There are so many blogs out there, it can get awfully confusing as to who’s is who’s. Perhaps, like me, you have a collection of blogs bookmarked or on a feed so you can access them each day and not try to remember the addresses of each one. Regardless, what makes a particular blog stand out? And how does it stand out? Is it the content, the way it looks, or a combination of both? I would like to think that my content is enough to have the design overlooked. I am not saying my blog (or portfolio site for that matter) looks horrible, just that it isn’t as hoopty-goo as some out there (and yet, Takashi Kamada’s actual blog-style blog is as similar as all the rest).
Then my friend, Budi, comes along and brings up a possible limitation of CSS. He looked at three blogs (mine included) and made an observation that they looked very similar in design. Here’s a peek at the three sites side-by-side. Budi then tells me, “If you had told me those 3 pages are sub-pages to the same parent page, I'd say, ‘Rock on’.” Is the similarity a result of trends, or is it a result of what CSS is possibly limiting designers to create? Initially, I want to say they share a common layout based on trends.
The CSS Zen Garden showcases fresh designs using the same HTML document but with different CSS driving the layout. However… I feel that many of the designs are pretty much the same with the exception to the graphics used. So perhaps CSS is limiting how designers layout their sites. Or perhaps, the content of the design is more important than the layout?
This is why I lean towards the “trends” argument. Each one of the three sites in the picture are blogs. Or at least, I term them as blogs. Blogs can be seen as mini-newspapers with very specific themes for daily (or semi-daily) content. The content is the most important thing on these sites. Lately, content is king and without it, who cares what your site looks like. So if a newspaper makes with a new design that is dramatically different than the other papers, are you more likely to buy it to keep up with your news? I believe the answer is “no”. I know I wouldn’t want to try to sift through a new layout to find something that interests me regarding entertainment. I know the Section, the page and the area for news on weekend box office results. You change that up on me and I am not happy. So, I feel, the trends for blog design are going to be similar across the board for the majority of sites.
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a bit of random by terry tolleson
5 comments:
Ah yes. Finally, some design banter.
Let me first preface this comment with a question: what do we, as designers, strive to achieve? Is it not communicating; not only in the most succinct way, but also to entertain, to stimulate, to prod the boundaries, to be a rebel with the great cause, to maybe cause a stir in the ripples of status quo, to create art.
If everybody took the most familiar layout and stuck with it, we would never grow as designers. Isn’t the entire point of designing to differentiate one from another?
I agree, Budi. Designers, by definition, live to be different from the crowd. Although, some things almost demand standard presentation. And the method of presentation being discussed here is the internet. A fast paced, seconds count environment.
How many of us have succumbed to a certain bit of code or convention because IE cries like a 2 yr. old when you take away the car keys they so desperately wanted to stick in the wall outlet? I know I have. However, that would lean towards the CSS side of the debate. So does CSS dictate how we design our blogs? I still don’t think this is the case.
Going back to blogs being akin to a newspaper, the tried and true layouts we see across the board are what people are accustomed to seeing when interacting with a blog. They feel comfortable. And I feel that is what a blog should do. Present your content in a manner that makes the “client” comfortable. If they like it, they will stay. If they stay, they likely have interest and might even spread the word. Success!
Terry,
So if I understood your assertions correctly, everything on the Internet should conform to the “fast paced, seconds count” school of design. If that is the case, I need to rethink my craft and my livelihood. ;-)
I understand the newspaper analogy. But how creative do the bean counters want their newspaper designers to be when they charge 50 cents for 250 pages worth of ink? Additionally, why are we making parallels to the newspaper if we are talking about a “fast paced, seconds count environment”?
CSS was supposed to “free” the designer from the “shackles” of tables. If that is truly the case, why does everything look similar? Trends? Technological limitations? My dumb ass not understanding? All of which I asked you prior to the original post.
— budi
Ok, here goes…
Anything on the ’net gets treated with the same attention span a 1st grader offers. Any site, for whatever purpose, must hold the visitor’s attention long enough to get your content across. In a lot of cases, there is something attention getting on a website, but eventually, the insides are pretty basic. I am not saying websites as a whole should conform like sheep, but rather, blogs look similar because the content is the most important. How you design a website, Budi, is completely up to you. However, when designing websites, "fast paced, seconds count" thought processes aren't necessarily a bad path to follow. I have seen your websites, they don’t look hurried, or rushed, but they deliver the information quickly and efficiently. In my opinion, you are already following that thought process.
I am making a comparison to newspapers (with blogs) because both are concerned with content. Layout is not as important. When people become comfortable with a given look for their content, they are more likely to digest it. How many newspapers deviate from the standard 11x17 format? Couldn’t we say the same for blogs?
I think CSS is still a new toy that is being played with. There are several sites out there, employing CSS for layout, that look phenomenal and different and gorgeous. But many have simply just begun using CSS and are using what resources are available to both learn and create.
So you’re saying that websites shouldn’t all look similar but blogs should? While I definitely do subscribe to the less-is-more school of design, have my designs be it websites or otherwise been similar, trendy, or repetitive? If so I apologize; I promise to try harder next time.
ALL newspapers deviate from the 11X17 format. See : Broadsheet and Tabloid.
Extending your newspaper analogy, should Magazines all have the same look and feel and layout then? Because the main purpose of Magazines is to inform right? And we’re all strapped for time, so it only makes good sense that magazines conform to the “quick and easy” read format also.
So CSS is the culprit for all blogs looking similar. If that is the conclusion we come to here, I won’t argue it. Mainly because I have no intimate knowledge about how blogs are generated.
I, for one, would LOVE toilets to look a lot better than what it does now. But if the only thing we’re concerned with is the effeciency with which we take our craps and flush our wastes, then a hole in the ground with a flushing mechanism connected to the city sewage system will do just fine. And perhaps then all computers should revert to the beige boxes of yesteryear.
-budi
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