There’s a reason this blog only has 3 buttons on its “column”.
It leaves the interaction up to you.
Judging the content is easy because there’s not much else to interact with. There’s not much to see. Even hating it only takes a second.
Lots of links, means lots of interaction. And readers need time for that, which is more valuable than money by now.
Interaction works when the reader already knows you or someone he trusts recommended you (one tweet is not a strong enough recommendation).
Your design matters because tools like Twitter and Facebook are going to bring you many newcomers. Make it simple for them.
Don’t go for interaction on the first glimpse.
Sparked by a debate with Ryan Stephens, Elisa Doucette and Nicholas Young.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Make sure you check out this Vlog from Joseph Jaffe who wrote “Join the Conversation” – it is all about blogs and interaction – http://tiny.cc/ZCBrE
Will do! Thanks for the suggestion!
PS: Nice to see you around again Sarah! Social Media missed you.
Simplistic design is good – I am in 100% agreement there – but I am an advocate of using some links. I want people to be able to come to my blog and easily absorb whatever the post they may be reading. But when they’re done (and hopefully have been inspired enough to leave some thoughts of their own). I want them to explore. And I want to facilitate that exploration by making it easy to do.
Showing ‘related’ posts at the end of an article says – ‘Hey, if you liked this, you may like these’. Showing popular/most recent posts on the sidebar says ‘Here’s what people are reading/talking about’. And tags, they provide a quick overview for what the blog is all about. For someone who first comes to Life Without Pants – if they look at the tags – they’ll know I’m talking Gen-Y, marketing, Philosophy, social media, etc.
But – as you know, I do keep things very simple in my neck of the woods – maybe not as clean cut as OwlSparks. My hope is that when someone finishes an article I’ve written, they’re saying ‘I want more’ – and with that, I don’t see anything wrong with providing a little guidance to your readers for your readers to discover more of what you have to offer.
First of all, I want to clarify: there’s no universal truth on this. There’s no single way to successfully design a blog. And having said that, I knew we wouldn’t agree on this.
When a blog is worth exploring, the reader will find a way, I take my chances on that. I prefer to make it easy for newcomers than for regulars. Regulars already like you. They are going to go the extra mile for you. I know I do for every blog I’m subscribed to. I look at everything, because I like what they do. But one could visit 100 blogs everyday, and still wouldn’t be able to see them all, so you need to show a pleasant glimpse in order to make the visitor take those extra 4 or 5 seconds to check it out, instead of judging you by your cover and leaving immediately (I do this a lot, and even though a lot of people may not, I’m sure i’m not the only one).
Hey, your blog is great, you don’t have design problems, it’s just a matter of taste, but there ARE blogs (and not only blogs) out there who just put every little thing they can on their columns. I don’t think that’s a smart move if you want readership, which i’m sure most bloggers do.
I see where you are coming from – and simplicity can clearly breed success – I practice that mantra to an extent – I think our definitions of simple are just slightly different – which as you said – is totally fine. Different strokes for different folks. There IS no right or wrong and the design/layout of your blog is great. I just like having those FEW extra tools to help guide the newcomers around.
I’m in total agreement that simple trumps clutter any day of the week. I get turned off pretty quickly when I’m distracted by what ad’s are flashing over on the side when I’m trying to focus on the post. I think you’re blog works well in this VERY simple design because of the style of your writing. Short, concise, easy to absorb and respond to – you make it very easy for someone to come here, read a post in a minute or two, and really absorb the point you’re making – don’t change that, it’s a rare find and a skill that many of us ‘novel writing’ bloggers can learn a thing or two from.
You know, I actually looked at your blog again right after reading this comment, and I said to myself: “I don’t think we even disagree on anything here”. Your blog is not cluttered at all! Like you said, it’s only few tools. It’s just the tags what I wouldn’t use, but even I would something else to replace them!
Again, I don’t think my design is “better”. I’m just explaining the functionality of it. And that’s what I think everyone should do, analyze how their design makes their content better or worse, because they are deeply related.
This is a great point, Carlos. Your blog is so simplistic, aesthetically pleasing and concise. Even your posts are short and it’s your style that I really enjoy! I often think people’s blogging style has to do with their personality. Simple enough, right? What about how their blog looks, how it’s maintained and managed? To me, it all goes hand in hand…interesting thought
Oh, I agree Grace. It’s all one big message. That’s why we have to understand that it’s not just about the content, or what we believe the readers will like. It’s about thinking what’s the message we’re sending with every little thing that we do with our blogs.
Thanks for the amazing words and compliments my friend! Coming from you, they mean A LOT.
Carlos, this is an interesting theory. I took a class in college called Interactive Journalism. It was all about the ways that appealing to a Web audience is different. One of the major differences is that people scan instead of read, and the other is that what they really want is interactivity. So, I guess if you combine the two, you get limited interactivity that will engage the short attention span of the Web user. Hmm…you get me thinking! Well done, Carlos!
Great class! I agree completely, you can’t scan a book content, but we do scan web pages, immediately. What you write and how it looks like go hand in hand I believe.
And yes, that’s the combo I’m going for.
Carlos, I agree with the idea of simplicity on the blogs and making sure that you are focusing readers to the things that you want them to see on the blogs. That being said, as we’ve discussed before (
) I am personally a…well…you could just call me compulsive and that might be one of the nicest of terms. Call it my introverted extreme bookworminess, but I love being able to find out as much information that I can as easily as possible. I come across a lot of blogs that “craftily” place all their information in pretty little layouts and it drives me batty. I’ll actually leave or get bored reading their blog after awhile.
So, while I do think it’s important to make sure that readers are interacting and being directed to certain parts, it’s also important not to impose your views of blog design. I don’t think you do (your simplicity is refreshing to my chaotic and beautiful disaster of a brain!) but it is something for people, especially designers, to keep in mind.
The comments on here are longer than the post itself. I respect that. ha ha.
This reminders me about the concept of always keeping it simple. You keep it simple for your community to interact with you, it’s part of the OwlSparks theme. For you it work to your advantage, to other bloggers they may need to add more content to work for their advantage. I think it all depends on the blogger.