The death of the boring blog post?
Let’s face it: the classic blog post is boring.
Barring the text and images, each one generally has the exact same layout. We see little originality from one post to the next. Of course, consistency and branding are extremely important to consider when designing a website or blog, but what about individuality? Does a blog post about kittens deserve the same layout as one about CSS hacks?
Too Easy?
Because installing a WordPress theme is so easy, anyone can have a blog up and running in minutes. While this is great, and we now have a wealth of blogs on countless topics, perhaps it’s too easy? Just thinking about the endless hours of effort that a print designer puts into creating the custom layout of a magazine article makes one respect the finished product so much more.
A few individuals out there, though, are really breaking the mold of the blogosphere.
These guys aren’t using standard WordPress themes or cutting corners to make their lives easier. Rather, they are challenging themselves and producing some fantastic content.
Pushing yourself to create original layouts and designs customized to the content of each post is a fascinating and entertaining way to build a blog.
But why has this trend of melding blog post and magazine article, the “blogazine,” not caught on with the masses?
The <cringe>Trend</cringe> with a difference
Hearing the word “trend” makes us designers shudder because we picture overused glossy buttons, drop-shadows and reflections. But the blogazine trend could be unlike other trends for a few special reasons. Designing a creative layout for each new blog post, based on the content itself, requires skill, patience, dedication to the content and, most of all, effort on the part of the designer!
Let’s now look at three people who exhibit all four qualities:
The Pioneers
Jason Santa Maria
is one of the early innovators of this style of blogging and has been creating custom blog post designs since June 2008. With a background in print design, Jason had a vision to create a blog more in the style of a magazine, rather than obey the established rules of blog design.
While, yes, this is a redesign of sorts, I consider it much more a rethinking.
~ Jason Santa Maria
Jason’s blog posts are fascinating and cover a wide range of topics, including design, typography, books, photography and film. The differences in the designs are sometimes just subtle changes in background or typography, but each conveys an entirely distinct message that it couldn’t if it was uniform with the rest.
Sometimes the changes are radical, but every one still has an element of “Jason-ness.” The header and footer are usually consistent, but even without them, you can still tell a Jason Santa Maria post from a quick glace.
We’ve made so many advancements in how we publish content that we haven’t looked back to what it is we’re actually creating. Many of us see the clear separation between things like print design and web design, but I’ve really been questioning the reality of why things are this way.
~ Jason Santa Maria
We Web designers don’t want to be regarded as lazy. Do we?
We have some of the
most creative and inspiring designers
in our profession, so why don’t we show our true potential in our blog articles?
Dustin Curtis
got a lot of publicity with his open letter to American Airlines, in which he suggests a dramatic redesign and rethinking of its online customer experience. The articles on Dustin’s blog are incredibly fascinating, and this user experience designer has clearly put serious thought into each one.
I got the chance to speak with Dustin about his work:
What prompted you to create a “blogazine” instead of a traditional blog?
I’m never satisfied with my work. Invariably, two weeks after finishing a design, I feel like I can do better. When I originally tried to design my blog, I kept finishing a design, hating it and starting over. This happened ten or twelve times until I finally gave up. Eventually, I realized that each post could stand on its own and be its own design that fit the content. Despite the holdbacks of HTML and CSS, it has worked much better than I had even anticipated.
Does having a blogazine really boost your creativity when it comes to creating a post?
The blogazine style does seem to boost creativity, and by a huge amount. I feel an intense amount of freedom when I’m not constrained by the box of a pre-formed design. I can open Photoshop and use it as a word processor with design functionality. The design really does complement — and become — the content, because they are built simultaneously, without regard for any of the other stuff on the website.
I feel an intense amount of freedom when I’m not constrained by the box of pre-formed design.
Where do you get your inspiration for your blog articles?
I get inspiration from everywhere. I’m fascinated by medicine and the human brain. So many of my articles center on interesting things that I’ve learned while studying neuroscience. Sometimes I’ll start with a single word, like “sleep,” and develop it into a whole article as I research the fringes of the field. There’s really no set source of inspiration.
Advantages?
Disadvantages?
The main advantage is one I didn’t anticipate. Doing a blogazine article requires a lot more work than a traditional blog post, and that has kept me on my toes; because such a large investment is required, I publish only what I feel are my best articles.
The biggest disadvantage is that CSS and HTML are terrible technologies that weren’t designed for page layout. They were designed for structured content presentation, like for a newspaper, where all the elements throughout the website are the same and are re-used. But I’m trying to make a magazine, where the content and presentation are inextricably mixed and unique. The way presentation CSS is supposed to be decoupled from the content HTML is totally counter to the mission I am trying to accomplish, and it makes coding the articles frustrating, messy and time-consuming.
This seems to keep the quality fairly high. I start four or five articles for every one I publish. If I had a normal blog, that wouldn’t be the case — the other four articles would be published too, even though they wouldn’t be as good as the ones I do end up publishing.
My solution to this problem has basically been to ignore convention and use inline styling for most of the presentation code and extract the website-wide presentation layer into a separate CSS document. This takes forever and is not ideal. To put it lightly, I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with CSS.
What if a print magazine
used the same template for every article?
It would be pretty boring, no?
Gregory Wood
is a website designer at Erskine Design and has created his website as an experiment in art direction. Not allowing himself to use the same old templates, Greg has created a fascinating website, with custom designs for each blog post.
Here’s what Greg had to say when I spoke with him:
What prompted you to create a blogazine instead of a traditional blog?
Well, I’ve had a blog for ages and have always been bad at keeping it regularly updated, until I custom-designed a few of the posts sometime last year. I generally hate writing about Web-related stuff (I find it all a little boring), and I love designing, so I wrote about what I wanted (music and zombies) and designed each post around the content, although still housed in my old blog layout. The reception to the posts was really nice, and I enjoyed creating them, so for my latest website I set out to cater to that same audience and keep myself happily occupied at the same time.
Does having a blogazine really boost your creativity when it comes to creating a post?
I wouldn’t say it boosts my creativity; the website is more of an outlet for it. Despite spending all week being creative at Erskine Design, it’s still quite liberating to design whatever you want, however you want, with no external influence.
Because it’s all nicely designed, readers are drawn in and end up reading more than one post.
Where do you get your inspiration for your blog articles?
Usually I think of my best ideas when cycling or sitting on a tram or bus. It’s been a big thing on the Web over the years, where you get your inspiration from, and I’ve never really understood it. I think that looking at other people’s work all the time for inspiration is massively constricting. I find staring out a window for a while usually helps.
Advantages?
Disadvantages?
The obvious advantage is that it looks better. But the content is infinitely more captivating as well. I’m not a great writer, and I probably write a lot of bullshit, but because it’s all nicely designed, readers are drawn in and end up reading more than one post. It’s also very fun to create and helps me grow as a designer.
I guess some would say the time factor is a disadvantage, but if you love doing something, spending a lot of time doing it is justified.
I can’t think of any disadvantages.
The Microblogging Revolution
Twitter, Posterous, Flickr, Facebook, the iPhone and countless other services make it incredibly easy for us to instantly post short musings, photos, video, thoughts and creations, which in turn has created a big gap between the micro post and the macro post.
Time for the macro post to shine
Longer blog posts with valuable content might not get the recognition they deserve, because the 140-character mindset turns people off of reading several pages of text. One way to combat this and make your content more appealing is by creatively altering the layout, using the blogazine technique.
Bridging the gap
We don’t know exactly where the world of blogging is headed in the next few years, but the increase in micro-blogging will definitely be a strong influence. Shorter attention spans call for drastic changes to the length of blog posts. Blogazines could cater to a generation accustomed to the longer articles of newspapers and magazines, becoming a bridge between the traditional article and the TwitPic.
Forces you to think more creatively
Slipping into the habit of typing up your thoughts and clicking “Post,” without thinking about the layout of each article, is easy. By taking a little extra time for the art of blogging, your creativity will increase with your efforts.
Something different and exciting for your readers
If .Net or Computer Arts printed every article with the same layout, every month, would you still subscribe? Your readers would more likely return for new articles if they anticipate something new and rewarding.
Reduces the number of short simple posts
Your blog posts will have much more weight if you take the time to create a full article, rather than knock of a rushed post.
Makes wordy posts more readable
If all you have is text, text, text, then people will be less likely to read it. Put a little effort into styling the content, and your post will become much more readable.
It takes serious effort
Hand-crafting each blog post won’t be easy, but the rewards will be well worth it.
You need CSS and HTML experience
Anyone can download a WordPress theme and merrily post an article. But building a custom layout requires some experience with CSS and HTML.
Inconsistency
The layout of your blog will change dramatically from post to post and, if not done right, may strike your readers as being awkwardly inconsistent. Just look at Jason Santa Maria’s work. Every post is radically different for a reason, but a consistent vein runs through the posts.
No print layout experience
Because this style borrows many elements from print design, anyone who has worked only in Web design may find it difficult to change their way of thinking. Rules of typography and white space, for example, may throw you off. But practice makes perfect, and an endless supply of inspiration can be found in creative magazines.
Obviously this style isn’t suitable for every website. It wouldn’t be practical for blogs that pump out three or four articles a day, but certain types of websites could benefit from it especially.
Portfolios
We have a habit of following trends very easily, especially in our portfolios. Instead of following the tired old practice of positioning screenshots of your work in a nice grid one after the other, why not use the blogazine technique and design a fresh page for each project according to the subject, client and color scheme?
Online Shops
Many online shops suffer from a certain blandness, following the pattern of: thumbnail grid, name, short description and then pagination.
This layout may be good for usability, but there is a middle ground between scannability and visual appeal.
The design changes do not have to be dramatic. In fact, drastically changing the layout would not be advisable for online stores.
But perhaps even subtle changes to design elements could give your online shop the distinction that makes it more noticeable?
CSS Galleries
A new CSS gallery seems to pop up every day, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between all of them. While some of the higher-profile examples like SiteInspire are fantastic for gaining inspiration, the constant influx of CSS galleries makes the inclusion of your own design in one of them somewhat less of an achievement.
It would be interesting to see a really high-class CSS gallery adopt the blogazine technique, with a custom page made for each worthy website, using large high-quality images instead of the typical screenshots.
The websites in a CSS gallery are not all about the same topic and do not have the same style or same content, so why should they receive the same treatment and same type of screenshot?
Merely for consistency?
Think about a painting that is worthy of being displayed in an art gallery. Should it be given the same treatment, cut to the same size, positioned the same way? Why do we treat gallery-worthy websites this way, then?
Quiet Blogs
Bloggers often lack the motivation to keep their blog running. Many of them feel they have to keep it fresh by updating it every day, and failing to meet their own expectations results in both frustration and a neglected blog.
Updating a blog daily isn’t ideal, and more often than not…
seven half-hearted articles a week does not equal one very polished, interesting article.
RSS readers are jam-packed with articles every day, and chances are, the articles that don’t get your full attention will get lost in the crowd. Keep your short musings and thoughts for Posterous and Twitter, and spend some real time hand-crafting well-thought-out articles. You’ll satisfy both yourself and your readers.
Look at Jason, Dustin and Greg. They do not blog that often: sometimes once a week, sometimes once a month. But the quality is always stellar.
You have endless possibilities to be more creative with your blog. Why stay tied down to one theme and one layout when you can experiment with your skills and push your creativity to its limit with a blogazine? With the Internet suffocating with blogs, people have developed incredibly short attention spans, and they probably won’t stop for your content if you have “just another blog.”
Why not throw away the blogging rule book and make your articles stand out from the crowd?
- Jason Santa Maria talks about his rethinking
- Jack Cheng’s blogazine
- WordPress Art Direction Plugin
- ‘You’re killing Me Zappos’ by Metalabdesign
- WordPress Post Styling Plugin
- The Life of Dustin Curtis
- WordPress Designate Plugin
- Jason Santa Maria: The Influence of Print Design
- Shaun Inman’s Photostream
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Eric D. Fields
November 19th, 2009 8:05 amThis was a good article, and it does provide food for thought. In the iPhone era, we’re seeing that you can still post content for free online but charge for the experience layer. Think CNN iPhone’s app. Same content, portable, excellent experience.The blogazine format is another way of adding a better experience to the act of consuming 2-D content.
I have to imagine that’s exactly why the magazine format was invented in the first place: newspaper just became too standardized and predictable and really didn’t allow for hot hancrafted infoporn created with time, energy, and craftsmanship.
Its a good variation of a medium to explore. I think we might have figured out exactly what a blog can and can’t do just like we know what a newspaper, radio, and traditional television set can and can’t do. There could be hidden value here. As the article states, it’s too easy to set up WordPress these days. You can’t sell a blog CMS to anyone except those also looking to purchase a decent suspension bridge (if you are, call me, btw). But I see a niche market for well-designed blog posts.
Those bashing the format, especially without explaining themselves (“This post is BORING!”) are short-sighted and narrow-minded. This is standards-based design _coming of age_. This so far beyond rounded corners.
But I have two critiques of this post. For one, the title is pure sensationalist linkbait. Blog posts are not dying anytime soon. Second, this article is clearly designed for the MacBook Pro crowd. I’m using a MacBook Pro, so I don’t mind. I’d say the right rez to keep in mind for a wider audience comfortable with this design approach is probably 1280 x 800, 13″ MacBook rez. If we want this to catch on, we should probably show how good it can look for the common web news consumer.
But there’s something here. This article is insightful. It picked up on a meme we all knew was there but didn’t really take the time to dissect. Best content I’ve seen on Smashing in a long time.
Chris O'Donnell
November 19th, 2009 8:05 amMaybe someone at SM should have a look at http://abriefmessage.com. And then re-write this article in 400 words so no-one else wastes their morning on it. Also: completely disagree with the portfolio uniqueness suggestion. And can we just say “online magazine” instead of “blogazine?”
Bas Roding
November 19th, 2009 8:06 amFinally something different. I’m getting very tired by all the ’50 great patterns for webdesigners’ articles.
Giles Van Gruisen
November 19th, 2009 8:08 amYes yes yes, a thousand times YES!!!!! I will be doing stuff like this from now on. Incredible article, truly inspiring!!! :D
Jen
November 19th, 2009 8:09 amDesign is nice, but it should ACCENT your content.
Honestly, I didn’t even read the entire post here. I think if an author wants readers to actually READ what they have to say, it should be presented in a visually appealing, but easy to understand way.Maybe you mentioned that. I wouldn’t know because I didn’t read it all. Reading a blog post shouldn’t feel like running a marathon.
Still love Smashing Magazine though. :)
Ashley
November 19th, 2009 8:09 amWell, I might come back to this on a computer
but what hell to read on a mobile phone!! That should be one of the main considerations in designing a “blogozine” these days. I had to move all over the place to try to read this and it was hard to tell what images went with what content.
Neil Victor Grey
November 19th, 2009 8:09 amIn consideration of how much I love the examples provided here, this is definitely a route I’d be interested in trying for my site. I get the same “redesign syndrome” as mentioned in the article where I’ll want to start all over again just as I’ve finished a site.
That being said, I believe at the forefront of my mind when making design decisions about posts would be if the page is readable. We can see in the comments here that there is a very fine line with this style between pure awesomeness and pissing people off.
Levi Figueira
November 19th, 2009 8:11 amAmazing post! I’m a big fan of both JSM and DC and have followed their blog…azines for a long time now. This post is one of those I get inspired from and encourages me to really pay attention to “contextual design”.
Most of the comments, on the other hand, can be really discouraging. I have a hard time paying attention to comments that imply this is an unusable post or badly designed, coming from people who have no authority on this matter… AT ALL. I want to give the proper kudos to Paddy for this awesome design and recognize the hard work and effort he has put into this. Also, thank SM for letting him post it… ;)
Good job guys and, even if it’s not possible to turn SM into a “blogazine” (completely understandable), I’d like to see a “featured” or “monthly” article done this way… It could very well be the only article I read (instead of skimming) on your site the whole month… ;)
Joe Stevens
November 19th, 2009 8:12 amAny EE users out there with ideas of how to make this style work in that system?
I’m thinking a custom field for the CSS path.
Hugo
November 19th, 2009 8:12 amNice try !
Uniformity, functionalism must be a graphic and conceptual choice, not a mandatory Stantard.
This article challenges many of formatted use.
MoshPitPrayer
November 19th, 2009 8:12 amAwesome. I loved it.
Quite inspiring but the question is indeed if you
will be able to find the time to make only such
great designed posts.
Freya
November 19th, 2009 8:14 amMan, this is the Smashing blog post ever! I am very much inspired to create something like this!
MacSage
November 19th, 2009 8:15 amI’ve always been a fan a plain good writing.
I enjoyed your post, but it reminds me of when Wired magazine first started publishing. It broke all the rules about layout and color and fonts, and it was kinda cool and interesting. But it was difficult to read. It was like going to a circus where all the acts came out at once and each distracted from the other.
I enjoyed the creativity. But sometimes I want to read a well-written, informative, entertaining post that doesn’t keep distracting me with color and layout options.
lesley
November 19th, 2009 8:16 amInspiring yet equally headache inducing. Might take a while to get used to. No worries, i’m adaptable.
Love SM !
sammysunset
November 19th, 2009 8:18 amWow… I don’t know about anyone else here, but I really like this article lay out. It keeps your eye moving and motivates you to keep scrolling as you read. It was very well thought out and I’m glad that Smashing Magazine is experimenting with alternate article layouts. Well done, guys :)
Reminds me of The Oatmeal posts.
Bree
November 19th, 2009 8:19 amAnother blog post that is wholly impractical when applied to real-world design problems encountered by working designers the world over. :x
…
Content is king: A blog’s layout and design, while appealing (or not) does not make the blog itself interesting. The purpose of the layout is to help me read the content and navigate the site. The fun and interesting designs featured above smack of print-based design, lacking in meaningful interaction.
Additionally, unique layouts make automation a practical impossibility. It’s fun to push the envelope in a blog (minor leagues), but that doesn’t apply well to real-world challenges I’ve met regarding publishing regular content for a number of employers.
Joe Stevens
November 19th, 2009 8:52 amI disagree that this style is impractical. I think one of the problems with web design is that we have put to much focus on practicality and have removed some of the art and fun from editorial design. This over focus on automation and practicality makes the whole thing kind of boring, its like we are newspaper designers. I think this style is practical and very welcome for long well researched articles, it works for magazines and it could work for us too as a matter of fact I think its the missing link for moving our profession into the kind of recognition that it deserves. That said, of course this style won’t work for every site but it would be awesome for magazines transitioning to the web.
Levi Figueira
November 19th, 2009 2:09 pmIf content is king, design FOR content.
Besides, no one said this style was made for newspaper-style blogs. The idea is called “blogazine” and if you new anything about magazine design, you’d know that style can vary significantly depending on the content of an article. No automation implied.
Please read the posts before replying, because otherwise you come across kinda weirdly. Thanks.
Jared
November 19th, 2009 8:19 amI’d have to say this was one of the most inspiring and interesting articles I have read. It is clearly a matter of opinion whether this style should be used more, based on the comments.
I personally LOVE it! It was taking a visual journey through the page while reading it. Sort of like telling a story, and using different scenes and design elements as props to help convey the message.
Bravo!!
I am a huge fan of this style, and I can’t wait to see more.
Marco
November 19th, 2009 8:21 amWow guys, that was an awesome article. I hope more people start creating more original blogs. Keep it up.
Kumo
November 19th, 2009 8:23 amI love it but it would take too much effort to build a specific page for every post.
But this is GREAT !!!!
Vitezslav Valka
November 19th, 2009 8:24 amNothing else is better than Smashing Magazine. This is the smahingest post!
danny
November 19th, 2009 8:24 amSo there are alot of folks harping on about how content MUST be first, and the presentation is support, I think that in many cases, and of course depending on the goal of the site/article that the presentation drives the content. What I mean to say is, it´s no good having good content if no-one reads it, If I see a page of black default text on a white background with no styling, I’m probably not going to give it a chance, whereas interestingly presented, it grabs, AND HOLDS my attention until I get to the end and feel happy that someone gives a shit about someting other than “best practice” “conversions” “page impressions” and all that jazz.
I for one am human.
Michael
November 19th, 2009 8:26 amGreat job, Paddy.
Jim
November 19th, 2009 8:27 amI’d be afraid it would be used if you didn’t really want the reader to pay attention to the writing (I couldn’t finish the article myself). I’m not a great writer, so I could decorate my posts with something like this to keep the clicks coming.
I suppose this particular post was exaggerated to make the article’s point. “Magazine Style” wouldn’t always be so nutty. The actual dustincurtis site (cited above) is an example of how, when restrained, the idea works. But why would readers of Smashing need an exaggerated example? It’s not like my mother reads this and needs to be convinced. Odd that Smashing though so…
Kai
November 19th, 2009 8:28 amI do like their work and this “anti” trend is becoming a new trend already, but you got one thing wrong: DCurtis and Greg (I think) don’t use WordPress at all. These are static HTML pages. And that fact basically answers your question why blog posts all look the same. JSM is an exception (he uses EE), but he only posts once a week or even less frequently.
With current CMS it’s hard to realise such creativity. And if you are missing ALL the features of a “blog” you really can’t talk about this as a “new” way of designing blogs. ;-)
Tim Beadle
November 19th, 2009 8:28 amI thought this was really well thought out and executed. Yes, some people won’t like it, but that’s part of being human: we see things in different ways. Bravo for breaking the mould. Now watch for the imitators… ;)
Matt
November 19th, 2009 8:28 amWooow! Awesome post, and nice work! That’s probably the best way to describe “blogazine”. I think design bloggers must think about this new blogging style, because that’s the better way to show your skills. Your blog is your portfolio. Stop writing to describe your design creations, design to describe your post content.
I’ve already try to make “blogazine-like” posts, but I was tired of spending 7-8-9 hours to create my post. So I’ve stop it. But this post has motivated me to try it again!
Darren Azzopardi
November 19th, 2009 8:30 amWhen I stumbled on Gregory Wood’s post, I think it was the one about diving and how good it was.
I was taken back by the sheer presentation of it, the detail, the images, typo, etc and thinking to myself how on earth he did that?.
One thing I disliked about blogs is the churning out of dry templates. Yes you can argue that this breeds consistency and to be honest I originally thought this particular post was missing a style sheet because it appeared to be so different from other smashing magazine posts. But I soon got the hang of it and it was a pleasure to read. The first time I actually thought a post from you guys was worth reading.
What’s sad is the amount of designers being so negative; its hard to read, it’ll take too much time to do, its not very accessible , etc-I’m sure there’s more examples if carried on reading peoples comments.
Sometimes, just sometimes you think to yourself fook it! I’m doing what I want and that’s exactly they did. Not for one second do I think these web designers Jason, Greg and Dustin are lose much sleep because people cant view it right on their shitty little IBM ThinkPad or some kid in Africa cant get the same experience on his mobile phone. Yes it’s unfortunate but hey that’s life. I guess the most of you guys and girls who complained still lose sleepless nights supportng IE6.
The thing is, they had a problem, they didn’t like the template of their blog so they changed it. They wanted to express themselves, and they did. They broke their constraints and guess what….they’ve possibly started something they didn’t mean too…a trend..So come on you sheep, come along and join us, join the heard..
Chris Armstrong
November 19th, 2009 8:34 amGreat post, and nice proof of concept. I’ve been considering doing something like this for a while, but polishing up on my CSS skills first. I think its a great way of experimenting with different styles and themes, which for me is one of the main reasons for having a personal site… it’s somewhere to experiment.
Janko Jovanovic
November 19th, 2009 8:37 amThis is probably one of the best articles on SmashingMagazine. It was so unexpected too see this layout but I am pleasantly surprised! I love Jason Santa Maria’s blog and it is a great inspiration for redesign of my blog.
Emi
November 19th, 2009 8:37 amWhooooaaaaaa… if this is where blogs are headed, count me out. Unless I can read it from the safety of my RSS reader…
I read lots of blogs and I love it (SM included) – but I only return based on the value of the content. I don’t give a rip about looks as long as usability has been thought-through.
I can see how this could be inspiring for other designers – maybe it’s worth considering for visual-types, but I don’t think it’s worth getting too hot and sweaty over…
nightfever
November 19th, 2009 8:39 ami like it! i usually dig websites with large fonts and images
SM is probably the best design-related website on the web
Niels Matthijs
November 19th, 2009 8:40 amThe core idea is nice, but I found this article impossible to read. I kept skipping through several sections and had a really hard time reading while scrolling.
On the other hand, I also hate many magazine layouts as they fuck up readability in the cruelest of ways.
jj
November 19th, 2009 8:42 am“Just thinking about the endless hours of effort that a print designer puts into creating the custom layout of a magazine article makes one respect the finished product so much more.” A singular magazine article. That’s only feature articles. Magazines use stylesheets and a set of basic layouts for the majority of the content though including typography, column widths, placement on the page etc. When pubs don’t have set stylesheets and layouts, they look schizophrenic and amateurish. A unique layout is a wonderful way to treat a special article, but it should still flow with the rest of the publication (online, or off) while being distinct.
Steven Schrab
November 19th, 2009 8:43 amThe web and print are two different mediums. While I admit there are places where we get lazy and could do more layout to make an article more interesting, I’m not sure that you should up change every page drastically for every post.
This post, for example, made me think the CSS was broken or some of the background images haven’t loaded in because the header didn’t look like previous Smashing articles. You need some markers of similarity at least. A print magazine may standardize where the logo is on the cover and other layouts. The cover of a magazine is similar to the header of a blog.
Plus navigation of a magazine is pretty standard. You turn pages. You need similar, easy to understand navigational metaphors for your site.
Also, calling ordinary pages of text boring is kind of unfair. Not everyone is a designer. Sure the audience that reads this blog is, but not everyone on the web is. One of the best things about blogging and the Internet in general is that gives everyone, not just web developers and geeks, a voice. It also reminds us that layout makes content interesting, but the content is really what is important.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t put more effort into the layout of individual articles, but be aware of changing things that brand your site and navigation and visual ques that your users are familiar with.
Edwin L
November 19th, 2009 12:14 pmI second that.
Karl
November 19th, 2009 8:43 amWhile the post was “noisy” to say the least, and I was originally slightly bothered by the constant changing I found myself continuing to read and scroll.
I think this post did a wonderful job on 2 counts. First it highlighted a number of different options that could be used to enhance an otherwise sterile repetition of a traditional blog post. I have a few current projects that will endeavor to incorporate some of the features/options.
The second piece, it also shows what can happen when a site goes a little overboard. I have clients who consistently want to change font, font size, color and justification ever sentence. This post and the reactions above help show how confusing that can cause a page to be. This post shows a number of different options but each of the options maintains its own consistency of page which is critical for branding and marketing.
Well done. I suspect the second was a happy accident and not intentional. If it was I once again bow to your thought and design processes.
Karl
lina koo
November 19th, 2009 8:47 amJust one word: awesome. I agree with some posts saying that usual posts are boring, just letters you skip trying to find one or two sentences you might find interesting and useful. This one made me continue reading. Thumbs up!
Loo
November 19th, 2009 8:48 amOne is sure, it can be loved or hated, nothing beatween ;) I like it very much, but this arrows sometimes made me lost, like too many text clouds in comics.. But it’s surely very interesting and have many interesting links. Thanks!
Sam
November 19th, 2009 8:48 amI like some of the examples, however this post doesn’t follow the trend very well; in particular notice how most of the examples, whilst not using a regular template do have a clear internal structure. They manage to combine style with legibility, for the most part. This just feels thrown together; the design is obscuring the content, which is still a cardinal sin, no matter how much style you put into your layout.
Jeff Chasin
November 19th, 2009 8:49 amLove the content. Love the design. Love the concept.
In a noisy world full of time-wasting messages, this makes a connection. In my case, a good one, in other cases (from the comments) maybe not so much, but well designed content that makes an impact, like this, is always great to see.
Top shelf, really great stuff.
Richard Tape
November 19th, 2009 8:49 amIt’s rare I comment on SM articles (although I highly value each of them) however I find myself inclined to do so on this one. Paddy, you have done an absolutely outstanding job on this post and I believe you will have opened many people’s minds into just what can be done.
Several people are mentioning that it would take too much effort to create a different design for every post. This may be true in some cases and it clearly depends on what it is you are blogging about but in the majority of cases, I couldn’t disagree more. If you truly value what it is you are blogging about, then the extra care and attention to create an engaging medium for your post can and will add huge amounts of value to the overall appeal to your content. The 3 people you’ve chosen to highlight are all fantastic cases. Your layout on this post is inspirational, on point, usable and frankly beautiful.
Thank you, genuinely for putting this sort of effort into a post and thank you Smashing Mag for promoting it – you have a huge audience – the majority of whom call themselves designers, so I hope that soon we will see much more elegance and much less monotony in blog posts (I don’t mean on Smashing, I mean in general). I know I, for one, will be creating different layouts and styles for different blog posts in the future and I hope many follow suit.
Thank you, genuinely.
Reid Klos
November 19th, 2009 8:50 amI am a beginner blogger and just launched my site this weekend. Although I’m excited to provide great content, I was disappointed in the presentation that I had to use because I don’t know anything about CSS or HTML. I felt that waiting to learn it all before I began posting would have probably put me off another 6 months. Of course asking someone else to help can be pricey because a servant is worth its hire.
I enjoyed your post because I understood what your point was. It was more of an example of what could be, not what should be.
How does a novice with no knowledge of anything besides downloading WordPress even attempt doing Blogazine, though? Blogazine style would be hot for my site because I want it to have a “fashion magazine” edge to it. http://www.reidklos.com “Tailor Made: God’s Bespoke Tailoring, a blog by Reid Klos”
lush
November 19th, 2009 8:50 amI think the “Idea” is good, but it completely depends of the content you’re publishing,
I just can’t imagine a Showcase or Coding Tutorials published on this way, I think that the use would be better on an Art Blog or something like that..!!
But well this was a great post anyway!
Martin Bentley Krebs
November 19th, 2009 8:53 amIf “visual mess” and “design trainwreck” had a child, then beat it senseless, this is what it would look like.
This is as bad as the “stunning” typography examples that are completely unreadable. Time for a reality check, guys…
michal matuska - think-ia
November 19th, 2009 8:54 amHmm, do not think this is a smart way at all. It will be very hard to maintain some brand id. Many clients use blog for its simplicity of adding content. Some even connect blog to MS WORD and publish through that. Most will pay for a blog customization and have a design done and engine integrated and thats it.
as a user i also want to get used to a heading and what i can expect on next page. If it is a bit odd one considers it a call to action. And relating website to a magazine? There is an obvious remediation of newspaper in early internet, but have we not moved from the days of HTML 2? Last point i have is that most readers, not surfers readers, complain about cluttered layouts, ads etc. If content paramount it needs to be presented clearly. This is distracting to majority and reminds one of cluttered layout of current cheap magazines. over and out.
Figuss
November 19th, 2009 8:55 amThis article makes me want to disabled the stylesheets. I’m here for content. Not show-off-overloaded-heavy graphics. I tried to read this article, but I wasn’t able to do it more than a minute… It’s taking me so much effort to try. I have a big screen resolution and even with that, I found the text too big… too many scroll down… So for me, usability = big zero. I don’t want it super pretty, I want it pretty readable. Or maybe I’m too oldshool?
Must be an interesting article though….
Flameboy
November 19th, 2009 8:56 amFor me, THIS IS the best post of Smashing Magazine.
For sure it takes a long time to stylish every post, but the result is very original and we take pleasure to read this. You made a nice mix between information and design. Congrats.
Paddy Donnelly
November 19th, 2009 8:57 amHey all,
Thanks for the constructive comments, both positive and negative. Glad that a lot of you like what we tried to do here. It’s true, there are a lot of limitations to this style of blogging however, as pointed out in the article. It takes an insanely long time to do and it’s certainly not applicable for every blog but there are a number of benefits to trying something adventurous and different.
Regarding Inline styles – once you start to do a post like this, it’s far too complicated and slow to create a separate CSS file. It’s much much faster to just go through each piece of content one at a time and style it individually. Inline styling is largely looked down upon in modern webdesign, but this is the one occasion where they are quite appropriate. That one particular paragraph is the only one in the whole article which will need that left margin of 413px so using an inline style makes sense.
The web out there has a tendency to get very ‘samey’ so it’s nice to know you’re going to get something drastically different every time you visit the likes of Jason, Dustin or Greg’s websites and I, for one, feel compelled to read every last detail of their articles.
Granted, this is a huge article and takes quite a while to go through, but we wanted to fully cover the concept. Hopefully this has provoked you to think about your own blog posts’ appearance, even if it only involves subtle changes such as striking imagery, different typographic styles or slight layout tweaks, then we’re going to get a much richer experience as readers.
And hey, if all you want is the content then you always have your RSS reader. :)
Alexander Polyakov
November 19th, 2009 9:00 amThis approach rocks! See a great use of it in interview posts. Because, damn, each person is different and each story too. Thank you for inspiration!
P.S. There must be a length consideration for blogzines too, somewhere near CSS galleries attention started to degrade. But I understand it’s 100% personal. Just interested to see where it happened (if happened) to other readers.
Gail Helmer
November 19th, 2009 9:02 am“I’m not dead yet” said the Blog.
David Mosher
November 19th, 2009 9:03 amI think the underlying message about pumping a bit of creativity back into an otherwise rigid medium (web publishing systems) is good, however I would agree with previous commenters that the length of the post is just too long for this type of content. There is an art to producing these sorts of long articles in the context of print that makes it easy for the user to continue from one page to the next and I’m not sure this particular example helps with that. The color combinations, styles and placement are inconsistent and all over the place.
The effort in design is apparent, I just don’t think it works as well as it could. The content is what I’m concerned with first and foremost when I read an article and if the design gets in the way of grokking the content I usually do a lot of skimming.
Russell Poulter
November 19th, 2009 9:06 amAn interesting read and well put together post. Anything that makes people think a bit more about what they do instead of churning out the same as everyone else can only be a good thing IMHO.
Rogers sampaio
November 19th, 2009 9:12 amThis is a busy Article, no one will pass it indifferent!
No comments like: “This article is very useful.”
I love the discussion and I was choked by the article itself. I thought I was redirected to another site.
Al
November 19th, 2009 9:22 ambiggest thing I noticed in my initial view of this page is that you used the full page for the article, a welcome change from partial article views on pages, really do get tired of those
Al
Luciano
November 19th, 2009 9:25 amI think it’s a great idea, it brings closer the printed magazine format to a blog, but IMHO, unlike Jason Santa Maria’s ones, I think this blog post fails to do so, it’s kind of inconsistent in it’s design, and I had a really hard time figuring it out.
Anyway, I think this is an idea worth applying, but one must be very careful, especially if you change from a static width layout to a liquid one or vice-versa, you don’t want to break the post design.
josef
November 19th, 2009 9:25 amBEST Smashing Post ever… well designed, useful, unique… excellent work!
Laste
November 19th, 2009 9:26 amI’ve thought about this alot, actually. Trouble was every time I discussed it with anyone it resulted in me being shouted at or lectured about practicality, standards or trying too hard to be different in some aspect for my own good. Now that I’ve reviewed this excellent article I’m almost upset I didn’t try it out.
Lesson learned I guess ;-)
WynneNS
November 19th, 2009 9:27 amI LOVED this post. (although shockingly it looked perfect in my IE7, but was aligned funny in FireFox2)
Almost makes me feel like turning back the pages of web design, when we designed pages based on the content rather than branding… or something like that…
Morning Toast
November 19th, 2009 9:30 amI’m all for the “blogazine” design – and I’ve tried it before – but like the disadvantages said, it’s tough to keep up. You can just sit and write anymore…you have to write AND design, which unless you’re a fulltime (ie, make money) blogger you’re probably not going to put fourth that much effort.
Plus…garbage in, garbage out — crappy writing/content will show through even if the page looks wonderful.
I hate to say the blogazine needs a framework because that might just lead to more homogenization, but if there was one then you’d see people jump all over it and soon everyone would be asking for “basic” blogs.
Reid Klos
November 19th, 2009 9:31 amOh snap, i just read the instructions about no link dropping, sorry SM. Paddy, I really would like you to look at it though and see if you think Blogazine would work or be beneficial, if you could.
David Whitehouse
November 19th, 2009 9:33 amI skipped over most of that cos it was difficult to read, which goes onto my second point, its what you write what counts, not how it looks.
Take a spamming blog for instance, no matter how nice the design may seem, if it reads like crap, it generally is.
Whilst I appreciate that each blog post would be cool if it could have a unique design, this would require a lot of design time and would not be cost effective for most individuals/businesses – with the exception being designers, who are most likely going to be more creative with their design rather than their words.
Chris Burd
November 19th, 2009 9:33 amSorry, this post looks like ransom-note typography on steroids.
The fact is, even if you’re a good designer, it takes more than a few minutes to devise a good design idea. If you’re using a dozen or more design ideas in your “non-boring” blog post, as this writer does, most of the ideas will be mediocre or worse. That’s a lot of substandard design to put in front of your potential clients.
Then consider all the crappy designers and non-designers out there. If they get into the act…. God help us.
There is a graphical approach that works with blog post. They’re called infographics. A good one takes a lot of time to produce – hours, not minutes – but they are sometimes the perfect medium.
Yan Hughes
November 19th, 2009 9:33 amInteresting and creative layout make this post more interesting to read on… Love it!
Igor
November 19th, 2009 9:37 amThis post is the best I’ve read in a while.
Thanks!
Ashley
November 19th, 2009 9:38 amBack to read on an actual computer and I realize that you are showing versatility and trying to prove a point but, my god! It’s all over the place. There’s a reason for the “boring” blog style—you can READ it, which is the point. It might be an old adage from print but I believe it still holds true in web design—form follows function. Here, form is the king and everything else is getting lost in it.
Tom Kenny
November 19th, 2009 9:41 amFantastic article Paddy. Hopefully it will inspire more people to do the same.
Interesting that you mention online stores as I’ve taken a similar approach to designing a bookable holiday site that is currently in progress. Nothing as drastic as a blogazine but enough to differentiate sections and keep things interesting for the users while still keeping the same overall style.
Danny Garcia
November 19th, 2009 9:43 amI’ve personally found this style of writing articles to be a load of work. It takes me about six hours to go from idea to rough draft to proofing to final draft to design comp to the actual process of marking up and styling a post. Nevertheless I’ve found it to be a fulfilling part of the month where I can explore new ideas and not worry about budgets and stuff. :)
Oh, and can someone come up with a better name for this than “blogazine”? Please?
I see this as writing articles, not “blogging” because the sole purpose of why anyone would do this sort of thing isn’t just to put something quick and pretty online – it’s about the content.
Björn
November 19th, 2009 9:45 amGreat article and great typography! Very inspiring.
Minz
November 19th, 2009 9:48 amthis is something different.. but i didn’t know you can use special theme for individual article like this one.. how is it done? any reference? i’m new to wordpress world..kinda ;)
Eric
November 19th, 2009 9:53 amIf you have to rely on design tricks to attract readers, then your content probably sucks and it won’t work anyway.
If your content doesn’t suck, you’ll get the readers regardless of the layout…unless you make it so complicated for them that decide to go somewhere else.
Nevertheless, I think this post is well done and you’ve illustrated your points very nicely.
(And one of mine, too.)
laforge
November 19th, 2009 9:53 amThis page might be innovative, but it’s a horror otherwise. Not just because of it’s brutal srcoll lenght. The design uses way too much fonts and schemes without any concept.
I welcome the braveness, but this is a FAIL.
I agree, we see things different way. And different tastes we have.
But this page is out of control, shows some basic misunderstandings of graphic design, typography and web usability. Maybe ‘cool’ is enough for SM.
Sad, the post is great behind it.
Joshua Sortino
November 19th, 2009 10:05 amThis may be the most inspirational post on Smashing Magazine that I have ever read. This changes everything.
Lee Munroe
November 19th, 2009 10:07 amGreat article Paddy, very original
Joe Makala
November 19th, 2009 10:13 amI’m not sure this is as practical as it sounds. You want people to design an entirely new site (like Jason does) for every single blog post?!? Are you nuts? Who has that time? Plus, print magazines only ran, what, weekly? Monthly? They had TIME to create different layouts…blog posting happens almost DAILY. Nobody has that much time to design a new layout. Unless they’re anti-social and have no lives. This was a very interesting post and fosters some great creativity, but I don’t think it appeals to the masses.
Snapper Cridge
November 19th, 2009 12:21 pmI think the issue (and maybe the point) is that yes…”blog posting happens almost DAILY”, but the content in those posts seems lacking luster, repetitive, boring, and a lot of times pointless. Why not take a little time to write a good post weekly or monthly and make both it’s design and content (which should compliment each other anyway) appealing to those reading it?
On other point…”Nobody has that much time to design a new layout. Unless they’re anti-social and have no lives”. Are you commenting on those that daily create the blogs or those that have time (daily) to read them?
I’d love to hear Jason Santa Maria’s insight on how long it takes him to complete a new blog design.
Tikoim
November 19th, 2009 10:20 amEven though I didn’t read the whole text this collection and its design is brilliant. Exactly this is what the future of the web should look like – against the mainstream towards new forms of communication and visual representation. This is evolution ;
thx for this post!
Louis
November 19th, 2009 10:23 amWhy wouldn’t anyone like this post?
This was fantastic, a very original and inspiring topic.
David Perel
November 19th, 2009 10:24 amPost of the year, finally someone said it. Well done Paddy, this is top quality and no doubt took a huuge amount of effort.
For me, it was worth every second.
Kemeny
November 19th, 2009 10:28 amI feel like nothing… thanks…. AMAZING!
Brandon
November 19th, 2009 10:35 amI loved reading this post. It gave me lots of great ideas. I am definitely going to start making subtle layout changes on my blog posts. Thanks for all the work you put into it.
Slade
November 19th, 2009 10:36 amAbsolutely amazing! While I think it could be toned down a little bit, the opportunity this post provided is limitless! I will definitely be thinking of this as I start to put together my own personal blog/site.
Is all this CSS/HTML even possible within a WordPress? Or would something like Joomla be more ideal?
Thoughts?
A Chung
November 19th, 2009 10:44 amHere’s a tutorial on doing this with WordPress and Textpattern:
http://willworkforart.net/tutorials/designing-individual-blog-posts
Lorne Markahm
November 19th, 2009 10:47 amI thought this was a great post! and a valid point I have never really thought of before. Highlighting the advantages and disadvantages was also a nice touch.
The only negative think i would say about this approach is I almost found the design was so fun and exciting I was scrolling faster than I could read, to see what was next in design and not the copy itself. Is that really a bad thing(yeah, maybe… I don’t know)?
Great job! Thanks
Igor
November 19th, 2009 10:47 amWell, I´m little in between liking and not liking this style of blogging. I like it because it makes the post more fun and engaging to read. However, I find the post somehow little bit distracting and as you guys said “overdesigned”. It may just be bacause I´m not used to posts like this. One major challange as I see, as someone else already mentioned, is the time needed to create posts like these.
All in all, thanks for a very interesting and engaging post!
damo
November 19th, 2009 10:47 amfantastic. didn’t read all the comments and forgot my question. but fantastic
BJMRamage
November 19th, 2009 10:51 amWOW! loved the article – written words and visual portion. This was a long article and I, most likely, would have skimmed at some point, but blocking sections kept it short and I could easily run to the printer or lunch and easily pick up where i left off.
I like how soon after i started i realized the post was blogazine-styled. I am thankful for seeing a new direction to “boring” blogs. while reading some of the linked posts, I checked the timeline of each post and saw that they weren’t everyday blogs, but good thought blogs.
Enjoyed this article very much. Thanks for the read.
Luke Jones
November 19th, 2009 10:52 amThe reason people use standard layouts for blogs is because they’re easy-to-read and easy-to-use. All this blog article did was confuse my sense a little bit because I didn’t know what to look at first. I’m not saying that it’s a horrible post, because it looks great, I just think we should stick to some sort of standard layout and not go off on a massive tangent.
meghan wier
November 19th, 2009 11:01 amI like this concept – if only there were a series of twitter posts to spoon-feed me this information in little bites… :) It also reminds me that my blog is boring. Which is not good. seriously not good. THANKS for making me think (and read, and read, and read).
Snapper Cridge
November 19th, 2009 11:02 amMy question is if HTML wasn’t designed for page layout, CSS wasn’t designed for page layout, tables weren’t designed for page layout…what the hell was designed for page layout???
ON
November 19th, 2009 11:03 am1st rule on the web: Form follows function – it’s better to have a boring layout than a boring content!
2nd rule: KISS – keep it simple, stupid. And this is much more difficult than it sounds.
Rebecca Agra
November 19th, 2009 11:05 amThis article was great!!
Felix
November 19th, 2009 11:10 amdont…..
make…..
me……………
think!
(too much)
importance to me as a reader by %
cool non-boring different approach design========= .0023%
let me scan/read this ASAP & be on my merry way=== 5,000,034,954,175bafillion%
BongoBox
November 19th, 2009 11:11 amMy two pennies:
This post was a lot of fun, and, like most things here, will fit some people/blogs, and not others. MOST telling is that SM itself says it won’t switch to this format…
Interesting future article might be how to do this (smartly) in WordPress, Drupal, Joomlah, HTML…
LOVE that not everyone agrees! If they did, then THAT’D be boring.
At least we all agree that Macs rule, cats are better than dogs, and eating meat is murder.
HA!
Joe Barstow
November 19th, 2009 11:12 amGreat blog design, boring? heh – far from it. This is the closest experience to reading a book that I’ve found online (never kindled). A sense of Tangibility goes a long way if you can fake it digitally. While reading the post I quickly built flow around my task – which is focusing on the content
INMHO people who found this boring were not entertained by the content, or their ability to focus on the content was impeded by a feeling of shock (what web page am i on?) After wards my trained reaction being “No worries, relax, be patient, lets hope for change and change for the best”
What else can I say… other than a blog is as boring as it’s content… new blog designs sound like a fun new trend so I’m jumpin’ on this wagon
ON
November 19th, 2009 12:02 pm@Joe – I’m not at all against new ideas! But at least in Germany most blogs don’t work not because of the design but of boring content. So let’s hope that those who think and play with their ideas will “rethink” the design in the described way.
Readaholic
November 19th, 2009 11:14 amSometimes I feel that I’m the only one left in the world to whom words matter. Clear, legible words in simple font, black on white, which let me follow the ideas and arguments being expressed. I’m sick of glaring colours, dark text on dark backgrounds, intrusive videos/animations and other distractions. I will continue to follow blogs which tell me things that are interesting, regardless of whether they do or do not have other bells and whistles.
Rob Cubbon
November 19th, 2009 11:15 amHave to say I love this look, will you be adopting it from now on?
My blog is also very boring, I must change that.
Marc
November 19th, 2009 11:17 amThe “content” of the article was good. However, it was not easy to read, seemed to jump around some. That might be due to the fact that typography was everywhere, I was looking up down left right, from right to left and left to right and scrolling but not knowing when or how much to scroll due some large gaps between content.
However, the idea is FANTASTIC! It just needs to read better, maybe not so extreme? Maybe because it went from a light bg to a dark bg then back to a light one. There has to be some consistency, even magazine articles have some consistency within the article itself?
Eric
November 19th, 2009 11:17 amThis was your most amazing article ever.
I clicked on the link to read the story because I do like Jason Santa Maria’s blog. And then, wham! Smashing! This is an in-your-face way to spark discussion on a new trend.
For all those who didn’t like the design, you have missed the point! The point of the article was to present the IDEA of art-directed posts by doing it in an art-directed article. This was not a time to critique the design of that particular article (“too many typefaces,” “I didn’t like the color,” “too much scrolling,” blah blah blah). Whether you liked that particular design is not the point (and of course not everybody is going to like one single design); the IDEA is the point.
I can see how this approach may be too much for frequent blog posts, but it made me thing of different designs for various categories. As it happens I am working on a new blog right now and I intend to explore that approach, which seems like a good compromise between having every post look the same and having every post look different.
Anita
November 19th, 2009 11:35 amActually, I think those folks have made the point more than missed it, Eric. If you’re trying to present the idea of an art-directed article, presumably to entice people to try it, you probably ought to make sure it does a stellar job of delivering the content. Otherwise, you’re creating an instant argument against the idea, even if the concept is fundamentally sound.
Car
November 19th, 2009 11:19 amThis article really inspired me to create my own blog posts like this. It’s such a brilliant, way of blogging ..I’ve never thought of doing something like this before! Brilliant post ..loved it!
jex
November 19th, 2009 11:26 amWell, I think the post important thing about blog posts is the content!
Layout and design are just a frame.
Anita
November 19th, 2009 11:30 amWhile I can definitely appreciate the time and effort that goes into creating posts like this one, I have to echo the idea that different doesn’t always equate with better. I think it’s great to find inspiration places off the web, but ultimately we have to remember that the internet and print are two very different delivery methods: It makes sense to pull ideas and cues from one to the other, but it’s a slippery slope when you start to lose sight of the fundamentals of what you’re designing for.
Jason Santa Maria is the ultimate positive example for this sort of design because he doesn’t go overboard, and keeps his page layouts to the basic tenets of design, which makes them pleasing to read, accessible and familiar even when they’re all different. This page, while a valiant effort, is a poor argument for the style: It wouldn’t be a good page layout on or off the web, because it requires too much effort and is too distracting. It comes off as design for design’s sake, which is great for, you know, DESIGN, but not very good for actual, readable content.
Ultimately, I think the bottom line is always going to be accessibility. The dynamics of reading internet content is vastly different to that of reading a physical magazine. It’s all too easy to click away, and I have to admit that I had to master that impulse several times while reading this article. I think there are ways to make this work, but that as both designers and publishers of content, we have to weigh how many people will be drawn to the snazzy design versus how many people will be clicking away because it wasn’t usable for them.
Shane Hudson - Be Motivational
November 19th, 2009 11:30 amThis is rather annoying. I thought I would be the first blog to do it! I have a very similar thing planned to be release soon.