..Can You Rank in First Page Of Google Without Any Content?
I think your design should be like a perfect departmental store where everything is well organised and give freedom to people to roam here and there.
There should be proper guidance at where buyer (visitors) can get their favourite things.
Web Marketing Tips´s last blog ..Facebook drops “Become a Fan” button for “Like” button
That’s great that you try to balance readability with a good style. When I “designed” my blog, I wanted to make sure it was easy to get around and that the content stuck out.
That’s about the extent of my design though lol. It doesn’t have a wow factor really. I have tried to involve the little things though in a lot of things I do, not just designing my site.
Great post!
Christopher´s last blog ..Passive Income: Creating Income When You Can’t Work
Excellent checklist. The Wow factor is very important since it’s what hooks people in (especially if they’re coming through stumble upon). I also need to work on the little details.
I love your blog design btw – it definitely has the “wow factor”
wpBlast´s last blog ..Sites Powered by Wordpress #1
I think this was a nice review of the basic bits of good blogging. I did pull my WOW factor straight out of the box, but I think my audience is unaware that I purchased it from Rocket.
Ben in Asia´s last blog ..Western vs Eastern Food Choices
Great article, some really nice tips here.
inspirationfeed´s last blog ..55 Captivating Examples of Illustration Art
I thought this article was right on target. Nothing confusing about it. Straight to the point and the message clear.
I am so interested in designing my own site off of the Thesis template I bought through this site. Right now my blog is on a Wordpress template (eDegree) and I really want to make it my own. This article definitely gives me some tips.
What are the best articles you’ve seen about how to tweak Thesis?
Mike Mintz´s last blog ..Three Tips for Online Work Life Balance
On top of that list I would add width of the text area. Well maybe minor details include this already.
Hmm. and I’ve been told that there should only be so much text at one page and if you have more to say you should divide your post to different pages by using “next page” icons. And they weren’t talking about 10 typed A4′s, more like one A4. They said it’s easier to read. Not sure about this one though. Doesn’t it worsen the navigation of the site?
I have a doubt to ask to alex,(sorry im new to blogging),You dont have any adsense ads on your posts,Very few affiliate links.But how to you make enough money blogging?Does blogussion theme gives you all the money or do you do any other services?If you can reply here mail me at sweet7rock@gmail.com ,thanks in advance
hi aaslin, it looks like he is selling a product (big banner in the right side bar). That’s how he is making money probably
Jamelia´s last blog ..How to Earn Money With Flickr
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