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Ask the Reader: Blog Usability
Happy Valentines Day! Today's hot topic will not be this consumer driven holiday though. As you might have already noticed, I'm a part-time graphic designer. Actually, it is more of a hobby. This means I'm not a ninja (coder) but I know enough HTML to get my template to do what I want it to do. Nevertheless, I feel it is not perfect and some of my friends So, I asked for help from experts! Fortunately, Jeff Atwood from Coding Horror was very kind to take time and give me with the following advice:
"It looks fine, but if it were my blog, I would reduce the size and number of graphics.
I'd also remove the star ratings, the email / social bookmark links, the 'translate' panel, and other items that are unlikely to be used.
I would also move 'Fresh Comments' up on the right hand side above subscribe. Also, I think 'About Me (My profile, contact me)' should be higher than the bottom of the page."
I thought of removing the star ratings before but I changed my mind when I saw that whenever people don't comment on the post they tend to use the rating to provide quick feedback. However, it was a heavy drag on loading time and removing them made a huge difference. Perhaps the reason why I get so few comments is because it makes you visit another page to leave one (or you guys are just too lazy =). I think I need to move the 'leave a comment' box under the comments and eliminate the unnecessary step.
I am not sure how to proceed with the other suggestions so I need your view on this. If you are against the removal of any of the features listed in this poll below or there is something else not mentioned, please help me improve my blog by leaving a comment. Your feedback is very valuable and much appreciated!
Note to Internet Explorer users: there is a comments link at the bottom right corner of each post but it seems to be invisible for some reason. I have to find a solution for that sometime soon but if you can't locate it, feel free to leave a message in MyBlogLog community.
24 thoughts:
Sometimes I come across a French blog and I need to click the translate button in order to understand what I'm reading. My suggestion is you shouldn't remove it!
I think your blog is fine the way it is.
I'd lose the translate page personally. I agree with the other guy though...if you think of terms of a total stranger to your site, what are the first things you want them to see/know about you and your site? I would make an 'about' the highest thing on your sidebar and it almost always helps to have a picture of yourself there too...helps us all know who's talking. I'm also an RSS-aholic and I like it when I see that big huge RSS Feed icon right near the top. If you use anything like google analytics, you should look at your statistics to see how many people actually click on all of that stuff you mention as possible fodder...just my $.02 worth
I think everything looks great, only it feels like the fonts used on your site are too big. I know that I can change this via my browser, but I just wanted to share my input. One size smaller looks perfect, but that is just my opinion!
I think you should tone down the font size in addition to Jeff's suggestions.
Also, you have two paypal buttons in your sidebar. I would lose one.
Hey ilker now that your blog loads up quickly you should not be worried. Forget about taking anything out, your blog is better than before.I kinda agree with that guy about removing ratings. And I appreciate that you listen to others
Oh please don't remove the translator--you are so amusing in Latin.
Cogito sumere potum alterum
~Becky
Happy Valentine day love!! Valentine day is not about buying things! It's about getting one free.. Oh wait! You probably don't want to know that!..
For the blog I say simplicity is the best policy!.. And good\great content!
Lots of love and turtles!
I really think your blog is fine the way it is. It loaded quite fast for me and if you have already spent the time adding all of this stuff to your blog why change it?
Thanks for becoming a blog admirer of mine! I am going to try and add yours right now, if I can figure out how!
Thank you all for your feedback! I created a new post with the updates.
I like the format the way it is now. It has very clean aesthetics. I like the fact that the RSS button is big and easy to see. Too many blogs make subscribing difficult - and then they wonder why no one subscribes.
As far as improvements, I agree that an about section (even if it just describes the purpose of the blog) would be very helpful.
Tedders
I think your layout is generally fine, I agree with others that the profiles should be higher up the page and I'm not sold on those BIG pixelated feed and bookmarking buttons.
Your new design is clearer but I find the top menus too small , and the time of loading too long on Mac with firefox, the new functionalities are cool, fonts are too big in the titles. It is what I think, have a good day.
i like the modified design, big and colorful RSS del.ico.us icons look better, also the new(horizontal) chip -in.
Well new is perfect acoording to me the only thing i would like to suggest you should increase width of the side bar.rest is fine.
N dont remove the translate button.
ilker, your site is loading much faster now!
it maybe a good idea to move the post comment box to page one (yes, people are lazy).
Your blog appeals to me because of its content and structure. Somehow, however, the colors in the previous layout gave me a "fun and warmer" feeling. I get a "dark and serious" feeling from the current configuration of colors. My preference is for a color scheme that radiates a "fun and warmer" feeling. I hope my 'babbling' makes sense to you.
Best regards,
Rod.
@Rodking: You are right. However, I didn't change any colors. I changed some of the fonts.
Changing the font type of the top navigation bar and the side bar to a Sans Serif gave it a more serious look because apparently all professional websites use it.
Sans Serif fonts are meant to be designed for the net and Serif fonts (like the way my posts currently look) are designed for print. I didn't change the font type for the posts because I wanted to keep that "fun and warm" look.
Thank you for sharing your views though. Its always nice to hear different and constructive comments.
hey there, good and interesting blog you have here :) wow, full page template, nice..I think putting babel fish altavista translator tool would b cool for non-english readers ? cheers ! :)
@Melting Wok: Thank you for comment. I have decided to remove the translate panel because my reader friends think it is unlikely to be used (26 people out of 46 who voted in the poll above). On the other hand, with you included there were only 3 people who think it might be useful.
If you would like to read this site in your own language, you can bookmark the links below:
The Thinking Blog translated into
- Arabic,
- Chinese (Simplified),
- Chinese (Traditional),
- French,
- German,
- Italian,
- Japanese,
- Korean,
- Portuguese,
- Russian,
- Spanish.
Let me know if the translations make sense.. I know, at least for Spanish, there are lots of grammatical mistakes.
Hi ilker,
I think your blog looks fine. I didn't notice any loading lag time but I do agree that you should have a small about me spot on your sidear or at lease a link to your profile.
I think the big RSS feeds are cool. They are obvious and encourage a person to subscribe.
I liked the star rating but if it is causing problems with the blog loading times then it's best to leave it off.
Finally getting around to taking a look at your blog and suggesting changes. The changes you've made already from other's comments have greatly improved your site -- it loads faster, smaller font is easier to read, cleaner sidebar are all positive improvements.
Personally, I like a narrower post column to make the text more readable. That issue arises mainly because my monitor size is 1280x1024.
Some "experts" say the standard for maximum readability is to have a column width of 59 to 70 characters wide. Any shorter than that and text becomes too choppy. Any longer and your eye really has to work to read across the line.
Your current post column is set at 80% (about 925px on my monitor) with sidebar width of 160px. So the sidebar looks crunched while the post entry sprawls across the monitor page.
At full size on my monitor, my eyes do get tired from scanning across the page. I'm no expert but there is something about the advantages of "fixed width" vs. "fluid width" columns that I think addresses this matter.
Hope this helps. Again, only my 2 cents worth and that's 2 cents Canadian which is worth about 1/2 a US penny LOL!
Thanks Larry, that was really helpful. I guess a short term solution would be to resize your browser window a bit smaller. Meanwhile, I will dive into the HTML code and try to fix that width!
Hi Ilker, I love your blog.
As a user I like to star content if I'm short on time. But functional is the best way. Practical is beautiful.
I also appreciate being able to translate pages, I'd like to see more people use that feature. Hmm maybe I should too?
Anyway congrats on the end of exams, I hope you have a fantastic two weeks off.
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What do you think? Post your thoughts..