Blog design mistakes
Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Weblog Design Mistakes:
- No Author Biographies.
- No Author Photo.
- Nondescript Posting Titles.
- Links Don't Say Where They Go.
- Classic Hits are Buried.
- The Calendar is the Only Navigation.
- Irregular Publishing Frequency.
- Mixing Topics.
- Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss.
- Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service.
Nielsen has been writing on web usability for years, and his monthly alertbox columns are excellent. Wandering through his site is interesting because all his suggestions are implemented there. There are almost no graphics on his site, and navigation is excellent. His articles on writing for the web, how people read on the web, top ten web design mistakes (updated yearly), and ten good deeds in web design are great.
"Classic Hits" are entries that are particularly useful and should live beyond a blog entry. Mine get archived out to the Thoughts or Humour section of the site. Category archiving is the main reason I switched to WordPress, and writing for a future boss is something I try to remember, especially since the Internet Archive has been through here. I've had my own domain name for several years now, quantumtea.com was a gift from Hubby. My aim is to make a couple of posts a week, but I have no set schedule.
I disagree with two points on the list though. There will never be a photo of me on this site, I'm not comfortable with that. I stay out of pictures most of the time. Also, I do mix topics. Nielsen's point is that tightly-focused blogs get more loyal readers. I write about things that interest me. In November it'll be all about NaNoWriMo, interspersed with occasional knitting, Christianity, and personal stuff. I write here so friends can keep up with what I'm doing, and for the writing practice.