Improve This Blog’s Design
The Art of Design … Warhol’s Marilyns
This is the first section of my contest [see rules and guidelines here] to help me improve my site and make it an A-List quality blog.
Today’s topic is Design
What are the elements of a site’s design and how do they stack up on this site?
1. Logo
The logo sucks. I admit, I did it in 10 minutes just to get the site up and never bothered to replace it.
And btw Jon, how come you don’t have a by-line that tells what the heck you mean by “Art of Money?” Good point.
With a title with as much possibility as Art of Money…I chose it because I love both Art and Money, you should come up with something a bit more visual.
2. Fonts
The font itself is fine. No complaints from me on this element.
Font size in the body could be one size larger and in the menus on the right side bar the font definitely needs to be larger.
In general there are some guidelines for typeface and font issues to consider on a website.
3. Element Positioning & Layout
Again I’m fairly happy with the positioning on the page. I like that the newsletter sign-up is prominent on the top right, but the RSS subscribe should probably be equally prominent, especially now that I’m trying to pimp my feed.
I’m not completely sure about the 3 column layout. One of the things I love about 2.0 style design on sites like Copyblogger is sense of space that there is on the page. It’s like a house with a big yard, it feels luxurious.
One way I could free up some space, to create more “white space” is to lose the 3 column concept. Yaro’s site uses the 3 column layout effectively, maybe because the background is white in all three areas, it doesn’t seem a crowded.
4. Navigation Elements
I think I need to pull key navigational elements out of the right hand menus and put them on the top of the page. Notice how ProBlogger features his most important articles in BIG boxes on the top of his site.
If you are looking for a way to explore his site, they are easy to find, and importantly they are above the fold in the prime viewing area.
5. Color Scheme
The existing color scheme is kind of bland and doesn’t really have any personality. A good designer could certainly improve it by by at least creating a palette of complementary colors that work together to create an emotion or effect with the visitors.
A bit like you paint a girl’s room pink or a boy’s room blue [or you did when I was a kid] only with a little more subtlety than that.
I’d really like a color scheme that took advantage of the Art in Art of Money. I am a big lover of fine art and even spent 2 years in art college many years ago. So if there was a touch of Andy Warhol in my new theme, that would be cool.
Feedback Requested on the Current Design and Ways to Improve It.
Don’t forget this is a contest…you can submit as many comments as you wish and the best one wins a cool prize. Anything is fair game, so don’t be shy…I want to end up with a cool site and I need your ideas and help to get there.
You can also post links to other cool sites [with great design] and to designers that I may want to hire to create my new site.
Jon Symons
If you don’t like Warhol’s work…you probably haven’ seen it in person.
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Comments ( 7 )
[...] 11:32 pm – Wed 11 Oct 2006 « Google Gobbles YouTube Improve This Blogs Design » [...]
Help Me Improve this Site - Win A Prize | Art Of Money added these pithy words on Oct 11 06 at 11:32 pmJ added these pithy words on Oct 12 06 at 11:41 amJonno—
Here is something to think about… Do you have a measurement system in place to see if the improvements are working to get more signups for your newsletter? That is the goal right?
Here are my two bits… What about creating great content? No, I am not doging your blog at all (honesty, it’s one of three I read regularly). But for example I have started to get into the habit of running articles I submit (and subsequently Digg, Shoutwire, etc) through Glyphius to try and get people to at least click on it. I haven’t compiled more than observation data as of yet, but it is certainly something to do to see if the process is working or if it needs to be evaluated and improved on.
Jon added these pithy words on Oct 12 06 at 12:10 pmHi J,
“…signups for your newsletter? That is the goal right?”
Even that goal is being questioned at this point, the primary goal is to get more traffic to the site…from there I will move into an evaluation of conversion.
“What about creating great content?”
don’t know if you took a look at the intro post but content is definitely going to be examined and headlines, which I could run through Glyphius, are a big part of that.
Maybe I’ll add ‘writing quality’ to the list of topics.
Thanks,
Jon
Ty added these pithy words on Oct 12 06 at 1:12 pmJon,
You have several “anchor” articles that have helped me out tremendously. These are your bread and butter…the tutaorial or “How to” ones especially. As a marketer, I would suggest making these posts accessible in the style that Darren at Problogger does in his Boxes at the top of the page. I am thinking that one would fit nicely to the right of your logo in the header space.
Or, you could move the newsletter sign up box up there and put the “Top posts” directly below that.
Again, thanks for all of your help!
Ty
Jeff added these pithy words on Oct 12 06 at 2:09 pmHi Jon,
Hi Jon. Here are my comments:
1. Logo – I’m a fan of simple logos and I think type-only logos work fine if done well. Having said that, it is nice to have some sort of simple iconic image that you can use to propagate your brand. I’ll do a little shameless self-promotion and refer you to my new stock artwork site: voomstock.com. Notice that the stylized V is used as a watermark on the images. (And yes, I’m aware that overall the site needs cosmetic surgery … I’ll get around to it.)
2. Fonts – To your valid observations I would add that light/dark contrast is an important element. Too much contrast is hard on the eyes, which ultimately makes people want to … leave.
3. Element Positioning & Layout – I don’t mind a 3-column layout, but currently there is no clear differentiation between the columns and the elements in the columns. The all look the same and it’s a bit confusing. A color scheme could help establish visual cues.
4. Navigation Elements – I like menu bars. They’re easy to understand.
5. Color Scheme – This is a highly personal choice, but for me there is too much blue. Also, the gradients and quasi-metallic effect aren’t working for me at all. Check out colorcombos.com and behr.com (yes, the paint company — they have a nice color picker tool).
Good luck!
Jon added these pithy words on Oct 12 06 at 2:32 pmTy…I will put some direct links to the best posts for sure.
Jeff…thanks all excellent points.
BTW…you can put live links in comments if you use an anchor tag. Just put the code right in the comments.
markinjapan added these pithy words on Oct 12 06 at 5:57 pmJon,
Your written contentin the left hand column works so well that I often don’t even see the stuff on the right!
What if your “play” on ART of money included a funky logo and a top row of primary categories just below it where the visiting reader has to drill down (or search) for posts other than the one which drew them in the first place?
I am thinking of JBs blog where at first it infuriated me not to be able to very quickly see ALL of the posts in each category. I ended up reading even da%n one of those things…and then printed them out
Point being why assume your readers want to see all of your post categories and today’s main content…tease them a bit as to what is underneath the cover
!!
regards