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Thoughts on Blogging homepage design
Written By Majorchamp on Jan. 30, 2008.
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I just wanted to pick your brains for a minute.
When it comes to a Blog's homepage, do you typically opt for showing:
1. A bunch of full articles top to bottom (maybe 10 articles) that typically lets you click on the title or a "add comment" to go to the individual posting page
2. Show the latest full posting or a decent sized excerpt of that latest posting, then smaller snippets of the next 5 or 9 postings.
3. Show the latest full or large excerpt, some other stuff on the homepage, and maybe a sidebar that shows the last 10 posts.
Which one do you think is easier for the visitor...
#1, where they read and scroll, read and scroll, read and scroll
#2, where they get a taste of the latest, and then small flavors of the last 9 postings
#3, they only get a taste of the last post, and need to go click around if they want to view other postings.
Maybe your theory doesn't include any of those 3, but I would love to get some feedback and your thoughts on Blog homepage design and what is the best format for your reader.
Thanks,
Bryan
Nils
Written Jan. 30, 2008 / Report /
Well, I asked a similar question here only a short while back: what are people's thoughts on a static home page for a blog. Yeah, static! I have one now, with just titles of my 10 latest posts or something.
Personally, I try to de-clutter all the time, so preferably I'd have just as little as possible on there. Okay, not as little as possible maybe, because then you'd end up with an empty page that just says "enter" and that sets us back a decade but you know what I mean.
I suppose it depends, as always, on what your blog is about, who your audience is, and perhaps most of all, on how often you post. If you post every day (or even multiple times a day) I could imagine you'd need easy access to "older" posts through some sort of titles only list.
In that respect I really like Eric Rice's blog My Infocalypse which seems to find a great balance between a very clean design and lots of access to content.
I don't know. I suppose there's all sorts of "rules" and "usages" that go with this, but in the end, equally classically, you should just present your content the way you want to. No?
BinaryMoon
Written Jan. 30, 2008 / Report /
On my site I have the entirety of my most recent post and the headings for the next 5. I am in the process of changing this, but not in any significant way.
davidair
Written Jan. 31, 2008 / Report /
Similar to Ben ^^^^
I use WordPress' 'homepage excerpts' plugin, and show my latest post in full, with the next four as excerpts. So there are five in total, and not a great deal of scrolling involved before you reach that 'next page' button.
I've often thought about changing to a magazine-based style, whereby my blog is just a small part of the homepage, and located in its own directory, but I'm worried about the search ranking implications of a URI change.
Majorchamp
Written Jan. 31, 2008 / Report /
Well, one reason I am asking is because I am in the process of redesigning my golf blog... Major Championships and just trying to determine exactly how I want the content shown on the homepage.
I plan on implementing videos, photos, as well as the last post, all the categories, product reviews, etc...
That is why I asked.
Thanks,
Bryan