The responsibilities of a web designer are not limited to a beautiful layout. Yes, this is considered to be the most important thing; however, there is a lot of other stuff that a web designer has to take care of. Apart from blog designing, it should be user friendly. Users should be able to navigate through various pages with ease. Not only this, web designers are expected to design a website which is compatible on all platforms and browsers. The log list of responsibilities does not end her as the website should be quick and easy to load and should come across as a very strong competition to competitor’s website.
Now, this might sound too much to begin with but if you are well focused, this might all become really easy for you. While blog designing, you need to put yourself in user’s shoe. Building an interface with all the expected qualities is not at all an impossible task. You need to keep things simple yet stylish. Also, you need to keep in mind that designing a blog and designing a website are two different things. Blogs are less formal and more casual so you need to design the interface keeping in mind the requirements of a blog. Following are a few tips that a web designer can follow to design a blog with user interface in mind:
Examining the Theme of Your Blog :
Before starting anything, one needs a plan or a theme as a base. You can base your theme on the kind of audience you are targeting to or you can also analyze the kind of audience visiting your blog and redesign it accordingly. Google Analytics is a great way to find the kind of audience you are getting on your blog and also the pages they are visiting. All you need is a little addition of a JavaScript and you can simply keep a track of every little happening on your website. This is a great way to find out which the most popular page on your blog is and which is not.
You need to know if a page is not being visited by your visitors so that you can redesign it and make it more attractive for your blog readers. The data that you get from Google Analytics can prove to be really beneficial for re-designing your blog and giving it a complete new look.
Rechecking Again and Again :
At times, designers are so busy in making everything look perfect that they tend to ignore small mistakes. Small issues and glitches can exist anywhere in the website which is why you need to re-check your blog over and over again before launching it. There could be issues with tabs, color schemes or any other thing. Proof reading of a written article or a newly designed blog is way too important. Like small grammatical mistakes can kill the essence of a nice article, same goes for blog. These small issues can really annoy users and can kill the whole experience of a user who is visiting your website. Make sure you are browsing through your pages over and over again.
You can also take feedback from users while your blog is still under construction. This way user can report any bugs if they find and they can suggest enhancements as well.
Logo Should Be Considered the Most Important Thing :
You need to give your users something to relate and this is exactly how a brand image is created. Creating a logo is essential while redesigning your blog or while coming up with a new blog. The logo should be attractive and easy to remember. Designing a logo basically means branding of your product and every brand needs to have a logo.
Apple accessories are all inducted with the apple icon and now apple is associated with all iPhone and other products of Apple. You need to do the same and give a strong logo to people so that they can relate you and your blog with a brand image.
Well-designed Header Area :
Be it a blog or a website, the first thing that a visitor wants to see a menu table or in other words we can also call it a header area. While you are designing a layout, you need to make sure that the header area is attractive enough and easy to navigate as well. The logo and the menu tabs are all included in the header area.
While designing, you cannot ignore this area as menu is the first thing your visitors will use to find their desired pages. All the links that your provide in header area should be functional and it should contain all important links such as About Us, Contact Us, Archives etc. If your blog contains a lot of content, you need to provide a search feature in the header area as well. This way you are giving your visitors a control over your blog and they definitely like.
Adding Social Media Links :
We all know how famous social media websites are so why not take advantage of them. While designing your blog, do not forget to add social media links on your blog. You can always share the updates on your social account as well as on your header. This can be considered a great way to increase the traffic on your blog. Plus the tabs of social media website will definitely give a great look to your blog as well.
Content of the Blog :
Definitely, the layout of the blog should be attractive and easy to use. However, the basic purpose of a blog is to provide useful material always. Make sure that you do not put all your attention towards designing of a blog. You need to focus on providing good articles to your visitors as well because after all this is exactly what they are visiting your website for.
Always use catchy lines in your articles because most of the readers are scanning the entire article to find out if it’s worth reading or not. Also, the text and font should be given the utmost importance. They should not only look good but things should be easily readable.
Avoid too Much of Ads :
As a reader I can definitely say this that while reading an article, if an ad is flashed it gets really annoying. So avoid posting a lot of Google ads on your website. The pop-ups, flashy videos and ads everywhere are nothing but an annoyance to the visitor who wants to read something with a little concentration. So, give your users a relief by not using too much of ads.
Use Footer the Correct Way :
You would not want your users to leave your website after reading a single article right? Your page’s footer is a great way to give your readers other options and pages to visit on your blog. A lot of designers do not give importance to the footer of the blog which is wrong. Bring life to your footer by giving links and other tabs in it.
Final Thoughts :
User interface has to be friendly for your blog to be a success. It is very important for designers to design their blogs with user interface in mind. The above mentioned points can definitely help you with designing a blog for users.
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