February 22, 2009
How do you use (navigate) blogs?
I've been working for awhile on giving my blog design a facelift. As tends to happen with design projects that are drawn out at length (as is the case when it's not my full-time work), I know more at the end than I did at the beginning. I mean, yeah, that's supposed to happen, naturally, with any project, but these ones that would otherwise be condensed into a short time frame take place over the course of months that are packed with learning that occurs outside their context. That learning tends to fall into either design (look at how much better I've become!) or programming (look at what I've learned how to do!). Sometimes it's outside influences like new technology that didn't exist before, or of which I did not know. Well, this time around, it's not so much my visual skills or my technological skills, but my thinking that has changed and grown since I embarked on this miniature quest. And it's quite, quite recent.
Blogs and websites are constantly evolving. As a result one can probably expect users to be evolving too — in fact, with the presence of RSS readers, we hardly need spend time on people's blogs in our web browsers save to comment. User behaviour changes with technology. This is clear. So when I have a model for my blog that is almost 3 years old, I have to wonder... what is still relevant? What features do users actually use and how do they find information?
I googled this already but Google help me I didn't find an answer. That, therefore, is where you come in. The question I pose you is: how do you use blogs? When you arrive at a post, what helps you move on to another post (assuming you enjoyed the content or found it helpful)? How do you navigate the information — through tag clouds, categories, recent comments? Are lists overwhelming or redundant?
Your feedback will help me determine what features are of most use to you when you read my blog. Thanks in advance for helping me out.
A side note: in its next incarnation, I expect comments to appear immediately on thirteen cent pinball. Hooray! The facelift is a modernization, rather than a redesign, so the overall visual "flavour" of the blog, if you will, shall remain the same.
About
I am a communication designer in Vancouver, BC. Most of my writing and community activism are in the interconnected issues of public transit, local eating and food security, politics, health, environment, and sustainability in general. At heart, I'm a geek and a total treehugger. Nature, tea, good food and great company make me happy.
Currently reading:
"Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life"
Brian Brett
Featured project
Comments (3)
I usually visit a blog and start reading - if the first 3 posts don’t interest me, most likely I will never visit again. But if they do then I read on or check the categories list or Tag clouds for any similar posts. That’s usually for blogs that have variety of topics (politics, personal, music, movies, sports, raising kids, tech) of which maybe only 2 or 3 will interest me. But for most of the blogs that I follow, I visit them once or twice in a week and read all the posts that I had missed.
Thanks, Roshan, that really helps! It’s nice to know what your pattern is like. You sound really dedicated to reading, too.
I ussually run into blogs by mistake searching for something else on an search engine. I never really seek them out, because what I find on most blogs is pretty stupid. There’s nothing of informative value ussually.
I might stay on a blog for a couple minutes, but if I see clutter or estoric terms, or stuff that’s not to the point I will go elsewhere, either that or I’ll skim through it. I like drop down boxes that let me pick different catagories, navigating long menu spanned accrossed multiple pages will probably turn me off from trying to find other stuff on the blog. If the page scrolls off my 1024 x 768 display I wont even give it more than 10 seconds. If I see really bad colour schemes, or bad fonts I wont give it a chance either. I know it’s sad, but my attention span is that low, I just dont have the patience for that.