General web design is a topic discussed and debated on many blogs these days and many of its rules and principles apply for blog design too. After all, blogs are also websites, with a twists.
As a designer, I never considered myself a “creative” type of individual. I chose not too. Why, you might ask? Simply because effective web design is usually a lot different than creative design, in my opinion. Most of our time, we create websites for people, not for design awards, and people will not always appreciate the little tricks we might want to implement only for the love of art.
If I’ve learned something as a web designer is that usability should come first, no matter what, and one attribute that I love to hear describing my works is “clean”. In what follows, I’m going to list what I consider to be a small guide to good and efficient blog design.
So, here we go, step by step, from start to finish.
1. Plan around a concept
Before even considering getting close to your computer, take some time to think about the blog you’re about to design. Think about the blogger and his/her audience. What’s he/she blogging about, language & writing style, age (both of the blogger and the target audience) and any other factor that .
If you don’t have an identity to start designing around, try to associate the blogger and/or his blog with a set of colors, based on your own feelings and sensations, as well as based on commonly accepted rules. Here’s an interesting study on color associations with different actions, sensations, activities and more.